Runaway-Regime Diagnostic Tool Structural Classification of High-Risk Systems

This record provides a standalone Runaway-Regime Diagnostic Tool for rapid structural classification of high-risk complex systems (e.g., frontier AI, critical infrastructure, financial systems, and other runaway-prone domains). The tool is derived directly from the formal framework presented in: Dellomonaco, D. (2026). Runaway Dynamics, Asymmetric Control, and Governance Bifurcations (Zenodo). It introduces no new theoretical claims and does not prescribe specific policy instruments. Instead, it provides a regime-based diagnostic (benign / critical / catastrophic) and a concise checklist to determine when continuous (“soft”) governance is structurally sufficient and when prepared hard controls become a mandatory safety mode. An appendix illustrates the application to frontier AI systems (status: January 2026) in strictly structural terms, without system-specific allegations. The intent is to support decision-makers in performing regime diagnosis prior to debates on cost, ethics, or political feasibility.