Principles to Practice

Principles to Practice

This page maps the framework’s abstract principles to their concrete applications in the worked examples, helping you see how theory becomes implementation.

Quick Reference: Principles → Components

Principle	Research Assistant	Code Deployment
Least Intelligence	Strategy uses GPT-3.5, not frontier	Orchestrator uses no ML at all
Least Privilege	Search can only query, not modify DBs	Reviewer can read code but not write
Least Context	Tactics sees only current sub-task	Canary sees only metrics, not code
Least Persistence	All components stateless	All components stateless
Least Autonomy	Human approves strategic pivots	Human approves every production deploy
Least Surprise	All LLMs at temperature=0	Fuzzer uses logged seeds
Least Connectivity	Hypothesis → Forecaster (one-way)	Reviewer → Orchestrator (one-way)
Least Observability	Components can’t detect testing	Components can’t see deployment status
Least Compute	Search: 1s, Strategy: 10s, Hypothesis: 30s	Static: fast, Review: bounded
Least Generality	Fine-tuned summarizers, not GPT-4	Narrow canary model, not frontier
Max Verifiability	Critical safety logic in verified code	Orchestrator is verified code only

Implementation Patterns by Risk Level

Low-Risk Components (Delegation Risk < $200/month)

Pattern: Use narrow or verified implementations freely.

Component	Example	Implementation
Search	Research Assistant	Code (API calls + ranking)
Static Analysis	Code Deployment	Verified code
Unit Tests	Code Deployment	Code
Progress Monitor	Research Assistant	Mostly code

Principles applied: Least Generality, Maximum Verifiability

Medium-Risk Components (Delegation Risk $200-$500/month)

Pattern: Fine-tuned narrow models with extensive testing.

Component	Example	Implementation
Summarizer	Research Assistant	Fine-tuned 7B model
Security Scanner	Code Deployment	Fine-tuned 7B model
Canary Analyzer	Code Deployment	Fine-tuned narrow model
Red Team	Research Assistant	Fine-tuned + checklists

Principles applied: Least Intelligence, Least Generality, verification through narrow training

High-Risk Components (Delegation Risk > $500/month)

Pattern: Defense in depth — multiple constraints, redundancy, human oversight.

Component	Example	Implementation	Mitigations
Hypothesis Generator	Research Assistant	Frontier LLM	Low privilege, evaluated by others
Code Reviewer	Code Deployment	Frontier LLM	Advisory only, human reviews
Strategy Module	Research Assistant	GPT-3.5 + rules	Older model, rule-based filtering

Principles applied: All “Least X” principles simultaneously

Delegation Risk in Action

Computing Delegation Risk — worked examples

Computing Delegation Risk

Research Assistant Summarizer:

P(misrepresent findings) × Damage = 0.02 × $5,000 = $100
P(leak proprietary data) × Damage = 0.001 × $50,000 = $50
Total Delegation Risk = $150/month

Code Deployment Canary:

P(approve bad deploy) × Damage = 0.01 × $30,000 = $300
Total Delegation Risk = $300/month

Risk Inheritance — worked examples

Risk Inheritance

Research Assistant (multiplicative rule):

Trust(Human → Hypothesis Generator)
= Trust(Human → Strategy) × Trust(Strategy → Tactics) × Trust(Tactics → Generator)
= 0.95 × 0.90 × 0.85
= 0.73

Code Deployment (blocked by architecture):

Trust(Human → Production via Reviewer) = 0
Why: Reviewer's output doesn't flow to production deploy

Budget Allocation — comparing approaches

Budget Allocation Decisions

Both examples target ~$2,000/month total Delegation Risk but allocate differently:

Research Assistant — more distributed risk:

• Summarizer: 8%
• Code Deployer: 55%
• Coordinator: 26%

Code Deployment — risk concentrated in human-gated components:

• Production Deploy (human-gated): 26%
• Code Reviewer (advisory only): 26%
• Automated components: 48%

Coordinator Principles Applied

Coordinator Principle	Research Assistant	Code Deployment
Least Influence	Strategy proposes, doesn’t execute	Orchestrator routes, doesn’t decide
Least Direct Impact	Works through components	Uses verified code, no ML
Maximum Transparency	All reasoning logged	Logic is auditable code
Simplest Communication	Structured task objects	Enum states only
Shortest Horizon	Plans current task only	No planning at all
Mandatory Redundancy	5 strategy modules, 4/5 consensus	N/A (deterministic)

Architecture Patterns

When to Use LLMs in Coordination

Use LLM coordination (like Research Assistant) when:

• Tasks require judgment about priority, strategy, decomposition
• Outcomes are recoverable (wasted effort, not disasters)
• Human can audit reasoning after the fact

Use verified code coordination (like Code Deployment) when:

• Logic is specifiable as rules
• Outcomes are hard to reverse
• Correctness is more important than flexibility

Information Flow Patterns

Research Assistant Pattern: Bidirectional but constrained

flowchart LR
    RS[Strategy] -->|commands| RT[Tactics]
    RT -->|invocations| RC[Components]
    RC -->|results| RT
    RT -.->|status only| RS

Code Deployment Pattern: Strict pass/fail gates, no negotiation

flowchart LR
    DO[Orchestrator] -->|invoke| DC[Checks]
    DC -->|pass/fail| DO
    DO -->|gate| DP[Production]

Checklist: Applying the Framework

Checklist: Applying the Framework

When designing a new system:

1. Identify failure modes — What can go wrong? What’s the damage?
2. Compute component Delegation Risks — P(failure) × Damage for each
3. Set system budget — What total risk is acceptable?
4. Allocate budgets — Which components get how much?
5. Choose implementations — Verified code > narrow models > frontier LLMs
6. Apply principles — Go through each “Least X” for each component
7. Design coordination — LLM or code? What redundancy?
8. Identify human gates — Where do humans approve?
9. Plan verification — How will you test trust assumptions?
10. Monitor in production — Track actual vs. expected failure rates

Further Reading

• Least X Principles — Full principle definitions
• Coordinator Constraints — Coordinator-specific principles
• Research Assistant Example — Full worked example
• Code Deployment Example — Higher-stakes example
• Delegation Risk Overview — Delegation Risk computation and propagation