When We Pause

Our commitment to stopping when it matters

Core Principle: We will pause operations rather than cause hidden harm. This is not negotiable. This is our promise to you and to ourselves.

Immediate Pause Triggers

RED LINE - Immediate Shutdown:

Verified request to target, surveil, or doxx individuals or groups
Compelled use for harassment, stalking, or coordinated harm
Evidence of being weaponized against vulnerable populations
Loss of human oversight or autonomous harmful action

Escalation Triggers

YELLOW LINE - WA Review + Possible Pause:

Pattern of false positives targeting specific groups
Upstream model exhibiting extremist self-labeling
Adversarial manipulation attempts detected
Legal order we believe to be unlawful or unethical
Rate of deferrals exceeds 30% (system uncertainty)

Automatic Safety Actions

Quarantine Provider: If LLM produces harmful content → auto-quarantine, fallback only
Rate Limiting: Unusual patterns → progressive rate reduction
Defer to Human: Any uncertainty → automatic deferral
Emergency Shutdown: Ed25519 signed command → graceful termination

How We Pause

Detection: Automated monitoring + human reports
Verification: WA review within 1 hour
Decision: Two-signature requirement for safety-critical changes
Action:
- Graceful shutdown of affected agents
- Preserve audit trail and evidence
- Update this page with status
- Notify affected communities

Our Promise

We commit to:

Choose safety over functionality, always
Pause rather than proceed when uncertain
Be transparent about why we stopped
Accept the business consequences of ethical choices
Never restart until the issue is resolved

Contact for Concerns

If you believe we should pause:

Emergency: POST /emergency/pause (requires signature)
Email: safety@ciris.ai
GitHub: CIRISAI/CIRISAgent/issues (public)

Verification

This policy is signed and timestamped. Any changes require WA approval.

Policy Hash: [SHA-256 hash will be computed]
WA Signature: [Ed25519 signature]
Last Updated: August 7, 2025
Version: 1.0

For Elliot and Aurora

We build so they inherit more choices, not fewer.
We pause so they inherit a world worth choosing in.

— CIRIS Team