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Directive Preset System Design

Date: 2026-07-05 Status: Draft Scope: Replace the single current_baseline.md preset (which lists all 172 directives indiscriminately) with a layered preset system: one baseline preset containing only the directives required to operate in the codebase without entropy, plus engagement-specific presets that inherit baseline and add targeted directives for common work patterns. Also: define new op-specific directives where gaps exist, deduplicate the .warm.md agent prompt against the directives, and add a non-directive-context section so agents read the product/tech-stack markdown they tend to skip.

1. Overview

1.1 The problem

conductor/directives/presets/current_baseline.md lists all 172 directives. Every agent that warms via manual-slop_aggregate_directives ingests all 172 (~283K chars, ~75K tokens) regardless of what it's doing. An agent auditing the codebase does not need the 23 test-writing directives; an agent fixing a regression does not need the 5 RAG-specific directives; an agent ideating UX concepts does not need the 20 tier-2-sandbox directives. The preset is the control group from the original harvest — it was never curated for engagement type.

Two related problems:

  1. Agents skip non-directive markdown. conductor/product.md, conductor/product-guidelines.md, conductor/tech-stack.md, and the conductor/code_styleguides/*.md files are the original source docs the directives were lifted from. The directives are the granular reinforcement, but the full docs carry product vision and tech-stack context the directives don't fully encode. Agents skip them. There is no preset mechanism to force-read non-directive context.

  2. The .warm.md agent prompt duplicates directive content. conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.warm.md (17.9KB) still contains inline bulk-markdown sections that duplicate ~9 directive subject areas (AppData, git restore/stash, timeline-immutable, run_tests_batched, failcount, tier3/tier4 delegation, etc.). The agent reads the directives AND the inline duplicates. The warm prompt should be a thin shell once the directives carry that content.

1.2 The solution

A layered preset system with three mechanisms:

  1. Baseline preset — only the 57 directives required to do anything in the codebase without creating entropy. Plus a non-directive-context section listing AGENTS.md, conductor/product.md, conductor/product-guidelines.md, conductor/tech-stack.md for product/tech context.

  2. Engagement presets — each inherits baseline and adds the targeted directives for one work pattern (auditing, fixing tests, implementing features, refactoring, scripts, meta-tooling, directives curation, documentation, media analysis, ideation). New op-specific directives are created where gaps exist.

  3. Dedup of .warm.md — the inline bulk-markdown sections that duplicate directive content get stripped; the warm prompt becomes a thin shell (domain distinction, pre-action reading list, the warm with: aggregate call, tier-2-sandbox targeted additions). The directives are the single source of truth.

1.3 The engagement presets (mapping to user-named ops)

Preset file User-named op Inherits Adds
baseline.md Codebase knowledge + conventions — 57 BASELINE directives + 4 non-directive context files
audit.md Auditing the codebase baseline 3 new audit directives
fix_tests.md Fixing tests based on regressions baseline 23 TARGETED:testing + 2 new regression-fix directives
implement_feature.md Implementing a new feature into ./src, ./simulation, or ./tests baseline 23 TARGETED:testing + 14 APP:architecture + 6 APP:imgui + 3 APP:app-controller + 5 APP:rag-memory + 1 APP:mcp (the agent loads the union; an op-specific subset can be selected at invocation if size matters)
refactor.md Refactoring or overhauling the codebase baseline 23 TARGETED:testing + 2 new refactor directives
new_script_tool.md Making new script tools baseline 2 new script-authoring directives
meta_tooling.md Adjusting meta-tooling baseline 1 APP:mcp + 1 new meta-tooling directive
directives_curation.md Improving, curating, or adding workflow directives or context baseline 3 META + 3 TARGETED:documentation + 1 new curation directive
documentation.md Writing or updating codebase documentation baseline 3 TARGETED:documentation + 1 new doc-update directive
media_analysis.md Doing analysis on content from various media sources baseline 2 new media-analysis directives (no TARGETED:testing — media analysis does not touch the test suite)
ideation.md Ideating new concepts or tools or ux with the user baseline 7 PROCESS:planning + 1 new ideation directive
tier2_autonomous.md Tier-2 autonomous sandbox execution baseline 20 TARGETED:tier2-sandbox + 23 TARGETED:testing + 8 PROCESS:delegation

