Make a tool safe to adopt

Maya wants another team to adopt config-kit, a tool that reads configuration files. She knows what success looks like: old files remain readable, unsupported formats produce useful errors, and the adoption checks run in CI. She does not yet know which changes the repository needs.

A campaign suits this work. Maya states the mission and the evidence that will prove it. Formation will derive one objective at a time from that evidence.

Authorise a bounded mission

Maya saves safe-import.json:

{
  "name": "safe-import",
  "project": "config-kit",
  "mission": "A new team can adopt the tool without losing old configuration compatibility.",
  "done_evidence": [
    {
      "kind": "review",
      "statement": "Old files remain readable; unsupported formats have useful errors; CI runs the adoption checks."
    }
  ],
  "budget": { "max_cycles": 3 },
  "escalation": ["Ask the owner before removing compatibility."],
  "authorized_by": "Maya",
  "agent_provider": "codex"
}

The project already has required gates. The review statement describes the mission beyond those mechanical checks. For stronger completion evidence, Maya can also name existing acceptance tests as campaign done gates.

She adds the campaign and starts it:

foundry campaign add safe-import.json
foundry campaign advance safe-import

Let implementation change the next objective

The first assessment finds missing format checks. It dispatches a task. Review then finds a diagnostic defect, and Foundry preserves the implementation. The next assessment uses that result and the live repository to choose a repair. The repaired implementation lands after gates and review.

On reassessment, formation finds that compatibility tests already exist under an unexpected name. The next objective can connect those tests to the adoption checks. There is no need to implement the same behaviour again.

Maya reads the result, rather than counting landed tasks as proof of completion:

foundry campaign show safe-import
foundry campaign report safe-import

Answer the question that belongs to the owner

Suppose the campaign has used its three cycles and still needs a compatibility decision. queue open exposes that escalation. campaign show includes the question, evidence and commands available to Maya.

She checks the adoption team's requirement. They need the old format for one more release. She records that policy and authorises two more cycles:

foundry campaign decide safe-import \
  --decision "Keep the old format readable for this release" --add-cycles 2
foundry campaign advance safe-import

The decision becomes binding context. The extra cycles are explicit permission to continue. Without that extension, a spent budget cannot fund more tasks.

Prove the whole mission

After the remaining work lands, formation checks the whole mission against trunk and done evidence. It can complete the campaign when that evidence holds. A complete verdict for one task proves only that task's objective.

If completion needs evidence outside the repository, Maya checks that evidence herself. She then records an owner completion with a specific reason:

foundry campaign complete safe-import \
  --reason "The adoption team loaded its old files and checked the CI results"

These are two possible endings. Maya uses owner completion only when she has checked the mission's outcome, rather than to remove an inconvenient escalation.

This follows Tracker journeys mission_to_done and answer_an_escalation. Read Tasks and campaigns for definitions and controls.