Bug governance
How bugs traced to your work affect your XP.
Bug governance keeps quality part of the reward. Every Step tolerates a few bugs; bugs beyond that tolerance reduce the XP of the Hero who was accountable for the work.
What counts as a bug
- On native Quests, a Trap with a named cause counts one bug against the cause Step’s accountable Hero.
- A Trap with no cause counts in the Quest’s bug ratio but penalises nobody.
- On Jira-linked Quests, a Jira Bug issue linked to a task counts against that task’s assignee.
Tolerance
The bigger a Step, the more bugs it tolerates. Tolerance is measured in XP per bug (54 by default): a Step tolerates roughly one bug for every 54 XP it is worth, up to a maximum. Steps fall into tiers from Trivial to Epic.
Accountability by stage
The penalty for each bug beyond tolerance is a percentage of the Step’s XP, and it grows with your stage:
| Stage | Penalty per extra bug |
|---|---|
| Foundation | 5% |
| Acceleration | 7% |
| Stabilization | 10% |
| Mastery | 15% |
| Elite | 20% |
| Legendary | 25% |
penalty = Step XP × stage % × bugs beyond tolerance (never more than the Step's XP)When penalties apply
Penalties are calculated when the Quest is completed. They appear in your XP Activity History as Bug Penalty debits, reduce your Vault balance, and you are notified with XP penalty applied.
For leaders
Settings → Bug Governance configures the tolerance tiers and accountability weights, and includes an XP Impact Simulator. The Every Trap has a cause card lists Traps still waiting for a cause.