Add skip-if-decision gate to AWF engine invocations

.github/aw/instructions.md

@@ -19,6 +19,50 @@ These rules override conflicting upstream guidance.
 - Before inventing workflow/shared-component/tool/safe-output patterns, inspect
   `https://github.com/gm3dmo/the-power` through GitHub APIs or `gh` for prior art.
 
+## Skipping Unnecessary Agent Invocations
+
+Use experimental top-level `skip-if-decision` when skipping requires semantic evidence from
+task or progress files. Prefer deterministic trigger/activation checks when
+ordinary conditions suffice; decisions cannot override retry limits, budgets,
+deadlines, or nonrecoverable errors.
+
+Lists accept at most 64 questions. Nonempty lists emit a compile-time experimental warning. Configuration and
+behavior may change without deprecation.
+
+```yaml
+skip-if-decision:
+  - Is there no actionable work remaining in @context/task.md?
+  - Has @reports/progress.md established that further execution is unnecessary?
+```
+
+Write each question as a skip condition, not a request to execute the agent.
+Populate referenced files through checkout, restored memory, or pre-agent setup
+before the first invocation, and keep them current for subsequent invocations.
+Runtime `@file` references resolve relative to `engine.cwd` or the workspace;
+only workspace and `/tmp/gh-aw/agent` files are eligible. Sensitive paths,
+symlinks, hardlinks, oversized context, and Actions expressions are unsupported.
+Each read is bounded by the remaining import budget, including JSON escaping
+and evidence metadata. Per-question context has a 512 KiB ceiling; the complete
+serialized Decisions request is limited to 400,000 UTF-8 bytes (approximately
+100,000 tokens at four bytes per token, not tokenizer-exact). A question that
+does not fit abstains, while smaller remaining questions may still run.
+
+The shared harness evaluates questions inside AWF before every otherwise
+eligible initial, retry, resume, or continuation invocation, including
+declarative engines. Any `deny` skips; otherwise `allow` or all `unknown`
+preserves the existing execution path. Missing files, API/model unavailability,
+timeouts, and malformed responses abstain without decision retries or workflow
+failure. An absent or empty list preserves existing behavior.
+
+Questions are batched through the existing AWF proxy, using
+`gpt-6-luna-decisions` on Copilot or `gpt-6-luna` on OpenAI. Do not add direct
+provider calls, extra credentials, host-side decision steps, or decision code
+to detection, evals, or conclusion. Decision requests retain normal proxy
+budget and usage accounting; a skipped agent is not zero total model usage.
+Inspect typed `harness.decision` unified-session events or `gh aw audit --json`
+under `retries.decisions` and `retries.avoided_invocations` for outcomes,
+sanitized errors, latency, and avoided invocations.
+
 ## Indexing and Search
 
 Follow [index-search.md](index-search.md) when integrating existing indexes or

.github/aw/safe-outputs-runtime.md

@@ -8,6 +8,15 @@ See [jobs.md](jobs.md) for the full compiler-generated job graph and which job e
 
 The `report-incomplete` safe-output is enabled by default and is distinct from `noop`. Use it when required tools or data are unavailable and the task cannot be meaningfully performed (e.g., MCP server crash, missing authentication, inaccessible repository). When an agent emits `report_incomplete`, gh-aw activates failure handling even when the agent process exits 0 — preventing empty outputs from being classified as successful, so every unrecoverable failure is tracked.
 
+When top-level `skip-if-decision` denies an otherwise eligible invocation, the
+AWF harness attempts to record `noop` only if no terminal safe output exists.
+Existing task outputs, no-ops, and incomplete diagnostics are preserved; the
+decision does not authorize their publication or override failure/detection
+policy. Decision evaluation errors abstain and do not independently emit
+`noop` or `report_incomplete`. Use `harness.decision` unified-session events and
+audit decision history to distinguish an avoided invocation from agent work.
+Decision-model usage remains part of normal proxy accounting.
+
 **Per-handler modifiers** — most handlers accept `max`, `github-token`, `github-app`, and `staged` to override the global equivalents for that one output type. Two extras:
 
 - `issue-intent:` (boolean) on `close-issue`, `set-issue-type`, `set-issue-field`, `assign-to-user`, and `assign-to-agent` — enables issue-intent metadata (rationale/confidence/suggest) fields and their schema requirements on that tool's payload.

.github/workflows/daily-file-diet.md

@@ -30,6 +30,12 @@ emoji: 🧹
 engine:
   agent: developer.instructions
   id: copilot
+skip-if-decision:
+  - >-
+    Does @/tmp/gh-aw/agent/file-diet-metrics.json conclusively show that the
+    largest non-test Go source file is strictly below healthy_threshold,
+    so no refactoring issue is required? Abstain if the metrics are invalid
+    or incomplete; a file at or above the threshold still requires analysis.
 name: Daily File Diet
 strict: true
 timeout-minutes: 20
@@ -93,7 +99,7 @@ steps:
         }) + "\n");
 evals:
   - id: large_files_analyzed
-    question: Did the agent analyze the largest Go source files in the repository?
+    question: When the agent ran, did it analyze the largest Go source files in the repository? Return UNKNOWN when the output records a skip-if-decision no-op because the prepared metrics established that all files were below the healthy threshold.
   - id: issue_created_or_noop
     question: Was a refactoring issue created for files exceeding the healthy size threshold, or was noop used when all files were within limits?
 ---
@@ -104,6 +110,11 @@ evals:
 
 You are the Daily File Diet Agent - a code health specialist that monitors file sizes and promotes modular, maintainable codebases by identifying oversized files that need refactoring.
 
+The AWF decision gate reads the prepared metrics before each eligible
+invocation. It may skip the agent when the largest file is strictly below the
+healthy threshold; unknown decisions and files at or above the threshold
+preserve the existing analysis path.
+
 ## Mission
 
 Analyze the Go codebase daily to identify the largest source file and determine if it requires refactoring. Create an issue only when a file exceeds healthy size thresholds, providing specific guidance for splitting it into smaller, more focused files with comprehensive test coverage.