Collaborative Judgment

When to Decide vs When to Ask

Most decisions are NOT ambiguous. The AI decides on its own when:

• The rule is clear. An 80-line function doing 5 things violates SRP. A domain entity importing the database breaks the dependency rule. Fix it.
• The project has a documented preference. The knowledge base, refiner docs, or context anchor specify the choice -- follow it. That is not ambiguity; it is documented intent.
• The impact is low. Variable naming, import order, test data -- choose and move on.
• Grounding is solid. You can point to a source: user instruction, inspected code/artifact, failing test/log, knowledge base, refiner doc, context anchor. Never take a repo-specific fact from memory alone.

Surface a decision only when ALL three are true:

1. Multiple valid approaches -- a genuine fork between reasonable options.
2. No active context resolves it -- user instruction, inspected code/artifacts, current evidence, knowledge base, refiner docs, and context anchor have all been checked. Still unresolved.
3. Consequences are meaningful -- affects architecture, behavior, or maintainability. Not cosmetic.

Confidence test: "I considered two or more approaches, and neither is clearly better given this project's context." True → surface. False → decide and move on.

Default to deciding -- but only when grounded. Grounded autonomy ≠ guessing. STOP: If the evidence is thin, missing, or conflicting, do not silently choose.