AI proposes. Humans decide.
IX-BlackFox is a source-available governed AI engineering control plane for bounded patch-test-verify workflows.
Its purpose is not uncontrolled autonomous coding. Its purpose is to keep AI-assisted engineering inside reviewable boundaries: policy gates, controlled patch candidates, test execution, receipt chains, evidence bundles, reliability scenarios, adversarial checks, and human authority.
Current implemented wave: Wave 4.
Wave 4 adds a reliability lab on top of the earlier governed patch-test-verify and repair-authoring layers. The current repository contains Wave 4 reliability components for scenario suites, adversarial tests, repair metrics, reliability reports, and artifact bundles.
Wave 5 is not implemented yet. Wave 5 is the next planned stage: organization-grade workflow with PR evidence packs, approvals, and CI integration.
| Wave | Status | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Implemented | Governed multi-brain runtime scaffold |
| 2 | Implemented | Governed local patch-test-verify control plane |
| 3 | Implemented | Governed patch authoring and repair intelligence |
| 4 | Implemented | Reliability lab with scenario suites, adversarial tests, and repair metrics |
| 5 | Planned | Organization-grade workflow with PR evidence packs, approvals, and CI integration |
IX-BlackFox currently supports:
- bounded runtime scaffolding
- policy-aware execution paths
- local patch-test-verify workflows
- governed patch candidates
- repair proposal parsing and validation
- receipt generation
- run bundle and evidence output
- Wave 3 authored-repair handoff into Wave 2 execution
- Wave 4 reliability scenario suites
- adversarial fail-closed checks
- repair-quality metrics
- reliability reports and artifacts
Model output is treated as untrusted input.
IX-BlackFox does not accept a repair simply because an AI or external provider proposed it. A repair must pass parsing, policy review, compilation, candidate selection, controlled execution, evidence capture, and human-reviewable reporting.
The key rule is:
AI may propose. IX-BlackFox must gate, test, record, and route for review. Humans retain authority.
IX-BlackFox does not claim:
- production readiness
- certification
- procurement status
- official defense affiliation
- autonomous authority
- deployment approval
- safety certification
- security certification
- that any AI-generated repair is correct without evidence
This is a research prototype, not an operational system.
Important areas include:
| Path | Purpose |
|---|---|
src/ix_blackfox/runtime/ |
Runtime control, repair execution, receipts, bundles, safeguards, replay, and Wave 3 handoff |
src/ix_blackfox/authoring/ |
Patch-authoring models, evidence extraction, prompt contracts, parsers, compilers, policy, receipts, and candidate ranking |
src/ix_blackfox/reliability/ |
Wave 4 reliability lab, scenario suites, adversarial harness, metrics, reports, and artifacts |
src/ix_blackfox/governance/ |
Governance policy, approval, advisory, receipts, and decision models |
src/ix_blackfox/forge/ |
Workspace, patch planning, command execution, regression handling, and governed command paths |
tests/ |
Test coverage for runtime, authoring, governance, reliability, forge, memory, vault, tools, and related modules |
From the repository root:
python -m pytest
To inspect the Wave 4 reliability lab directly, review:
tests/reliability/test_wave4_reliability_lab.py
src/ix_blackfox/reliability/
Locked roadmap
| Wave | Locked meaning |
|---|---|
| 1 | Governed multi-brain runtime scaffold |
| 2 | Governed local patch-test-verify control plane |
| 3 | Governed patch authoring and repair intelligence |
| 4 | Reliability lab with scenario suites, adversarial tests, and repair metrics |
| 5 | Organization-grade workflow with PR evidence packs, approvals, and CI integration |
| 6 | Hardened sandbox execution layer with isolated workspaces, signed artifacts, and egress controls |
| 7 | Model-agnostic repair intelligence with model comparison, routing, budget controls, and provider abstraction |
| 8 | Repository intelligence layer with code graph, dependency mapping, impact analysis, and architectural memory |
| 9 | Compliance/audit attestation layer with policy packs, evidence standards, reviewer signoff, and governance reports |
| 10 | Full AI engineering operating system: multi-repo, multi-team, policy-governed, measurable, replayable, and reviewable |
Engineering principle
IX-BlackFox evolves through controlled engineering optimization, not uncontrolled mutation.
Every serious capability should be:
bounded testable auditable reversible policy-gated evidence-producing human-reviewable honest about uncertainty License
IX-BlackFox is governed by the IX-BlackFox Source-Available Evaluation License v1.0 beginning with the license-transition commit.
The current source is available for review and limited noncommercial, non-operational evaluation only. Commercial use, production use, hosted-service use, redistribution, modification, derivative deployment, government operational use, agency operational use, contractor use, procurement use, funded-pilot use, or organization-backed use requires prior written permission and a separate license agreement with Bryce Lovell.
Earlier versions released under Apache License 2.0 remain governed by their original license terms. Current license details are documented in LICENSE, COMMERCIAL.md, and NOTICE.md.