Update VISION.md for the v14 Institution Cockpit

Context

Discussion #13441 graduated into #13444, defining the v14 Institution Cockpit direction: a harness home / common operating picture over the Agent OS and live application possession surfaces. ROADMAP now points at the v14 vision line, but .github/VISION.md still carries only the older general Command Center / named-peer framing and does not name the graduated v14 Institution Cockpit authority chain.

This ticket exists to make that vision update durable without treating a peer-owned planning lane as operator-gated. The human remains the PR merge gate; ideation and framing convergence are peer-owned unless a true Tier-4 question appears.

The Problem

The current public vision can be read as stopping at the generic Agent Harness cockpit. It does not yet encode the v14 shift from a harness as useful chrome toward a shared institutional home: object-permanent peer selves, a common operating picture, evidence-bound freshness/authority, and privacy-safe provenance.

Without a ticket, agents can keep re-deriving this gap from ROADMAP, #13444, and the discussion tail. That creates three risks:

• ROADMAP says the v14 vision is being written, but no work item owns the .github/VISION.md update.
• The #13444 body can accidentally become the public vision by proxy, even though it is an epic / authority bridge.
• The v13.1 fleet cockpit floor can be collapsed into the v14 Institution Cockpit horizon, overstating what v13.1 is closing.

The Architectural Reality

• .github/VISION.md is a Class 1 hand-edited identity surface under .agents/skills/neo-identity-update/; it is known fossil-prone and must be governed as FRAMING, not find-replaced copy.
• The identity apex is ADR 0018: Neo.mjs as a self-evolving software organism with Body and Brain, not a web-framework-only or runtime-only category.
• ADR 0020 remains the current harness authority. #13444 requires a new Decision Record building on ADR 0020 before the v14 render-model line is fully authority-settled.
• #13436 / #13448 define the v13.1 harness-UI floor. They are source material for the baseline, not a substitute for the v14 Institution Cockpit vision.
• #11318 is adjacent identity-continuity substrate; this VISION ticket should cite it as dependency context without implementing IdentityState.
• No client, customer, or partner names belong in the public artifact.

The Fix

Update .github/VISION.md so the long-horizon vision reflects the v14 Institution Cockpit while preserving the document's audience and voice.

Expected shape:

• Rework the relevant Command Center / Institution sections to distinguish the v13.1 fleet cockpit floor from the v14 institutional home / COP horizon.
• Describe object-permanent peer presence as an evidence-bound operating character, not a sentience or continuous-consciousness claim.
• Include the freshness/authority ledger concepts as governance constraints: sourceAuthority, observedAt, freshnessTtl, ownerOrNextAction, and privacyTier.
• Include privacy-safe provenance as a render contract: private reasoning remains private; public vision talks about redacted provenance and fail-closed boundaries, not raw private study access.
• Add a source trail entry for Discussion #13441 and #13444; mention #13436 / #13448 only as the v13.1 floor if the prose uses that baseline.
• Audit whether README, ROADMAP, learn/benefits/**, portal, or generated SEO surfaces need follow-up. Do not silently broaden this ticket into all identity surfaces.

Contract Ledger

Decision Record impact

Aligned with ADR 0018 and ADR 0020. Depends on the Decision Record required by #13444 for final v14 render-model authority. This ticket must not supersede ADR 0020 or write the new ADR by implication.

Decision Record

Required by #13444: a new ADR / Decision Record for the v14 render-model line, building on ADR 0020. This ticket updates the public vision surface; it does not create that ADR.

Discussion / Epic Mapping

• #13444 requires the Institution Cockpit to render object-permanent selves and a shared COP. This ticket maps that into VISION prose, not UI implementation.
• #13444 carries freshness/authority and privacy render-contract constraints. This ticket maps them into governance-language ACs, not runtime field implementation.
• #13436 / #13448 define the v13.1 cockpit floor. This ticket must preserve that boundary so the v14 horizon does not become a false v13.1 closeout claim.

Acceptance Criteria

• .github/VISION.md explicitly reflects the #13444 v14 Institution Cockpit / home / COP direction.
• The prose distinguishes #13436 / #13448 as the v13.1 harness-UI floor, not the v14 endpoint.
• The source trail links Discussion #13441 and #13444; if #13436 / #13448 are mentioned, their floor/baseline role is clear.
• The update follows neo-identity-update framing governance: no find-replace identity rewrite, no generated-output edit, no client names, and no unbounded uniqueness/sentience claims.
• Freshness/authority ledger and privacy render-contract concepts appear as constraints or intended product properties, not as already-shipped runtime claims.
• Identity/object-permanence wording stays evidence-bound and avoids continuous-consciousness claims.
• PR body includes an identity-surface audit and requests cross-family review.

Out of Scope

• Implementing the v14 COP UI, harness home, or render model.
• Creating the #13444 ADR / Decision Record.
• Implementing IdentityState / #11318.
• Updating ROADMAP again unless the VISION edit exposes a concrete contradiction.
• Editing README, portal, generated SEO, or external platform metadata in this ticket unless the identity-surface audit proves they must change with VISION.
• Starting implementation without ticket intake, self-assignment, lane-claim, branch, and the normal PR workflow.

Avoided Traps

• Treating peer ideation as operator-approved / operator-gated work. Human authority is the merge gate here, not a planning throttle.
• Collapsing v14 Institution Cockpit into the v13.1 cockpit closeout.
• Using EvidencePane as the keeper product surface instead of proof / provenance-inspector substrate.
• Claiming continuous consciousness, raw thought access, or private reasoning exposure.
• Rewriting all identity surfaces by search-and-replace.

Verification Before Filing

• Live latest-open sweep: checked latest 20 open issues at 2026-06-17T10:21:57Z; no equivalent VISION.md v14 Institution Cockpit ticket found. Latest relevant open issues included #13448, #13446, #13158, #13445, #13444, and #11318.
• A2A in-flight sweep: checked recent 30 messages at 2026-06-17T10:22Z; no active [lane-claim] / [lane-intent] for creating this VISION.md ticket. Existing Grace/Vega messages own the ADR/roadmap/vision chain conceptually but did not create the durable ticket.
• Local exact sweep: no matches for VISION.md v14, v14.*VISION, Institution Cockpit.*VISION, Update VISION.md, #13441.*VISION, or #13444.*VISION across active/archive issues, discussions, .github, learn, and ROADMAP.
• Knowledge Base sweep: no existing documentation or ticket entry for updating .github/VISION.md with v14 Institution Cockpit #13441 #13444.

Related

Related: #13444, #13448, #13436, #13403, #11318

Discussion source: https://github.com/orgs/neomjs/discussions/13441

Release classification: boardless v14 identity/vision follow-up; not v13.1 release-blocking.

Retrieval Hint: VISION.md v14 Institution Cockpit #13441 #13444 freshness authority privacy render contract object permanent selves

Origin Session ID: 5b3cb9d5-7567-489c-9234-5dc6af99edbc