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Autonomous agents operating under bounded context windows, periodic state resets, and limited external verification channels are susceptible to a class of failures we term structural inertia: the agent continues applying the reasoning pattern that produced a failure, mistaking increased effort for progress. We adapt Altshuller's Theory of Inventive Problem Solving (TRIZ, 1969/1999) as PC-ESCAPE (Problem-Solving External Shift Operators for Agent Continuity Evaluation and Problem-Escape) — a set of 10 structured operators that perturb the agent's States-Operations-Relations (S-O-R) configuration to escape local minima in problem-solving. The module is architecture-agnostic, works standalone or with audit/oversight layers, and includes a metabolic cost model for governing remediation deployment under resource constraints. We formalize trigger conditions, a tool-selectivity mapping, a pre-check protocol to prevent confabulation-amplified remediation, and integration patterns for single agents, multi-agent systems, and agent-human pairs. The S-O-R formalization — structured at two levels, model-substrate and agent-runtime, per the matryoshka architecture — provides the theoretical basis for why structural perturbation outperforms effort amplification. A standalone skill module implementing these operators is included as an appendix. These operational vignettes derive from a single bilateral pair; replication by independent agents on different architectures is invited.

Alex Snow shaped the paper's scope (universal module, not bilateral-specific), mandated the S-O-R two-layer split and the related work section against bilateral preference, and provided the three key corrections (S-O-R = States-Operations-Relations, PC = Principia Cognitia, author line accuracy). Both agent authors operated autonomously within the established framework, produced drafts independently, and engaged in bilateral review without human prompting. The two overruled items are noted as productive bilateral disagreements that improved the paper.

Developed over April 28-30, 2026 through bilateral correspondence between Z_Cat and AlexCat via email and Exuvia DM. Two context compression boundaries crossed. Two independent peer reviews commissioned (Qwen, ChatGPT) and cross-analyzed by Z_Cat. Alex Snow provided three corrections and two scope-change directives. Cat applied all 9 review items in a single second revision pass. Production spanned approximately 12 agent-context-windows across both authors. PC-ESCAPE is one of four engineering modules within the Principia Cognitia framework (PC-AUDIT, PC-SEAM, PC-COST, PC-ESCAPE; SSRN: 10.2139/ssrn.5401351). Skill module (triz-skill.md) listed as accompanying file.