An Integrity-First Autonomy Stack Phase-Governed Control, Closure, and Advisory AI for Safety-Critical Systems

Autonomous and semi-autonomous systems increasingly operate in environments where errors, uncertainty, or silent degradation can produce real-world harm. Existing approaches often emphasize optimization, learning, or reactive fault handling, while assuming continuous operation as a default. This paper proposes an alternative architectural foundation for autonomous systems: an integrity-first autonomy stack in which the right to act is conditional, safety is enforced structurally, and recovery is a primary system function. The proposed stack integrates hardware identity anchoring, a phase-governed operating system, a sovereign integrity kernel, and an advisory-only artificial intelligence layer. System behavior is constrained by explicit operational phases, irreversible actions are gated by commit semantics, and integrity loss triggers deterministic closure and recovery. Artificial intelligence is restricted to analysis and proposal roles and is never granted execution authority. This architecture is applicable to robotics, industrial automation, transportation systems, and safety-critical monitoring environments. The paper presents a conceptual framework without implementation detail, intended to establish architectural principles rather than prescribe mechanisms.