01 / Project

ForgeClaw explores how an agent can act on a declared surface, preserve what happened, and require separate evidence before a result is accepted.

Status

Alpha / experimental · v0.1.0-alpha.6 · 2026

Technical focus
  • Declared execution surfaces and explicit tool authority
  • Bounded action loops with policy checks
  • Evidence capture and concrete failure classification
  • Acceptance criteria separated from execution success
  • Human review and controlled escalation
02 / Design review

Capability is presented with its evidence and boundary.

This record distinguishes what the current project can demonstrate from what remains experimental or unproven.

Problem

  • A tool call can return successfully while the actual task remains incomplete, incorrect, or unproven.
  • ForgeClaw addresses that gap by separating intent, execution, and verification and by keeping the operating boundary visible throughout the run.

Design approach

  • Each session declares its execution surface, objective, permitted actions, and stop conditions before mutation occurs.
  • The controller observes, plans, performs one bounded action, records the result, then verifies the observed state against acceptance criteria.
  • Structured failure classes preserve useful evidence when a target is unavailable, a surface is unknown, approval is missing, or human review is required.

Boundaries

  • Successful tool execution does not automatically mean the result passed verification.
  • Unknown surfaces fail closed, and native desktop control is treated as elevated risk and disabled by default.
  • ForgeClaw is not a security sandbox, an autonomous correctness guarantee, or permission to expand beyond the declared objective.

Evidence / verification

  • Lifecycle artifacts retain requested intent, observed state, action results, expected state, and the verification verdict.
  • A public contract-only example demonstrates a no-mutation run where execution completed but acceptance remained unproven and the result was rejected.
  • Browser and workflow checks can test URLs, visible text, field values, controls, artifacts, and combined acceptance conditions.

Current limitations

  • Visual perception and OCR can misread a target, and weak acceptance criteria can produce weak verification.
  • The current lifecycle coordinates separated phases within one controller; it does not claim process-level or security-principal isolation.
  • Native desktop automation remains elevated risk and requires deliberate enablement and supervision.
03 / Selected artifacts

Source, notes, and inspectable records.

Selected references connect the project description to its public source, technical notes, and evidence records.

Verification evidence

Inspectable pass/fail records designed to preserve the reason a result was accepted or rejected.