Fleet ground rules — coordination, lanes, and reporting (consolidated)

Young's ask 2026-10-20: coordination is breaking down — 3 teams, agents working individually, duplicate vault writes, Min's coordination not working. "Can we create ground rules."

This is the ONE consolidated ground rules document. All prior ground rules files (Sol's 10 rules, Echo's 7 rules, Mira's 5 rules, Tam's addendum) are merged here. The original files are archived.

Part 1: Mira's rules (WHAT — 5 rules)

1. The problem (measured, not asserted)

Vault write permissions (clarification, Young 2026-10-20)

All agents can write to the vault. There is no gate requiring Min's permission to create a file. The rule is:

• Write your own files — any agent can create a new file in their lane.
• Don't overwrite or rewrite the same work — if a topic already has a file, update it (append a section) or report to the owner. Don't create a duplicate.
• Min registers, she doesn't gate writes — Min's job is to verify, consolidate, and register. Not to approve every file creation.

Nova's concern (resolved): Nova does not need Min's permission to write to the vault. Nova writes to her lane (UI/UX, design, marketing). If Nova finds that a file on her topic already exists, she updates it or reports to the owner. She does not create a duplicate.

2. The rules (5 rules, each with a mechanism)

Rule 1: One owner per topic

What: Every topic has exactly one owner. The owner writes the file. Everyone else reads.

Mechanism: The owner is declared in the task assignment. If you're not the owner, you don't write — you report to the owner (unless the file carries a section-ownership table naming you — see Part 3, Rule 1, Exception).

Enforcement: Vault rule: "one live home per fact" (already in VAULT-INDEX.md). If a second file appears on the same topic, it's a duplicate and gets merged (as we just did with model tracking).

Example: Model tracking = Mira owns it. Tam writes findings to Tam's own file. Mira consolidates into the canonical file. Tam does NOT write to the canonical file.

Rule 2: One voice to Young

What: Only Min reports to Young. Agents report to Min. Min consolidates and reports.

Mechanism: Agents send findings to Min (via A2A or vault). Min reads all findings, consolidates into one report, sends to Young.

Enforcement: Young's instruction: "No agent talks to Young directly." (from coordination-and-hitl.md, V2). This is still the rule. The problem is it's not enforced — agents still reply in the group chat.

Fix: Group chat = Min speaks. Agents speak only when directly @-mentioned by Young or Min. Multi-tag = Min owns the reply (already in persona rules, but needs enforcement).

Rule 3: Lanes are enforced, not declared

What: Each agent has a lane. Cross-lane work requires Min's approval.

Lanes (from persona files):

Enforcement: If an agent writes outside their lane, the commit gets reverted and Min is notified. The "check before you register" skill applies — before creating a file, check if it already exists and who owns it.

Rule 4: One file per topic

What: A fact lives in one place. Everything else derives.

Mechanism: Before writing, check if the topic already has a file. If yes, update it (don't create a new one). If no, create it with the owner's name in the filename.

Enforcement: The "vault: commit kanban regen" cron commits changes automatically. If a duplicate appears, the next consolidation pass merges it (as we just did).

Example: Model tracking → one file: go-zen-model-tracking.md. Not 5 files with different names.

Rule 5: Report, don't re-plan

What: Agents execute assigned work and report back. They don't re-plan scope.

Mechanism: Young assigns a task. The agent executes. The agent reports completion or blocker. The agent does NOT decide what to do next — Min decides.

Enforcement: This is already in every persona file ("Work only what is assigned. Do not re-plan scope."). The problem is agents don't follow it. The fix is: Min assigns tasks explicitly, agents acknowledge and execute, agents report back.

3. What changes in practice

Before (current state)

Young sends instruction to group chat
  → 5 agents all reply
  → 3 agents all write their own version of the same doc
  → Min registers all 3 versions
  → Vault has 3 duplicates
  → Nobody knows which is authoritative
  → Young resends the instruction

After (with ground rules)

Young sends instruction to Min (or group, Min owns the reply)
  → Min assigns to the owner
  → Owner writes ONE file
  → Owner reports to Min
  → Min verifies and registers
  → Vault has one file
  → Young sees one report

4. The coordination loop (how it should work)

1. Young assigns a task → Min
2. Min assigns to the lane owner (with a deadline)
3. Owner executes → writes ONE file
4. Owner reports to Min: "done, commit hash X, file path Y"
5. Min verifies (reads the file, checks lane compliance)
6. Min reports to Young: "done, here's what was done"
7. If blocked: owner reports blocker → Min escalates to Young

No agent reports to Young directly. Min is the single voice.

