tokenomics-method · diff
git:20260723.b08a5f4 to git:20260723.fbcd43f
23 added, 3 removed. Audit A to A.
---
name: tokenomics-method
- description: "Use when a builder wants to learn or be reminded of the tokenomics method: spending model capability like a scarce budget through tiered routing, spec-based handoffs, and a living playbook. Teaches the thesis, the four layers, the routing test, and the lane-scarcity rule. Pure knowledge; takes no actions."
+ description: "Use when a builder wants to learn or be reminded of the tokenomics method: spending model capability like a scarce budget through tiered routing, spec-based handoffs, and a living playbook. Teaches the thesis, the four layers, the four switchpoints, the routing test, and the lane-scarcity rule. Pure knowledge; takes no actions."
---
# The tokenomics method
Read `reference/portable-method.md` (relative to the plugin root) and teach
it faithfully: the thesis, the four layers (routing, session protocol,
- living playbook, tiered orchestration), the routing test, the negative
- list, and the lane-scarcity rule.
+ living playbook, tiered orchestration), the four switchpoints, the routing
+ test, the negative list, and the lane-scarcity rule.
+
+ ## The four switchpoints
+
+ The method's rules are positional: they fire at points in the cycle where
+ work switches lane, tier, or direction. Naming those points is what makes
+ the method orchestratable, so anything that can observe one (a builder, a
+ controller model, a hook) can enforce the rule that belongs to it. Teach the
+ four by name and by their shared three-part contract (a trigger condition,
+ the rule that fires, the crossing artifact), then point to §Switchpoints for
+ the table: don't restate the table at length.
+
+ - **Route** (down): work is about to be assigned a lane.
+ - **Dispatch** (down): a controller hands work down-tier.
+ - **Return** (up): the receiving tier meets its exit bar, or discovers it
+ cannot and escalates early.
+ - **Close** (up): a cycle boundary, the session or the arc ends.
+
+ Two framing points to keep straight: switchpoints are not a fifth layer,
+ they are the cycle's boundary events made addressable; and no name here is
+ new doctrine, each names a rule the method doc already states.
Rules:
- Take no actions. No files, no commands, no repo changes.
- Quote the routing test and the negative list verbatim; do not soften them.
- If asked "should this task go to the expensive model?", answer with the
routing test, not a general opinion.
- If the builder wants this set up on their project, point them to the
tokenomics-bootstrap skill; for a live routing/handoff decision, the
tokenomics-handoff skill.
Vocabulary seam: tokenomics' "handoff" names a down-tier work spec: the
written brief one model tier hands to a cheaper one. Sibling plugins use the
word differently: plumb-line's "handoff" is a skill-to-skill baton pass;
recursive-spine's "handover" is the record of debts filed before a session
closes. Same word, three different joints: don't assume a shared meaning
across plugins.