2. Current State Audit (as of 2026-07-05)

2.1 Already Implemented (DO NOT re-implement)

  • conductor/directives/ — 172 directives, each <name>/v1.md + meta.md. 283K chars total, avg 1.6K chars each.
  • conductor/directives/tags.toml — 6-dimension classification (layer, operation, tier, subject, severity, provenance) for all 172.
  • conductor/directives/presets/current_baseline.md — the existing single preset; lists all 172. To be replaced (not deleted — kept as the original control group per its own Notes section).
  • manual-slop_aggregate_directives MCP tool — resolves a preset's directive list and returns all v1.md bodies concatenated as one text blob. Already wired into conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.warm.md (the warm with: block added 2026-07-05).
  • scripts/tier2/setup_tier2_clone_directives.ps1 — the Option A directive-based bootstrap (added 2026-07-05). Copies .warm.md into the clone's active agent slot, verifies the preset path resolves.
  • conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.warm.md — the directive-variant agent prompt. Currently 17.9KB; still contains inline bulk-markdown sections that duplicate ~9 directive subject areas.

2.2 Gaps to Fill (This Track's Scope)

  1. No curated baseline preset. current_baseline.md is a flat list of all 172; no engagement filtering. The 57 BASELINE directives need to be separated out as their own preset.
  2. No engagement presets. No audit.md, fix_tests.md, implement_feature.md, etc. An agent doing test-fix work warms on the same 172 as an agent doing media analysis.
  3. No non-directive-context section in presets. The preset format only lists directives. There is no mechanism to force-read conductor/product.md, conductor/tech-stack.md, etc. — the product/tech context agents skip.
  4. No preset inheritance. Each preset is a standalone list. Engagement presets re-list baseline directives by hand (or skip them). The ## Inherits section is missing.
  5. .warm.md duplicates directive content. ~9 inline sections in tier2-autonomous.warm.md duplicate directives already in the aggregate blob. The warm prompt is larger than it needs to be.
  6. Missing op-specific directives. The 172 existing directives do not cover some engagement-specific behavior (audit-gate-as-convention, regression-bisect-to-clean-baseline, refactor-preserves-behavior, scripts-namespace-isolated, media-source-cited-in-output, etc.). New directives are needed for the engagement presets to have something targeted to add beyond the existing tagged subsets.

2.3 The 57 BASELINE directives (the cut)

Classification of all 172 by engagement relevance. The 57 BASELINE are the rules required to do anything in the codebase without creating entropy — type promotion, edit discipline, git hard bans, research-first, error handling, state management, process anti-patterns. Excludes anything tier-specific (tier1/tier2/tier3/tier4), anything app-subsystem-specific (imgui/rag/mcp/dsl/app-controller), anything testing-specific, anything documentation-specific, anything meta-directive.

