The selector forced every task through the heaviest methodology's
critical path: a behaviour-preserving, type-enumerable change paid the
same specify -> planner -> implement front-half as a novel feature,
because it was neither new behaviour (tdd) nor an observed bug (debug)
and so fell to specify by elimination. Two coupled defects — a selector
with no verification axis, and an all-or-nothing executor — kept the
existing lighter path unreachable and uneconomical. This fixes both.
Part A — verification-keyed selector (boss/SKILL.md):
- Replace the three-way "design line" with an ordered cascade that adds
a verification/enumeration axis ahead of the settled-vs-fork question.
Each lighter arm carries a positive trigger matched by signature, not
reached by elimination.
- New `compiler-driven` arm: a type/signature edit at a definition site
that propagates mechanically. Observe-then-bounce — make the edit,
build, run the suite; clean build AND suite green unchanged commits;
a hole bounces up (specify for a design choice, tdd for discovered
test-specifiable new behaviour); a regression bounces to debug.
- The observed-bug RED-first gate is first in the cascade, so a
mechanical-looking fix cannot bypass it.
- The straddle rule ("add an enum variant") is codified as a rule:
mechanical/forwarding -> compiler-driven; encodes new behaviour ->
tdd/spec; doubt routes up.
- The executor is the elevated inline carve-out plus a shipped workflow,
not a heavy new skill ("the largest concrete win is small").
Part B — Workflow substrate (implement/workflows/):
- implement-loop.js: the per-task loop as a deterministic script. Each
phase (implementer -> spec-compliance -> quality, + tester for E2E) is
a separate top-level agent() call, so a single phase is independently
invokable and inter-phase aggregation/re-loop is code. Retires the
implement-orchestrator agent's inline-role-switch workaround (the four
phase agents survive as the agent-types the script dispatches).
- compiler-driven-edit.js: the observe-then-bounce loop.
- install.sh / uninstall.sh symlink shipped workflows into
~/.claude/workflows/.
- specify and brainstorm stay prose + interactive (human-intent oracle);
only the autonomous/mechanical loops moved. try-and-error is deferred.
Docs (pipeline taxonomy, design, agent-template, migration, README) and
all selector<->executor cross-references updated; the arm and its
executor are co-located so a future re-route through the full loop is a
visible regression.
Verified by an adversarial multi-agent pass: PASS on all six acceptance
criteria; two coherence concerns fixed. The shipped scripts are
syntax-validated but exercised only in a downstream target project (the
skills repo is not itself a pipeline target).
closes#7
The profile was never parsed — it was prose the skill bodies told the model to read, so most slots were dead, constant across every project, or fiction (the whole pipeline block, including the "tdd is opt-in" claim, was enforced by nothing).
Split it in two: constants become fixed conventions named directly by the skills (new docs/conventions.md), and the few genuinely per-project facts move to each project's CLAUDE.md under '## Skills plugin: project facts'. tdd/fieldtest/docwriter are now always available; the only behavioural toggle left is spec auto-sign.
Delete docs/profile-schema.md and templates/project-profile.yml; add docs/conventions.md and a project-facts section to templates/CLAUDE.md.fragment; rewrite all SKILL/agent prose and the pipeline/design/migration/README/INSTALL docs accordingly.
The tdd skill referenced its neighbours (implement, brainstorm,
debug) but none referenced it back. Close the loop so the new
executable-spec-first entry path is reachable and consistent from
every skill that describes a relationship it now belongs to:
- implement: mini-mode trigger + dispatch example now cover a
RED-first handoff from `debug` OR `tdd` (was debug-only); the
orchestrator's task template and Phase-3 skip note generalised.
This was real drift — mini-mode is no longer debug-exclusive.
- planner: skip rule gains the `tdd` case (it skips brainstorm
AND planner — the RED executable-spec is the plan).
- brainstorm: `tdd` added to the permitted-skip list as the
profile-gated alternative entry path, plus a cross-ref marking
brainstorm as the bounce-back target when behaviour stops being
test-specifiable.
- boss: pipeline diagram, Step-3 routing prose, and cross-refs.
A test-specifiable feature issue is dispatched to `tdd`
autonomously, the same way a bug issue goes to `debug`; this is
NOT a new-cycle bounce-back (the test is the spec). The
bounce-back fires only reactively, when tdd surfaces a genuine
design fork.
