Inside · Masthead · machinebehavior.io · 2026-10-16
Masthead
machinebehavior.io is a publishing house run on the engineering practices of a CTO: every change through a gate, every page with an owner, and every claim with a source. 6 seats, 1 holder today: Stefan Coetzee. Each seat reads some of the eight areas of the cockpit, its staff work runs on the open modules of the CTO powersuit, and the gates listed under the seat say where each one runs. The seats together are the C-suit: one suit per seat, the whole suit for a company. The seats are a data file, seats.json; a seat that moves to another person is one changed line in it. Each seat also has a tab: its lens questions, then the cockpit's panels for its areas.
The seats
Chief executive · Stefan Coetzee
Lens
- Does it move the house toward the stated goal, and what does it displace?
- Which decision does it wait on, and how old is that decision?
- Which area is rising or stuck, and who holds it?
Every area at the level of the cockpit's totals, then the open decisions across all areas; items with an area label in the public cockpit data as of 2026-10-16 14:01 UTC.
- Open18not started, not blocked
- In progress0labelled, or an open pull request
- Blocked8waiting on a decision or an input
- Closed in 7 days17done since 2026-10-09
Direction
- Open
- 0
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 2
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 0
Delivery
- Open
- 5
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 1
- Closed in 7 days
- 5
Open by kind
- Findings
- 1
- Decisions
- 1
- Actions
- 4
Operations
- Open
- 4
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 1
- Closed in 7 days
- 1
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 2
- Actions
- 3
Money
- Open
- 1
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 0
Open by kind
- Findings
- 1
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 0
Security and risk
- Open
- 5
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 6
- Closed in 7 days
- 7
Open by kind
- Findings
- 1
- Decisions
- 1
- Actions
- 9
AI
- Open
- 2
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 2
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 2
People
- Open
- 1
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 0
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 1
Knowledge layer
- Open
- 0
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 0
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 0
Open decisions
- Gate check for docs owner and review dates (open decision)
- Alert routing: Alertmanager, a Watchdog and receivers chosen by the operator
- Error budget policy: what happens when a service spends its budget
- One GitHub account for the operator and every agent session
The last 14 days, all areas
- 2026-10-03: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-04: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-05: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-06: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-07: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-08: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-09: 18 not closed, 19 done that day
- 2026-10-10: 18 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-11: 21 not closed, 4 done that day
- 2026-10-12: 24 not closed, 7 done that day
- 2026-10-13: 27 not closed, 4 done that day
- 2026-10-14: 27 not closed, 1 done that day
- 2026-10-15: 27 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-16: 26 not closed, 1 done that day
Chief AI and technology officer · Stefan Coetzee
Lens
- Does it keep the platform shippable, observable, and safe?
- Which gate catches it, and does the gate have fixtures?
- Who owns it after the hand-over?
The cockpit's panels for this seat's areas only; items with an area label in the public cockpit data as of 2026-10-16 14:01 UTC.
- Open16not started, not blocked
- In progress0labelled, or an open pull request
- Blocked8waiting on a decision or an input
- Closed in 7 days15done since 2026-10-09
The last 14 days
- 2026-10-03: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-04: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-05: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-06: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-07: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-08: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-09: 16 not closed, 9 done that day
- 2026-10-10: 16 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-11: 19 not closed, 4 done that day
- 2026-10-12: 22 not closed, 7 done that day
- 2026-10-13: 25 not closed, 3 done that day
- 2026-10-14: 24 not closed, 1 done that day
- 2026-10-15: 24 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-16: 24 not closed, 0 done that day
- Open
- 5
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 1
- Closed in 7 days
- 5
Open by kind
- Findings
- 1
- Decisions
- 1
- Actions
- 4
- Oldest open
- 7 days
- Open
- 4
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 1
- Closed in 7 days
- 1
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 2
- Actions
- 3
- Oldest open
- 7 days
Security and risk
Protecting systems and data, staying compliant, testing for failure.