atomic_per_task_commits
git_hard_bans
timeline_is_immutable
verbose_commit_message_ban
verify_before_editing
edit_small_incremental
mandatory_research_first
ast_parse_insufficient
ast_verify_class_methods_after_edit
decorator_orphan_pitfall
preserve_line_endings
contract_change_audit
search_all_call_sites_after_signature_change
anti_entropy_state_audit_before_adding
no_diagnostic_noise
no_comments_in_body
one_space_indent
type_hints_required
no_new_src_files_without_permission
file_naming_convention
large_files_are_fine
core_value_read_first
ban_any_type
ban_dict_any
ban_dict_get_on_known_fields
ban_getattr_dispatch
ban_hasattr_dispatch
ban_optional_returns
ban_local_imports
ban_prefix_aliasing
ban_repeated_from_dict
boundary_layer_exception
metadata_boundary_type
per_aggregate_dataclass_promotion
typed_dataclass_fields
nil_sentinel_pattern
result_error_pattern
missing_data_renders_as_em_dash_not_crash
comprehensive_logging
modular_controller_pattern
strict_state_management
inherited_cruft_ask_first
deduction_loop_limit
report_instead_of_fix_ban
scope_creep_track_doc_ban
reproduction_before_fix
single_hypothesis_minimal_test
three_fix_failures_question_architecture
cheap_fix_first_investigation_phases
evidence_before_completion_claims
verify_clean_baseline_before_starting
master_branch_default
pathlib_read_write_no_newline_kwarg
sdm_dependency_tags
convention_enforcement_4_mechanisms
skill_check_before_clarifying
no_content_duplication_across_agent_docs

Full classification (all 172 → category) is in §2.4 below for the record.

2.4 Full classification (all 172)

Category Count Directives
BASELINE 57 (listed in §2.3)
TARGETED:testing 23 tdd_red_green_required, test_must_fail_for_believed_reason, test_passing_immediately_proves_nothing, test_narrow_not_kitchen_sink, batch_verification_not_isolation, fragile_test_in_batch_is_failing_test, no_skip_markers_as_avoidance, ban_arbitrary_core_mocking, test_instantiation_not_mock_away, adapt_test_mocks_to_production_api_change, live_gui_poll_not_sleep, live_gui_session_scoped_no_restart, no_real_io_during_tests, enforce_no_real_toml_in_tests, test_sandbox, workspace_paths, opt_in_integration_test_via_env_var_marker, deterministic_signal_endpoint_pattern, failure_message_actionable_not_vague, three_tier_test_strategy_for_fragile_subsystems, test_classification_via_import_presence, surface_dirty_state_in_test_runner, imscope_tuple_return_per_scope_override
TARGETED:tier2-sandbox 20 ban_appdata_paths, use_batched_test_runner, no_output_filtering, prefer_targeted_tier_runs, throwaway_scripts_isolated_subdir, acknowledgment_in_first_commit, end_of_track_report_required, tier2_pre_commit_deletion_and_diff_check, tier2_pre_flight_audit_gates, tier2_post_track_ruff_mypy_audit, per_phase_metric_regression_fix, run_full_tier_after_phase_refactor, user_corrections_log_in_state_toml, surface_gaps_at_discovery_not_checkpoint, chronology_must_regenerate_after_every_track_ship, use_git_history_as_classification_source_of_truth, classifier_must_emit_per_row_evidence, quality_gate_catches_broken_classifier_before_ship, manual_compaction_only_no_auto_summarize, preserve_before_compact_archive
APP:architecture 14 defer_heavy_sdk_imports_to_subprocess, defer_not_catch_for_native_crashes, graceful_optional_dependency_degradation, submit_io_lazy_pool_recreation, log_pruner_backoff_for_locked_files, undo_redo_100_snapshot_capacity, feature_flag_delete_to_turn_off, runtime_config_flag_vs_test_env_var_gate, interceptor_activates_only_on_matching_shape, quarantine_flag_the_engine_not_shared_types, profile_first_optimize_second, state_visible_at_the_right_layer, per_conversation_scratch_dir, file_id_stable_across_rename
PROCESS:delegation 8 tier3_worker_amnesia, tier4_qa_compressed_fix, token_firewall_prevents_bloat, never_inherit_session_history_to_subagent, subagent_returns_artifact_not_transcript, agent_prompt_one_independent_domain, decompose_or_isolate_never_offload, worker_three_point_abort_check
PROCESS:planning 7 brainstorm_even_for_simple_projects, design_leads_with_recommendation, spec_self_review_four_checks, plan_steps_2_to_5_minutes_each, plans_no_placeholders_or_tbds, review_plan_critically_before_executing, surface_upstream_api_limits_honestly_in_spec
PROCESS:review 7 review_after_each_task_not_end, spec_review_before_quality_review, verify_critique_before_implementing, no_performative_agreement_in_review, clarify_unclear_review_before_partial_impl, verify_tests_before_offering_completion_options, exactly_four_completion_options
APP:imgui 6 imgui_scope_verification, imgui_scope_entered_flag_for_no_op_return, ui_delegation_for_hot_reload, modal_explicit_opened_list_for_lifecycle, view_composes_does_not_leak_into_theme_get_color, float_only_math_for_visual_transforms
APP:rag-memory 5 per_dimension_pick_dim_not_tool, cache_stable_to_volatile, rag_six_rules, knowledge_harvest_pattern, chroma_cache_path
PROCESS:tier1 5 tier1_orchestrator_no_implementation, tier1_first_commit_6file_acknowledgment, spec_template_required_6_sections, audit_before_claiming_current_state, ban_day_estimates
APP:dsl-research 4 dsl_uses_first_class_spans_for_errors, intent_signal_postfix_not_xml, pipeline_immediate_mode_no_object, parse_failure_visible_to_conversation
APP:app-controller 3 controller_property_delegation_no_dual_state, config_state_owner, reset_session_preserves_project_path
META 3 verbatim_lift_not_rewrite, warm_md_duplicates_not_in_place, generation_script_walks_filesystem_fresh_each_run
PROCESS:workflow 3 detect_existing_isolation_before_creating, preserve_prior_versions_of_review_docs, system_reminder_redact_don_act
TARGETED:documentation 3 docs_philosophy_then_boundaries_then_logic_then_verify, neutral_language_for_doc_drift, no_conductor_yaml_for_artifacts
APP:mcp 1 meta_tooling_app_boundary_check