- debug: reciprocal sibling note + cross-ref (new behaviour is
tdd's job; debug is for regressions of existing behaviour).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Per-skill prose tightening from the same audit swarm; each finding
passed an adversarial second reviewer. No behavioural change.
- audit: drop garbled "Conventions require deferred audits to
compound" sentence (says the opposite of intent; the preceding
line already closes the loophole).
- brainstorm: drop forward-pointing meta-comment about the
Rationalisations table.
- debug: drop third restatement that debugger.md is the single
source for the carrier/handoff fields.
- docwriter: drop motivational opener; Overview starts at the
waste argument.
- fieldtest: fold the 2-4-examples rationale into the dispatch
sentence instead of restating the count a fourth time.
- implement: drop "known platform constraint at the time" aside.
- planner: cut the verbose anti-drift paragraph (which restated
the very table it claimed not to) down to a cross-reference.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The carrier (symptom/repro_known/recent_iter) and handoff
(red_test_path/cause_summary/constraint) field definitions were
tabled in full in both SKILL.md and debugger.md — the exact
duplication that let the `constraint` wording drift earlier.
Since the debugger agent runs in a fresh context, it must carry
both contracts inline regardless; that makes debugger.md the
natural single source. Mark its Carrier-contract and Output-format
tables authoritative, fold in the richer field descriptions that
only SKILL.md had, and reduce SKILL.md to naming the fields plus a
pointer — no field semantics restated. Drift-prone prose now lives
in exactly one place. Consistent with SKILL.md's own stated split
(debugger.md = source of truth; skill = trigger/dispatch/handoff).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The `constraint` handoff field was worded two ways: SKILL.md
omitted the "no opportunistic refactor" clause that debugger.md
carried. Same contract, two strings — exactly the interface drift
the two-file split risks. Align SKILL.md to the fuller wording.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Phase 3 previously said only "smallest possible reproducer" — a
passive property an agent can satisfy by name while still asserting
against the full reproducing fixture. Sharpen it into an explicit
two-step discipline: minimize the trigger (delta-reduce until one
more cut makes the symptom vanish) and make the fixture autonomous
(inline input, no shared fixtures/DB seeds/clocks/server boots
unless the bug is genuinely at that integration boundary).
- Iron Law gains: an un-minimized repro is not a RED test
- Phase 3 rewritten with explicit Minimize + Autonomous steps
- 3 rationalization rows + 4 red flags for the "full fixture
reproduces deterministically, ship it" failure mode
- SKILL.md overview/handoff mirrored at orchestrator altitude
Baseline (writing-skills RED-first): 6 subagent runs showed the old
wording usually steered right but relied on agent instinct; GREEN:
2 runs under the targeted full-fixture pressure now reduce to the
minimal trigger and cite the contract verbatim.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Second skill migrated using the boss pattern. Purely a discipline
skill (RED-first bug fixing); no AILang-specific contracts.
Vocabulary substitutions:
- AILang → "this project" / "the project"
- "ailang-debugger" / "ailang-bencher" / "ailang-architect"
→ "debugger" / "bencher" / "architect" (ailang- prefix dropped)
- "Boss" → "orchestrator"
AILang-specific bits replaced with profile slots:
- `cargo build` / `cargo test` → `commands.build` / `commands.test`
- `ail emit-ir`, `ail run`, `ail build` → "the project's run command"
(generic — these were AILang CLI specifics)
- `crates/ail/tests/e2e.rs` hardcoded test path → "the testing
location idiomatic for this project"
- `design/INDEX.md` → `paths.design_ledger` (optional; if the
project does not have one configured, that step short-circuits)
Universal substance preserved verbatim:
- Iron Law (3 lines)
- Four phases + Phase 4.5 (the three-failures-means-architecture
rule)
- Status protocol (DONE / DONE_WITH_CONCERNS / NEEDS_CONTEXT /
BLOCKED)
- All 7 Common Rationalisations rows
- All 8 Red Flags bullets
Dropped from original:
- "former CLAUDE.md 'Bug fixes — TDD, always' section before the
2026-05-09 skill-system migration" — AILang history, not
load-bearing for the discipline
- "for the AILang project at /home/brummel/dev/ailang" — AILang
identity, replaced with generic "this project"
Cross-refs (post-flatten):
- `../implement/SKILL.md` for the GREEN handoff target
- `agents/debugger.md` from the skill body
Brummel