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Read the Habitat Build Gap

The Habitat Build Gap is the assessment's headline signal. It reconciles the two reads:

Habitat Build Gap = cognitive level − habitat maturity mean (all 14 dimensions)

Both terms sit on the same 0–5 ruler, so the gap is signed. What matters is coherence — whether your thinking and your habitat are in step — not the size of the level. See Coherence, not level for why.

Find it in the report

Look for the ## Habitat Build Gap block:

Habitat Maturity Level (model):  L2  (14-dim mean L1.9)
Cognitive read (Parts A–C):      L2
Habitat Build Gap:               +0.1   (cognitive − 14-dim mean)
Interpretation:                  Coherent

Act on the regime

Regime When What to do
Coherent (abs(gap) < 0.5) Team and habitat are at the same level. Keep both moving together. Pick the single weakest dimension and lift it; the level rises coherently.
Ambition outpaces enablement (gap ≥ +0.5) You think at a higher level than your habitat supports. Build the habitat your thinking already implies. The report names the dimension most worth lifting — start there (often Composition or Observability).
Inherited habitat (gap ≤ −0.5) The habitat is more mature than current practice. Literacy uplift before more tooling. Invest in how the team works, not in more constraints.

Two cautions

  • A coherent low level beats an incoherent high one. A team at L2 cognitive / L2 operational is healthier than one at L4 cognitive / L1 operational. Don't chase the number.
  • The floor is not a signal. A repo with essentially no AI-collaboration evidence sits at the L1 floor on every dimension; a small negative gap there (a cognitive-L0 repo against the L1 floor) is the "nothing yet" baseline, not a genuine inherited habitat.

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