Q&A

Why does the host have to route? Deciding what a message means depends on the messenger, the running tasks and who is asking, and those belong to the host. intake is there for a host that wants bluecollar's answer to that question.

Why a judge after a deterministic gate? The gate can check that a required call succeeded. It cannot read whether the reply's claim matches what the call returned. The judge reads the reply against the ledger, and it runs only when there is something to grade.

Why is the budget a ceiling on steps and not on tokens? A step's cost is dominated by the round trip to the model, so steps and tool calls track the clock. Tokens price the cheaper half.

Does the loop escalate to a stronger model when it runs out? No. It extends the budget one level once, and the model chosen at the start stays.

Can I run it without a decision model? The loop runs; intake does not. cmd/bluecollar starts a low task when intake is unavailable, and a host can do the same by setting PrecomputedTurnDecision itself.