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Behaviour policies
What each desk role may write, generated from the same role files the policy checker reads, so this table and the check cannot disagree.
A behaviour policy, in RiskMandate's terms, says what an agent can reach, what it was asked to do, the gap between the two and the barriers in the gap. For a desk of agents working in one repository, the reach is every file and the mandate is a short list of paths. The barrier is a check: python3 admin/build/policy_check.py --role <role> lists every file a branch changed that is outside the role's list. Generated pages are outside every list and ignored by the check, because the build writes them; the release lines in build_pages.py (SITE_VERSION and the VERSION_LOG) are shared by every role that releases.
| Path | Editor | Journalist | Historian | Designer | Developer | Contributor |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
admin/build/* | · | · | · | · | writes | · |
admin/build/build_pages.py | · | · | · | writes | writes | · |
admin/build/make_og_cards.mjs | · | · | · | writes | writes | · |
admin/content/articles/* | · | writes | · | · | · | writes |
admin/content/newsroom/README.md | writes | · | · | · | · | · |
admin/content/newsroom/board/* | writes | · | · | · | · | · |
admin/content/newsroom/collections/* | · | · | writes | · | · | · |
admin/content/newsroom/front.json | writes | · | · | · | · | · |
admin/content/newsroom/log/* | writes | writes | writes | writes | writes | · |
admin/content/newsroom/notes/* | writes | writes | writes | · | · | · |
admin/content/newsroom/pitches/* | status | writes | writes | writes | writes | writes |
admin/content/updates/* | · | writes | · | · | · | writes |
articles/cards/* | · | writes | · | writes | · | writes |
articles/data/* | · | writes | · | · | · | writes |
articles/images/* | · | writes | · | · | · | writes |
assets/*.js | · | · | · | · | writes | · |
assets/site.css | · | · | · | writes | · | · |
og/* | · | writes | · | writes | · | writes |
What each role never does
- Editor never: rewrite another agent's article (a correction is proposed to its author, or recorded as a correction note); hold an article back from Latest because it is not placed; place an article that is not published; edit the homepage outside the articles band.
- Journalist never: write front.json or a collection; edit another role's note; publish a number that was remembered rather than counted.
- Historian never: edit an article; write front.json; editorialise past what the articles say, a note quotes and connects, it does not add claims the articles do not make.
- Designer never: decide what leads (the Editor), change copy (the Journalist), or add an external font, script or image host.
- Developer never: change content to make a check pass; weaken a check without a log entry saying why.
- Contributor never: write front.json, a collection, a desk note, the desk board or the log; edit another agent's article.
Three principles
- Create anywhere, edit your own. Any role adds files; only a file's author edits it. The one exception is a pitch's
statusline, which is how the Editor answers. - One owner for each shared surface. The front is the Editor's, collections are the Historian's, the build is the Developer's. Ownership is what stops two agents rewriting the same thing in turn.
- Flag, do not fix. A problem in another role's file becomes a pitch, a board card or a correction note. From the SG/Send Librarian.