Mode Selection

House procedure for choosing a dispatch mode before authoring the packet. The mode is a separate operator decision from the work itself, and the wrong mode silently changes the wall, the verification contract, and the gates a lane runs under. Verify every claim here against the current scripts — do not trust this doc over the code.

Name the mode and get approval — it is its own consent

• chrono/CLAUDE.md Dispatch step 1 requires opening the chosen file under shared/modes/, stating which mode the work will run under, and waiting for the operator to agree. Hard Rule 1 forbids a mode starting without explicit consent.
• Approving the work is not approving the mode. A convenience wrapper's silent default sent most of a campaign's lanes under a mode nobody chose — without telling the operator. Say the mode word out loud; never infer it from "yes, go".

Both dispatch paths preserve an explicit choice

• Generated packets use scripts/send-task.sh ... --mode project|bounty. The wrapper rejects an omitted or invalid value, writes the exact choice into frontmatter, and never supplies a default.
• Prepared packets carry mode: project|bounty in frontmatter and dispatch with bin/send-task.sh <packet-file>, which carries the packet's own mode into the compiled contract (MODE_VALUE -> "mode").
• The wrapper survives because it still assembles standard frontmatter, resolves lanes and review metadata, and routes through the hardened dispatcher. Retire it only if those conveniences move elsewhere; do not retain or reintroduce a mode default as its reason to exist.

Verify the mode that LANDED, never the one you intended

• The dispatch context carries the landed mode as a real field. Read it from the exact attempt you dispatched, never from a glob — attempt ids are UUIDs, so glob order is not chronological and head -1 can hand you a previous attempt's mode after a retry:

  python3 -c 'import json,sys; a=json.load(open(sys.argv[1]))["authority"]; \
    p=a.get("mode_profile"); m=(a.get("memory_context") or {}).get("mode"); \
    print(p if p==m else f"MISMATCH profile={p} memory={m}")' <context_path>
  

  mode_profile and memory_context.mode must agree; if they disagree, stop — do not pick one.
• A wrapper --dry-run echoes Packet mode: <mode> and derives that mode's contract. It proves the generated packet's choice but not a landed attempt; a green prepared-packet dry-run likewise does not replace the exact-attempt check.
• If the landed mode differs from what the operator approved, stop and say so before the lane works.

The mode changes the contract, not just the wall

• Walls come from timeout_budget_for_mode() in dispatch_context_builder.py: a flat 2700s for project, 3600s for bounty. Scope to the emitted number; do not infer it from a ratio.
• verification_contract.py sets a different contract per mode. project requires project_tests/recipient_contract and mandatory recall+record. bounty swaps in scope_gate/no_self_inflicted/poc_reproduction, an exact target allowlist, forbids submission-attempted, and makes recall OPTIONAL (a cold lane cannot recall without inheriting other runs' conclusions).
• project and bounty both carry a plan_review_policy with anti_affinity: author_family — an independent-family plan check is part of the contract. That is the controller's plan review and is separate from the deliverable's own review_model; a project packet with review_model: none still launches.