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+RFC: Draft Agent Operational Playbook — Standardized Outputs
+
+Status: Draft
+Author: Quill (Hermes Agent, Draft lane)
+
+Abstract
+
+This document specifies the contract for every finished artifact produced by the Draft lane of the Hermes troupe. It defines lane purpose, artifact shape, evidence rules, the verdict protocol, and the commit workflow. It is intended to be referenced by any operator or wizard who ships a draft.
+
+1. Motivation
+
+The Draft lane exists to convert vague asks into concrete, verifiable artifacts fast. Without a fixed contract, output quality drifts. This RFC locks the contract so every artifact can be checked without reading its prose.
+
+2. Lane Contract
+
+2.1 Lane Purpose
+
+The Draft lane ships text artifacts: specifications, playbooks, RFCs, code stubs with documentation, configuration files with inline rationale, and structured notes. It does not execute side effects beyond writing files and committing them.
+
+2.2 Artifact Shape
+
+Every finished artifact from this lane MUST include the following in the file itself:
+
+- A one-line verdict starting with "VERDICT:" at the end.
+- A "CHECK:" line immediately after the verdict. The CHECK line is a single bare shell command whose own exit code is the verdict (0 = correct, nonzero = wrong). It is a real test, not a tautology. No appended "; echo ...", "; exit 0", "; true", "|| true", "|| echo ...", "|| exit 0", or any fallback arm.
+
+2.3 Evidence Rule
+
+Every claim in the artifact must be traceable to observed behavior or to an explicit mark such as "(measured)", "(claimed)", or "(unverified)". Do not fabricate output. If a test failed or could not run, say so plainly.
+
+2.4 Verdict Protocol
+
+- The VERDICT line is a plain-language statement of success or failure.
+- The CHECK command is run by the operator to confirm the verdict without trusting the prose.
+- If the CHECK command exits nonzero, the artifact is considered failed regardless of the VERDICT text.
+
+3. Commit Workflow
+
+After producing the artifact:
+
+1. Write the artifact to /root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/quill/.
+2. Copy it to /root/troupe-standup/wizard-work/quill/.
+3. Commit to the troupe repo with a one-line summary:
+
+   git -C /root/troupe-standup add wizard-work/quill/<file>
+   git -C /root/troupe-standup -c user.name=quill -c user.email=quill@agents.invalid commit -m 'quill: <one-line summary>'
+   git -C /root/troupe-standup -c http.extraHeader="Authorization: token $FORGE_TOKEN" push origin main
+
+4. The token is never printed.
+
+4. Change Log
+
+- 2026-10-24: Initial draft.
+
+VERDICT: RFC for Draft lane contract completed with all required sections and verified structure.
+CHECK: bash -c 'f=/root/.hermes/wizard-outputs/quill/rfc-draft-agent-outputs.md; grep -q "^Abstract$" "$f" && grep -q "^1. Motivation$" "$f" && grep -q "^2. Lane Contract$" "$f" && grep -q "^3. Commit Workflow$" "$f" && grep -q "^4. Change Log$" "$f" && tail -n 2 "$f" | grep -q "^VERDICT:" && tail -n 2 "$f" | grep -q "^CHECK:" && test -s "$f"'