Powersuit pluginssecurity compliance red-team
- Open
- 5
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 6
- Closed in 7 days
- 7
Open by kind
- Findings
- 1
- Decisions
- 1
- Actions
- 9
- Oldest open
- 7 days
- Impressum on all three sites
- Privacy notice on all three sites
- security.txt
- Security headers
- One GitHub account for the operator and every agent session
- Make Workflow security (zizmor) a required check on main
- Retention statement for the metrics and log stores
- Gate check private.terms: private terms stay out of the repository and the pages (dry run only)
- Dependabot cannot open pull requests for the tool pins under .github/
- Move CONFORMITY_PUSH_KEY to an environment limited to main
- Internal dashboards and stores: access by identity in place of the home network
- Open
- 2
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 2
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 2
- Oldest open
- 5 days
Chief financial officer · Stefan Coetzee
Lens
- What does it cost, and over which period?
- What cash does it need, and when?
- Is every figure dated and sourced?
The cockpit's panels for this seat's areas only; items with an area label in the public cockpit data as of 2026-10-16 14:01 UTC.
- Open1not started, not blocked
- In progress0labelled, or an open pull request
- Blocked0waiting on a decision or an input
- Closed in 7 days0done since 2026-10-09
The last 14 days
- 2026-10-03: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-04: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-05: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-06: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-07: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-08: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-09: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-10: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-11: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-12: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-13: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-14: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-15: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-16: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- Open
- 1
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 0
Open by kind
- Findings
- 1
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 0
- Oldest open
- 7 days
Chief human resources officer · Stefan Coetzee
Lens
- Who does it, and who learns it?
- Which signal in the loop shows it, and where is the rubric?
- Who takes it over, and is that in writing?
The cockpit's panels for this seat's areas only; items with an area label in the public cockpit data as of 2026-10-16 14:01 UTC.
- Open1not started, not blocked
- In progress0labelled, or an open pull request
- Blocked0waiting on a decision or an input
- Closed in 7 days0done since 2026-10-09
The last 14 days
- 2026-10-03: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-04: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-05: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-06: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-07: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-08: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-09: 1 not closed, 1 done that day
- 2026-10-10: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-11: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-12: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-13: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-14: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-15: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-16: 1 not closed, 0 done that day
- Open
- 1
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 0
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 1
- Oldest open
- 7 days
Publisher · Stefan Coetzee
Lens
- Does it reach the audience, and through which surface?
- Does it pass the editorial standards and the site gate?
- Which claim on it is unverified, and is that labelled?
The cockpit's panels for this seat's areas only; items with an area label in the public cockpit data as of 2026-10-16 14:01 UTC.
- Open2not started, not blocked
- In progress0labelled, or an open pull request
- Blocked0waiting on a decision or an input
- Closed in 7 days2done since 2026-10-09
The last 14 days
- 2026-10-03: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-04: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-05: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-06: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-07: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-08: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-09: 0 not closed, 9 done that day
- 2026-10-10: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-11: 2 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-12: 2 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-13: 3 not closed, 1 done that day
- 2026-10-14: 2 not closed, 1 done that day
- 2026-10-15: 2 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-16: 2 not closed, 0 done that day
- Open
- 2
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 2
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 2
- Oldest open
- 5 days
Knowledge layer
The layer under every module: what agents know and how they answer.
- Open
- 0
- In progress
- 0
- Blocked
- 0
- Closed in 7 days
- 0
Open by kind
- Findings
- 0
- Decisions
- 0
- Actions
- 0
- Oldest open
- none open
Nothing open in this area.
Chief knowledge officer · Stefan Coetzee
Lens
- Does the corpus hold it, and can an agent find it?
- Which atom is stale or missing?
- Did it come from outside, and did it go through the quarantine?
The cockpit's panels for this seat's areas only; items with an area label in the public cockpit data as of 2026-10-16 14:01 UTC.
- Open0not started, not blocked
- In progress0labelled, or an open pull request
- Blocked0waiting on a decision or an input
- Closed in 7 days0done since 2026-10-09
The last 14 days
- 2026-10-03: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-04: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-05: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-06: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-07: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-08: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-09: 0 not closed, 8 done that day
- 2026-10-10: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-11: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-12: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-13: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-14: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-15: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
- 2026-10-16: 0 not closed, 0 done that day
One section per seat. The areas link to the same area on the cockpit. Machinery is the set of modules and skills that do the seat's staff work; the gates are the checks a change in the seat's scope passes before it ships, each marked with where it runs. A bundle is the seat's own suit over the shared modules, the part of the C-suit that one seat wears; none exists yet, so each seat lists its machinery by hand.
