IntentGuard

Review path · FPAT

FPAT Lite: proportionate, governed agent work

FPAT Lite is the workflow toolkit this repository was built with. It keeps the governance benefits of a heavyweight delivery framework without operating a platform: one command at a time, declared mutation levels, and evidence that was actually executed.

Six contracts, one at a time

Each command is a contract with a purpose, required inputs, and an output shape — prime captures a read-only baseline; brainstorm compares realistic options; plan defines verifiable work; implement makes one approved local change; validate produces executed evidence; handoff preserves resumable state. The arrows are recommendations, not a state machine: a tiny fix may use prime → implement → validate. Workflow · Command contracts

Rules: a small set of invariants

Fifteen core rules, a mutation-classification and approval scheme, and engineering/validation rules shared by every command. Project instructions may add constraints but may not silently weaken safety, evidence, or user-change preservation. Rules

Safety: approval is specific and current

An approved local plan authorizes only what the user requested. Anything remote — push, issue update, pull request, merge, workflow dispatch, release — must be named exactly and approved currently. Commands that combine preparation and mutation count as remote writes; dry-run labels do not override documented behavior. Resumed sessions do not inherit old approval when the target or state changed. Safety & approval

Context engineering, not context hoarding

The knowledge base explains the design without inflating startup instructions: agents read two rule files and one command contract, then follow links only when they answer a material question — “do not load the entire knowledge base ceremonially.” Research is a supporting activity with a recorded design consequence, not a seventh command. Knowledge base

Agent compatibility: one core, two frontends

Codex invokes $fpat-lite <mode>, Claude Code invokes /fpat-lite <mode>, and any other agent can follow commands/<mode>.md directly. Skills in .agents/ and .claude/ are thin adapters over the same contracts — operational truth stays in commands/, rules/, and templates/. Agent compatibility

What was deliberately removed

Decision 0001 keeps FPAT Lite a shared modular core: no fixed five-subtask hierarchy, no Project-field synchronization, no rollup enforcement, no scheduled audits, no multi-agent orchestration. Those mechanisms suit a large governed program, not a solo repository — and the decision records why. Decision 0001

Validation evidence in the workflow itself

The validate contract requires executed evidence — command output, not assertions — and the repository's own delivery shows it: every capability row in implementation status cites run IDs, CI runs, or measured walkthroughs. See the FPAT workflow graph for the full command→rule governance structure.