Adopt, adapt, skip
Agent systems · Capability curation
What you will leave with
Build a decision matrix that prevents redundant advice from displacing stronger controls.
What you will build
One traceable decision record per candidate, backed by control evidence and a revisit trigger.
- 01Extract outcomeWhat behaviour or failure does the candidate address?
- 02Map coverageExisting skill, gate, owner, and performance.
- 03Compare assuranceAdvice, detection, prevention, and recovery are not equivalent.
- 04DecideAdopt, adapt, skip, or defer with a reason.
- 05RevisitName the control or condition that would change the decision.
Build it in sequence
Inventory the current system first
List procedures, enforced gates, risk policies, recurring failures, and explicit gaps. A library cannot improve a system you have not described.
Normalize each candidate to an outcome
Ignore branding and prose quality. Write the defect prevented, judgment supported, evidence produced, and capability required in one row.
- candidate: code-simplification
outcome: prevent new duplication
current: duplication ratchet blocks increases in CI
assurance: enforced
decision: skip
- candidate: architecture-decisions
outcome: record options, decision, and consequences
current: decisions remain in chat
assurance: absent
decision: adoptCompare assurance, not wording
Rank current and candidate mechanisms: reminder, procedure, detector, required gate, or capability boundary. Never replace prevention with advice because the advice reads well.
Adapt around the house-specific control
Keep useful sequencing, failure heuristics, or templates while calling the actual merge, permission, test, or observability controls your system uses.
Record the decision and revisit trigger
Store owner, reason, evidence, version, and the condition that would reopen the choice. “Skip” is a current architecture decision, not a permanent dismissal.
Definition of done
- Every candidate maps to a concrete outcome or failure.
- Existing coverage includes its assurance level and evidence.
- No gate is downgraded to behavioural advice.
- Adapted skills call real house controls.
- Decisions have owners, reasons, and revisit triggers.
What breaks and what it means
Everything looks useful enough to adopt.
Evaluate marginal capability after current controls, not standalone quality.
The review becomes subjective preference.
Require current evidence, assurance comparison, risk, cost, and a falsifiable revisit condition.
Questions, corrections, and useful disagreement
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