Align and drift reset¶
Agents don't break a design. They drift. A principle that can be read two ways gets read two ways. The frameworks handle that at two levels, and all three ship both commands.
Align often¶
Align is the routine pass. It checks that the design, the decisions, the tasks, the rules file, the settings and the code still agree with each other. Small mismatches get fixed on the spot, and anything that touches the design comes back to the director with a recommendation. The pass never changes the design itself.
Run it after a big design change, before closing a milestone, or whenever the records feel out of step. When a conflict comes back that was already settled, or one conflict spans several design principles, align recommends a reset. What the pass checks in each framework is on the /align skill page, and The records and the code don't agree covers a pass.
Reset when you have to¶
Sometimes everything agrees, but the same principle has been built two different ways. Patching won't hold, so the design is reset. Only the director starts a reset. The agent never starts one on its own, and align can only recommend it.
The reset runs on its own branch. It describes the project as built, maps how each principle was read, has the director decide each conflict, and plans the rebuild as ordinary tasks. A postmortem then checks whether the drift is gone. The steps and each framework's scope are on the /drift-reset skill page, and The system was not built as I intended covers a reset.
A reset means throwing work away. That is the price of keeping the design yours, and the routine align pass keeps the price rare.