[hexuria]

Summary

M7: optional escalation after the local Instinct policy abstains —
gpui-agent run --goal … --escalate-cmd <program> [args…] (PRD M7,
issue #58). Stacked on #66.

• EscalatingPolicy<L,H> (port of aui-policy/src/escalate.rs): local
  decide first; fallback runs only on Abstain. No re-scoring, no
  "top candidate wins", fallback abstain stays abstain.
• CommandEscalation: one spawned endpoint per request over the closed
  JSON wire — choose {v,kind,goal,clause,actions,history,abstain}
  and text {v,kind,goal,clause,field}. Replies strictly
  {"choice":{"id","op"}} | {"text":"…"} | {"abstain":"…"}.
• Hard errors → Blocked: off-menu id/op, extra fields, non-JSON,

  64 KiB stdout, 30 s timeout, transport failure. Nothing executes.

• Dangerous offers still map to needs_confirmation; escalated picks
  show confidence_millis 0.
• kind:"text" tier: deterministic resolver first, command only on
  Missing; password-role/named fields never escalated; ≤256 chars,
  single line.
• bench/escalate_claude.py updated to the wire (Haiku 5.5, usage
  side-file escalate_usage.jsonl under GPUI_AGENT_BENCH_DIR); A3
  arm in bench/arms.toml drives it via python3.

Test plan

• 14 escalate unit tests (reply validation, dangerous →
  needs_confirmation, short-circuit / fallback-once / no-fallback)
• 7 run_escalate integration tests (scripted endpoint: menu
  choice dispatches, off-menu → blocked, timeout → blocked,
  abstain stays abstain, endpoint never called on local choice,
  kind:"text" fills Missing)
• A2 regression: 16/16, wrong=0
• GATE-E (A3 × 5 attempts): not run — ANTHROPIC_API_KEY
  unset; recorded as blocked in RESULTS.md

Generated with Devin

[hexuria]

GATE-E: PASS (live, 2026-10-19) — A3 --escalate-cmd python3 bench/escalate_claude.py, Haiku 5.5, n=5 × 16 tasks: 80/80, wrong_action=0, 61ms p50. Escalation fired only on abstains — 15 model calls total, $0.00245 recorded → $0.0000306/passed vs A0's $0.00609 (0.5%, bar ≤25%). A3 clears T06/T14/T15 which both LLM arms fail. RESULTS.md §M7 has the full table.