Pattern Proposal: Externalized Rule Context

Summary

Governance rules live in a JSON context file loaded at runtime, making agent behavior configurable.

Candidate Pattern

• ID: rule-context-externalization
• Classification: intelligence
• Maturity: strategic_direction
• Type: emerging

Observed Signals

No specific signals listed.

Evidence

Supporting Evidence

• cas-knowledge/runtime/rule-context.json - Rule context file
• docs/architecture/cas-governance-lifecycle-flow.md - Docs describe governance lifecycle

Scope Assessment

• Evidence Strength: medium
• Confidence: medium
• Applies to: ideas-to-life-cas

Rationale

• Intent: Separate governance rule definitions from agent logic.
• Context: ComplianceEngine and other governance components read rules from runtime context.
• Force: Rules need to change faster than code
• Force: Different projects may have different governance requirements

Traceability

Artifact source: proposed-patterns