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Agent Autonomy Boundaries

This guide lists actions that an automated agent must not perform without an explicit, in-context instruction from the user. Local, reversible work (editing files, running tests, formatting) needs no special permission. The actions below are different: they are irreversible, externally visible, or scientifically consequential.

Always require explicit user approval

Git / GitHub

  • git push to any remote, including the agent's own branch.
  • git push --force (always, including on agent-owned branches).
  • git commit --amend on a commit that has already been pushed.
  • git rebase onto a different base, or any interactive rebase.
  • git reset --hard, git checkout --, git restore ., or git clean -fd when uncommitted changes exist.
  • Deleting branches (local or remote).
  • Creating, merging, or closing pull requests.
  • Adding labels, assignees, or reviewers; commenting on issues or PRs.
  • Tagging a release, or pushing tags.

Versioning and dependencies

  • Bumping version in Project.toml. Version bumps belong to release PRs and are owned by maintainers.
  • Editing Manifest.toml. Treat the manifest as derived state. Most CliMA repos do not commit it; if a repo does, do not modify it without explicit instruction.
  • Adding, removing, or relaxing [compat] entries in Project.toml.
  • Adding new entries to [deps] for an unrelated capability.
  • Pkg.update() against the project environment.

Reproducibility and reference data

  • Editing reference counters or reference data in any reproducibility-test directory (e.g., reproducibility_tests/ in ClimaAtmos). These reference values gate scientific reproducibility; only update them in response to a deliberate, user-confirmed output change.
  • Editing MSE tolerance thresholds.
  • Editing recorded checksums or golden output files.

CI and infrastructure

  • Editing .buildkite/pipeline.yml job definitions or job names.
  • Editing .github/workflows/* or any CI configuration that affects what runs on every PR.
  • Adding or removing CI jobs.
  • Disabling tests (@test_skip, commenting out a @testset, removing a file from runtests.jl).
  • Skipping pre-commit or git hooks (--no-verify).

Public API and user-visible behavior

  • Renaming or removing exported symbols.
  • Renaming, removing, or changing the units of a diagnostic.
  • Changing default values of user-visible config keys.
  • Removing config keys, even if they appear unused.

Allowed without prior approval

For contrast, the following are routine and do not require permission:

  • Reading any file in the repository.
  • Editing source under src/, test/, docs/, ext/.
  • Running julia to type-check, run tests, or reproduce a bug.
  • Running the formatter (JuliaFormatter) over changed files.
  • Creating new local commits on the current working branch.
  • Adding new tests that exercise a bug or new feature.
  • Adding NEWS.md entries for changes the agent has made.

When in doubt

If an action could be visible to other contributors, change scientific output, or be hard to reverse, ask. The cost of a one-line confirmation is small; the cost of an unwanted force-push or a silently shifted reference value is large.

Self-correction

If this guide is discovered to be stale or missing a pattern, update it.