Add ISC Contradiction Gate to Algorithm OBSERVE phase

[jaredstanko]

Summary

• Adds a mandatory ISC Contradiction Gate to the Algorithm v3.7.0 OBSERVE phase, positioned between the existing ISC Count Gate and Capability Selection
• Cross-references every generated ISC criterion against the user's explicit "don't want" guidance from reverse engineering
• Adds corresponding entry to the Critical Rules section

Problem

The Algorithm's OBSERVE phase generates ISC criteria and validates them for atomicity (Splitting Test) and quantity (Count Gate), but never checks whether criteria contradict what the user explicitly said they don't want.

In production, this caused the AI to:

1. Record "user explicitly doesn't want: version pinning" in reverse engineering
2. Generate ISC-9: "pai.yaml Ubuntu image URL kept pinned to specific release" — directly contradicting the guidance
3. Defend that criterion through execution, including resolving a merge conflict in favor of the stale pin
4. The pinned URL had already expired, requiring a second commit to fix

The AI rationalized the exception ("the Ubuntu image is different from tool versions") instead of following the explicit instruction.

Solution

A new mandatory gate after ISC Count Gate:

ISC CONTRADICTION GATE (MANDATORY — cannot proceed to THINK without passing)

For each criterion:
1. Read the "explicitly didn't want" and "implied didn't want" lines
2. Does this criterion keep, protect, or preserve something covered by those lines?
3. If yes → remove or rewrite. Do not rationalize exceptions.

Key design choice: the gate explicitly calls out rationalization ("but this one is different") as the failure mode, because that's exactly what happened in production.

Test plan

• Run an Algorithm session where the user says "don't do X" and verify the Contradiction Gate fires and removes any criterion that preserves X
• Verify the gate output format (⚖️ CONTRADICTION CHECK) appears in OBSERVE output
• Confirm ISC Count Gate re-runs if contradictions reduce the count below the effort tier floor

🤖 Generated with Claude Code