Smart-Kickoff Mutation Gates & Deferred Runbooks are the post-launch half of the 📝Smart-Kickoff load contract: each class of state-changing operation names the exact source an agent must read before acting, and each lifecycle phase names the procedure that loads only when that phase begins.
A mutation gate is a row in a trigger table. The predicate is an operation class the agent is about to perform; the required source is the specific document, or section of a document, that governs it; the bucket is required_before_mutation. The worked example carries six: local git mutation (commit, merge, branch delete) points at the git protocol's forbidden operations and lifecycle section; remote git mutation (open a pull request, merge through the API, delete a remote branch) points at the merge and retry sections; writes to shared memory point at a fresh read of the target document plus the policy that owns that write class; edits to tests, hooks, or guards point at the enforcement policy; anything touching credential resolution or tracing points at the credential notes; production actions point at the deploy lifecycle. The sources are the adopter's own — the pattern is that a gate names one exact source, not that it names these.
Deferred runbooks use the same table with a different bucket. Opening a pull request, shipping a release, cleaning up a worktree, and closing out a session are ordered procedures that would be bloat in every launch prompt and are exactly right the moment the phase starts. Two properties make the table more than a reminder: the launcher renders the gates into the session as gates rather than as reading, and a source whose only route into the manifest is semantic retrieval can never satisfy one — discovery is not authorization. The 📝Smart-Kickoff — Agent Buildbook has an adopting agent build this table from the answer to a single interview question: which rule would hurt most if an agent broke it.
{ "trigger": "git_mutation", "source": "Git protocol: Forbidden Operations, matching lifecycle section", "bucket": "required_before_mutation" }
{ "trigger": "pr_open", "source": "PR-open hygiene procedure", "bucket": "deferred_runbook" }