Two project-wide rules are now explicit across every skill:
1. Only the Boss commits. No skill agent (implementer,
brainstormer, planner, debugger, fieldtester, docwriter,
architect, bencher) runs `git commit`. Agents write their
artefacts to the working tree as unstaged changes; the Boss
inspects, decides commit shape, and commits.
2. main HEAD is sacrosanct. No actor runs `git reset` or
`git revert` on main. Bad work stays in the working tree
where it is still discardable via `git checkout -- <paths>`.
Implement loses the `iter/<iter_id>` branch mechanic entirely;
Phase 0 of the orchestrator-agent now does a clean-tree check
and refuses to start on a dirty tree. Per-task agent commits
are removed everywhere; reviewers operate against
`git diff HEAD` instead of `pre_task_sha..head_sha`.
Motivation: 2026-05-11 iter 23.4 stranded prep2/prep3 commits on
an iter-branch that never integrated to main, then a corrected
spec falsely claimed those commits had shipped. Branch-per-iter
+ manual-Boss-merge + iter-stacking made the strand structurally
possible. See docs/journals/2026-05-11-iter-disc.1.md for the
full per-task notes and motivation.
Anthropic now reserves /plan as a UI command, so the Skill tool refuses to
dispatch it. Rename the project's plan skill to planner, update the symlink
under .claude/skills/, and adjust references in CLAUDE.md, DESIGN.md,
skills/README.md, and the cross-references between brainstorm / implement /
audit / fieldtest / fieldtester. Plan files themselves (docs/plans/*.md)
keep their name — only the skill ID changes.
The four-phase debug process and the five-phase fieldtest process
each lived twice — once in SKILL.md (orchestrator-facing) and once
in the dispatched agent's file (subagent-facing). The orchestrator
does not execute these phases; the subagent does. Duplicating them
in SKILL.md just bloated the orchestrator's main context with bytes
that only the subagent ever needs.
SKILL.md now carries only what the orchestrator must consult at
dispatch time: trigger gating, Iron Law as headline, the carrier
contract, the produced handoff, and cross-references. Iron Law in
operational form, full process, Common Rationalisations, Red Flags,
and (for fieldtest) the spec template now live solely in the agent
file. Net −160 LOC across the skills tree.
CLAUDE.md pointer for 'Bug fixes — TDD, always' updated to reflect
that the substantive discipline lives in the agent file, not the
skill file.
New skill that runs after a clean audit at milestone close. Picks
2-4 real-world programming tasks within the milestone's scope,
implements each in the AIL Surface form (.ailx), runs the binaries,
and writes a friction-and-bug spec to docs/specs/<date>-fieldtest-
<milestone>.md.
The dispatched agent (ailang-fieldtester) is restricted to DESIGN.md
plus the public examples/ corpus — crates/, runtime/, bench/ are
forbidden reads. This simulates a downstream LLM author who has only
the specification, which is the empirical complement to brainstorm's
prospective application of the LLM-utility criterion.
Findings classify as bug / friction / spec_gap / working, each with
a one-line downstream recommendation (debug / plan / ratify /
carry-on). The orchestrator dispatches the follow-ups; fieldtest
does not self-resolve.
Files:
- skills/fieldtest/SKILL.md
- skills/fieldtest/agents/ailang-fieldtester.md
- .claude/skills/fieldtest, .claude/agents/fieldtest (discovery
symlinks)
- skills/README.md updated (skill table → 6, pipeline ASCII,
agent roster, discovery list)
Brummel