when-not-to-use（何时不使用）

Skill: TraceMem When NOT to Use

Purpose

This skill helps agents determine when TraceMem is *unnecessary* or potentially harmful to performance/complexity. Not every line of code needs a decision envelope.

When to Use

• When planning a task.
• During architectural decision making.

When NOT to Use

• When the task is trivial, internal, or clearly outside the scope of "governance".

Core Rules

• No Side Effects? No Trace needed: If you are just calculating pi or formatting a string, you don't need TraceMem.
• Public Data Only? Low Risk: If you are fetching public weather data, you *might* not need TraceMem (unless your organization requires tracking *all* external inputs). Default to using it if unsure, but know it's optional for non-sensitive public reads.
• High Frequency: If you need to write 10,000 records per second, TraceMem's HTTP/JSON-RPC overhead (and policy checks per write) might be too slow. TraceMem is for *decisions*, not bulk ETL.

Correct Usage Pattern

Scenario: "I need to summarize this text."

• Action: Purely computational.
• TraceMem?: NO.
• Reason: No side effects, no private data fetch (assuming text is already in memory).

Scenario: "I need to delete a user."

• Action: Side effect, sensitive, irreversible.
• TraceMem?: YES.
• Reason: High risk, requires governance.

Scenario: "I need to look up a timezone for a city."

• Action: Read public utility data.
• TraceMem?: OPTIONAL / NO.
• Reason: Low risk. But if "timezone" is from a proprietary customer database, then YES.

Common Mistakes

• Over-instrumentation: Wrapping every single function call in a new Decision Envelope. Envelopes are for *logical units of work* (e.g., "Process Order"), not atomic instructions ("Add number").
• Bulk Loading: Trying to push millions of rows through decision_write one by one. (TraceMem connectors may support batching, but if not, this is inefficient).

Safety Notes

• Consistency: If you skip TraceMem for "small" writes, you break the guarantee of the audit log. "Small" usage is the most dangerous exception. Be very strict: if it touches *governed* data, it *must* go through TraceMem. The "When NOT to use" applies primarily to *non-governed* or *computational* scopes.