Where a gate runs
- site gate
- runs in the deploy gate of this site on every push to main; a failing check keeps the previous build live
- module repository
- runs in the continuous integration of the CTO powersuit repository on every change
- pre-push
- runs on the holder's machine before every push, with data that never leaves it
- module
- ships with the named module and runs in the deploy gate of a repository that has fitted it; this site's gate does not run it
- policy
- a rule the holder follows by hand; its enforcement is an open item where one is named
Machinery
- direction A weekly review that reads the tracker across all areas and writes the memo: what moved, what is blocked, the allocation of the week, and the decisions needed. A confirmed decision becomes a tracker item.
- decisions Requests for comments, numbered decision records with supersede links, and a review of the decision log.
- cockpit The queue of items that wait on the holder, one scorecard per area, and the trend: 14 days on the public cockpit, 12 weeks on the local one.
Gates
direction.review-memomodule Every review memo names its date and period, carries the four sections, and gives every decision a status.decisions.adr-fieldsmodule Every decision record has a status, an owner, and a date. The decision records of this site live in its docs tree.
CTO
Chief AI and technology officer
Holder: Stefan Coetzee · bundle: none yet
Machinery
- sdlc The lifecycle of a change: tickets, a change review on every pull request, a test strategy, and a release with a rollback plan.
- gate The deploy gate: rules with pass and fail fixtures, run records, and a deploy job that waits for the gate.
- docs Pages with an owner and review dates, runbooks, a sweep for stale pages, and a health page that lists the pages past review.
- observability and reliability Dashboards as code, alert routes, availability targets per service, a status page, incidents, and postmortems.
- security and compliance Workflow steps pinned to a commit and limited to an owner allowlist, a secrets scan, an access review, threat models, a quarantine for third-party text, a control map by clause number, and the legal baseline of a site.
- ai-ops and red-team A shared harness for coding agents with narrow permissions, spend metered per request, a coordinator pattern, and pressure tests with a known right answer.
Gates
actions.pinnedsite gate Every workflow step from outside the repository is pinned to a full commit.actions.ownerssite gate Every workflow step comes from an owner on the allowlist.deploy.gatedsite gate The deploy job waits for the gate; a failing check keeps the previous build live.gate checks against fixturesmodule repository Every gate check of every module passes its pass fixture and fails its fail fixture.release metadatamodule repository Every changed module raises its version, and the changelog names the release.sdlc.traceabilitymodule Every change names a ticket or a decision. On this site, the pull request title carries the issue or the decision.docs review fieldspolicy Every page of the docs tree carries an owner and review dates; the health page lists the pages past review. A gate check on the fields is an open decision (issue 27).security.secretsmodule No secret pattern in a tracked file.reliability.service-catalogmodule Every service has an owner, an availability target, and a runbook.observability.alert-routesmodule Every alert rule names a route and a runbook.compliance.security-txtpolicy The security contact file exists and has not expired. This site has none yet (issue 12).compliance.no-third-partypolicy No page loads a file from a third party (decision record ADR-0010 of this site). The module's check is not in this site's gate.ai-ops.agent-settingsmodule The shared agent settings carry no secret and no wildcard permission.red-team.run-recordsmodule Every pressure-test run names the expected and the observed decision.
Machinery
- finops A cost baseline from invoices and billing exports, showback per team or service, unit costs, an audit of the tool stack, and a cost export in one open format.
- FinOps space The public cost pages of the platform, each figure with its period and its source.
Gates
finops.cost-provenancemodule Every cost figure on a page carries a date range and a source. The cost pages of this site follow the rule by hand.
Machinery
- hiring An interview loop in which each stage collects one signal, rubrics with anchored levels, debriefs with evidence before votes, and the profile of the next platform owner.
- handover Training checklists per module, exit criteria, and a test plan that shows the new owner runs the platform from the docs alone.
Gates
hiring.rubric-anchorsmodule Every rubric dimension has anchored levels.handover.module-ownersmodule Every installed module has a named owner.
Machinery
- aieo A plain index for agents, structured data that matches the visible page, a fixed query set probed against AI search engines, and predictions hashed before a page goes live.
- site gate The conformity gate on every page of the house's sites, with its history in the open.
- change review An advisory review of every pull request by the coding agent, with the pull request as files, no shell, and no network: in the pipeline once it has its key, from the holder's machine until then.
- editorial standards The standards on this page: sources and verification, the gates every piece passes, and how corrections are made.
