Autonomy Config

The .loop/config.yaml file is the single control surface for how much autonomy the plugin exercises. It is read at every Phase -1 before any agent is dispatched.

Presets

Set autonomy.preset to one of three values. That is usually the only line you need.

Preset	Who decides	Typical interactions per ticket
`minimal`	Plugin decides everything except safety floors	0–1
`ownership`	Human owns architecture, risk, and delivery moments	3–5
`custom`	Every gate defined explicitly by the user	varies

# .loop/config.yaml
autonomy:
  preset: ownership

Presets are self-contained. Setting preset: minimal implies all gate defaults — you do not need to list each gate.

Preset expansion

Gate	`minimal`	`ownership`
`budget_gate.on_exceed`	`proceed`	`ask` (only if >2x threshold)
`verifier_blocking_gate.on_blocking`	`auto_fix` (2 retries)	`auto_fix` (2 retries)
`adr_conflict_gate.on_high_conflict`	`proceed_with_record`	`ask`
`adr_rule_violation_gate.on_violation`	`ask` (safety floor)	`ask` (safety floor)
`spec_clarification_gate.on_gaps`	`use_defaults_and_flag`	`use_defaults_and_flag`
`self_healing_exhaust_gate.on_exhausted`	`escalate_silent`	`ask`
`pr_creation_gate.on_ready`	`proceed` (draft only)	`ask`
`notification_gate.enabled`	`false`	`false`

Custom preset

If you set preset: custom, every gate must be defined explicitly. Partial configs are rejected at Phase -1.

autonomy:
  preset: custom
 
gates:
  budget_gate:
    enabled: true
    threshold_usd: 2.00
    on_exceed: ask           # ask | proceed | abort
 
  verifier_blocking_gate:
    enabled: true
    on_blocking: auto_fix
    auto_fix_max_retries: 2  # max 5; higher values rejected
 
  adr_conflict_gate:
    enabled: true
    on_high_conflict: ask    # ask | proceed_with_record | abort
 
  adr_rule_violation_gate:
    enabled: true
    on_violation: ask        # ask | abort — "proceed" is REJECTED
 
  spec_clarification_gate:
    enabled: true
    on_gaps: use_defaults_and_flag
    max_questions: 0         # max 20
 
  self_healing_exhaust_gate:
    enabled: true
    on_exhausted: escalate_silent
 
  ticket_status_update_gate:
    enabled: true
    on_complete: proceed
 
  pr_creation_gate:
    enabled: true
    on_ready: ask
 
  notification_gate:
    enabled: false
    on_complete: skip

Gate actions

Action	Effect
`ask`	Run pauses; user presented 2–3 options
`proceed`	Continue on default safe path; decision recorded
`proceed_with_record`	Continue; item added to STATE Watch List
`proceed_with_warnings`	Continue; run marked `status: partial`
`auto_fix`	Corrective worker dispatched; capped at `auto_fix_max_retries`
`escalate_silent`	Item added to STATE High Priority; no interrupt
`abort`	Run stops; status set to `aborted`

Continuous feedback in minimal preset

When the preset is minimal, all gates are set to proceed. The plugin never asks questions — which means feedback emissions are the only visibility mechanism during the run.

At each phase checkpoint the plugin emits a line in the chat following this format:

<emoji>  <Phase> — <descriptor> · <metric 1> · <metric 2>

Example of what you see during a minimal run:

🔍  Phase -1 — spine OK · preset: minimal · MCP: jira ✓  github ✓
🧠  Triage — 2 phases · 4 workers total · ~$0.45 est.
    generate-spec (1) → self-healing (3)
💰  Budget — $0.45 est. ≤ $2.00 → proceeding
⚙️   Wave 1/2 — dispatching 1 worker (generate-spec)
    └─ w1: spec MH-204
⚙️   Wave 1/2 — done · 1/1 OK · 0 retries · 42s · 38K tok
⚙️   Wave 2/2 — dispatching 3 workers (self-healing)
    ├─ w1: EmailVerificationService.ts
    ├─ w2: EmailVerificationService.test.ts
    └─ w3: email.types.ts
⚙️   Wave 2/2 — done · 3/3 OK · 1 retry · 94s · 112K tok
🔎  Verifier — BLOCKING: 0 · WARNINGS: 1
🔎  Verifier — all clear → proceeding
📝  Synthesis — spec-writer (opus) · doc ticket
🎫  Ticket MH-204: In Progress → In Review
🌿  PR: https://github.com/org/repo/pull/78

These checkpoints replace gate interactions as the user’s progress signal — or appear in the CI log when the plugin runs in headless mode.

Per-run override

Append --autonomy=<preset> to any ticket invocation. The override applies to that run only; the config file is not modified.

do "Migrate auth to Riverpod --autonomy=minimal"

Safety floors

These four rules apply regardless of preset and cannot be configured away:

PRs are never auto-merged.
Nothing is ever pushed to main, master, or protected branches.
Denylist paths from budget.md are never written to.
Documented rule violations (adr_rule_violation_gate) can only trigger ask or abort — never proceed.

ADR State Spine