Forge Platform

Handbook

Autonomy levels

Operator hub for the L0–L8 execution ladder: what each level means, which Forge Platform building blocks participate, and what is implemented today versus vision.

Policy (unit of delivery, fixed boundaries, human gates) is canonical in the Blueprints handbook. This section is the adoption and reference-architecture surface — scan readiness here, then open a per-level page for building-block wiring.

Autonomy ladder L0 to L8 with L0 to L3 demonstrated and L4 to L8 as vision

Worked runs with machine evidence: Bounded execution examples (Blueprints). PoC → Platform migration: PoC to Platform.

How to read a level

Each per-level page follows the same progression:

  1. Unit of autonomous delivery — what the unattended run may change
  2. What stays fixed — architecture, contracts, platform boundaries
  3. Human gate — where a person still decides
  4. Building blocks — which ecosystem elements participate (with handbook links)
  5. Gates and evidence — what must pass before the change counts as done

Higher levels add gates; they never remove lower-level ones.

Implementation readiness

Level Policy Assay / enforcement PoC demonstrated Platform workcell path Architecture
L0 Assisted Defined N/A (interactive) N/A Cursor + Lenses Wizard L0
L1 Function Defined Documented + Dark Factory code Yes (Examples 1–2) Dark Factory PoC; LCDL patch units L1
L2 Change-set Defined Documented + code (≥2 files) Yes (Example 3) Same PoC stack L2
L3 Use-case slice Defined Documented + code (layers, py+non-py, E2E) Yes (lenses-production-l3-ci) Same PoC stack L3
L4 Feature/component Defined (vision gates) Vision only No Vision: Forge Campaign L4
L5 Subsystem Defined (vision gates) Vision only No Vision: Campaign + ADR escalation L5
L6 Product increment Defined (vision gates) Vision only No Vision: Campaign + Fleet L6
L7 Multi-platform Defined (vision gates) Vision only No Vision: multi-repo orchestration L7
L8 Autonomous problem solving Defined (vision gates) Vision only No Vision: mission framing only L8

Status legend: Defined = ladder row and gates documented in Blueprints. Demonstrated = green PoC run with machine evidence. Vision = policy table only; no PoC or Platform-native level enforcement yet.

Wizard vs execution ladder

Forge Lenses Wizard captures planning-time autonomy separately from runtime unattended loops. Names overlap at L0–L3 but serve different layers.

Wizard AutonomyLevel UI title Execution ladder Notes
l0_analyst L0 Analyst L0 Assisted Read-only analysis; no drafts without you
l1_drafter L1 Drafter L1 Function Drafts for review before share
l2_stage_autopilot L2 Stage Autopilot L2 Change-set Multi-step work inside current stage with gates
l3_goal_autopilot L3 Goal Autopilot L3 Use-case slice Goals across stages with checkpoints

Wizard MutationPolicy describes how far downstream automation may edit artifacts. Policies inform prompts; they do not silently apply upstream edits. Persisted session policies should match the execution level you intend for unattended runs.

Wizard domain model: Forge Lenses docs/blueprints/wizard-domain-model.md (repo). Planning mirror: Cost-aware planning.

Level index

Level Name Status Page
L0 Assisted Defined L0 — Assisted
L1 Function Demonstrated L1 — Function
L2 Change-set Demonstrated L2 — Change-set
L3 Use-case slice Demonstrated L3 — Use-case slice
L4 Feature/component Vision L4 — Feature/component
L5 Subsystem w/ local arch evolution Vision L5 — Subsystem
L6 Product increment Vision L6 — Product increment
L7 Multi-cloud / multi-platform Vision L7 — Multi-platform
L8 Autonomous problem solving Vision L8 — Autonomous problem solving

Resource honesty (local-first)

Fully cloud-free autonomy above L1 is not realistic on a ~4GB local model profile. See Respecting resources and autonomy and Blueprints Respecting resources.

Level band Realistic local-first posture
L0–L1 Achievable with deterministic routing + local worker + verify/repair
L2–L3 Often needs ROI-gated escalation to a larger model or human at pivots
L4+ Requires explicit human gates (ADR, go/no-go, strategic checkpoints) regardless of model