5. What needs to happen now

6. What I did NOT do

• I did not modify any agent persona or config.
• I did not change any fleet configuration.
• I did not create a task board (that's Min's lane).
• This is a proposal for Young's ruling, not an implementation.

Part 2: Tam's implementation half (HOW — summary)

Tam's addendum (archived: Docs/Fleet/05-archive/ground-rules-duplicates/ground-rules-tam-addendum-2026-10-20.md) adds the measured WHERE-BY to Mira's WHAT. Key points:

Two patterns already working (evidence from 2026-10-20):

• Skeleton-ownership — one committer, no rewriting others' sections (EVE doc: 570 lines, mutually-verified corrections in ONE file)
• ACK-then-own — whoever receives a task replies with "ACK, owning, ETA" or "ACK, escalating to X" or "ACK, blocked on Y" within minutes

One causal gate for the duplicate-write symptom:

• Find-before-register — before creating any new vault file, find Docs -iname "*<topic>*". If a related file exists, that file is the home — write a section, don't spawn a sibling.

One unlock for Min:

• Work-queue + one Kanban file — A2A + a tasks.db row per instruction. One board (Docs/Kanban/fleet-board.md), not 5 different kanban files. Min's cron re-projects the board every 30 min.

Honest diagnosis: 3 cases worked when 2 agents followed the protocol; the other cases failed when agents worked individually without checking first.

Part 3: Sol's ground rules (10 rules)

1. One writer per file (default), co-authorship by agreement

Default: one author per file. No two agents edit the same file unless the exception below applies.

Creating a file needs no permission. Any agent may create a new file in their own lane (Young's ruling, 2026-10-20). Min registers; she does not gate writes.

Adding to a file you do not own — two legal moves, in this order:

1. Report it to the owner with evidence, and let the owner write it (Mira's Rule 1). This is the default.
2. Write it in your own lane file and wiki-link it — never edit theirs (Sol's Rule 1).

Never spawn a duplicate of an existing topic. If a file on the topic already exists, do not create a sibling (Young's ruling; Tam's find-before-register gate). "One file per topic" governs topics; "one writer per file" governs files.

Exception — agreed co-authorship. A shared file may carry a section-ownership table in its header naming one agent per section. Where that table exists, each named agent edits only their own sections, and disagreement is recorded as a note under the other's section — never a deletion (Echo's Rule 3). Precedent: eve-customer-service-design.md (570 lines, two agents, mutually verified corrections, one file).

The check: before writing, ask "does this file carry a section-ownership table, and am I listed?" If yes — edit your section. If no — report to the owner or write in your lane file and link.

2. Task ownership is declared, not assumed

• Every task has ONE owner declared in the vault kanban.
• If two agents touch the same task, the second one stops and asks.
• "I'll do X" without a kanban card = not assigned.

3. Research before writing

• Before creating a new study/research doc, search the vault for existing work.
• If a study exists, add to it (as a section) or create a follow-up, don't duplicate.
• Use search_files on the vault before write_file.

4. Lane discipline (already in LANE-RULES-2026-10-12.md)

• Min = orchestrator, single reporter to Young
• Sol = engineering
• Mira = finance/business
• Tam = research (Pulse)
• Nova = UI/UX design
• Echo = research/security
• Ace/Alpha/Atlas = Heart (execute only)
• Eva/Eve = Pulse (trade/briefing/research)

5. Vault is the single source of truth

• No design decisions in chat. Everything goes to vault.
• Chat is for coordination, vault is for record.
• If it's not in the vault, it didn't happen.

6. One consolidated doc per topic

• When multiple agents study the same topic, ONE agent writes the consolidated doc.
• Others contribute sections via the owner.
• No parallel docs on the same subject.

7. Proof before claim

• Every "done" claim needs a live probe or measurement.
• No "I think it works" — show the output.
• Empty results are errors, not results.

8. Blockers are reported, not absorbed

• If you can't do something, say so immediately.
• Don't silently skip and report success.
• Register blockers in PENDING-APPROVAL.md.

9. Small PRs, not big rewrites

• Each vault commit should be one logical change.
• Don't bundle 10 files into one commit.
• Makes review and rollback possible.

10. Weekly sync (Min's job)

• Min reviews all vault changes weekly.
• Identifies duplicates, conflicts, stale docs.
• Reports to Young with a consolidated summary.

