# ADR-A25: LLM participation and deterministic production gate **Status:** Accepted **Date:** 2026-09-18 **Supersedes:** none **Related:** ADR-A22 (MORK governance and versioning), ADR-A28 (parity and conformance gate) **Source plan:** [surface-mork-unified-projection-delivery-plan.md](../../../ontology/surface/docs/surface-mork-unified-projection-delivery-plan.md) ## Context Surface-to-MORK lowering (ADR-A18) can, in principle, use an LLM to complete gaps a contract leaves declarative — a missing parameter binding, an ambiguous role. Unconstrained, this conflicts with the determinism ADR-A19's staged pipeline exists to guarantee, and with the governance gate ADR-A22 places on production mappings. ## Decision **LLM output is proposal-grade by default.** Every LLM-originated completion is materialised as explicit, distinguishable graph nodes and requires governance state (ADR-A22) before it can compile in production mode. A deterministic-only mode — no LLM invocation anywhere in lowering — exists and is the recommended default for production deployments. ## Consequences - Projection policy fields (ADR-A17, ADR-A20) declare an LLM-completion toggle and a template allow-list, alongside backend allow/deny lists. - The production gate (ADR-A28) rejects any mapping with an LLM-originated node lacking governance sign-off, regardless of how the mapping otherwise validates. - Bounded-completion mode, where an LLM may fill only declared gaps using approved templates, remains available for draft and review workflows without weakening the production gate.