ADR-CE-014: Reflex Lane Default

Status: Accepted Date: 2026-01-22 Parent: ADR-014 Coherence Engine Architecture

Context

A coherence system that escalates too often becomes:

Slow (every operation waits for heavy compute)
Noisy (constant human escalations)
Ignored (users bypass the system)

Decision

Reflex lane default - most updates stay low-latency, escalation only on sustained incoherence.

Design principles:

Default to Lane 0: Most operations complete in <1ms
Transient spikes tolerated: Brief energy increases don't escalate
Persistence triggers escalation: Only sustained/growing incoherence moves up lanes
Human lane is last resort: Lane 3 only when automated systems cannot resolve

Persistence detection:

fn is_escalation_needed(history: &EnergyHistory, window: Duration) -> bool {
    history.is_above_threshold(threshold, window) ||
    history.is_trending_up(window)
}

Consequences

Benefits

System stays responsive under normal operation
Escalation is meaningful (not noise)
Users trust the system (it's not crying wolf)

Risks

Might miss real problems that appear transient
Persistence window requires tuning

References

ADR-014: Coherence Engine Architecture, Section 3
ADR-CE-006: Compute Ladder

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