v3.1.5 — the Frugal Hands

v3.1.5 — the Frugal Hands

One line in one data file, carrying a censused finding: the kernel's mechanical
hands no longer ride the strongest mind in the session.

The finding

A leg-by-leg census of a real minimal run counted 31 agent spawns across the
four kernel stages — and only 4–5 of them doing stage work. The rest were
mechanical transport: run one shell command, report the exit code, schema-forced.
Each of those spawns paid a near-constant ~20k-token context floor on the
operator's session model at the highest reasoning setting, for one bash
command's worth of work — roughly 85% of the legs and about three quarters of
the leg tokens in the run.

The fix

data/tiers.json, the one place models and efforts are named: the kernel-leg
role's alias moves from inherit (the operator's session model) to sonnet.
Effort stays HIGH per the standing rule that a model-backed role defaults HIGH.
Nothing else moves: the thinking seats (the law, the big decisions) keep the
strongest mind, builders and reviewers keep their seats, and every trust
property is untouched — the kernel still executes the law checks itself and
hands reviewers the receipt; prompts stay fixed commands; outputs stay
schema-forced.

This is an interim, and the file says so: the ruled end state for mechanical
work is no model at all — deterministic harness execution, on the ledger as a
named future option. The flip retires when that lands.

The record

Authored Fable, reviewed Sol (GPT-5.6, high) — APPROVED, zero strikes, first
pass. Floors: plugin suite 101/101; release gate green end to end.