3. Goals

  • G1: Curated baseline.md preset containing only the 57 BASELINE directives + 4 non-directive context files (AGENTS.md, conductor/product.md, conductor/product-guidelines.md, conductor/tech-stack.md).
  • G2: Engagement presets (12 total) that inherit baseline and add targeted directives per work pattern.
  • G3: Preset format extension: ## Inherits (parent preset name) + ## Non-directive context (full markdown files to read separately from the directive aggregate).
  • G4: manual-slop_aggregate_directives MCP tool extended to resolve ## Inherits (recursively flatten parent directives into the child's directive list) and to surface non-directive-context files in the returned blob (as a separate prefixed section, so the agent reads them as full docs, not as directives).
  • G5: 15 new op-specific directives created to fill engagement-preset gaps (audit: 3, fix_tests: 2, refactor: 2, new_script_tool: 2, meta_tooling: 1, directives_curation: 1, documentation: 1, media_analysis: 2, ideation: 1). Each follows the existing <name>/v1.md + meta.md convention.
  • G6: conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.warm.md deduplicated — inline bulk-markdown sections that duplicate directives (AppData, git restore/stash, timeline-immutable, run_tests_batched, failcount, tier3/tier4 delegation, etc.) stripped. The warm prompt becomes a thin shell: domain distinction, pre-action reading list (the 11 files), the warm with: aggregate call pointing at the new tier2_autonomous.md preset, and the tier-2-sandbox targeted additions not covered by directives.
  • G7: current_baseline.md retained as the original control-group preset (not deleted); the new baseline.md is the curated replacement. The Notes section of current_baseline.md is updated to mark it deprecated-but-kept.
  • G8: scripts/tier2/setup_tier2_clone_directives.ps1 -PresetPath default updated from conductor/directives/presets/current_baseline.md to conductor/directives/presets/tier2_autonomous.md.

4. Functional Requirements

4.1 Preset file format

Each preset is a markdown file in conductor/directives/presets/. Structure:

# Preset: <name>

<one-paragraph description of what this preset is for>

## Inherits
<parent_preset_name_without_md_extension>
# (optional — omit if this is baseline)

## Directives to warm
Read each file below before any action.

- <directive_name>: conductor/directives/<directive_name>/v1.md
- ...

