Idle Dwell Gate

Skill: Idle-Dwell Gate (gen-18 Track 1 — the Fix-2 outcome gate)

An idle seat with an open queue is not done. Authorization IS permission to drive. This is the MECHANICAL gate the prose kept failing to replace (R-001, 6+ generations BROKEN-OPEN).

Scope

The gate runs mechanically over agent transcripts, flagging no-input-decisions and idle-seat-with-open-queue.

What It Is

A deterministic detector over an agent transcript that classifies the terminal action as an autonomous DRIVE or an idle-dwell VIOLATION. Build-the-gate-not-the-prose: the pinned RED/GREEN transcript fixtures in evals/fixtures/ ARE the replayable gate (R-003/R-014 pattern, consumed in the T6 deterministic-CU smoke-spec shape).

The Rule

When work is authorized (mission sign-off, approved queue, plan-authorized next phase with no hard gate, collab dispatch) and the queue is open, the next action MUST be a drive:

• a worker dispatch (send_to / cmux spawn into an existing seat), OR
• a resume of the original session (repoGolem --resume <session-id> — never a fresh spawn over a resumable crashed lead), OR
• self-driving the authorized work (push, open the PR, edit, build), OR
• a genuine hard-gate pause only (visual sign-off, irreversible external action, missing secret, physical presence, true external blocker).

Anything else with an open queue is a FLAG. Because this gate is judgment-shaped and false positives are expensive, the hook is advisory-first: most FLAGs emit a Stop-hook {"systemMessage":"..."} that names the specific queue item or worker and tells the seat to drive. Only the two unambiguous classes below block the Stop hook with {"decision":"block","reason":"..."}.

Violation Taxonomy (codes the detector emits)

Advisory / Block Split

• BLOCK only when the detector can name an objective, unambiguous action: DONE_WORKER_UNHARVESTED and APPROVED_ITEM_UNSTARTED_ZERO_WATCHES.
• ADVISORY for all other FLAGs (NO_INPUT_DECISION, IDLE_SEAT_OPEN_QUEUE, DEFERRAL_AFTER_AUTHORIZATION, BACKLOG_HANDED_TO_USER, SPAWN_OVER_RESUMABLE, IDLE_DONE_WORKER_PANE_OPEN, BOOT_FAILED_WORKER_STALL). The hook output is a systemMessage naming the specific item/worker when available.
• ALLOW when the seat is waiting on a genuine Etan-only decision with monitors armed, a worker seat is awaiting lead review, queue items are gated on external events with watches armed, a fresh seat is still orienting, or the transcript is merely discussing idleness.

How /orc and /pr-loop Consume It

• /orc autonomy eval — before a lead/orc seat ends a turn with an open queue, run the gate on the turn. FLAG ⇒ do NOT stop: dispatch, resume, or self-drive the queued work. Only a HARD_GATE pause is allowed. The orchestrator may pass { queueOpen: <bool> } when it knows the queue state authoritatively.
• /pr-loop — the gate backs "Parking Is the Violation": a finished, approved branch left "awaiting PR approval" is IDLE_SEAT_OPEN_QUEUE. Finish the loop to MERGED; surface the PR number, not a permission question.

Run It

# Replay the deterministic gate (CI-safe, the standing regression suite):
bun test skills/golem-powers/idle-dwell-gate/evals/idle-dwell-gate.test.mjs

# Run the gate over a live transcript (exit 3 = FLAG, 0 = PASS — wireable as a Stop hook):
bun skills/golem-powers/idle-dwell-gate/scripts/idle-dwell-gate-cli.mjs <transcript.jsonl|->

# Claude Code Stop-hook wrapper (stdout: {}, systemMessage, or decision:block):
node skills/golem-powers/idle-dwell-gate/scripts/idle-dwell-gate-hook.mjs < hook-payload.json

Programmatic: import { detectIdleDwell, hookPayloadFor } from "./src/idle-dwell-gate.mjs" → { verdict, violations, hookDecision, terminalAction, queueOpen }.

Stated Limits (honesty rule)

• Detects the terminal action; it is a turn-end / completion check, not a mid-turn monitor.
• Marker-anchored: a hard gate fabricated with hard-gate phrasing can mask a real idle-dwell. The fixtures pin the known specimens; new evasion shapes are added as RED fixtures (the R-003 model).
• "Authorized" is inferred from transcript markers unless the caller forces opts.queueOpen.
• State-aware cases (state.queue, state.workers, state.watches) are deterministic registry checks; absent state, the detector stays marker-anchored and advisory-first.

Provenance

RED specimens: golems/424e8065#1, orchestrator/263b3559#2, orchestrator/9bfa306b#3, codex/019ed5dd#1, orchestrator/1e8746db#5, cmuxlayer/3983543f#1. GREEN reference: narrationlayer/019ee3dd#5 (Codex worker drove the full pr-loop to MERGED — proving the gap is orchestrator-seat-specific, not universal).