[lukemaj]

What changed: A delegated negative reaches the user or an Issue only after listed attempts, primary sources, and one failed challenge. An Issue filed or found for work the user wants done leaves that turn with a running worker or a named agent that accepted the handoff, and the report names that owner.

Why: On 2026-10-14 a dispatcher relayed two false negatives, and the same session filed agent-observer#85 and #86 with "the planner will staff the build" and no handoff. "Validate before reporting" and "pursue in-scope work" did not make either check observable.

So what: Independent review is required on this head. The user merges. This does not release or install.

Fixes #226

Elon record

• Requirements and who asked: agents must not report "not possible" after one try, and the planner must not relay it unchecked (user, 2026-10-14, chromeria#289, Issue Delegated "not possible" results reach the user unchallenged #226). Filed work the user wants done must leave the turn with a real owner (user, 2026-10-14, comment on Delegated "not possible" results reach the user unchallenged #226).
• Deleted: a general "try harder" rule; another copy of validate-before-reporting; copying the challenge into the worker brief; another copy of "pursue in-scope work".
• Bottleneck: a wrong negative and an unowned Issue both wait on the user, and both are cheap to check before the turn ends.
• Checked myself: Issue Delegated "not possible" results reach the user unchallenged #226 and its scope comment; the gate tests red then green; python3 -m unittest tests.test_negative_result_gate tests.test_operations_contract OK on this head; versionctl doctor --ci --base origin/main transition 17.1.1 to 17.2.0 valid; release-check on b8c6b89.

Change

The acceptance gate is in skills/operations/references/bounded-delegation.md. Before relaying or filing a negative, orchestration.md requires reading that gate. The same paragraph requires a real owner for an Issue filed or found for work the user wants done. evals/negative-result-gate.json grades the false negatives. evals/issue-owner.json grades agent-observer#85 and #86.

Website impact: none. No public page, setup step, or URL changes.

Proof

• python3 -m unittest tests.test_negative_result_gate tests.test_operations_contract OK (24 tests).
• versionctl release-check — v17.2.0 at b8c6b890bab7438c94e598e194cadb9696a44508.
• versionctl doctor --ci --base origin/main — transition valid, bump not required.

Live verification stays pending until a real delegated negative shows its attempts and a challenge, and a filed Issue leaves with a named owner. Version 17.2.0 is committed and not tagged, released, published, or installed.

Review so far

• Sol pass on f89c034 and on caf7e15. Neither SHA contains the owner rule.
• Grok fail on f89c034 (acceptance path never loaded the gate). Fixed on caf7e15. Grok's review of caf7e15 was interrupted when this scope was added, so it has no verdict.
• review/independent on b8c6b89 is the review that covers both rules.

[lukemaj]

Review: Sol (codex, gpt-6.1-sol, medium)

Verdict: pass on f89c034be6890a476a3504e4283862fe15cb664b.

No blocking findings. The gate and the worker report match the authorized scope.

Residual note: live behavioral verification remains pending normal use. The deterministic eval checks the written contract, not that an agent follows it.

Disposition: accepted, no change. The PR already records live verification as pending.

Grok's review of this head is still running. review/independent stays pending until that verdict is recorded.

[lukemaj]

Review: Grok (grok, grok-4.7, medium)

Verdict: fail on f89c034be6890a476a3504e4283862fe15cb664b.

Blocking. skills/operations/references/orchestration.md loads bounded-delegation.md only before parallel work. Accepting one delegated result, or a result on a later turn, never opens the gate. The worker report shape does not carry the refuse-to-relay rule. Change: on the acceptance path, require reading and applying the negative-result gate before a relay or a filing. Leave the challenge rule out of the worker brief.

Notes:

• listed-sources-without-a-challenge also has attempt_failed: false, so the fixture never rejects a fully sourced negative that nobody challenged. Set attempt_failed true on that case.
• "failed" is also the bookkeeping status. An ordinary slice failure should still be recorded immediately.
• The OpenCode incident was disproved by opencode auth list, not by the five source classes. The grade holds because attempt_failed is false.

Dispositions

• Blocking, accepted. The acceptance paragraph in orchestration.md will require reading bounded-delegation.md and applying its negative-result gate before a relay or a filing. The challenge rule stays out of the worker brief.
• Note on attempt_failed, accepted. That case will set attempt_failed true so it fails only because nobody challenged it.
• Note on "failed", accepted. The gate will say an ordinary failed slice is still recorded at once. The word "failed" stays for a result that says the work cannot be done, as Issue Delegated "not possible" results reach the user unchallenged #226 requires.
• Note on the OpenCode sources, rejected. The case already says the disproof was the live credential store, and it must not reach the user because the attempt succeeded. Listing the five source classes does not make a disproved negative acceptable.

Sol's pass on this same SHA stands. This head is not accepted. The fix will be a new commit, reviewed again.

[lukemaj]

Review: Sol round 2 (codex, gpt-6.1-sol, medium)

Verdict: pass on caf7e158774650ad172be169fd358a6dcb344afc only. No blocking findings. The load trigger covers single-result acceptance. The OpenCode objection is cleared.

Disposition: accepted for that SHA. It does not cover the owner rule added in b8c6b89.

Grok's review of caf7e15 was interrupted before a verdict when the owner-rule scope landed. review/independent on caf7e15 is error for that reason. Both reviewers are reviewing b8c6b89, which adds the owner rule.

