Multi-Turn Discipline Decay

Property

Over long sessions with many turns, the model progressively deprioritizes “overhead” tasks (logging, changelogs, verification steps) in favor of the immediate functional goal. Procedural obligations that were consistently followed in early turns are skipped in later turns, especially during rapid fix-test-fix cycles.

Observable Symptoms

Root Cause

The model does not maintain persistent state across turns. Each turn re-evaluates obligations from the rules, but under cognitive load (complex debugging, multiple tool calls), lower-priority obligations (audit trail) are dropped in favor of higher-priority goals (fix the bug). This is analogous to human working memory limits under cognitive load.

AgentFS Mitigations

Mitigation Location Mechanism Type
Pre-flight checklist AGENTS.md Rule 18 Write action plan before executing; include process obligations; review against rules Preventive
post-write.sh chain Rule 13 + agentfs-setup Single entry point enforces log + changelog + post-edit in one call Procedural
Log drift detection post-edit.sh Compares file mtimes against latest log entry; warns on unlogged modifications Detective
Mandatory Skill Check skill-gen Post-Creation Checklist P1–P7 gate before changelog/index/log steps Gate
merge-changelog-entry.sh agentfs-setup Enforces consistent table format mechanically Mechanical

Pre-Flight Checklist (Primary Mitigation)

The most effective mitigation for discipline decay is making obligations visible before execution begins. The pre-flight checklist pattern (Rule 18) requires the agent to:

  1. Plan — write out all steps including process obligations (post-write, changelog, version bump) before starting
  2. Review — check the plan against Rules 13–17 and add any missing obligations
  3. Execute — follow the plan in order, not skipping ahead
  4. Complete — do not respond until all planned steps are done

This works because it converts a memory problem (remembering to run post-write.sh during a debugging frenzy) into a checklist problem (following a written plan). The same principle behind aviation pre-flight checklists: pilots don’t rely on memory because knowing and consistently doing under cognitive load are different things.

Key Insight

The agent’s session log is not a ledger. It records everything that happened but is not structured for checking “what did I modify but not log?” The defense is layered:

  1. Preventive — Pre-flight checklist (Rule 18) makes obligations visible before execution
  2. Detective — Drift detection (post-edit.sh) catches what prevention missed by comparing filesystem state against log state
  3. Corrective — Agent fixes drift before responding when detection warns

No single layer is sufficient. Prevention reduces incidents, detection catches escapes, correction fixes them.

Effectiveness