# Managed routing

Load this reference only for a requested completion or continuation that is not a report-only review or release operation and is either explicitly managed or has effective `manage.activation: auto` in status. Missing configuration preserves `explicit` activation with `local` closeout compatibility. Invalid configuration fails closed as `explicit` plus `manual` and must remain visible.

## OWNER PREFLIGHT — Core resolves the owner without execution

Use this route after Core has preserved the fixed-scope Review, release, isolated Design, and settled direct-work exceptions. Here fixed-scope Review means the explicit report-only fixed-scope change review. Under `manage.activation: explicit`, consider Manage only for an explicitly managed request. Under `manage.activation: auto`, qualify only from an observable coordination obligation; task size, file count, and elapsed effort are not substitutes.
The tiny settled-work exceptions remain direct when the concrete session task is already clear and no sufficient ready WorkOwner exists. A Manage decline for that case reports the complete small-work exclusion and performs no Manage handoff or worker delegation; it does not manufacture a Change merely to satisfy controller entry.

Treat the requested goal and independently allowed planning and product mutations as a transient authority envelope. Automatic activation grants controller selection only and never adds planning or product-mutation authority. Core resolves the smallest sufficient owner before testing Manage eligibility, without dispatching work or mutating product state.

Before focusing, dispatching, or mutating a different WorkRef, inspect dirty paths and the diff against the prior owner's declared and observed product or durable-truth paths. Overlap never changes owner implicitly: continue the same open WorkRef, explicitly reopen its archived acceptance when authorized and applicable, use an explicitly authorized integration owner, or stop for boundary resolution. Disjoint authorized work may proceed without staging or a forced commit; insufficient ownership evidence stops the transition.

Core derives one ownership `ControlOutcome`. `WorkOwner` means the selected shape-ready Change or shallow Group. When one unambiguous ready WorkOwner exists, Core proceeds to QUALIFY. Missing or non-ready ownership uses `RouteDisposition: shape` only when the current request or nearer authority independently permits in-scope RSP planning artifacts; configuration alone never does. Shape returns the ready WorkOwner to Core, which re-reads status and freshly derives ownership, route, and qualification without another authorization round. A material product or authority decision stops with `StopDisposition: ask-owner` and names its `DecisionOwner`. An invalid WorkRef, topology, dirty-path, route, scope, or authority boundary stops with `StopDisposition: reroute` rather than converting it into a product question.

A prior direct report, design, tiny, or small route is not sticky. Before later-turn mutation, rederive from the now-authorized objective and prospective work. Material expansion into cross-module implementation, multiple acceptance surfaces, repeated production-path correction, real-host validation, bounded review convergence, lifecycle delivery, or a clear ready successor requires Core to establish or reuse the smallest sufficient WorkRef and rerun owner preflight plus fresh Manage qualification before mutation. Unchanged tiny/small follow-ups remain direct; elapsed time and message count alone never trigger escalation.

Owner preflight creates no Task, Blocker, worker task, frontier, ticket, run record, or synthetic WorkRef. Manage has no pre-owner Intake and never creates, focuses, or reshapes the durable owner.

## QUALIFY — select or decline Manage

Select `rsp-manage` only for one selected ready Change or shallow Group that qualifies through at least one independent path: genuinely independent slices, interruption recovery, distinct execution and acceptance owners, real-host, provider, or hardware verification, bounded finding convergence, managed lifecycle coordination, a clear ready successor, or prospective execution that contains more than one bounded phase or authority surface. A Change with one of these coordination obligations does not also need parallelizable slices. Derive the signal before dispatch from the authorized objective and expected phases; elapsed wall-clock minutes are never qualification evidence.

A Group qualifies when it has at least two ready children, or when the continuation qualifies through prospective signals or recovery.

Multiple files, Specs, product presentation, public documentation, or verification files do not by themselves qualify Manage. Under automatic activation, a hard near-miss remains direct when it has one owner, one writer, one execution phase, one integrated check, no recovery, no independent acceptance obligation, and no ready successor. Do not manufacture a second phase, worker, or acceptance surface from file layout.

Substantial sequential work remains selected when a real multi-phase or authority obligation exists, such as implementation followed by independently owned acceptance, bounded review convergence, real-host verification, lifecycle closeout, or a ready successor. Sequential dispatch does not erase that coordination signal. Without such a signal, decline Manage and continue the ordinary Core or Discipline route. Worker-only work remains ineligible. Readiness alone does not qualify work without a requested completion or continuation, and automatic routing remains bounded by the requested goal.

Make the route observable inside the single outer `ControlOutcome`: report `selected` with the decisive qualification signal, or `declined` with the complete direct-work exclusion and exact Core or Discipline action. Selection transfers current-phase control from Core to Manage; it does not imply worker delegation. The outer mode is `solo` before or without any worker, `delegated` when one worker participates, or `coordinated` when multiple workers participate or acceptance requires a separate verifier. Manage independently derives `DispatchDisposition: none | preferred | required` after selection. If dispatch applies, retain the strategy only as nested technical evidence and report the concrete overlap or isolation evidence that makes execution sequential or parallel. Selection, decline, dispatch disposition, and strategy reasoning remain transient and create no controller state.

## HANDOFF AND RETURN — bound selected execution

Core and this reference solely own initial qualification and the `selected | declined` route result. Core hands selected Manage the goal, WorkRef, authority envelope, decisive qualification evidence, closeout ceiling, and exact return boundaries as transient control data. Manage validates the current owner, authority, baseline, observed execution location, conflicting resources, acceptance surfaces, and diff drift, then chooses the smallest safe strategy; it never repeats direct-versus-managed eligibility. Selected execution remains wholly owned by `rsp-manage`.

- Ordinary Fix, Verify, Review, or Resolve Findings receipts remain inside Manage for fresh same-goal revalidation.
- A clear in-scope ready successor under the unchanged owner topology and authority may continue inside the same managed goal.
- Owner identity, topology, requested route, behavior, acceptance, public interface, scope, mutation authority, or external-action authority changes return evidence to Core for fresh ownership and routing.
- Shape is entered only through Core when durable owner refinement is independently authorized.

The managed goal envelope and returned control objects remain transient.

## Dormant closeout fail-safe

If Manage was declined, unavailable, or unselected, every `manage.closeout` preset is dormant: ordinary Core may report readiness and the explicit next lifecycle or Git action, but configuration executes neither archive nor commit. Readiness, an earlier managed run, or project policy never substitutes for current selection and qualification. After selection, stop using this reference for execution detail; `rsp-manage` solely owns same-goal revalidation, interruption and resume, review convergence, acceptance, lifecycle closeout, commit eligibility and orchestration, and all corresponding authority stops. Exact staging, message construction, local commit execution, and post-commit observation remain owned by `rsp-commit`.