📖About

The Initiative Author currently operates as a single thin model call with only raw intent text, causing it to reject legitimate small admin tasks and produce shallow plans that miss Carol operating constraints. Rebuild it as a Claude Code session that loads the cookbook, relevant SST registry rows, and parent initiative context (if referenced) at session start, while upgrading to a stronger reasoning model. This will enable the Author to produce higher-quality initiatives that respect constraints, distinguish legitimate small tasks from vague intents, and reduce the bounce rate on real intents.

⚖️Decisions

• Follow-on to parent INI 1000229 (orion)
• Scope inherited verbatim from parent INI 1000229 per CAROL-INI-361. (elrond.initiative_author)
• Validator round 2 still flagged 4 items — operator review needed (CAROL-INI-509). (elrond.initiative_validator)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> planned | event=dispatch_retract | No longer in the top-3 dispatch window (CAROL-INI-1972). (spb-01)
• [status-router] planned -> executing | event=dispatcher_transition | dispatcher state change (ds-s1)
• [status-router] executing -> reviewing | event=review_inferred | review row present (el-review-inferer)
• [status-router] reviewing -> blocked | event=stuck_10min_no_activity | Elrond safety net: initiative has had no activity for 10+ minutes. Blocking under the parallel safety mechanism. (el-watchdog)
• Elrond blocked initiative under the CAROL-INI-2162 dead-Albus protocol. Albus was supposed to wake for step 0 (cause=albus_no_show) but did not respond. Cause: albus_no_show. Reason: Elrond safety net: initiative stranded 10+ min. Albus wake failed or produced no useful result. (el-s1)
• [status-router] blocked -> reviewing | event=operator_reopen | CAROL-INI-2291 (Ninad direct order): phantom block by the stuck-10min watchdog/albus_no_show while work was intentionally held by the breaker or Albus was busy on the serialized RSI lane. Operator revert to pre-block state. (orion)
• [status-router] reviewing -> executing | event=reviewer_rework | reviewer reopened for rework (ir-s1)
• [status-router] executing -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> executing | event=operator_put | PUT /api/initiatives (operator)
• [status-router] executing -> dispatched | event=dispatch | dispatcher queued (ds-s1)
• [status-router] dispatched -> blocked | event=stuck_10min_no_activity | Elrond safety net: initiative has had no activity for 10+ minutes. Blocking under the parallel safety mechanism. (el-watchdog)
• Elrond blocked initiative under the CAROL-INI-2162 dead-Albus protocol. Albus was supposed to wake for step 0 (cause=albus_no_show) but did not respond. Cause: albus_no_show. Reason: Elrond safety net: initiative stranded 10+ min. Albus wake failed or produced no useful result. (el-s1)
• Orion remediated: Albus RSI group diagnosis (via INI 999900430): [procedural, confidence high] Albus executor did not wake to execute step 0 of the initiative (albus_no_show), as evidenced by the Elrond safety net decision and the prior RSI diagnosis for the same cause group. The initiative remained idle for over 10 minutes, triggering the parallel safety mechanism. No actual work was attempted; the single execution history entry shows 'Idle close — no activity in window.' (orion)
• Orion remediated: Albus RSI group diagnosis (via INI 999900395): [procedural, confidence high] The initiative was filed as bypass mode but never received a bypass_start activation: the executor Albus never claimed step 0 (albus_no_show), leaving the initiative idle in 'reviewing' status until Elrond's safety net blocked it after 10+ minutes. Examination of the initiatives DB shows no dispatch_queue entry for this initiative, and /tmp/carol_claude_concurrency.log shows no lock acquisitions for Albus around the relevant time, confirming the procedural failure was a missing trigger rather than a work or (orion)
• [status-router] blocked -> closed | event=operator_put | PUT /api/initiatives (operator)
• [rsi-group-cure] Cured by the group diagnosis on INI 999900395 (shared cause stuck_10min_no_activity); retriggered as INI 999900637. Root cause: [procedural, confidence high] The initiative was filed as bypass mode but never received a bypass_start activation: the executor Albus never claimed step 0 (albus_no_show), leaving the initiative idle in 'reviewing' status until Elrond's safety net blocked it after 10+ minutes. Examination of the initiatives DB shows no dispatch_queue entry for this initiative, and /tmp/carol_claude_concurrency.lo (elrond.rsi_loop)

✅Success criteria

• Authored initiatives include plan steps that respect Carol operating constraints (no-local-Carol rule, bypass scope limits, design alignment) (must_have)
• Follow-on initiatives explicitly reference parent initiative ID and describe the outstanding scope or closure note from parent (must_have)
• Bounce rate on real, properly-formed intents drops below 10% (must_have)
• Author successfully authors both small legitimate admin tasks (under 40 hours) and large complex initiatives (over 100 hours) without false negatives (must_have)
• Thin-intent bounce guard distinguishes between vague requests and legitimate requests that happen to be narrow in scope (must_have)
• Cookbook updated with new Initiative Author workflow and context-loading behavior (nice_to_have)
• Sample initiatives authored by new Author meet the quality bar across plan steps, owner assignments, and budget estimates (nice_to_have)