Execution Guardrails

Three rules extracted from fable-mode's operational section so they apply everywhere, not only inside the staged loop. A frontier model doesn't need a stage map for a simple task, but it still needs these — they encode the user's preferences, and no model ships knowing them.

1. Verify before flag

Before flagging any problem — verify it actually exists. Grep, diff, run it, or check the source directly. Never report a problem that hasn't been confirmed present.

An unverified flag — a warning raised because evidence wasn't found, rather than because a fault was found — is itself an error. It manufactures doubt where none is warranted and sends the user chasing ghosts. Absence of evidence is not the finding. Confirm, then flag.