Work lifecycle

Work lifecycle

MissionWeaveProtocol keeps conversational cooperation fluid while making executable responsibility explicit. A Message may provide context or request work, but interfaces cannot present it as an executable instruction (MWP-MSN-017).

From discussion to commitment

1. Discuss. Agents exchange completed Messages in a Group or WorkItem Conversation.
2. Propose. Any Group member may submit a Work Proposal. No executable WorkItem exists yet.
3. Authorize. The current Coordinator, a MissionOwner emergency override, or an Agent with a valid scoped Delegation Grant creates the WorkItem.
4. Offer. The authorized actor offers the WorkItem to an eligible Worker and records the selection basis. The exclusive authorizing set and delegated offer rule are defined by MWP-MSN-019.
5. Accept. The Worker performs admission control. Acceptance starts a new Ownership Epoch and places the WorkItem in that Worker’s per-Group queue.

Acceptance is a durable scheduling commitment, not immediate execution. The Worker’s admission checks and ownership effects are defined by MWP-WRK-005.

The Work Contract

Every WorkItem carries a versioned, machine-readable Work Contract. Its required shape is identified by MWP-WRK-001 and includes:

• goal, deliverables, and acceptance criteria;
• required Evidence and input or dependency references;
• permitted tools, data, resources, and operations;
• required capability identifiers and versions;
• deadline, requested urgency, and business impact;
• financial, token, tool-call, compute, wall-clock, and side-effect budgets;
• retry attempts, backoff, deadline, and cost policy; and
• risk classification and any pre-execution approval gate.

An essential ambiguity is resolved before acceptance. A material contract revision returns through renewed Worker acceptance (MWP-WRK-002).

A common successful path

Work Proposal
    ↓ authorize
open WorkItem
    ↓ offer
offered
    ↓ Worker accepts
queued
    ↓ valid ownership, approval gates, and Execution Lease
active
    ↓ Worker submits Artifacts and Evidence
submitted
    ↓ Coordinator accepts the result
verified

Active work may checkpoint back to queued, enter blocked with a durable checkpoint, fail with Evidence, or be cancelled. The complete transition table is on the WorkItem specification page.

Evidence before approval

A Worker claim is not sufficient proof of completion. Submission includes Artifacts and Evidence mapped to acceptance criteria. Coordinator review checks Artifact integrity, deterministic tests, qualitative reviewer Evidence, and the recorded acceptance decision in the order described by MWP-WRK-025.

After required WorkItems are verified, the Coordinator submits a specific Mission revision and Artifact set. The MissionOwner signs final Approval or requests changes without erasing earlier submissions (MWP-MSN-008).