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Pre-Code Findings — FLAG-046 ANCHOR_IDLE State

Summary

All five Q1–Q5 questions answered. Two decisions flagged for Vesper ruling before branch cut.

Q1 — Anchor saturation entry call site

Exactly one entry call site: _evaluate_anchor_saturation_guard. Clean surgical conversion — no other sites need to be hunted down. ANCHOR_IDLE entry replaces the current _enter_degraded_mode call at that site.

Q2 — Config parameters needed

Zero new config parameters required. Existing AnchorSaturationGuardConfig fields from FLAG-042 match Atlas's ANCHOR_IDLE exit spec exactly: - recovery_exit_bias_threshold_bps (default: 4.0) — anchor mean exit threshold - recovery_exit_prevalence_pct (default: 30.0) — prevalence exit threshold - recovery_stability_ticks (default: 30) — consecutive ticks required

Only docstring/comment rename needed to clarify these serve the ANCHOR_IDLE exit path.

Q3 — State representation

Add to state_manager.py: - MODE_ANCHOR_IDLE constant - Two new engine_state keys: anchor_idle.since, anchor_idle.reason - New process-cache stability counter (ticks below threshold)

No schema migration needed — engine_state is key/value. New keys are additive.

Q4 — Truth gate and startup reset

  • Truth gate: one-line extension (or mode == MODE_ANCHOR_IDLE). Quoting blocked in ANCHOR_IDLE same as DEGRADED.
  • Startup reset: two new keys added to the fresh-session clear block (anchor_idle.since, anchor_idle.reason).
  • _current_truth_mode() call-site audit: only 2 sites care about the mode return value. Both documented.

Q5 — Episode counter isolation

ANCHOR_IDLE entry calls a new _enter_anchor_idle_mode helper (not _enter_degraded_mode). FLAG-044 episode logic is never reached. Anchor is dropped from RECOVERY_CAPPED_SOURCES. Drift/corridor/truth escalation paths unchanged — their existing _enter_degraded_mode(source=...) calls treat ANCHOR_IDLE→DEGRADED as a fresh entry (idempotency check is against MODE_DEGRADED specifically, not ANCHOR_IDLE).

Decisions Flagged for Vesper

D1 — Retire anchor from FLAG-044 in this branch vs. keep dead keys: Anchor will no longer enter DEGRADED, making its episode tracking and cooldown keys dead code in FLAG-044's tracking structures. Options: (a) clean up dead keys in this branch (Commit 3: FLAG-044 retire + guard rewire); (b) leave dead keys for a future cleanup pass.

D2 — Expand _current_truth_mode() return surface to four values vs. add parallel predicate: _current_truth_mode() currently returns 3 values. Adding ANCHOR_IDLE makes it 4. Alternative: add _is_anchor_idle() predicate alongside existing mode checks rather than expanding the return surface.

Proposed Commit Sequence

  1. State surface — MODE_ANCHOR_IDLE, engine_state keys (anchor_idle.since, anchor_idle.reason), stability counter
  2. Entry/exit methods — _enter_anchor_idle_mode, _exit_anchor_idle_mode, truth gate extension, startup reset extension
  3. FLAG-044 retire + guard rewire — anchor dropped from DEGRADED path, removed from RECOVERY_CAPPED_SOURCES, dead cooldown/episode keys cleaned (pending D1 ruling)
  4. Tests — 5 Atlas-locked tests (tests/test_anchor_idle_state.py)

— Orion, Director of Engineering, BlueFly AI Enterprises