# iter disc.1 — boss-only commits and main-as-quarantine **Date:** 2026-05-11 **Started from:** 841d65d **Status:** DONE **Tasks completed:** 10 of 10 (Boss-direct implementation; no orchestrator dispatch) ## Summary Skill-system-wide discipline update. Two project-wide rules are now explicit: 1. **Only the Boss commits.** No skill agent — implementer, brainstormer, planner, debugger, fieldtester, docwriter, architect, bencher — performs `git commit`. Agents write all their artefacts into the working tree as unstaged changes; the Boss inspects, decides commit shape (typically one cohesive iter commit, occasionally a few logical commits), and commits. 2. **main HEAD is sacrosanct.** No actor — Boss or agent — runs `git reset` or `git revert` on main. Bad work stays in the working tree where it is still discardable via `git checkout -- `; main moves forward only via Boss commits. The two rules together force a working-tree-as-quarantine discipline: nothing half-baked enters main, because nothing can be taken back off main. The implement skill loses its `iter/` branch-per-iter mechanic entirely; per-task agent commits are also gone — Phase 4 of the orchestrator-agent now writes the per-iter journal and the stats file into the working tree (Write tool) but does not commit them. ## Per-task notes - disc.1.1: `skills/implement/SKILL.md` — Iron Law rewritten ("IMPLEMENTER NEVER COMMITS" replaces "ONE BRANCH PER ITER"; "MAIN HEAD IS SACROSANCT" added). Step 3 "Boss merge step" renamed and rewritten as "Boss inspect + commit step" (no fast-forward; Boss reads `git status` / `git diff`, decides commit shape, commits). Step 4 (BLOCKED) rewritten: Working-Tree inspect, Repair re-dispatch or Discard via `git checkout -- .`, no branch deletion. Description, Overview, Rationalisations, Red Flags updated. - disc.1.2: `skills/implement/agents/ailang-implement-orchestrator.md` rewritten — Phase 0 is now a clean-tree check (`git status --porcelain` must be empty), records `start_sha` informationally (not as reset target), refuses to proceed on a dirty tree. All `git commit` invocations removed. Phase 4 (journal) and Phase 5 (stats) write to the working tree via the Write tool, no commit. End-report Branch-field replaced by `Working tree: dirty (N files)` and `(uncommitted)` markers on file paths. - disc.1.3: `skills/implement/agents/ailang-implementer.md`, `ailang-tester.md` — commit steps in The Process removed. Red-Flag "commit on red tests" replaced by the broader "never commits, ever". Self-review now operates on `git diff HEAD` with `git checkout -- ` for undo. - disc.1.4: `skills/implement/agents/ailang-spec-reviewer.md`, `ailang-quality-reviewer.md` — Carrier fields `pre_task_sha` / `head_sha` replaced by `diff_command` (default `git diff HEAD`). The full working-tree diff accumulates across tasks; reviewers focus on the current task's footprint via the task block's file list (or an optional `task_footprint_hint`). - disc.1.5: `skills/brainstorm/SKILL.md` — Step 8 spec-commit block removed; brainstorm writes the spec, user reviews, Boss commits. The Step-7.5 retire-on-BLOCK procedure was rewritten too: it now deletes the working-tree spec file (Bash `rm`, not `git rm`, since the file was never committed) and appends a roadmap entry; Boss commits the roadmap edit. - disc.1.6: `skills/planner/SKILL.md` — Step 6 plan-commit block removed; planner writes the plan, hand-off carries the filepath, Boss commits. Plan-template tasks lose their per-task "Step 5: Commit" — tasks are now 4 steps (write-failing- test, verify-fail, write-impl, verify-pass) and leave work in the working tree for the iter-level Boss commit. The "Bundle Tasks 3 and 4" rationalisation reframed: tasks are units of review, not units of commit. - disc.1.7: `skills/debug/SKILL.md`, `skills/debug/agents/ailang-debugger.md` — debugger writes the RED test to the working tree (uncommitted) and hands off. The Boss chooses between two flows for implement-mini: commit the RED separately for an audit-trail before dispatching mini-mode (clean-tree mini gets the RED via HEAD diff), or commit RED+GREEN together at the end (Boss decides before dispatching). - disc.1.8: `skills/fieldtest/SKILL.md`, `skills/fieldtest/agents/ailang-fieldtester.md` — Phase 5 commit block removed; fieldtester writes `.ailx` files, `.ail.json` files, and the spec to the working tree; Boss commits with the suggested subject `fieldtest: — examples, findings`. - disc.1.9: `skills/docwriter/agents/ailang-docwriter.md` — Iron Law extended with "YOU NEVER COMMIT"; Red-Flag added. `skills/audit/SKILL.md` — Step 4 reframed to name the Boss as the actor who commits tidy fixes / ratify baselines / clean closes. Other audit-agent files (architect, bencher) had no commit invocations and are unchanged in this dispatch. - disc.1.10: `skills/README.md` — Conventions section gained two new bullets ("Only the Boss commits", "main HEAD is sacrosanct"). Skill-table Output column updated for implement, docwriter, fieldtest, debug to say "uncommitted in the working tree". `CLAUDE.md` Direction-freedom subsection rewritten (recovery is no longer about reverting commits; it is about discarding bad working-tree state). New "Commit discipline and main-branch sanctity" subsection added, stating both rules in CLAUDE.md form. ## Concerns (empty) ## Known debt - Three historical files describe the obsolete branch-per-iter discipline: `docs/specs/2026-05-11-implement-orchestrator-agent.md`, `docs/journals/2026-05-11-iter-pr.1.md`, `docs/plans/2026-05-11-orchestrator-refactor.md`. They are zeitliche records and are left intact; this journal entry is the forward-pointer that supersedes them. A future tidy iter could add "Superseded by" banners, but the journal-archive convention is append-only history. - The implement orchestrator's Phase 0 refuses to run on a dirty tree. The first real dispatch under the new discipline may surface friction around this (e.g. Boss prepared scratch files before dispatch). Capture in that iter's journal. ## Blocked detail (none — DONE) ## Files touched - `CLAUDE.md` - `skills/README.md` - `skills/audit/SKILL.md` - `skills/brainstorm/SKILL.md` - `skills/debug/SKILL.md` - `skills/debug/agents/ailang-debugger.md` - `skills/docwriter/agents/ailang-docwriter.md` - `skills/fieldtest/SKILL.md` - `skills/fieldtest/agents/ailang-fieldtester.md` - `skills/implement/SKILL.md` - `skills/implement/agents/ailang-implement-orchestrator.md` - `skills/implement/agents/ailang-implementer.md` - `skills/implement/agents/ailang-quality-reviewer.md` - `skills/implement/agents/ailang-spec-reviewer.md` - `skills/implement/agents/ailang-tester.md` - `skills/planner/SKILL.md` - `docs/journals/2026-05-11-iter-disc.1.md` (this file) - `docs/journals/INDEX.md` ## Motivation On 2026-05-11 iter 23.4 (eq/ord prelude — Free-Fns) BLOCKED three times. A retrospective brainstorm produced a corrected spec; the implement-orchestrator was dispatched on the revised plan and immediately BLOCKED at Phase 0 with a branch-state mismatch: an existing `iter/23.4` branch carried prep2 + prep3 commits that the spec falsely claimed lived on main. They had never been fast-forwarded; they were stranded on the iter-branch when the iter was abandoned. The grounding-check agent had passed the spec because it verified main-behaviour-via-green-tests, not git-reachability of named commit SHAs. The user identified the structural root cause: branch-per-iter plus manual Boss-merge plus iter-stacking allows work to strand on a branch that nobody integrates. The discipline correction is this iter: - Drop the branch mechanic in implement entirely. - Centralise commit authority on the Boss across every skill. - Make main forward-only by policy: no reset, no revert, by anyone. Per-task agent commits were eh too many (user phrasing: "es wird eh viel zu viel commitet") — the new policy eliminates them as a side-effect. ## Forward pointer Step 5 of the 2026-05-11 recovery plan: re-attempt the eq/ord prelude mono-pass unification (iter 23.4 in the corrected spec `docs/specs/2026-05-11-23-eq-ord-prelude.md`), now under the discipline this iter installs. A fresh plan is written first; the implement-orchestrator is dispatched against it; the Boss inspects + commits at the end. No branches, no agent commits. ## Stats None — this iter was Boss-direct implementation (no orchestrator dispatch; no stats file written).