tegwick
9d42dd5abd
Founder directive: ops-warden works with, never replaces or duplicates, secrets-engine / tenant-engine / user-engine. Covering an unfilled gap is acceptable only as a tracked interim with a named intended owner. - INTENT §9 "Cover gaps, but never silently own them"; success criterion 7; tenant-engine and user-engine added to the literacy table; non-goal on permanently owning another component's lane - WP-0030 (proposed): delegation: metadata, backfill, warden route gaps, promotion gate, publish the register to owner repos - history/2026-08-11-delegation-surface-assessment.md: 2 of 24 lanes carry exec_owner; 11 proxies record no intended owner - SCOPE refreshed to 2026-08-11 (was 6 workplans behind); completeness C5 -> C4 Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
87 lines
5 KiB
Markdown
87 lines
5 KiB
Markdown
# Delegation surface assessment — 2026-08-11
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**Trigger:** founder directive — ops-warden should work with, but never replace or
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duplicate, secrets-engine, tenant-engine, user-engine and other NetKingdom
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components. Covering an unfilled gap is acceptable if the gap stays visible, gets
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filled with proper governance, and ops-warden then delegates.
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**Method:** enumerate `registry/routing/catalog.yaml` by execution mode; check
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`wiki/AccessRouting.md` and `wiki/playbooks/catalog-lane-promotion.md` for existing
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interim/delegation doctrine; compare against SCOPE/INTENT claims.
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---
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## 1. Execution surface (24 catalog entries)
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| Mode | Count | Entries |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| `warden_executes: true` — ops-warden's own authority | 1 | `ssh-cert-host-access` |
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| `exec_owner:` set — delegated, route-primary/proxy-fallback | 2 | `whynot-design-npm-publish` (secrets-engine), `ops-warden-warden-sign-token` (railiance-platform broker) |
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| `exec_capable` proxy, **no** `exec_owner` | 11 | `openbao-api-key`, `key-cape-oidc-login`, `issue-core-ingestion-api-key`, `reuse-surface-hub-write-token`, `openrouter-llm-connect`, `railiance-backup-offsite-lane`, `forgejo-admin-api-token`, `binky-company-email-imap`, `binky-qonto-api`, `rapp-qonto-keycape-client`, `agent-harness-forgejo-deploy` |
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| route-only pointer | 10 | remainder |
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**Finding.** The delegation primitive exists, is proven in production, and is used by
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**2 of 24** lanes. Eleven lanes have ops-warden as the de facto front door with no
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record of who should own it instead.
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## 2. The doctrine is not written down
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- `wiki/AccessRouting.md` — the canonical "what ops-warden answers" page — contains
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**no mention of secrets-engine** and no section on interim positions. A worker or
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agent reading it cannot tell that `warden access` proxying a workload secret is a
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stopgap rather than the design.
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- `wiki/playbooks/catalog-lane-promotion.md` gates draft→active on the lane
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*working* (zero placeholders, resolvable, tests green). It never asks whether
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ops-warden should be the one executing it.
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- The delegation intent for `whynot-design-npm-publish` lives in WP-0019 prose and
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SCOPE; the *machine-readable* expression (`exec_owner`) was a by-product, not a
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policy applied catalog-wide.
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Consequence: an absorbed need is indistinguishable from a designed one. Ownership
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drift is invisible by construction, which is exactly the failure mode the directive
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targets.
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## 3. Drafted classification of the eleven
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Not authoritative — architecture judgement belongs to the founder (WP-0030 T02).
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| Lane | Draft reading | Intended owner / blocker |
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| --- | --- | --- |
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| `key-cape-oidc-login` | **Permanent** | Login is key-cape's; the proxy is caller convenience, not custody |
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| `openbao-api-key` | **Permanent (by design)** | Generic escape hatch for any OpenBao path; a catch-all, not a lane |
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| `binky-company-email-imap` | Interim | **tenant-engine** — WP-0028 defined the tenant custody pattern; no tenant front door executes it |
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| `binky-qonto-api` | Interim | **tenant-engine** — same |
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| `rapp-qonto-keycape-client` | Interim | **tenant-engine** / key-cape — tenant workload client credential |
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| `issue-core-ingestion-api-key` | Interim | **secrets-engine** — same shape WP-0019 closed for npm publish |
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| `openrouter-llm-connect` | Interim | **secrets-engine** — high-risk provider key |
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| `reuse-surface-hub-write-token` | Interim | **secrets-engine** |
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| `railiance-backup-offsite-lane` | Interim | **secrets-engine** / railiance-platform |
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| `forgejo-admin-api-token` | Interim | **secrets-engine** |
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| `agent-harness-forgejo-deploy` | Interim | **secrets-engine** |
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**No lane names `user-engine` as owner.** It appears only as a *consumer* inside
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`coulomb-social-runtime-env` (route-only, owned by railiance-platform), whose rotation
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guidance points at the OpenBao path `user-engine/user-engine-runtime` for
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`USER_ENGINE_PROXY_SECRET`. So a user-engine runtime secret exists and is routed, but
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user-engine fronts nothing itself. Whether it should own that lane is worth confirming
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rather than assuming either way.
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## 4. Secondary finding — SCOPE drift
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`SCOPE.md` "Where we are" was dated **2026-07-01** and stated *"Active work: none
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open in ops-warden after WP-0022/0023."* Six workplans have shipped since
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(WP-0024–0026, WP-0028, WP-0029 finished; WP-0027 sits in `backlog`), adding
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`warden plan`, `warden desk`, `warden taint`, `warden rotate-guide`, experiential
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memory, the tenant custody pattern, and the build-phase organization posture axis.
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SCOPE understated the repo by roughly six weeks of work. Corrected in this pass.
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## 5. Recommendation
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WARDEN-WP-0030 — record `delegation:` (mode / intended_owner / blocked_on) on every
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entry, expose `warden route gaps`, gate promotion on the ownership question, and
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publish the resulting interim register to the owner repos. Absence of a delegation
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block should read as *interim, owner unknown* — a question — never as settled
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ownership.
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The measure of success is not fewer proxies. It is that no proxy exists without an
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answer to *"who should own this front door, and what is missing?"*
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