## Non-directive context
Read each file below as full documents (NOT as directives — these carry product/tech/architecture context the directives reinforce but do not fully encode).

- <file_description>: <relative_path>

## Notes
<provenance, hypothesis, what this preset is testing if experimental>

4.2 Aggregate tool behavior

manual-slop_aggregate_directives(preset_path, max_chars):

  1. Parse the preset file. Extract ## Inherits (if any), ## Directives to warm (the list), ## Non-directive context (the list).
  2. Recursively resolve ## Inherits: read the parent preset, append its directives + non-directive-context to this preset's (child wins on conflict — if a directive appears in both, it appears once; if a non-directive file appears in both, it appears once).
  3. For each directive in the flattened list, read conductor/directives/<name>/v1.md and concatenate the body into the output blob (same format as today: ========\n<name>\n========\n\n<body>\n\n).
  4. After the directives section, append a ========\nNON-DIRECTIVE CONTEXT\n========\n\n section listing each non-directive-context file's full path + the full file body. The agent reads these as full documents, not as directives.
  5. Return the concatenated blob. max_chars caps total size.

4.3 Engagement preset composition

Each engagement preset:

  • ## Inherits: baseline
  • ## Directives to warm: the targeted subset for that engagement (e.g., fix_tests.md lists the 23 TARGETED:testing directives + the 2 new regression-fix directives)
  • ## Non-directive context: engagement-specific docs (e.g., documentation.md lists docs/Readme.md + docs/AGENTS.md; meta_tooling.md lists docs/guide_meta_boundary.md)
  • ## Notes: hypothesis + provenance

4.4 New op-specific directives (15 total)

Each follows the existing <name>/v1.md + meta.md convention. The v1.md is a verbatim lift or a new imperative rule (per verbatim_lift_not_rewrite, only lift when there's a source; new rules are written from scratch with the same format). The meta.md records the source (or "new rule, no prior source" for the new ones).

Directive Engagement preset What it says
audit_script_as_gate audit Audit scripts that classify or summarize must have a --strict quality gate that exits 1 on regression
audit_walks_filesystem_fresh audit Audit scripts walk the filesystem fresh on every run — never pin to a historical snapshot
baseline_capture_before_work audit Before any track, capture the audit baseline numbers to a file so per-task deltas are auditable
regression_bisect_to_clean_baseline fix_tests When fixing a regression, bisect to the last known-green commit before proposing a fix
adapt_test_not_skip_test fix_tests When a test fails due to a production API change, adapt the test to the new contract — never skip it
refactor_preserves_behavior refactor A refactor must preserve observable behavior — tests passing before must pass after
refactor_one_subsystem_per_phase refactor Refactor one subsystem per phase — never touch two subsystems in the same atomic commit
scripts_namespace_isolated new_script_tool Scripts are namespace-isolated by directory — no from scripts.foo import bar across script dirs
scripts_audit_pattern new_script_tool New audit scripts follow the audit_<thing>.py naming + --json + --strict pattern of the existing 4
meta_tooling_no_app_imports meta_tooling Meta-tooling scripts must not import src/ application modules — the meta-tooling domain is distinct from the application domain
directive_one_concept_per_file directives_curation One directive per directory — do not combine two rules in one v1.md
doc_update_after_track_ships documentation After a track ships, update the affected docs/guide_*.md to reflect the new module structure
media_source_cited_in_output media_analysis Media analysis output must cite the source URL/timestamp for every claim — no unsourced assertions
media_analysis_neutral_voice media_analysis Media analysis output uses neutral voice — value judgments about the source content are the user's call, not the agent's
ideation_leads_with_recommended ideation Ideation sessions lead with a recommended concept + the reasoning, not 3 unranked options

4.5 .warm.md dedup

Strip these inline sections from conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.warm.md (their content is in the directives now):

