Autonomous Mode

Autonomous Mode runs the same 6-phase Heist Pipeline, but with gangsta:don-proxy substituting for the human Don at every gate. Instead of pausing at each phase for your approval, the pipeline flows through phases automatically — and you sign off at key checkpoints.

How It Works

Autonomous Mode uses two commands that split the Heist into two runs:

1. /gangsta:heist <description> — Runs phases 1–4 (Reconnaissance → Grilling → Sit-Down → Resource Development). The Don Proxy approves each gate, producing a Contract and Execution Plan.
2. /gangsta:go [feature] — You review and sign the Contract, then phases 5–6 (The Hit → Laundering) execute.
3. /gangsta:abort <feature> — Halts the Heist at any point and archives it.

/gangsta:heist make a user notifications system with push notification delivery
  Phase 1: Reconnaissance ──── don-proxy approves ──→ auto-advance
  Phase 2: The Grilling ────── don-proxy approves ──→ auto-advance
  Phase 3: The Sit-Down ─────── dual-veto gate ────→ auto-advance
  Phase 4: Resource Development ─ don-proxy approves ──→ PAUSE

/gangsta:go user-notifications
  You sign the Contract and Plan
  Phase 5: The Hit ──────────── Workers execute ────→ auto-advance
  Phase 6: Laundering ────────── don-proxy declares ──→ COMPLETE

The Don Proxy

During Autonomous Mode, gangsta:don-proxy acts as your surrogate at every gate. It reviews outputs using the same criteria a human Don would:

• Does the Dossier cover all requested areas?
• Are Grilling conclusions well-reasoned?
• Does the Contract meet completeness standards?
• Is the Execution Plan realistic?

The Don Proxy is not a rubber stamp. It can reject outputs that are incomplete or violate the Constitutional Floor.

The Dual-Veto

Phase 3 (The Sit-Down) has a special Dual-Veto gate: both the Consigliere and the Don Proxy must approve. If either rejects, the Heist halts.

There is no tie-breaker, no precedence, no override. A veto from either party is terminal for that Heist run.

Command Reference

/gangsta:heist <description>

Starts an autonomous Heist. The description can be a feature name or a natural language description of what you want built:

/gangsta:heist make a user notifications system with push notification delivery

The pipeline derives the Heist directory name from the description and runs phases 1–4 end-to-end without pausing.

• Creates the Heist directory: docs/gangsta/<feature>/
• Produces: Dossier, Grilling Conclusions, Contract, Execution Plan
• Artifacts are marked signed-by: don-proxy, status: pending-don-confirmation
• Exits after Resource Development with the Contract and Plan ready for your review

/gangsta:go [feature]

Signs the Contract and Execution Plan, then executes phases 5–6.

• If no feature is specified, reads docs/gangsta/.last-heist for the most recent autonomous Heist
• Flips artifact status from pending-don-confirmation to confirmed
• The signature is atomic: Contract and all matched Ledger entries are confirmed together
• The Hit and Laundering execute automatically after signing

/gangsta:abort <feature>

Halts the Heist and relocates all artifacts to docs/gangsta/.aborted/<feature>-<timestamp>/.

• Aborted Heists are excluded from active Ledger reads
• Clears .last-heist if it pointed to the aborted feature
• No partial artifacts are left in the active Heist directory

Constitutional Floor

Autonomous Mode is bounded by a Constitutional Floor — a set of hard rules that cannot be overridden:

• Omerta Laws from skills/omerta/SKILL.md
• Negative Constraints from docs/gangsta/constitution.md
• Binding contributor constraints from AGENTS.md

If any phase produces output that violates the Constitutional Floor, the Heist halts immediately. The violation is written to the autonomous log, and the Heist directory is left in place for your inspection.

Per-Phase Differences

The following table summarizes how Autonomous Mode differs from the default gated pipeline at each phase:

Artifact Lifecycle States

Autonomous Mode artifacts carry one of three states in their frontmatter:

pending-don-confirmation

Written by /gangsta:heist and during Laundering under /gangsta:go. Visible to active reads but flagged as unconfirmed.

confirmed

Flipped by /gangsta:go at signing: signed-by: don, confirmed: <ISO-8601 UTC>. The flip is atomic across the Contract and every matched Ledger entry.

rejected

Relocated by /gangsta:abort together with the Heist directory to docs/gangsta/.aborted/<feature>-<timestamp>/. Subsequent Ledger reads exclude entries whose heist: resolves under .aborted/.

State Files

Autonomous Mode maintains two state files:

.last-heist

A single-line pointer at docs/gangsta/.last-heist that references the most recent autonomous Heist directory. Read by /gangsta:go when invoked without a feature argument. Cleared by /gangsta:abort if it points at the aborted feature.

autonomous-log.md

A progressive per-phase decision log at docs/gangsta/<feature>/autonomous-log.md. Written incrementally during /gangsta:heist and /gangsta:go. Records:

• Timestamp
• Phase
• Actor (don-proxy, consigliere, worker)
• Verdict
• Citation (which rule or artifact informed the decision)
• Artifact pointers

Resolution Rules

Both /gangsta:go and /gangsta:abort resolve the target Heist by exact directory match only under docs/gangsta/<feature>/. No fuzzy match, no Levenshtein distance, no auto-correct, no closest-suggestion. Resolution failure is a hard error.

When to Use Autonomous Mode

Quick Reference: Gated vs. Autonomous