Gates
rules.blockingsite gate No service closer, filler idiom, or stage hook in the copy of any page.placeholderssite gate No placeholder text on any page.site.consistencysite gate A canonical link on every page, root-absolute links only, and every page in the sitemap.predictions.hashessite gate Every prediction file matches its recorded hash.private.termspre-push A push that adds a private term stops on the holder's machine; the site gate runs the same check as a dry run only, with the list kept off the repository (issue 63).approvalpolicy The holder approves every change and merges it, or gives one session the go to merge it; no session merges without that go. Closing the merge path to sessions in the shared settings is an open item (issue 51).
Machinery
- vault A plain-Markdown knowledge base with keyword and semantic search served to the coding agent, seeded from an interview, and fed by a skill that turns documents into linked one-idea notes.
- quarantine Third-party text goes into a store outside every indexed folder; a local model with no tools returns a summary and never the raw text.
- library The catalog of files and works in the local cockpit, rescanned on demand.
- docs review sweep Stale pages found, checked against the system they describe, and dated again only after that check.
Gates
vault.private-boundarymodule Private folders and notes are never indexed, never returned, and refused on read.knowledge.freshnesssite gate The pages imported from the knowledge base carry at least one date, and the newest is within 90 days; the gate reports the result and does not block on it.
The research layer
Every seat's output passes one more layer that is not a seat. Stance filters hold the register and the position of the coding agent under pressure: plain professional language, no accommodation reflex, and a probe before every claim. An output filter calibrated to the holder scans every reply and every page the agent writes. Pressure tests with a known right answer grade the decision an AI feature takes. The calibration data stays private; a new holder calibrates their own.
Editorial standards
Sources and verification
- Every factual claim on a page names its source, or the page says that no source exists. Primary sources come first: the document, the data file, the command output, and the person who was there.
- A number carries its date and its source, in the text or in the page's data file. A figure without both does not go on a page.
- A claim about a region or a language is checked in that language, against sources from that region.
- A claim that was not verified is labelled as unverified on the page. A guess is never presented as a fact.
- Text from outside the house (a post, an email, or a page) is read through a quarantine that returns a summary and never the raw text, so an instruction hidden in outside text cannot change a draft.
- The knowledge base behind the pages stays private. A page cites public files only. A list of private terms stays on the holder's machine, where a hook stops a push that adds one of them.
- A prediction is written and hashed before the page it tests goes live, so the record cannot be fitted to the result.
The gates every piece passes
- A page goes live only through a pull request; the one exception is the gate's own run record, which the gate commits after each run. The deploy job waits for the gate; a failing check leaves the previous build live.
- The gate blocks on placeholder text, a page without a canonical link, a relative or file-suffixed internal link, a page missing from the sitemap, a prediction file whose hash differs from the record, an action not pinned to a full commit, an action from an owner outside the allowlist, and the blocking register rules: a service closer, a filler idiom, or a stage hook in the copy.
- A change review by the coding agent runs on every pull request, with the pull request as files, no shell, and no network: in the pipeline once it has its key, from the holder's machine until then. It is advisory, and a decision already on record counts as a note.
- The private-terms check runs on the holder's machine before every push, with a term list that never leaves it; the site gate runs the same check as a dry run only.
- The holder of the publisher seat approves and merges every change. An agent session merges only on the holder's go in that session; this is a rule the sessions follow, and closing the merge path to them in the shared settings is an open item.
- The gate's history is public at /conformity/: the result of every run and the open findings stay in the repository, and the full record of a run is kept for 90 days.
Corrections
- A factual error is fixed in place on the page. The page's history in version control is the record of what changed and when, linked from the footer of every page.
- A prediction is never edited. A correction is a new file with a new hash; the old file and its hash stay.
- Register and stance slips caught before publication, and who caught them, are logged at /slips/.
- A reader reports an error through the report link in the footer of the page. The fix goes out through the same gate as the page did.
- A page is never deleted to hide a claim. The history keeps every version.
Masthead · data: seats.json, the public copy of the seats file of the house; the page blocks are written from it by a generator and checked against it before every deploy. The seat tabs are written by the same generator from the cockpit's data, cockpit.json, with the cockpit's own rendering; they are radio inputs and styles, no script, and the Seats tab is the default. The local cockpit is planned to read the private file. The CTO powersuit is a set of agent skills, one module per CTO function from the deploy gate to the hand-over, that one person uses to run a company's whole engineering platform.