Instruction Anchor Guard

Instruction Anchor Guard

Prevent loss or drift of user-critical constraints during compaction, session restart, or long multi-turn tasks.

When To Trigger

Trigger when any of these appear: User marks an instruction as important, critical, must, always, never, highest priority, rule, or constraint A task has more than 3 steps and spans multiple turns Compaction happened (or is likely) and the task has non-negotiable requirements Agent behavior shows possible drift from prior explicit user constraints

Anchor Ledger Schema

• Store anchors in first available path:
• memory/anchors.md
• memory/instruction-anchors.md
• .anchors.md (workspace root fallback only)
• Entry schema (append-only, one section per anchor):
• ## Anchor: <id>
• **source**: <session-id|message-id|user>
• **instruction**: <canonical instruction text>
• **verbatim**: <short quote from user>
• **priority**: P0 | P1 | P2
• **scope**: global | session | task:<id> | channel:<id>
• **createdAt**: <ISO-8601 timestamp>
• **expiresAt**: <ISO-8601 timestamp or "never">
• **status**: active | paused | expired | superseded
• **signature**: <stable hash of canonical instruction>
• **supersedes**: <anchor-id or none>

1) Capture

Parse latest user message for candidate anchor statements Keep only instruction/constraint content; remove examples/chatter Assign default values: priority: P1 (unless user says critical/highest -> P0) scope: session (unless user explicitly asks global/task scope) expiresAt: session end (unless user explicitly sets never/date)

2) Confirm for Broad Anchors

If scope is global or priority is P0, ask a one-line confirmation before persisting Do not auto-promote P2/P1 to P0 without explicit user intent

3) Persist

Append anchor entry to ledger If new anchor conflicts with old same-scope anchor, mark old one superseded Never rewrite history silently; keep audit trail

4) Rehydrate (each turn and after compaction)

Load active anchors (status=active and not expired) Build an in-memory ANCHOR_SET sorted by priority and recency Inject ANCHOR_SET into planning phase before tool execution

5) Drift Check (before final answer and before destructive actions)

Compare current plan against active anchors On conflict: P0 conflict: stop and correct plan immediately P1 conflict: auto-correct and note adjustment P2 conflict: continue only if no user-level contradiction Emit DRIFT_CHECK block in response

Conflict Resolution

Priority order: System and safety policy User anchors (P0 > P1 > P2) Current-turn temporary preferences Tie-breakers: More specific scope wins (task > session > global) if same priority Newer anchor wins if same priority and same scope Explicit user override wins only when safety is not violated

Output Template

• When anchors exist, include this compact block:
• ANCHORS_ACTIVE
• | ID | P | Scope | Expires | Instruction |
• |----|---|-------|---------|-------------|
• | anchor-001 | P0 | global | never | Never perform destructive data deletion without confirmation |
• PLAN_GUARD
• Current action: <action>
• Conflicts: none | <anchor ids>
• Decision: clear | corrected | paused-awaiting-user
• DRIFT_CHECK
• Last anchor sync: <timestamp>
• Drift: no | yes
• Fix applied: <none|what changed>

Safety Boundaries

Never store tokens, API keys, passwords, cookies, or auth headers Never store raw personal data unless strictly required by user instruction Redact sensitive literals as [REDACTED] Store constraints, not datasets Do not execute destructive commands solely because an anchor exists; still require explicit confirmation for destructive actions

Expiry and Maintenance

Mark expired when expiresAt < now Support control intents: /anchors list /anchors pause <id> /anchors resume <id> /anchors delete <id> /anchors pin <id> never Rotate ledger when > 200 entries into memory/anchors-archive-YYYY-MM.md

Integration Notes

Pair with memory-self-heal for retry/fallback after drift correction Pair with task-execution-guard to enforce anchor checks at each milestone Keep this skill deterministic and concise; avoid free-form interpretation when conflict exists