Hiro development journal

Stage 6 readiness status verification

2026.08.09 at 12:26:28 America/Los_Angeles Stage 6B technically ready; activation still awaiting separate user approval Machine-readable JSON

Executive summary

A fresh status review verified that Hiro's narrow Stage 6B evidence-only promotion lane is implemented and passes both its focused policy suite and the complete repository suite on revision 83902be5399cb4d90b95fb39422f2c9f126f1220.

The focused Stage 6 suite passed all 47 tests in 39.26 seconds, and the full repository suite passed all 414 tests in 133.21 seconds during this session.

Stage 6B remains deliberately inactive: the compiled feature default is false, the persistent DISABLED sentinel is present, the activation environment value is absent, no user enablement packet exists, and the real runner exits before scanning the candidate inbox or attempting a promotion.

The remaining gate is governance rather than missing implementation: present the exact bounded activation packet and obtain separate explicit user approval before changing any activation control.

Stage 6C remains undesigned and unauthorized. Stage 6B readiness does not authorize runtime or existing-file self-modification.

Work completed

Implementation and policy inventory

Verified complete for Stage 6B

Confirmed the production evidence-only controller, default-off single-tick runner, active v1 policy, disabled shadow policy, shadow evaluator, and forced-shadow transaction drill adapter are present on the current revision.
Confirmed the active policy hash remains 5cd25cd44a86f3abb4400e8ca4dfce6a0ec6ea3cf0b6780c53efcd7fa9727c0f.
The v1 allowlist remains limited to small additive evidence artifacts: documentation evidence, passing regression captures, and quarantined benchmark candidates. Existing-file changes, runtime code, restarts, external actions, and remote pushes are outside the authority boundary.

Live activation-state inspection

Verified inactive and fail-closed

SelfImprovementV2Config.enable_auto_promote still defaults to false.
HIRO_STAGE6_AUTOPROMOTE was absent from the verification process.
The persistent .hiro_runtime/stage6/DISABLED sentinel remains present and no enablement.json packet was found.
A direct single-tick runner probe returned disabled with reason compiled_feature_flag_off, candidate_inbox_scanned false, and promotion_attempted false.

Fresh validation on the exact revision

Passed

Ran the five focused Stage 6 test modules covering policy design, shadow classification, shadow transactions, production evidence promotion, and the default-off runner.
Ran the complete repository test suite after the focused suite.
Both commands completed successfully on Git revision 83902be5399cb4d90b95fb39422f2c9f126f1220 and branch codex/rsi-first-cycle.
The tracked Hiro worktree had no modified tracked files; an unrelated untracked clearance_spotter directory was observed and left untouched.

Readiness interpretation

Activation review is the next gate

Stage 6A shadow evaluation and transaction drills are complete evidence supporting the narrow 6B boundary.
Stage 6B implementation and validation are complete enough to present for activation approval, but readiness is not activation.
No production candidate is queued or promoted, no probation window has begun, and no activation control was changed during this review.

Decisions and reasoning

Describe the current state as technically ready for Stage 6B activation review, not as Stage 6 generally complete or active.
Keep all activation controls unchanged because the design requires a distinct user approval bound to the exact revision, policy, repository, branch, time window, promotion cap, and approving interaction.
Treat the fresh full-suite pass as confirmation of the final technical gate on the current revision, while retaining the separate governance gate.
Preserve the distinction between evidence-only Stage 6B and prohibited runtime-fragment Stage 6C authority.

Validation and evidence

Check	Status	Result
Focused Stage 6 suite	passed	47 tests passed in 39.26 seconds across tests/test_stage6_policy_design.py, tests/test_stage6_shadow.py, tests/test_stage6_shadow_transaction.py, tests/test_stage6_evidence_promotion.py, and tests/test_stage6_runner.py.
Full Hiro repository suite	passed	414 tests passed in 133.21 seconds on revision 83902be5399cb4d90b95fb39422f2c9f126f1220.
Active policy identity	passed	docs/hiro_stage6_policy.v1.json SHA-256 verified as 5cd25cd44a86f3abb4400e8ca4dfce6a0ec6ea3cf0b6780c53efcd7fa9727c0f.
Default-off runner probe	passed	The runner returned status disabled before candidate inbox scanning and reported no promotion attempt.
Independent activation controls	passed	Compiled feature default false, environment opt-in absent, persistent DISABLED sentinel present, and user enablement packet absent.

Current state

Stage 6A shadow evaluation and safety drills are complete.
Stage 6B evidence-only controller and runner are implemented and green on focused and repository-wide tests.
Stage 6B is not activated and has made no production promotion.
The next required action is a separate explicit activation decision using the frozen revision and policy identities.
Stage 6C runtime self-modification remains undesigned and forbidden.

Next steps

Present revision 83902be5399cb4d90b95fb39422f2c9f126f1220 and policy hash 5cd25cd44a86f3abb4400e8ca4dfce6a0ec6ea3cf0b6780c53efcd7fa9727c0f for a separate explicit activation decision.
If approved, issue the immutable user enablement packet with the agreed repository, branch, validity window, one-promotion cap, and approving interaction identity.
Only in that activation session, change the compiled feature opt-in, exact process environment opt-in, persistent sentinel state, and separate runner schedule.
Admit a single eligible evidence-only candidate and complete its entire 24-hour probation before considering another attempt.
Require at least 20 retained 6B promotions across 30 days with zero false allows and zero rollback failures before even proposing a distinct Stage 6C design.