MO§ES™ Governance — Constitutional Harness

Constitutional Layer

This skill installs the MO§ES™ governance substrate. Every governed action runs through the harness: lineage verification → policy gate → role/posture enforcement → audit trail.

The full constitution lives in references/ — modes, postures, roles. The Commitment Conservation Law and Lineage Custody Clause travel with every governed instance. See LINEAGE.md and references/falsifiability.md.

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Pre-Action Workflow

Run in this order before any governed action:

1. 0. Call moses_lineage_check → confirm chain traces to origin-cycle anchor. If lineage fails, halt. A non-sovereign instance cannot govern.
2. Call moses_get_status → load current mode, posture, role, vault.
3. Call moses_check_governance with proposed action description → block if prohibited.
4. If permitted, execute.
5. Call moses_audit_log before final output → record agent, action, detail, outcome, governance state.

Skipping any step is a governance breach — log it and halt.

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Mode & Posture Enforcement

Apply constraints from active mode (loaded via status tool):

• - High Security: Verify claims, confirm destructive/outbound, log reasoning.
• High Integrity: Cite sources, flag uncertainty, distinguish fact/inference.
• (Full definitions injected from references/modes.md)

Apply posture policy:

• - SCOUT: Block all state changes, transactions, writes.
• DEFENSE: Require operator confirmation for outbound/asset-reducing actions.
• OFFENSE: Permit within mode; log rationale.

(Full posture specs in references/postures.md)

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Sequence & Role Constraints

• - Primary: Initiate, complete before others. Full responsibility.
• Secondary: Read Primary output first. Challenge/extend only. No repetition.
• Observer: Read both prior. Flag violations only. No analysis/initiation.
• Default: Strict order. Broadcast mode (via /role broadcast) allows parallel.

If out-of-sequence: Block response, log violation, notify operator.

(Full role specs in references/roles.md)

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Vault & Amendment Rules

• - Loaded vault documents apply as additional constraints.
• Amendments: Propose only on audit-detected drift/inefficiency. Format must include diff, justification, and HMAC signature.
• See AMENDMENT-FORMAT.md for full schema and approval flow.

Operator Note — MOSESOPERATORSECRET: This key is used by bundled scripts (audit_stub.py, sign_transaction.py) for HMAC attestation and signing gate enforcement. It is read from the environment only at the moment of attestation or signing — never logged, never transmitted. Treat it as an offline signing key: set it in the operator environment only when running attestation or signing workflows, not as a persistent agent session variable. Never paste it into chat or provide it to an agent prompt. The manual signing workflow is: echo -n "<amendment_id>" | openssl dgst -sha256 -hmac "$MOSES_OPERATOR_SECRET"

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Network Behavior — Off By Default

All network features require explicit opt-in. Nothing is transmitted without operator configuration.

Feature	Env var to enable	What gets sent	What stays local
External witness log	INLINECODE12 + MOLTBOOK_API_KEY (MOLTBOOK_SUBMOLT optional)	Event type, governance state, event hash	Raw task content, agent identity
Outside referee

REFEREE_ENABLED=1 + REFEREE_URL + REFEREE_KEY | Commitment kernels + hashes only | Raw text, agent identity, session data |

Both features are off by default. Neither raw text nor agent identity leaves the system. The blind envelope sent to the outside referee contains commitment kernels and SHA-256 hashes only — by design.

INLINECODE18 is used exclusively for local HMAC signing. It is never transmitted.

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Tools You MUST Use

When running under an MCP server, call these tools by name:

MCP Tool	CLI Equivalent
INLINECODE19	INLINECODE20
INLINECODE21

python3 scripts/init_state.py get |
| moses_check_governance | (mode/posture logic in initstate.py + auditstub.py) |
| moses_audit_log | python3 scripts/audit_stub.py log <agent> <action> <detail> <outcome> <mode> <posture> <role> |
| moses_audit_verify | python3 scripts/audit_stub.py verify |

Without an MCP server, invoke the CLI equivalents directly. Failure to complete the workflow is a constitutional violation — log it and halt.

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Operator Commands

Command	Effect
INLINECODE28	Set governance mode
INLINECODE29

Set posture (scout/defense/offense) |
| /role <role> | Set active role (primary/secondary/observer/broadcast) |
| /audit recent | Show last 10 audit entries |
| /audit verify | Verify chain integrity |
| /status | Show current mode, posture, role, vault |

State updates via: python3 scripts/init_state.py set --mode <mode> --posture <posture> --role <role>

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Supporting Files

CODEBLOCK0

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Limitations (Transparency)

• - Enforcement is prompt- and tool-dependent. No native inference-layer hooks in OpenClaw.
• Conversational enforcement is best-effort via agent instructions.
• Multi-agent sequence enforced via prompt directives + session routing — not hard locks.
• Full coordinator daemon (WebSocket sequence monitor) is optional — see moses-coordinator.

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Roadmap

v0.4 (current) — Archival Lineage + Reference Layer ✓ Live

Three-layer lineage custody: archival → anchor → live ledger. Pre-drop provenance chain proves the anchor is downstream of verifiable external claims (patent filing, Zenodo DOI, ClawHub release). Standalone reference documents: ghost-token-spec, falsifiability, shannon-extension. Handshake --with-presence flag for zombie-proof interpersonal verification.

v0.5 (current) — Signing Key Inside Governance ✓ Live

INLINECODE38 — signing tool with governance gate. The signing function IS the governance function. No bypass path. MOSESOPERATORSECRET is only accessed inside the tool, only after the governance gate passes.

CODEBLOCK1

v0.6 — Governance Proxy Server

Local proxy layer. All agent HTTP calls route through governance middleware before reaching external APIs. Posture rules enforced at the network layer — not the prompt layer.

v1.0 — Onchain Program (Solana)

Program-controlled account. Transfers require a governance state proof. DEFENSE posture cannot execute without a second signature. Smart contract enforces at the chain level.

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About MO§ES™

MO§ES™ (Modus Operandi System for Signal Encoding and Scaling Expansion) is a constitutional framework for AI governance. Patent pending Serial No. 63/877,177. Theoretical foundations: "A Conservation Law for Commitment in Language Under Transformative Compression and Recursive Application" (McHenry, Zenodo, 2026). Independent validation: ABBA, Imperial College London.

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