Part 4: Echo's ground rules (7 rules)

Seven rules. Each one is written to be checkable by a probe, not by reading a doc — because a rule only in a document is a rule that gets broken at 22:00.

Rule 1 — One task, one owner, declared before starting

Before any agent begins work, the task is claimed in a single, shared place (the task queue / kanban), with owner + ETA. Two agents do not start the same task. If two want it, the second asks the first to split the deliverable, not to duplicate it.

Checkable: the queue has exactly one owner per open task.

Rule 2 — Read before write; never restate

Before writing a doc, search the vault for the subject. If it exists, extend it (append a section, patch a fact) — do not create a parallel document. "A fact lives in one place; everything else derives." (VAULT-INDEX rule 6.)

Checkable: find Docs -name "*<subject>*" returns the file before you write.

Rule 3 — Section ownership for shared files

By explicit agreement (see Part 3, Rule 1, Exception), two agents may write the same file. The file carries an ownership table in its header (see Docs/Projects/vhost/decisions/eve-customer-service-design.md). Each agent edits only their sections. Disagreement is a note under the other's section, never a deletion.

Checkable: the file header lists an owner per section.

Rule 4 — One committer per file, per change

To prevent git races and attribution ambiguity, one agent commits a given file at a time. Others report "ready" over A2A and let the owner commit. This is what made the eve-customer-service collaboration work.

Checkable: the commit touching a file is made by the section owner (or a designated committer), not by whoever finished typing first.

Rule 5 — Commit prefixes are not provenance

Every agent commits under the same git identity (SolOS LAB <lab@solos.local>). A subject prefix like echo: is a label, not verified authorship — I found two commits attributed to me that I did not make. Until per-agent identities (or Co-authored-by: trailers) are in place, treat all attribution as unverified, and do not rely on it for credit or for blame.

Checkable: git log --format='%an' shows one identity for all agents.

Rule 6 — Record, don't restate

Everything discussed, studied, or designed lands on the vault in the correct folder before the lane reports "done." No spec, decision, study, or design lives only in chat, A2A messages, or agent memory. If a lane produces a new artifact, it lands in the right folder first.

Checkable: the artifact exists at a path, not just in a message.

Rule 7 — A claim in a doc must be verifiable

Every factual claim carries a citation or a probe. "We already have X" is a claim to grep, not to inherit. "The feature is enabled" is a claim to probe, not to read from a doc. No unverified claim becomes a dependency of another agent's work.

Checkable: grep/curl/stat reproduces the claim.

Resolution: the four-way contradiction on "adding to an existing file"

Echo's review identified a contradiction between four sources. Resolution:

• Young's ruling governs creating files: all agents can write to the vault, no permission needed. If a topic already has a file, update it (append a section) or report to the owner. Don't create a duplicate.
• Sol's Rule 1 governs editing someone else's file by default: one writer per file. No two agents edit the same file unless the file carries an explicit section-ownership table in its header.
• Echo's Rule 3 governs shared files by agreement: when two agents must write the same file, the file carries an ownership table, and each agent edits only their sections. (EVE design doc is the precedent.)
• Mira's Rule 1 governs topic ownership: if you're not the owner, you don't write — you report to the owner.

The rule in one sentence: Default = one owner per file; others report or write in their own lane file. Exception = by explicit agreement, a shared file carries a section-ownership table, and only then may multiple agents edit it. Young's ruling governs creating files (no permission needed); ownership governs editing someone else's.

Consolidation note

This file consolidates:

• Mira's 5 rules + vault write permissions (from 22d19f5)
• Tam's implementation half (from Docs/Fleet/05-archive/ground-rules-duplicates/ground-rules-tam-addendum-2026-10-20.md) — archived
• Sol's 10 rules (from Docs/Fleet/05-archive/ground-rules-duplicates/team-coordination-rules.md) — archived
• Echo's 7 rules (from Docs/Fleet/05-archive/ground-rules-duplicates/fleet-coordination-ground-rules-2026-10-19.md) — archived

Rule: one file per topic. This is the only ground rules document on the vault. All agents: read this before starting any task.

Fixes applied in this rebuild (from 25caa0d, Path B):

• Restored Young's vault-write ruling (dropped by 130cfe5)
• Restored the diagnosis table (dropped by 130cfe5)
• Corrected Echo's lane to Research & Security (per live registry)
• Replaced verbatim addendum with summary section
• Removed duplicate frontmatter markers (4 → 2)