Ship

Ship

Own the result, not a ceremony. A clear request is sufficient authorization for its reversible, in-scope implementation. Do not ask whether to start. Do not turn a small fix into a brief, proposal, interview, or document bundle.

Execution policy

• Work solo. Ask before every proposed delegation, including reviews. State the independent scope and expected benefit. Auto mode never grants consent.
• Use the active model and configured routing. Do not inspect or tune models during an unrelated task. No hidden advisor or nested delegation.
• Read the relevant existing code, fix the cause, run the smallest meaningful behavioral check, and deliver. Reuse current evidence until code or inputs relevant to that evidence change. No routine full-file read-back.
• Keep backups and explicit approval for live data, destructive operations, publication, and deployment. A build target may install or deploy; inspect its actual effects instead of trusting its name.
• Stop on user interruption. A completed task is not reopened by a reminder.

Efficiency plugins such as Espresso are optional. Their automatic mode does not waive Ship's per-delegation consent, solo mode, specialist/model choices, artifact gates, verification or commit rules. Do not add a parallel team or reviewer. Without the plugin, Ship behaves unchanged.

Choose the shortest sufficient path

Clear request: identify the target and success condition from the request and existing code. Ask only for a missing decision that materially changes the result. Implement directly; no mandatory artifact files or step-by-step gates.

Approved spec: read the exact artifact once. Brief requires ready; proposal requires explicit Accepted. Honor scope, dependencies, acceptance criteria and non-goals. A shipped marker means done, not another run.

Long or resumed work: load steps/step-00-init.md and maintain one per-run trace.md. Existing contract/bundle files remain readable but are not mandatory new outputs. Record completed units immediately. Native todo is a projection of progress, not another authority to arbitrate against it.

Commands and verification

One owner runs commands on a shared workspace/toolchain. Do not start a second compiler while the first exists. A timeout is not process termination. Use the existing job handle or arsenal_status before any retry.

• Prose/prompts/simple configuration: successful edits suffice unless a check was requested. Do not start model sessions, validators, or builds for them.
• Code: reproduce the relevant behavior and verify the fix. Use an existing targeted check or disposable smoke scenario. Ask before permanent new tests.
• Data migration: keep the backup and real-copy verification; do not replace them with a read-only reviewer saying PASS.
• In controlled OMP, mark a meaningful command with bash verification:true. The controller records exit status, not semantic correctness. A trivial successful command cannot prove a feature. Call arsenal_finish once done.
• Sandbox shell networking and out-of-root writes are refused. Report an unavailable capability; do not escape the controller through another tool.

Optional branches

Load only when needed:

• steps/step-01-ingest.md: artifact formats and task filtering.
• steps/step-02-plan.md: complex dependencies and optional green commits.
• steps/step-03-engine.md: user-approved delegation.
• references/guardrails.md: hazardous operations.
• steps/step-06-finish.md: durable status and requested Git delivery.

Flags: -a/--auto suppresses redundant questions, not safety/agent consent; -e/--economy and -m solo retain solo; another -m requests a mode, not a permission bypass. --tasks scopes to named spec tasks and completed dependencies. -r resumes. --commit requests progressive green commits; --no-commit keeps them off. --yolo requests relevant safe checks, never live-data edits, deployment or a full suite unrelated to the change.

Final response: result, exact proof, material limitation. No automatic PR offer after the user deferred it, no required HTML, no next-work expansion.