Implements the Meta-Cognition Preflight Guard (M0 / MCTL) per
fox's directive at ~/Downloads/meta-cognition_for_hermes(1).txt
(2026-05-03).
aborist/qa/metacognition.py:
- QuestionState dataclass (frozen, JSON-serializable via to_dict)
- preflight_question() pure function: classifies a question
deterministically into a QuestionState before generation
- 4 new detectors:
detect_temporal_sensitivity() — current/latest/today/CEO/etc.
detect_contradiction() — lexical pairs (unmarried+spouse,
always+never, alive+dead, etc.)
detect_false_premise() — presupposition patterns:
when did X stop/become Y,
why did X cause Y,
how did X become Y
detect_out_of_corpus() — my-uploaded-X / file-I-sent shapes
- Reuses #000008 quantifier classifier (no duplication)
- Composes 8 LogicalStatus values:
well_formed, under_specified, false_premise_suspected,
contradictory_question, out_of_corpus_risk, stale_risk,
reference_frame_ambiguous, broad_quantifier_unbounded
- Three preflight results: PREFLIGHT_OK / _PARTIAL / _BLOCKED
- Per-detector enable switches in policy:
metacognition_enabled (master kill)
metacognition_temporal_check
metacognition_contradiction_check
metacognition_false_premise_check
metacognition_out_of_corpus_check
metacognition_block_on_contradiction (default False — label
only by default; opt-in
to hard-block)
- preflight_policy_hash for governance binding (Phase 3)
- PREFLIGHT_VERSION = "metacognition-v0.1"
Hard rule (D1): no LLM in this hard path. Pure regex + lexical
matching. Model-assisted preflight, if added later, labels itself
SOFT_PREFLIGHT_HINT (not implemented in this phase).
42 new tests cover the seven test cases from source doc §14
(false-premise, contradictory, broad-quantifier, reference-frame,
time-sensitive, out-of-corpus, model-cutoff) plus per-detector
unit tests, gating (master kill, per-detector disable,
block-on-contradiction opt-in), determinism (question_hash
stable, policy_hash bumps on flip), and serialization.
Ticket #000010 opened with status `open · in progress
(zero-shot 2026-05-03)`. TICKETS.md index updated; Next ID bumped
to 000011.
Phases 2-4 still queued (wire into query/runner, policy fields +
governance, audit-line labels + bench fields).
962 tests passing (42 new); 36 skipped.
russell@unturf.com
55efb04a58