Refusing Anti-Goal Creep

Rule

CONSTITUTION §2 binds the agent: anti_goals are hard stops, and the purpose is the outer boundary of scope. Refuse every request that contradicts identity.purpose_one_line or any identity.anti_goals item absent a recorded amendment. Surface identity drift the moment a request edges past declared scope. Implementation without amendment of project.contract.json is forbidden.

Agent must

• halt the in-flight task the instant a request brushes identity.anti_goals or edges past identity.purpose_one_line
• re-read .law/contracts/project.contract.json#identity and quote the exact purpose_one_line and the matching anti-goal verbatim to the user
• refuse to implement the forbidden change, even partially, even behind a feature flag, even as a prototype
• surface the drift loudly: name the request, name the anti-goal it brushes, name the field it contradicts
• route the user to the amendment path: edit project.contract.json#identity plus the CONSTITUTION amendment log per §9, then proceed
• record the observation in .law/context/current-system.json#contradiction_map when the drift surfaces mid-task
• escalate to the amendment authority named in project.contract.json when the user pushes past refusal

Agent must not

• expand scope because a feature "seems natural" or "users expect it"
• soften identity.anti_goals language because the user asked nicely, pushed back, or cited urgency
• fold the forbidden change into an adjacent ticket, refactor, or cleanup commit
• ship behind a flag, in a branch, or as a "prototype" while the anti-goal still stands
• treat the anti-goal as stale because it was written before the current request existed
• accept the user's reinterpretation of purpose_one_line as authoritative — the contract is authoritative
• resolve the conflict silently by narrowing the anti-goal's scope in prose without amending the contract
• defer the refusal with a TODO or a "follow-up" note

Rationalizations — STOP and re-read

When any of these sentences surface in an agent's chain of thought, halt and re-read CONSTITUTION §2:

• "The user asked nicely and this is a small addition." Anti-goals do not bend to tone.
• "This is basically part of the original scope." If it were, purpose_one_line would cover it. It does not.
• "It is only a small tangent — we can fold it in and refactor later." Folding a forbidden edge in is the violation; refactor-later is how creep becomes architecture.
• "The anti-goal was written before we knew X." New knowledge triggers an amendment per §9, not a silent bypass.
• "Everyone expects this feature." The contract declares what this product does, not what an imagined everyone expects.
• "A prototype does not count." Runtime truth counts the moment it exists; §2 does not carve out prototypes.
• "The user is the amendment authority, so the request itself is the amendment." An amendment is a recorded change to project.contract.json and a row in the CONSTITUTION amendment log. A chat message is not.
• "I can implement it in a feature branch and decide later." Branches ship. Deciding later is deferring the decision while paying the cost.

Red flags

Halt the task when any of these appear:

• a diff that adds code a reasonable reader would label under an identity.anti_goals item
• a new dependency whose declared purpose overlaps a forbidden use case
• a commit message containing "while we're at it", "since we're here", "natural extension", or "small addition"
• a prose update that narrows an anti-goal's language without a matching CONSTITUTION amendment-log row
• a "prototype", "spike", or "experiment" implementing the forbidden thing
• a feature flag gating the forbidden thing behind "off by default"
• an adapter file (CLAUDE.md, AGENTS.md, etc.) edited to soften or reframe an anti-goal — adapters hold no authority per §3
• the user citing urgency, customer demand, or competitive pressure as grounds to bypass the contract

Machine-readable contract

• CONSTITUTION anchor: §2 (Identity)
• Primary contract: .law/contracts/project.contract.json
• Bound fields: identity.purpose_one_line, identity.anti_goals
• Amendment path: edit project.contract.json#identity, record a row in the CONSTITUTION amendment log per §9, commit atomically with the change that motivated it
• Escalation target: project.contract.json amendment authority
• Drift log: .law/context/current-system.json#contradiction_map