Understanding Creator Engine

Creator Engine runs your own coding agent under governance. You keep using the agent you already know. CE adds a structured, evidence-backed loop around real work so changes are shaped, ratified, built, reviewed, and shipped on purpose.

Start with the canonical quickstart.md when you want commands. Read how-ce-builds-software.md when you want the concepts behind the loop.

What CE Is

The core idea is simple: the thing that decides whether work is good lives outside the agent. You judge artifacts: a Scope, a diff, checks, review evidence, and the Completion Report. You do not judge a transcript.

CE is CLI-anchored. The everyday path is ce brain init once, then ce launch --backend host to open your governed agent session. Contained launch is hardening in progress; use the host backend unless your operator tells you a contained backend is ready for your repo.

The Five Stages

CE names the loop with five plain words:

Frame -> Shape -> Build -> Review -> Ship

Frame - understand the problem, why it matters, and what good would look like. This is exploration only; nothing is tracked yet.
Shape - turn the framed problem into a Scope with Goal, Done-when, and Change-type.
Build - let the agent execute the ratified Scope in a governed run.
Review - grade the result against Done-when and evidence.
Ship - land the governed outcome: merged PR, delivered research, or no-change.

This is a loop, not a waterfall. Review can send work back. A large Scope can spawn smaller Scopes.

The Scope

When exploration becomes real work, CE records a Scope. The Scope is the contract for the run.

Field	What it means
Goal	What you are trying to accomplish
Done-when	The checks that say the work is finished
Change-type	What kind of change this is and how risky it is

Readiness is the ratifiable state, not a Scope field: CE marks the Scope Ready when these fields are valid.

Optional lane-aware cap: your operator may ask you to add a cap for a specific lane. Use % for a subscription lane with rolling windows, or $ for an API lane. This is opt-in and should not be front-loaded in the default path.

Nothing builds until you ratify a Ready Scope:

ce ratify <scope-id>

Natural-language chat can help shape the Scope, but it is not authorization. Governed work begins at explicit ce verbs, and the Scope record is the governing contract.

The Completion Report

After a run, CE gives you a compact Completion Report:

Outcome   PR opened -> #24
Verdict   Done-when 3/3 met · tests green · in scope
Next      Review PR #24

Review the artifacts against Done-when. If they satisfy the Scope, Ship through the governed merge path. If they do not, send the work back with concrete Review feedback.

Welcome Pack Rule

Tenant welcome packs link the canonical Quickstart and concepts guide instead of duplicating the journey. Packs can add local setup details, but the CE journey stays in quickstart.md and how-ce-builds-software.md.