Motif registries
The manual keeps only the small vocabulary needed to operate the current system. Larger reusable vocabularies live in machine-readable registries so useful names are not lost merely to keep prose light.
Authority boundary
These are documentation and memory registries.
They are canonical for naming reusable motifs in this manual, but they are not runtime authorization.
- Live governed operator powers remain in Control Tower
operator_contract_v2. - Live Office work kinds remain the typed work emitted by Office v2.
- A motif may be useful even when no current runtime object has that exact name.
- A runtime contract always wins if a registry motif conflicts with current governed state.
Primary work kinds
Office v2 has five canonical work facets:
DECIDE— Principal judgment is structurally required.UNBLOCK— missing context, identity, or preparation prevents safe progress.VERIFY— bounded evidence gathering or diagnosis is required.EXECUTE— work is ready for bounded action.MAINTAIN— bounded upkeep is explicitly expressed.
The full registry also preserves descriptive motifs such as research, synthesize, outreach, publish, repair, reconcile, and triage.
Repository registry: docs/registries/work-motifs.yaml.
Primary operator motifs
Common operator motifs worth remembering:
RunSmokeRunLiveBoundedContentValidationGateMinimalReproExtractionRegressionGuardrailAddADRLiteCaptureIntakeSessionCondenseStakeholderMeetingPrepBriefBeforeSendCRMSprintEvidenceManifestWrite
These names are reusable patterns, not permission grants. Before execution, the current operator_contract_v2 and execution packet determine what is actually allowed.
Repository registry: docs/registries/operator-motifs.yaml.
Adding a motif
Add a motif when the name saves repeated explanation across fronts or agents.
Do not add a motif merely because one task happened once. Prefer ordinary language until a pattern recurs.
A good motif has:
- a stable name;
- one-sentence intent;
- a family;
- expected evidence;
- an explicit relationship to live runtime semantics when one exists.