Proof
Decapod distinguishes an agent's completion claim from proof-backed completion. A claim reports what the agent believes. Proof-backed completion establishes that the required gates ran against identified repository state, produced evidence, and permitted the governed publication transition.
Verification Gates
A "Gate" is a discrete check that must pass for a task to be considered valid. Common gates include:
- Compliance Gates: Checked by
decapod validate(see CLI Reference). - Quality Gates: Unit tests, linting, and type-checking.
- Security Gates: Secret scanning and dependency audits.
- Human Gates: Explicit approval for high-risk changes.
The Evidence Ledger
When an agent completes validated work, Decapod binds validation receipts and evidence references to governed repository state (see Artifacts Reference). Agent testimony alone does not satisfy that boundary.
This creates epistemic custody: a reviewable chain from accepted intent and assumptions to the checks that ran and the repository state they measured.
Failure and recovery
A failed gate means the proof requirement is unsatisfied; it does not mean the task is complete. If the result provides a supported recovery path, the agent should:
- inspect the validation result;
- identify the violated invariant;
- perform the sanctioned remediation;
- update the relevant artifact;
- re-run validation; and
- continue toward publication.
Decapod does not assume every failure is recoverable. Decision gates, contradictions, unsupported remediation, and unavailable proof remain blockers for human review.
Determinism
Decapod strives for deterministic proof. A proof is valid only if it can be re-run or re-verified by another agent or a human at a later date. This ensures that the repository's integrity is not dependent on a single agent's transient state.