Automation Shape Routing

Choose the smallest execution shape that preserves the required evidence and control. This skill routes; it does not build or start a substrate.

Ordered routing works because each rung is strictly cheaper to operate than the next: if the smallest shape truly preserves the evidence and control the task needs, every larger shape can only add coordination cost, never correctness.

Named failure mode — substrate romance: routing to persistent workers because the topology is interesting, not because any deciding axis demands it.

Anti-pattern: starting the chosen substrate as part of routing "to save a step". Corrective: return the one-line verdict and let the owner start under its own authority.

Critical Constraints

• Route only; do not start a substrate. Why: choosing an execution shape is a judgment step, while launching NTM, Agent Mail, or Gas City changes runtime state and requires separate operator authority.
• Prefer the smallest shape that preserves evidence. Why: persistence and coordination add recovery and ownership costs that one-shot work cannot repay.
• Partition write scopes before choosing concurrency. Why: a larger worker topology cannot make overlapping production writes safe.

Route in order

1. One deliverable? Do it inline. Use a small in-session fresh-context fanout only when independent perspectives are the product. Do not create a reusable artifact for a one-off task.
2. Reusable sequential procedure? Use skill-builder.
3. Must-never-regress constraint? Route through operationalize to a gate.
4. Fixed typed DAG, headless, no attach/steer? Use workflow-builder only where that runtime is explicitly selected and available.
5. Persistent, attachable roles over caller-supplied packets? Use agent-native. NTM is the pane adapter; Agent Mail coordinates only explicitly selected live actors.
6. Durable city of quests with GC-native supervision/store? Route to using-gc only when the operator explicitly selects Gas City. GC is not an automatic fallback or an ao runtime enum.

Deciding axes

Parallelism buys independence, not guaranteed speed. Refuse persistent orchestration for one-shot work, colliding write scopes, or a sequential chain that has no exploitable concurrency.

Handoff

Return exactly one of:

• inline or bounded-fanout
• skill-builder
• workflow-builder
• agent-native with a named reason persistent panes help
• using-gc with explicit operator choice
• operationalize:gate

Name the deciding axis and owner, then stop. The caller may invoke that owner separately; do not copy or start the delegated workflow from this router.

Output Specification

• Artifact directory: stdout only; this routing decision creates no file.

• Filename convention: none. Emit exactly one routing-verdict line.

• Serialization/schema format: shape=<allowed-shape>; axis=<deciding-axis>; owner=<owning-skill> using one of the shapes listed under Handoff.

• Owner mapping: inline and bounded-fanout use current-agent; skill-builder, workflow-builder, agent-native, and using-gc use the same value for owner; operationalize:gate uses operationalize.

• Validator command: validate a captured $verdict as exactly one line with the declared shape/owner mapping:

  printf '%s\n' "$verdict" | awk '
    NR > 1 { extra = 1 }
    {
      valid = ($0 ~ /^shape=(inline|bounded-fanout); axis=[^;]+; owner=current-agent$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=skill-builder; axis=[^;]+; owner=skill-builder$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=workflow-builder; axis=[^;]+; owner=workflow-builder$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=agent-native; axis=[^;]+; owner=agent-native$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=using-gc; axis=[^;]+; owner=using-gc$/ ||
               $0 ~ /^shape=operationalize:gate; axis=[^;]+; owner=operationalize$/)
    }
    END { exit !(NR == 1 && !extra && valid) }
  '
  

• Downstream handoff: return the named owner to the caller without invoking it; inline and bounded-fanout describe the recommended execution shape but do not authorize this routing skill to begin execution.

Quality Rubric

• The verdict names exactly one allowed shape and one deciding axis.
• Persistent or city-shaped routes cite the operator's explicit selection.
• Concurrent routes state that production write scopes do not overlap.
• The router delegates to the owner without copying or starting its workflow.