A role carries responsibility
An explanatory role can use material and assistance that do not belong in an examination role. If the name changes while permissions and context remain untouched, the new label does not change what the system can do. A transition needs an account of the responsibility the role carries.
Our starting question was what a transition leaves behind. When the departing role carries educational state or a judgement about the learner, leaving has consequences. The model cannot remove those consequences by announcing that the conversation will now become an explanation.
Leaving and entering are different questions
Leaving asks what must be preserved or reconciled from the previous role. Entering asks whether the next role has what it needs to operate. Combining both into an ambiguous check hides the reason for refusal and can permit a role that lacks the necessary context.
Warda declares transition conditions and checks both sides. A change in explanatory style differs from a transition that needs prepared material, and both differ from leaving an exam. This distinction makes permission or refusal explainable independently of model improvisation.
A proposal is not execution
A learner, interface or agent may propose a transition. The origin of the proposal does not grant permission to bypass the rule. The responsible service reads state and conditions on the declared route and returns a defined outcome. An undeclared route does not become legal because it sounds plausible.
This separates coordination from authority. An agent can recognise a need for a different approach without inventing policy for the session. An independent service makes that policy reviewable and testable without depending on the model to remember instructions on every turn.
The role does not change halfway through a response
The conversational turn boundary is the natural place to apply the change. A request arriving during a run waits for a safe boundary, where current state is checked again. Queuing is not a promise of execution: circumstances can change before the request is applied.
We also account for loops between roles. Repeated handoff proposals are not necessarily useful collaboration. Stop conditions and explicit refusal outcomes keep coordination from consuming the learner’s time without producing educational value.
Context follows responsibility, not just a label
Review asks whether the incoming role receives what it needs and whether material outside its responsibility stays excluded. An exam label on screen cannot prevent explanations or previously stored answers from reaching a model. Context projection and available tools must enforce the boundary too. Saved history is not deleted merely because the new role should not see all of it.
A transition contract therefore covers state, context and required effects, resolved at the conversational boundary. If state changes between proposal and application, an earlier approval is insufficient; the conditions need a fresh check. This separation prevents a style change from unintentionally changing the meaning of assessment.
What this adds to Warda
Separating roles protects the meaning of the interaction: explanation can remain flexible, judgement retains its own path, and the transition itself is traceable. Adding a new role becomes an explicit design responsibility rather than an accidental exception to older rules.
This is an account of an engineering rule, not a catalogue of every mode available to visitors. It explains why permissions, context and timing are reviewed together when we introduce educational behaviour, and how conversational flexibility connects to enforceable platform boundaries.
Sources and context
- Warda engineering decision — session roles and transitions
Original decision and service rules: leaving, entering, proposal sources and turn boundaries.
Internal records document Warda’s decisions and engineering contracts. External references, where included, explain a pattern or specification; design quality and effects on student learning are different questions.