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CORE Autonomous Development — Complete Implementation Plan

This document is the modern, corrected, 2025‑accurate implementation plan for delivering safe, governed autonomous development in CORE.

It replaces all previous drafts, removes deprecated concepts (daemon, legacy flows, old architecture), and describes the current and future phases in alignment with:

  • the Mind–Body–Will architecture,
  • the constitutional layer (.intent/),
  • governed autonomy (A1 → A2 → A3),
  • the real services in src/.

This is the canonical planning document for CORE.

1. Executive Summary

CORE enables safe autonomy by enforcing a strict contract:

  • AI may generate code.
  • AI may propose structural changes.
  • But nothing may be integrated without constitutional validation.

This plan describes how the system evolves from today’s A1 (Governed Generation) into A2 (Intent‑Aware Autonomy) while maintaining:

  • safety,
  • consistency,
  • architectural clarity,
  • auditability,
  • and long‑term stability.

CORE will never sacrifice governance for automation.

2. Architectural Foundations

2.1. Mind–Body–Will

  • Mind — governance, policies, audits, boundaries.
  • Body — execution, CLI, crate lifecycle, validators.
  • Will — agents, planners, coders, reviewers.

No autonomous action bypasses the Mind.

2.2. Constitutional Layer (.intent/)

Stores:

  • policies,
  • schemas,
  • knowledge,
  • domains,
  • proposals.

This is CORE’s source of truth.

2.3. Knowledge Graph

Used for:

  • capability mapping,
  • drift detection,
  • reasoning context,
  • agent alignment.

3. High‑Level Phases

CORE’s autonomous development evolves in four incremental phases.

A1 → A1.5 → A2 → A3

Each phase builds on the previous one.

4. Phase 1 — Stable Governed Generation (A1, Shipped)

This phase is complete and represents CORE’s current state.

Delivered:

  • Crate creation & metadata storage
  • Context builder
  • Planner + Coder agents
  • Validation pipeline (Black, Ruff, syntax checks, tests)
  • Constitutional Auditor
  • Accept/reject workflow
  • Manual integration of accepted crates
  • Knowledge sync (symbols + capabilities)

Guarantees:

  • No direct writes to src/
  • All agent code remains isolated in crates
  • Audit must pass before integration
  • Human integrates all accepted crates

Services involved:

  • crate_creation_service.py
  • autonomous_developer.py
  • validation_policies.py
  • auditor.py
  • context/builder.py
  • llm_client.py

5. Phase 1.5 — Autonomy Hardening (In Progress)

This phase strengthens the A1 pipeline.

Goals:

  • Improve context selection
  • Better boundary detection
  • Audit reliability improvements
  • More explicit crate metadata
  • Expanded self‑healing (IDs, docs, clarity)
  • Better error reporting & debug tools

Deliverables:

  • Enhanced planner constraints
  • Defensive validation pipeline
  • More consistent audit checks
  • Tighter import rules
  • More robust Knowledge Graph updates

6. Phase 2 — Intent‑Aware Agents (A2, Planned)

In A2, agents begin to reason using the Mind, not only produce code.

New Capabilities:

  • Agents load .intent/ rules into their reasoning
  • Planners select capabilities instead of “free reasoning”

  • Autonomous plans must reference:

  • domains

  • capability boundaries
  • policy rules
  • Improved agent alignment via governance metadata

Pipeline changes:

  • Context builder includes rule‑bundles from Mind
  • Planner Agent becomes constrained and domain‑aware
  • Validation Pipeline checks alignment with intended domains

New services:

  • intent_alignment.py
  • intent_guard.py extensions
  • Capability‑aware planner logic

A2 transforms autonomy from prompt-based to governed reasoning.

7. Phase 3 — Governed Refactoring (A3, Planned)

CORE will propose and execute structural improvements safely.

Capabilities:

  • drift‑driven refactor suggestions
  • similarity-based duplication alerts
  • autonomous refactoring inside crates
  • architecture checks + suggested fixes

Guarantees:

  • All refactors remain governed
  • Full audit before acceptance
  • Developers review all changes

Required components:

  • Extended Knowledge Graph linking import & dependency structures
  • Refactoring suggestions engine
  • Optional autonomous refactorer

8. Phase 4 — Advanced Knowledge Consolidation (Planned)

This phase strengthens CORE’s ability to understand itself.

Additions:

  • Semantic clustering of capabilities
  • Structural embeddings for files/symbols
  • Knowledge graph drift alerts

Tools involved:

  • semantic_clusterer.py
  • graph_analysis_service.py
  • vectorization_service.py

9. Final Phase — Constitutional Self‑Evolution (A4, Vision)

Not automation for its own sake — but:

  • Agents propose constitutional changes
  • Humans review & sign
  • Canary audit validates
  • Mind evolves safely

Agents can never approve or apply constitutional changes on their own.

10. Cross‑Cutting Requirements

10.1. Security & Governance

  • .intent/ cannot be edited directly
  • All changes must go through proposals
  • All governance failures block development

10.2. Developer Experience

  • CLI must remain simple & predictable
  • Clear audit errors
  • Strict but understandable rules

10.3. Traceability

  • Every function has a stable ID
  • Every capability is classified
  • Every crate is fully auditable

10.4. No Long‑Running Daemons

The system uses explicit CLI‑driven actions, not continuous background processes.

11. Implementation Interfaces

These define the integration points between Mind, Body, and Will.

11.1. Core Pipelines

  • Crate Pipeline → creation → build context → generation → validation → audit → acceptance
  • Knowledge Pipeline → indexing → capability extraction → vectorization
  • Audit Pipeline → rule evaluation → reporting

11.2. Core CLI Entry Points

  • develop feature
  • check audit
  • fix ids
  • fix code-style
  • manage database sync-knowledge

12. Checklist for Implementing Each Phase

A distilled actionable checklist.

✔ Phase 1 — Complete

  • Crate pipeline functional
  • Audit pipeline stable
  • Validation reliable
  • Knowledge sync working

✔ Phase 1.5 — Doing Now

  • Improve context builder
  • Extend audit reliability
  • Strengthen boundaries
  • Enhance crate metadata

◻ Phase 2 — Intent Awareness

  • Capability‑aware planning
  • Rule‑driven reasoning
  • IntentGuard integration in Will

◻ Phase 3 — Governed Refactoring

  • Structural drift detection
  • Suggestions engine
  • Safe refactor sandbox

◻ Phase 4 — Knowledge Expansion

  • Semantic graphs
  • Embeddings for structure
  • Autonomous clustering

13. Developer Responsibilities

Developers must:

  • never modify .intent/ directly,
  • run audits before committing,
  • keep IDs and metadata up to date,
  • sync knowledge after changes,
  • review all crates manually,
  • maintain domain boundaries.

Autonomy does not replace responsibility.

14. Summary

This plan defines how CORE becomes a self‑governing, safely autonomous system.

It delivers autonomy without risk, and structure without rigidity — a system that can grow, reason, correct itself, and remain aligned with its constitution.

Next:

  • 02-phase1-delivery.md
  • 03-restructure-plan.md
  • or return to Index