# Explicit inline exception when no native subagents exist

Apply this policy only to `init`, `new`, `update`, DRAFT `validate`, `finalize`, or `go` when **no native subagent mechanism is available** to the initiating conversation. Try any available attached subagent dispatch/completion transport before treating native subagents as unavailable; a missing named tool alone is not proof. A failed reviewer, gate, implementation, structural check, CI check, or unavailable particular model is **not** an excuse to switch inline. Do not silently fall back after a child is queued, stopped, incomplete, or fails; return its actual blocker.

Before substantive inline work, the **calling agent** must ask `ask_user_question` and receive explicit confirmation for the inline exception. State that this is a last resort with reduced isolation/model-tier guarantees and that review in the same thread is **not independent**. Offer a choice to proceed inline or stop; a declined, abandoned, or unavailable questionnaire (including in a background child or noninteractive eval) means **stop and report the blocker to the initiating thread**. Do not infer consent from the request, a prior unrelated approval, or silence. Record the confirmation and its scope with the authoring-cycle evidence; one confirmation can cover the named operation and its required steps, but a later user-initiated update requires confirmation again. Noninteractive evals still require an actual completed child; they cannot opt into inline fallback.

After confirmation, perform the **same selected workflow** in the caller, with the same paths, collision checks, statuses, role boundaries, snapshots, Git evidence, findings, repairs, one-round budget, gates, CI and commit/push authorization. For `init`, create only an incomplete DRAFT scaffold. For `new` and `update`, make requested draft edits without automatic validation; `update` must preserve completed work and earlier evidence. For DRAFT `validate`, first run a working read-only structural check and repair structural defects as in the normal workflow. Capture every plan path/hash and Git HEAD, porcelain status, diff and untracked inventory before the review and again immediately afterward. Perform **one distinct read-only inline Plan Reviewer checklist pass** on the whole draft per authoring cycle, checking structure and parity, phase prerequisites/constraints, tree placement, ordered steps and temporally runnable Verify commands, intent/design consistency, risks and Worker executability. Keep provenance as **INLINE reviewer (same thread, not independent)**, the actual verdict and line-specific BLOCKING/CONSIDER/NOTE findings (or explicit empty list), reviewed and post-review snapshots, Git evidence, and concrete dispositions in the validation response/memory only; never write validation proof into PLAN.md or another durable plan artifact. Never fabricate a child ID, completed subagent, independent verdict or independent PASS. Reuse a valid completed round from the cycle rather than automatically reviewing a second time. Reviewer pass is read-only: if the pass mutates files or evidence changes unexplained, invalidate it. Repair actionable findings outside that pass, preserve an original BLOCKING verdict, reread and rerun **only** the structural check; do not call repaired content reviewer-approved. Failed structural checks, unresolved BLOCKING findings or unexplained changes block readiness.

For `finalize`, after **passing inline structural verification and inline review/disposition validation under the recorded approved exception**, the caller may mark DRAFT → READY and reread it. This exception does not waive any failed check. For DRAFT `go`, mark only DRAFT → READY and reread it before execution; do not run validation, structural readiness checks, or a reviewer. Already-READY `go` skips readiness validation too. If no native subagents remain for execution, the confirmed caller performs Orchestrator and bounded Worker steps inline with serialized uncertain/overlapping scopes and the same phase gates, no-commit/commit/push policy and exact-SHA CI requirements. Derive `.diffpi/plan/<plan-id>/logs.jsonl` from the selected PLAN.md parent directory; confirm that `realpath(<root>/.diffpi/plan/<plan-id>)` equals `realpath(dirname(<absolute PLAN.md>))`, so the file is its sibling through the managed `.diffpi` link. Call `diffpi_log` with `cwd` set to the canonical execution root and `filename` set to this relative path at each required milestone. Do not write new events under a `logs/` directory, even if old plan text names one. Do not claim inline work was delegated or independently reviewed. If the user declines or cannot be asked, return the blocker rather than modifying the plan or executing work.