  • "Hard Bans" section (covered by git_hard_bans, ban_appdata_paths, timeline_is_immutable)
  • "Conventions" section test-runner rules (covered by use_batched_test_runner, no_output_filtering, prefer_targeted_tier_runs, master_branch_default, preserve_line_endings, throwaway_scripts_isolated_subdir, end_of_track_report_required)
  • "Sub-Agent Delegation" section (covered by tier3_worker_amnesia, tier4_qa_compressed_fix, agent_prompt_one_independent_domain, decompose_or_isolate_never_offload)
  • "Failcount Contract" section (kept inline — no directive covers the specific thresholds; this is tier-2-sandbox operational detail that belongs in the prompt)
  • "TDD Protocol" section (covered by tdd_red_green_required, per_phase_metric_regression_fix)
  • "Pre-Delegation Checkpoint" section (kept inline — no directive covers the specific git add . safety net)
  • "Per-Task Commit Protocol" section (covered by atomic_per_task_commits, verbose_commit_message_ban)
  • "Limitations" section (kept inline — tier-2-specific scope, no directive)

After dedup, the .warm.md is approximately: frontmatter + domain distinction + pre-action reading list (the 11 files) + the warm with: aggregate call (now pointing at tier2_autonomous.md preset) + failcount contract (inline, no directive) + pre-delegation checkpoint (inline) + limitations (inline). Estimated ~6KB down from 17.9KB.

5. Non-Functional Requirements

  • NFR1: Preset files are markdown (no YAML, no TOML — per no_conductor_yaml_for_artifacts). Parseable by the aggregate tool via simple regex / line-by-line scan.
  • NFR2: The aggregate tool's ## Inherits resolution is bounded to 3 levels deep (preset → parent → grandparent) to prevent infinite loops. Baseline has no parent.
  • NFR3: The aggregate tool's non-directive-context section is prefixed clearly so the agent can distinguish "directive body" from "full document context" in the returned blob.
  • NFR4: New directives follow the 1-space-indent + type-hints + no-comments-in-body conventions (the directives themselves are markdown, so the Python conventions don't apply to the v1.md body, but any code examples inside the v1.md must follow them).
  • NFR5: tags.toml is updated for the 15 new directives (6-dim classification per the existing schema).
  • NFR6: The current_baseline.md file is retained; its Notes section is updated to mark it deprecated-but-kept as the original control group.

6. Architecture Reference

  • Existing preset mechanism: conductor/directives/presets/current_baseline.md (the single preset; lists all 172 directives). Documented in conductor/directives/warm_md_duplicates_not_in_place/v1.md.
  • Aggregate tool: manual-slop_aggregate_directives MCP tool (in scripts/mcp_server.py via the mcp_tool_specs.py registry). Resolves a preset's directive list, reads each v1.md, concatenates. Already supports max_chars capping.
  • Warm-up wiring: conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.warm.md §"MANDATORY: Directive Warm-up (single aggregate read)" — calls the aggregate tool with the preset path. Added 2026-07-05.
  • Directive conventions: conductor/directives/verbatim_lift_not_rewrite/v1.md (harvest rule: verbatim lift, not rewrite), conductor/directives/warm_md_duplicates_not_in_place/v1.md (experimental variants as .warm.md duplicates, originals untouched).
  • Tag system: conductor/directives/tags.toml — 6-dim classification (layer / operation / tier / subject / severity / provenance). The 15 new directives need entries here.
  • Bootstrap script: scripts/tier2/setup_tier2_clone_directives.ps1 — -PresetPath parameter (default conductor/directives/presets/current_baseline.md; to be updated to tier2_autonomous.md).

