passepartout/org/security-policy.org

SKILL: Policy (org-skill-policy.org)

• Architectural Intent: The Constitutional Layer
  • Contract
  • Boundaries
• Implementation
  • Package Context
  • Policy Logic (policy-compliance-check)
  • Skill Registration
• Test Suite

Architectural Intent: The Constitutional Layer

The Policy skill encodes the non-negotiable values of Passepartout. Every action the agent proposes must pass through this gate. If the action lacks justification, it is blocked — not because it's dangerous, but because it's opaque.

This is the "Radical Transparency" invariant in practice. The agent must explain why it wants to do something, not just what it wants to do. An action with :explanation "Because I said so" is rejected. An action with :explanation "The user asked me to read their TODO list and summarize it" passes.

The Policy skill is intentionally simple. It has one job: ensure every action has a meaningful explanation. Other security concerns (secret scanning, path blocking, network exfiltration) are handled by the Dispatcher. The Policy is about values, not threats.

Contract

1. (policy-compliance-check action context): if action has an :explanation string longer than 10 characters, returns the action unchanged. Otherwise, returns a :LOG rejection plist with :level :warn.

Boundaries

• Does NOT check for dangerous content — the Dispatcher does that.
• Does NOT validate explanation quality — only length and presence.
• Does NOT consider context — implementation ignores it currently.

Implementation

Package Context

(in-package :passepartout)

Policy Logic (policy-compliance-check)

;; REPL-VERIFIED: 2026-05-03T13:00:00

(defun policy-compliance-check (action context)
  "Enforces constitutional invariants on proposed actions."
  (declare (ignore context))
  (let* ((payload (proto-get action :payload))
         (explanation (proto-get payload :explanation)))
    (if (and explanation (stringp explanation) (> (length explanation) 10))
        action
        (progn
          (log-message "POLICY VIOLATION: Action lacks sufficient explanation.")
          (list :type :LOG
                :payload (list :level :warn
                              :text "Action blocked: Missing or insufficient :explanation. Please justify your reasoning."))))))

Skill Registration

(defskill :passepartout-security-policy
  :priority 500
  :trigger (lambda (ctx) (declare (ignore ctx)) t)
  :deterministic #'policy-compliance-check)

Test Suite

(eval-when (:compile-toplevel :load-toplevel :execute)
  (ql:quickload :fiveam :silent t))

(defpackage :passepartout-security-policy-tests
  (:use :cl :fiveam :passepartout)
  (:export #:policy-suite))

(in-package :passepartout-security-policy-tests)

(def-suite policy-suite :description "Verification of the Constitutional Policy Layer")
(in-suite policy-suite)

(test test-policy-passes-valid-explanation
  "Contract 1: action with sufficient explanation passes through unchanged."
  (let* ((action '(:type :REQUEST :payload (:action :read :explanation "The user asked me to read the TODO list for today.")))
         (result (policy-compliance-check action nil)))
    (is (equal action result))))

(test test-policy-rejects-short-explanation
  "Contract 1: action with explanation ≤10 characters is rejected with :LOG."
  (let* ((action '(:type :REQUEST :payload (:action :read :explanation "hi")))
         (result (policy-compliance-check action nil)))
    (is (eq :LOG (getf result :type)))
    (is (search "blocked" (getf (getf result :payload) :text) :test #'char-equal))))

(test test-policy-rejects-missing-explanation
  "Contract 1: action without :explanation is rejected."
  (let* ((action '(:type :REQUEST :payload (:action :read)))
         (result (policy-compliance-check action nil)))
    (is (eq :LOG (getf result :type)))))