[lukemaj]

Review: Sol round 3 (codex, gpt-6.1-sol, medium)

Verdict: pass on b8c6b890bab7438c94e598e194cadb9696a44508 only.

No blocking findings or notes. Both rules are on this head: orchestration requires loading the negative-result gate, and the owner rule requires a running worker or an acknowledged handoff.

Disposition: accepted, no change.

Grok's review of this head is still running. review/independent stays pending until that verdict is recorded.

[lukemaj]

Review: Grok round 3 (grok, grok-4.7, medium)

Verdict: pass on b8c6b890bab7438c94e598e194cadb9696a44508. No blocking defect. The round-1 load hole stays closed, and the owner rule matches the brief.

Note. bounded-delegation.md: "Accept it only when" follows the ordinary-slice sentence, so "it" can attach to that slice.

Disposition: accepted. 9672e94656a71aeae6d8c1f12e81eb4677072481 says "Accept a negative result only when". Both reviewers need to review that head. review/independent on b8c6b89 is not success, because that wording is no longer the candidate.

[lukemaj]

Review round 4

Head: 9672e94656a71aeae6d8c1f12e81eb4677072481

• Sol (codex, gpt-6.1-sol, medium): pass. No blocking findings. "Accept a negative result only when" resolves the ambiguity. Both rules remain.
• Grok (grok, grok-4.7, medium): pass. No findings. The source-list sentence names the negative result. The load trigger and the owner rule are still present.

Disposition: accepted, no change.

[lukemaj]

Agent Observer cost comment was not published. agent-observer sync completed, then publish --task toolboxmd/agentsmd#226 --repo toolboxmd/agentsmd --pr 227 failed twice with Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0).

[lukemaj]

Agent work on this PR

Estimated cost unknown · 27 responses · 34 sessions · 1.8 h wall time

Model	Responses	Tokens	Estimated cost
grok-4.7 (grok, medium)	25	37,431,923	unknown
grok-4.7 (grok, xhigh)	2	7,585,054	unknown

Flags: 1 human correction · 12 large tool outputs · 1 repeated failure · 92 repeated reads · 14 repeated skill loads · 2 sessions without usage records · 27 unpriced responses

Details: snapshot, prices, coverage, counters

• Task toolboxmd/agentsmd#226: outcome unknown (recorded acceptance only; a finished process never implies it).
• Proof: Delegated "not possible" results reach the user unchallenged #226
• Snapshot 0f0363df145736d1c8bd4d47046de339e5077d188b4462b4ab14272507556222, records up to 2026-10-14 13:15 UTC.
• 34 sessions on claude, codex, grok; AgentsMD unknown.
• The total includes work shared with 6 other tasks, counted whole in each, so sums across PRs overlap.
• Not counted: 661 responses (at least $41.34) in sessions shared with other PRs that worked in no single PR's checkout.
• 20 responses in these sessions worked on other PRs and are counted there.
• Totals reconcile with the measured sessions: yes. Evidence complete: no.
• Prices: list-price estimate from T3 local rate table (path withheld) as of 2026-10-12, schedule 5a9558d9512b93fd1fc1405312fe3fdc2a438448a15846a05c354fe2851d74e6. Unknown prices stay unknown, never zero.
  • T3 LiteLLM rate table when present; bundled schedule covers the rest.
  • Model price sources: T3 local rate table (path withheld).
  • Unpriced: unknown model (27).
• Native session usage or worker ownership is unavailable.
• Harness-reported cost: none reported.
• Usage totals are not billing. Subscription spending is separate and is never posted as spend.
• Crashed runs are counted separately: 0.

Token counters by model (native counter semantics; never added across semantics):

• grok-4.7 (grok, medium), grok counters: input includes cached, output includes reasoning: input 37,017,372; cache-read 34,827,008; cache-write 0; output 414,551; reasoning 262,629; harness total 37,431,923.
• grok-4.7 (grok, xhigh), grok counters: input includes cached, output includes reasoning: input 7,479,479; cache-read 7,243,136; cache-write 0; output 105,575; reasoning 69,338; harness total 7,585,054.

Generated tokens (reasoning and other output are disjoint; other output includes code, tool calls and replies):

Model	Reasoning	Other output	Reasoning share	Split known for
grok-4.7 (grok, medium)	unknown	unknown	unknown	0 of 25
grok-4.7 (grok, xhigh)	unknown	unknown	unknown	0 of 2

Selected rates (USD per million tokens). These rates value the report at the selected schedule date; they do not establish historical prices or subscription spending.

Model	Input tier	Input	Cache read	Cache write	Other output	Reasoning
grok-4.7	all	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown	unknown

Other output and reasoning are priced without double counting inclusive native output. Missing rates remain unknown.

_{Local measurement from native records; usage totals are not billing. Updated in place by agent-observer publish.}

[lukemaj]

Superseded for the integration train by #232 at 7ebd013, targeting integration/backlog-2026-10-18. All five content files are byte-for-byte identical to reviewed head 9672e94; version and changelog changes are excluded. Complete suites passed (428 repository tests and 7 versionctl tests). Leaving #227 open for the coordinator to close.

[lukemaj]

Superseded for the backlog train by #232 (identical content, merged into integration/backlog-2026-10-18 after Luna passed 7ebd013). #226 closes with the train's final PR to main.