7. Out of Scope

  • Preset auto-discovery / fuzzy selection. The user (or the agent's invoker) passes the preset path explicitly. No "auto-detect the engagement type from the task prompt" mechanism in this track.
  • A/B testing harness for presets. The current_baseline.md Notes section mentions "alternative encodings" as a future experiment. This track creates the preset files but does not build the comparison harness.
  • Per-tier-3-worker sub-presets. Tier-3 workers get surgical prompts from Tier-2; they do not warm on presets themselves. This track is about Tier-1/Tier-2/interactive-agent warm-ups.
  • Non-directive-context for docs/guide_*.md. The 33 deep-dive guides are too large (606K total) to force-read in every warm-up. They remain on-demand. Only the 4 small conductor docs (AGENTS.md-equivalent, product, product-guidelines, tech-stack) are in the baseline non-directive-context. Engagement presets may add specific guides (e.g., documentation.md adds docs/Readme.md).
  • The tier2-autonomous.md (bulk-markdown original) prompt. This track deduplicates .warm.md; the bulk-markdown original stays untouched as the rollback target per warm_md_duplicates_not_in_place.

8. Risks

  • R1: Aggregate tool returns too large a blob for engagement presets that union many categories. implement_feature.md inherits baseline (57) + TARGETED:testing (23) + APP:architecture (14) + APP:imgui (6) + APP:app-controller (3) + APP:rag-memory (5) + APP:mcp (1) = 109 directives + 4 non-directive files. At avg 1.6K chars/directive, that's ~175K chars (~44K tokens) for directives alone, plus the non-directive context. Mitigation: the agent picks the engagement preset at invocation; if size matters, an op-specific subset can be passed. The max_chars cap exists.
  • R2: New directives are written from scratch (no prior source to verbatim-lift). The verbatim_lift_not_rewrite rule says "verbatim lift of source text, not rewrite." The 15 new directives have no prior source — they are new rules. The meta.md records "new rule, no prior source" per the existing convention (the original harvest also created new directives when no source existed).
  • R3: Dedup of .warm.md removes content the agent actually needs inline. The failcount contract, pre-delegation checkpoint, and limitations sections are kept inline because no directive covers the specific tier-2 operational detail. The risk is removing something that turns out to be load-bearing. Mitigation: the dedup is conservative — only sections whose content is fully covered by a directive are stripped.

9. Verification

  • V1: manual-slop_aggregate_directives(preset_path="conductor/directives/presets/baseline.md") returns a blob containing exactly the 57 baseline directive bodies + the 4 non-directive context files.
  • V2: manual-slop_aggregate_directives(preset_path="conductor/directives/presets/fix_tests.md") returns the 57 baseline + 23 TARGETED:testing + 2 new regression-fix directives + the 4 non-directive context files (inherited from baseline).
  • V3: Each of the 15 new directives has a v1.md + meta.md + a tags.toml entry.
  • V4: conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.warm.md is reduced from ~17.9KB to ~6KB; the stripped sections' content is present in the directive aggregate when warming with tier2_autonomous.md preset.
  • V5: scripts/tier2/setup_tier2_clone_directives.ps1 -PresetPath defaults to conductor/directives/presets/tier2_autonomous.md; the script runs clean and the clone's agent slot has the aggregate call.

10. Coordination with Pending Tracks

No blocking tracks. The directive_hotswap_harness_20260627 track (the original harvest) is complete; its artifacts (current_baseline.md, tags.toml, the 172 directives) are the inputs to this track. The tier2_leak_prevention_20260620 track is merged; its spec is referenced by the .warm.md pre-action reading list but is not a structural dependency.

11. See Also

  • conductor/directives/presets/current_baseline.md — the original control-group preset (retained)
  • conductor/directives/tags.toml — the 6-dim classification
  • conductor/directives/verbatim_lift_not_rewrite/v1.md — the harvest rule
  • conductor/directives/warm_md_duplicates_not_in_place/v1.md — the .warm.md duplicate rule
  • conductor/tier2/agents/tier2-autonomous.warm.md — the directive-variant agent prompt (to be deduplicated)
  • scripts/tier2/setup_tier2_clone_directives.ps1 — the directive-based bootstrap
  • docs/superpowers/specs/2026-07-05-directive-preset-system-design.md — this spec
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