Choose the features your repository needs

Adopt practices on demand, not a twenty-step prerequisite chain. Each group below can be considered without adopting any other group. Existing repository CI, ownership, and review can satisfy its prerequisites.

The non-negotiable architecture is Developing-in-Agentic-AI-Systems-Learning-Paths.md: plan → act → evaluate, agents propose; humans and policy accept, GitHub as system of record and control plane, the contributor model, and risk-based autonomy.

Current release: blocked. Do not copy or activate the Northstar snapshot. Its exact audited revision and unresolved defects are recorded in GUIDE-CONFORMANCE.md and AUDIT-2026-09-23.md. This is a feature-selection guide, not certification of new installation commands or a claim that Northstar’s runtime scripts are independently installable.

Feature menu

Group	Use it when	Its own prerequisites	Not required
A. Task contracts and durable context	Requests lose scope or success criteria	A GitHub repository, issue/PR access, accountable owner	Hooks, custom agents, MCP, Continuous AI
B. Independent checks and human review	Agent output needs objective evaluation	Existing build/tests, workflow permissions, reviewers, an appropriate GitHub plan	Northstar schemas, hooks, MCP, custom agents
C. Read-only planning and review	You want bounded specialist assistance	A supported host, readable repository context, explicit task and tool limits	Write agent, Northstar publisher, MCP, Continuous AI
D. MCP capability governance	A task actually needs external tools	Approved server/registry, organization or enterprise MCP allow list, scoped credentials and owner	Northstar hooks, machine plans, Continuous AI
E. Bounded Continuous AI	Scheduled or event-driven analysis adds value	GitHub Actions, supported engine/model, approved tools and safe-output policy	Interactive hooks, local agents, MCP unless the workflow uses it
F. Integrated Northstar control plane	You need its exact task/plan/tool/evidence protocol	An accepted release, customized policy, runtime, checks, trusted hosted identities and independent approval	Optional MCP or Continuous AI conceptually; current audit still couples their files

Groups A-E describe guide practices, not a license to claim the whole system conformant after adopting one group. Group F is deliberately a bundle: its task resolver, plan schema, approval, branch rules, authorizer, evidence, trusted publisher, and maintenance controls share contracts. Do not disable checks to pretend that this bundle is modular.

A. Task contracts and durable context

Deliverable: an issue naming inputs, outputs, allowed/prohibited scope, constraints, observable success criteria, evidence, non-goals, rollback, and stop conditions; a PR linking decisions and evidence.

Customize: application/test paths, owners, commands, data boundaries, and the success criteria for the actual task. Keep examples fictional and never make a test fixture authoritative. Study the Northstar task template without activating its parser.

Prove it: another contributor can determine what is allowed and how completion is measured without a chat transcript. Rollback: retire the template while preserving existing issue and PR history.

Guide basis: task-contract and continuity units, lines 553-624 and 3088-3598.

B. Independent checks and human review

Deliverable: deterministic checks appropriate to the application and independent human review in GitHub. Select either compatible rulesets or branch-protection controls; the guide does not require both implementations.

Customize: check names, runtime/tool versions, owners, environment names, retention, least-privilege permissions, and deployment policy.

Prove it: a failing change cannot meet required checks; a review of an old head does not accept the current head; live settings match the intended policy. Repository YAML alone is not this proof. Rollback: revert a specific configuration change through human review, not by bypassing failures.

Guide basis: contributor model and workflow/security units, lines 307-430, 1915-1980, and 3998-4307.

C. Read-only planning and review

Deliverable: narrowly scoped roles that propose plans or findings without write, shell-mutation, approval, merge, or deployment capabilities.

Customize: authoritative context paths, task vocabulary, permitted read/search tools, handoffs, and escalation owner. Choose plan-first versus plan + execution according to risk; do not equate low risk with no policy.

Prove it: run a benign read and a prohibited-write canary in the exact host/harness. The Northstar planner currently assumes a cached live contract; copying that role alone will not create one. See COPILOT-SURFACES.md. Rollback: remove the role selection, preserving its proposals in the PR.

Guide basis: bounded roles and planning separation, lines 508-533 and 635-867.

D. MCP capability governance

Deliverable: only the server and named tools needed for the task, approved through the organization’s registry and MCP allow list.

Customize: registry/server identity, named tools, credentials, owner, network/data boundary, and revocation procedure. Do not copy Northstar’s gh aw mcp-server unless that capability is needed.

Prove it: an allowed call succeeds; an unapproved server/tool is refused; no credential appears in repository files or logs. Rollback: revoke access and remove the specific server declaration.

Guide basis: MCP governance, lines 1103-1145 and 1447-1691; Northstar adapter mechanism: EXT-014.

E. Bounded Continuous AI

Deliverable: one narrow workflow expressed as GitHub Agentic Workflow Markdown, with explicit triggers, tools, permissions, budget, timeout, and staged safe output. It augments, never replaces, deterministic CI/CD.

Customize: engine/model availability, schedule, prompt, budget, approved tool versions, safe-output type/limit, and escalation owner.

Prove it: inspect compiler and scanner diagnostics, then a real hosted run. Exit zero alone is insufficient: the audited Northstar toolchain printed five Poutine errors, and its examined hosted agent job failed on model availability. Rollback: disable that workflow without changing CI.

Guide basis: Agentic Workflow units, lines 1260-1274 and 2365-2591.

F. Integrated Northstar control plane

Not currently installable as an accepted release. After the blockers are repaired and independently accepted, use the full installation reference for its worksheet, inert staging, commands, hosting setup, negative tests, and activation order.

Keep hooks inactive until task identity, plan, scope, allowed commands, branch/base binding, and evidence consumers pass their tests. A fresh repository bootstrap is human-owned; it is not a bypass for repairing an already-governed repository.

Prove it: exact reference lock; focused and full validation; independent process tests where needed; host-specific canaries; current hosted acceptance. Local ready_for_review is not hosted ready_for_acceptance. Rollback: revert the reviewed bootstrap as a unit, not isolated protocol files or a renamed hook.

Choose a demonstration

Demonstration	Current status
WI-1842	Local application and fixture rehearsal plus an actual cloud planner stop; PR #13 and PR #18 are closed historical attempts, and PR #29 was a closed wrong-base/no-change attempt—not a cloud delivery
Add GET /orders/:id	Draft PR #19 is rebased onto 17e7a5c; exact-head review, hosted human-review, local validation and PostgreSQL acceptance (12/12) pass, while full Zizmor, hosted repository-controls, and cross-surface proof remain outstanding

The technical extensions register identifies which mechanisms are Northstar/framework choices rather than guide requirements.