Operational Layer
KCC is not just a structural model; the operational layer specifies how the model lives in an organization day-to-day — roles, cadences, decision procedures, and durable governance records.
KCC is not just a structural model. This section specifies how the model lives in an organization day-to-day.
12.1 Roles and Responsibilities
| Role | Count | Core responsibilities |
|---|---|---|
| Kernel Maintainers | 3-7 named individuals | Own the kernel contract, veto kernel changes, sponsor L2→L3 promotions, approve trifecta/organizational-blast-radius HOTL exceptions |
| Capability Maintainers | One named individual per capability | Own the capability across versions, respond to issues, produce migration guidance, run the evaluation suite (5-15% of an engineer's time) |
| Cell Owners | EM or tech lead per cell | Own operational decisions, decide capability adoption, monitor cell metrics, manage exceptions and sunset dates |
| Inspector Operators | 1-3 named individuals | Operate the Inspector Pipeline, tune detection rules, manage the proposal queue (politically neutral; rotated) |
| Engineers | All developers | Use cells, build custom agents, propose L1 capabilities, participate in reviews, give platform feedback |
12.2 Cadences
| Cadence | What happens |
|---|---|
| Daily | Cells operate, telemetry flows, decision traces recorded, dashboards update |
| Weekly | Retros include AI usage signals, Inspector detection reports, workslop/bypass reviews, reviewer load checks |
| Monthly | Full pattern detection report, L1→L2 candidate review, per-cell health reports, calibration reports |
| Quarterly | Kernel evolution review, L2→L3 promotion decisions, Phase progression assessment |
| Yearly | Org-level Phase review, major kernel evolutions, KCC version progression |
12.3 Decision-Making Procedures
Kernel changes are filed as ADRs (architectural decision records) with an open comment period (2 weeks minor, 4 weeks major), reviewed by kernel maintainers, and announced with a migration window. Capability L1→L2 promotions originate from the Inspector Pipeline and are reviewed by capability maintainers; L2→L3 requires kernel sponsorship and consensus. Cell exceptions are declared with a sunset date, reported to the Inspector Pipeline, and reviewed quarterly.
12.4 Failure Modes and Recovery
Capability abandonment is handled in priority order: reassign to a willing maintainer (preferred), deprecate with a migration window (acceptable), or leave it unmaintained in the catalog (unacceptable). Cell drift (silent kernel-contract violation) is surfaced by the Inspector Pipeline with the cell owner notified within 48 hours.
12.5 Governance Records
Governance records are searchable, versioned, and available to all engineers in the organization. Transparency is a precondition of trust.
ADRs document kernel changes; promotion records document maturity transitions; exception declarations carry sunset dates; Inspector reports summarize pattern detection. The human conditions these roles depend on are treated in Human Systems, and the path a single unit of work travels is treated in The Work Lifecycle.