DTE Schema

DTE Schema — Decision Timing Envelope

The Decision Timing Envelope (DTE) is the per-decisionType contract that governs time budgets, freshness requirements, blast radius limits, degrade ladder ordering, and verification requirements. DTEs are loaded at runtime — typically from a Policy Pack — and stamped onto every sealed episode.

Schema file: specs/dte.schema.json

---

Required Fields

Field	Type	Description
decisionType	string	The decision class this DTE governs (e.g., AccountQuarantine).
version	string	Semantic version of this DTE definition.
deadlineMs	integer	Total wall-clock budget for the decision (milliseconds).
stageBudgetsMs	object	Per-stage time budgets. Must sum to ≤ deadlineMs.
freshness	object	TTL settings for context data.
limits	object	Structural limits on agent behaviour.
degradeLadder	array	Ordered steps the runtime uses when deadlines or freshness fail.
verification	object	When and how to verify action outcomes.
safeAction	object	Blast radius and rollback requirements for dispatched actions.

---

Stage Budgets

All four stages are required. Each value is a millisecond integer.

Stage	Description
context	Gather features, tool outputs, and evidence
plan	LLM or rule-based planning
act	Action dispatch and execution
verify	Postcondition verification

---

Freshness

Field	Type	Description
defaultTtlMs	integer	Maximum age of any context feature before TOCTOU breach fires
featureTtls	object	Per-feature overrides keyed by feature name (ms)
allowStaleIfSafe	boolean	If true, stale context is permitted when blast radius is below the configured threshold (default false)

---

Limits

Structural guardrails to prevent fanout and retry storms.

Field	Description
maxHops	Maximum number of agent hops in a chain
maxFanout	Maximum number of parallel sub-tasks
maxToolCalls	Maximum tool invocations per decision
maxChainDepth	Maximum chain depth before escalation

---

Degrade Ladder

An ordered array of degrade steps. The runtime walks this array when time, freshness, or verifier failures occur.

Step	Behaviour
cache_bundle	Serve context from a pre-computed snapshot; skip live feature fetch
small_model	Swap to a smaller, lower-latency model for the plan stage
rules_only	Drop LLM entirely; use deterministic rule engine
hitl	Pause the decision and request human-in-the-loop approval
abstain	Refuse to act; emit a DriftEvent and return a safe no-op
bypass	Emergency override (logged at elevated severity; audit trail required)

Each step may carry an optional maxExtraMs — additional time the runtime may spend on that step before advancing to the next rung.

---

Verification

Field	Type	Description
requiredAboveBlastRadius	enum	Verification is mandatory for actions with blast radius strictly above this tier (none / tiny / small / medium / large)
methods	array	Allowed verifier identifiers (e.g., read_after_write, invariant_check)
verifyTimeoutMs	integer	Hard timeout for the verify stage

---

Safe Action Constraints

Field	Type	Description
requireIdempotency	boolean	All dispatched actions must carry an idempotencyKey
requireRollbackAbove	enum	Rollback plan required for blast radius strictly above this tier
blastRadiusMax	enum	Hard upper limit on blast radius — any action exceeding this is blocked
allowedActionTypes	array	Optional allowlist of actionType values

---

Policy Pack Binding

The optional policyPack block lets a DTE record the hash and version of the Policy Pack that produced it:

Field	Description
policyPackHash	SHA-256 of the originating Policy Pack
policyPackVersion	Version string of that Policy Pack

---

Relationship to Other Schemas

• Action Contract Schema — each dispatched action is validated against the DTE's safeAction constraints
• Policy Pack Schema — Policy Packs embed DTE defaults per decisionType
• Episode Schema — sealed episodes record the decisionType and active degrade step
• Drift Schema — DTE violations (TTL breach, deadline overage) emit structured drift events

---

Related Pages

• Contracts — overview of all four contract types
• Degrade Ladder — how the runtime walks ladder steps at runtime
• Policy Packs — how DTEs are packaged and versioned
• Schemas — all JSON Schema specs