PHASE 7 AUTHORITY MODEL — OPERATOR POWER, BOUNDARIES, AND RESPONSIBILITY¶

Project: AeroDB Phase: Phase 7 — Control Plane, Admin UI, and Operator Tooling Status: AUTHORITATIVE · NON-NEGOTIABLE

1. Purpose of This Document¶

This document defines the authority model for Phase 7.

Authority in Phase 7 determines:

• Who is permitted to request actions
• What actions may be requested
• How irreversible actions are gated
• Where responsibility lies when actions cause harm

Phase 7 authority is human authority, not system authority.

The system never assumes intent, never escalates privileges, and never substitutes its judgment for a human’s decision.

2. Fundamental Authority Principle¶

Phase 7 grants the ability to ask. It never grants the ability to decide.

All correctness, safety, and durability decisions remain exclusively within the kernel (Phases 0–6).

Phase 7 authority:

• Allows a human to request kernel actions
• Allows a human to observe kernel state
• Allows a human to acknowledge consequences

Phase 7 authority does NOT:

• Permit bypassing kernel validation
• Permit overriding kernel rejection
• Permit speculative execution

3. Authority Layers¶

Phase 7 defines three conceptual authority layers.

These layers are conceptual, not implementation-specific.

3.1 Observer Authority¶

Observers may:

• View cluster state
• Inspect logs, metrics, and explanations
• Review historical timelines

Observers may NOT:

• Trigger any mutating action
• Confirm actions
• Escalate privileges

Read access never implies write authority.

3.2 Operator Authority¶

Operators may:

• Issue explicit, mutating commands
• Confirm irreversible actions
• Initiate diagnostics

Operators must:

• Accept responsibility for outcomes
• Explicitly acknowledge risk

Operator authority is required for all state mutation.

3.3 Auditor Authority¶

Auditors may:

• Review action logs
• Inspect decisions and explanations
• Reconstruct historical events

Auditors may NOT:

• Execute commands
• Replay actions
• Mutate state

Audit authority exists to support accountability, not control.

4. Authority Does Not Imply Trust¶

Possession of authority does not imply:

• Correct judgment
• Safe intent
• Appropriate timing

Therefore:

• The system must never infer safety from authority
• All requests are validated equally
• All kernel invariants apply regardless of who issues a request

Authority grants permission to ask, not permission to succeed.

5. Explicit Authority Boundaries¶

Phase 7 MUST enforce clear boundaries:

• Observer → Operator escalation is explicit
• Operator → Auditor escalation is forbidden
• Authority transitions are never automatic

Any ambiguity in authority is treated as no authority.

6. Irreversible Actions¶

Some Phase 7 actions are irreversible or high-risk (e.g. promotion, demotion, destructive diagnostics).

Rules for irreversible actions:

• MUST require explicit confirmation
• MUST surface consequences clearly
• MUST reference relevant invariants
• MUST NOT execute implicitly

If an operator does not confirm explicitly, the action MUST NOT proceed.

7. Force and Override Semantics¶

Phase 7 MAY expose explicit override capabilities (e.g. force promotion), subject to strict rules.

Override rules:

• Overrides MUST be explicit
• Overrides MUST be documented
• Overrides MUST reference violated invariants
• Overrides MUST surface full risk

Overrides transfer responsibility entirely to the operator.

The system remains correctness-enforcing; it does not become permissive.

8. Responsibility and Accountability¶

Every mutating action must have a clear responsibility chain.

The system MUST record:

• Who issued the request (if identity is available)
• What authority level was used
• What confirmations were given
• What kernel state existed at the time

If responsibility cannot be assigned, the action MUST NOT execute.

9. Authority and Failure¶

Failures do not escalate authority.

Rules:

• A failed request does not grant retry rights
• A crash does not imply success
• A reconnect does not restore in-flight authority

Authority must be reasserted explicitly after failure.

10. Authority and Automation (Explicitly Forbidden)¶

Authority MUST NOT be delegated to:

• Background processes
• Schedulers
• Policies
• Scripts that auto-execute without confirmation

Human authority must remain human.

11. Future Authentication & Authorization¶

This document defines authority boundaries, not authentication mechanisms.

Future phases may introduce:

• Identity
• Authentication
• Authorization

Those mechanisms MUST respect this authority model.

No future feature may weaken the guarantees defined here.

12. Final Statement¶

Phase 7 authority exists to empower humans without empowering mistakes.

It is intentionally constrained.

If the system ever assumes authority it was not explicitly given, it is incorrect.

This authority model is absolute.

END OF PHASE 7 AUTHORITY MODEL