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Navigate a Decision

How do you navigate one decision without giving away authority?

Output​

A proposed nine-field inner-navigation artifact, a steering contract, and an explicit captain response: reject, revise, or confirm. A confirmed result adds one private receipt and scheduled review.

Method​

  1. Reality — state the situation and separate observed evidence from interpretation.
  2. Value — name the value at stake and who bears the outcome.
  3. Decision — state the decision under consideration and classify the door.
  4. Bounds — name constraints, loss limit, and what would make the route unacceptable.
  5. Handoff — produce nav.v1; the First Mate returns Problem → Question → Decision, all nine artifact fields, and the steering contract.

For a reversible door, choose the smallest falsifiable correction. It still needs a proof signal, review point, and kill signal.

For an irreversible or compound door, use the deeper decision protocol: verify facts and unknowns, compare at least three options, expose hidden assumptions, invert the choice, state conviction, propose a receipt, and schedule review.

Proof Of Done​

  • The artifact contains problem, question, decision, priority, valueSetpoint, beliefHorizon, controlLoop, proofSignal, and agencyGain in that order.
  • The steering contract contains a lever, trigger, loss limit, review point, and kill signal.
  • Draft content is neither retained nor emitted as a receipt.
  • Explicit confirmation emits exactly one private receipt with prediction, evidence baseline, review point, and kill signal.

Failure Modes​

  • Facts invented by the mate — the intake asks the agent to fill missing reality.
  • Heavy protocol for every door — reversible learning becomes slow and ceremonial.
  • Confirmation inferred — copying, silence, or continuing is treated as consent.
  • Open loop — action begins without proof, review, or a stop condition.

Controller Close​

At review, compare the prediction with the evidence baseline. Keep, correct, or kill the course. Record what increased the captain’s capacity to navigate the next decision.

Context​