Mechanism: Negative Space — Say What Not to Touch
Negative space is the practice of naming what must stay unchanged — files, behaviors, APIs, and styles — so the…
Mechanism: Rollback — Undo Before the Agent Goes Too Far
Rollback is having a known-good restore point — commit, stash, branch tip, or snapshot — before agent edits land, so…
Mechanism: Checkpoint — Review Before You Merge
A checkpoint is a mandatory pause — human or automated — between agent output and merge, where you review the…
Mechanism: Context Budget — Spend Tokens on What Matters
A context budget is a deliberate limit on what you load into the model's window — files, history, rules, and…
Mechanism: Scope Fence — One Job Per Session
A scope fence is a deliberate boundary around one session so it handles a single job — one goal, one…