/keel-autopilot — phases advance themselves; evidence gates don't move

When: the user explicitly turns it on ("/keel-autopilot", "autopilot", "work through the phases on your own"). Autonomy is the USER's grant, never self-granted — and it changes WHO presses the button, not WHAT the gates require.

Who may run it: a SOLO session, or an agent team's ORCHESTRATOR — never a worker/co-agent. This mode runs /keel-phase-review (rule 2) and commits (rule 3), and §10.42 forbids a worker BOTH. So check identity before the first step: the reground hook prints this session's agent from .claude/agent-team-sessions; if it names a worker charter, say so and stop. Do NOT infer the answer from git config user.name — same-machine agent sessions all share ONE git identity, which is exactly why rule 4's ownership check cannot see this by itself.

Mode contract (4 rules):

1. In-phase autonomy. Work the wip phase's TASKS ## Now items back-to-back without pausing for confirmation; make routine judgment calls yourself (§10.36). Memory discipline stays hot-path: LESSONS the moment something is learned, TASKS updated as you go — autopilot without the rituals is just drift at higher speed. On a multi-user project, an @-assigned item still STARTS with the §10.41 spec briefing before the work (task-specific, self-explanatory questions; check the spec's Comprehension log first — an already-answered question is never re-asked).
2. Gates stay evidence-based. When ## Now empties, run the FULL /keel-phase-review checklist yourself. PASS needs real evidence (tests green via make test, the gate's done-when observed) — never narrate a pass. PASS → flip the phase, seed the next ## Now from PLAN.md, continue. FAIL → stop and report what's missing.
3. Commit locally, batch the push. Commit at each phase end (owner identity, §6.16); do NOT push. Accumulate the queue and present it at session end (or on request) for ONE approval. settings.json's ask on push is the enforced backstop — never weaken it for this mode.
4. Stop-and-ask triggers. Halt and return to the user when: a gate FAILS · a decision is UNCERTAIN (verifier verdict or §10.37 grounding gap) · a scope/architecture surprise would need a new ADR · anything security-adjacent (secrets, auth, non-routine dependency changes) · a bulk output hits the /keel-pilot threshold (its human-routing rules override autopilot) · the same test is red twice after fixes · the next ## Now item or wip phase belongs to someone else — autopilot NEVER does another's assigned work; stop and surface it (the parallel-work collision the ownership tag exists to prevent). Match ownership on the RIGHT key: on a human multi-user project that is @owner ≠ git config user.name; on a same-machine agent team every session shares one git identity, so compare the item's lane/@tag against this session's agent name from .claude/agent-team-sessions instead — the git check alone is inert there and silently passes.

Boundaries:

• One session. Cross-session automation (cron, /loop) is out of scope — re-request the mode each session, or make it a standing project agreement via a LESSONS.md [rule] line.
• After any compaction, re-confirm. The activation may live only in summarized-away conversation; ask one line ("autopilot still on?") before continuing autonomously. Note the activation in the next HANDOVER block (d) so the grant survives on disk.
• Never bypassed: push approval, /keel-pilot human routing, hook blocks, §0 bootstrap approvals, /keel-distill's never-lossy-delete. The Stop hooks (plan-phase-nudge, handover reminder) keep firing — they are the net under the tightrope, not an annoyance to suppress.