Execution Mode. A declared operating posture that changes which effects a system may perform: inspect, validate, plan, dry-run, install, enforce, embedded, daemon, high-availability, or other bounded forms of action.
Execution mode keeps systems honest about the difference between inspecting, planning, simulating, and acting. When action rights are bound to execution mode through an action-rights envelope, a delegated actor cannot silently move from proposal to effect.
A governed fallback path is also an execution mode: it may change how work proceeds, but not whether truth, policy, approval, audit, and safety still apply.
Retrying work is also an execution choice. A retry policy should say when a failed or uncertain effect may be attempted again and when the system must queue, stop, or require review instead.
Execution modes become governable when a typed intermediate model lets validation, planning, dry-run, and execution reason over the same structured intent.