box/docs/MUSE-CHOICES-POLICY.md

Muse-Choices Deny/Escalate Policy — DECISION RECORD (Final)

Topic: add deny/escalate decisions to the muse-choices auto-approve daemon (bin/muse_choice_watcher.py), which today only approves (top choice per prompt kind). Interviewed 2026-10-06/07 per grill contract; accepted verbatim below, which flipped this record from Draft to Final.

Standing constraints (settled by user)

• All prompts must resolve: no stuck states are acceptable in any outcome.
• The full-auto top-choice flow must always exist as a path.
• Model review of choices is a FUTURE layer. Deferred out of this interview.

Settled decisions

• D0 (helper form): a checked-in repo rules file informs decisions. Source: user's structured answerquared 2026-10-06 ("Repo rules file (Recommended)" for "which helper should inform approve/deny/hold decisions"). Rationale recorded at selection time: deterministic, versioned, sub-second, unit-testable; no agent round-trip latency.

Settled during interview

• D0b (approve path needs no helper): straightforward prompts resolve locally with top-choice keys (the five matcher kinds, already implemented and live). Helpers (D0 rules file) govern deny/hold judgments only. Source: user direction 2026-10-06 ("the watcher itself should be able to input 1"; "always have the flow for full auto just top choice").

• D1 (rule match dimensions): command pattern first, plus kind and text pattern. Source: user selected option 1, 2026-10-06. Rationale: the observed risk lives in the $ command of approval dialogs; kind/text add precision around it.

• D2 (deny mechanics): deny exists only for permission kinds -- muse-approval dialogs receive 2 + Enter, y/n prompts receive n + Enter. Question kinds (interview, letter, numbered) always resolve top-choice and are never denied. Source: user selected option 1, 2026-10-06. Rationale: deny is only meaningful where a permission is refused; questions stay total.

• D3 (hold mechanics): hold leaves the dialog untouched, suppresses auto-answer, raises a HELD entry in box muse-choices status plus an audit record; the operator resolves via a box command, otherwise a SHORT window expires back to top-choice approve. Source: user selected option 1 with "short window", 2026-10-06. Exact duration proposed below (2 minutes, tunable); accepted or amended with the scope text in D5.

• D4 (unmatched default): approve top-choice, exactly today's behavior. Source: user selected option 1, 2026-10-06. Rationale: follows from the standing constraints; rules carve out only deny/hold exceptions, so an empty rules file changes nothing.

Open questions (unresolved)

None. All interview questions resolved and the scope accepted.

Scope contract (ACCEPTED)

Artifact boundary, IN:

• docs/MUSE-CHOICES-POLICY.md: this record (Draft -> Final on acceptance).
• New muse-choices-rules.json at repo root (beside keepalive-config.json): the checked-in deny/hold rules.
• bin/muse_choice_watcher.py: rule evaluation, deny/hold paths, HELD state with short-window expiry, resolve plumbing.
• bin/super-cli.py: box muse-choices resolve command + HELD display in status.
• tests/test_muse_choice_watcher.py: rule eval, per-kind deny keys, hold/suppress/expiry, resolve flow.

Artifact boundary, OUT (rejected or deferred, each needs its own interview to re-enter):

• Model review of choices (deferred future stage).
• Peer-agent consultation (rejected in D0).
• New matcher shapes (matcher suite's lane).
• box runtime work (adjacent lane, untouched).
• Timer cadence / daemon supervision changes.

Done means (all observable):

• This record marked Final with the acceptance quoted.
• Rules file loads; empty rules == today's behavior exactly.
• Deny sends 2+Enter / n+Enter per D2: unit tests + one live scratch proof per permission kind.
• Hold suppresses + shows HELD + resolves via box + expires to approve: unit tests + one live scratch proof of hold and one of expiry.
• Audit records for deny/hold/resolve/expire in box-ctl.jsonl.
• Full suite green; fleet reloaded; desired state left as found.

Acceptance (quoted verbatim, chat, 2026-10-07T00:19:57Z): "ACCEPT". Accepted as written, including the 2-minute tunable hold window. Per the grill scope contract, later work outside the IN boundary needs explicit owner approval or its own follow-up interview; "go" authorizes only this boundary. No owning issue exists in this workflow, so this record is the lane-coordination evidence.

Non-goals (accepted with the scope)

• Model-based review of choices (deferred future layer).
• Peer-agent consultation over sidechat (rejected in favor of D0).
• Changes to approval matching shapes (covered by the matcher test suite).