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 `spec-skeptic` `scope-fork` juror reads only the seeding issue plus
the spec. On the legitimate `specify` direct-entry path — a fork settled
in a long in-context design discussion — that resolution lives only in
ephemeral chat the juror cannot replay. When the issue body lags the
discussion (still lists the fork open), the juror correctly blocks, and
a design BLOCK escalates without self-correction. The result: auto-sign
was structurally almost unreachable for the in-context entry path.
Close the blind spot by giving the juror an auditable source instead of
weakening the gate. When `specify` enters in-context and a tracker issue
still lists a now-resolved fork as open, the orchestrator posts a
reconciliation comment recording each fork's resolution WITH provenance
(a record of the user's decision, never a fresh orchestrator one) before
writing the spec. The comment is persistent and audit-able — unlike a
carrier digest — so it, not the orchestrator's confidence, is what the
juror checks.
Separation of powers keeps it honest: the orchestrator writes the
comment, the adversarial juror enforces the provenance requirement. A
bare `decision: X` with no provenance does not resolve the fork — the
re-dispatched juror blocks on it. The escalation rule and the
three-field carrier are untouched; only the juror's information changes.
Mechanics:
- specify Step 1.5: reconciliation-comment sub-step, provenance format,
issue-less fallback (auto-sign -> human sign-off, no weak spec-note).
- spec-skeptic: replace the "quoted in the dispatch" drift; juror reads
the issue WITH comments via `issue_tracker.show_cmd`; provenance check.
- new profile slot `issue_tracker.show_cmd` (must render comments);
documented in schema + template.
- issue skill: `tea issues <idx>` is body-only; `--comments` required
(verified against tea 0.14.1 and Aura #55 — 180 vs 144 lines).
- consistency: design.md out-of-scope, README, pipeline.md, boss skill.
The spec-skeptic auto-sign panel was one-shot: under /boss with
spec_auto_sign on, any panel BLOCK fell straight back to the human
sign-off pause. Because the panel is adversarial-by-design and rarely
returns a unanimous SOUND, /boss escalated to the user even for defects
the orchestrator could mechanically repair.
Partition the five lenses by what a BLOCK means and run Step 6 as a
bounded loop:
- Editorial (criterion, ambiguity, plan-readiness) — the spec is
under-articulated; the orchestrator self-corrects in place, re-runs
Step 4 + Step 5, and re-dispatches all five lenses.
- Design (scope-fork, grounding) — the ground is not settled; escalate,
never self-correct.
Re-loop limit: <= 2 rounds, the 3rd unresolved editorial BLOCK
escalates (hard-coded N, matching implement-orchestrator's idiom).
INFRA_ERROR and exhausted budget escalate too. Auto-sign still requires
a fresh unanimous SOUND on a green objective gate.
Re-dispatching all five lenses every round is the backstop: an
editorial repair that launders an unsourced design decision is caught
by the re-run scope-fork / grounding jurors and escalates. A criterion
repair is bounded to supplying the worked evidence the criterion already
demands — not re-judging acceptance (architect drift item).
specify/SKILL.md owns the loop; spec-skeptic.md keeps the juror
lens-agnostic; boss/SKILL.md, README.md, docs/profile-schema.md and
docs/pipeline.md are synced to the new semantics.
closes#6
Add `pipeline.boss.spec_auto_sign` (default off). With it on, a /boss
run may sign a spec in the user's place — but only through a gate built
to never rely on the orchestrator's own confidence: all objective gates
green (precondition, parse, grounding-check PASS with no human override)
AND a unanimous five-lens adversarial spec-skeptic panel (criterion,
grounding, scope-fork, ambiguity, plan-readiness). Any single BLOCK
falls back to the human sign-off pause.
On a clean sign the orchestrator commits the spec ((boss-signed) in the
subject), fires a mandatory informational-with-veto notify, and proceeds
to planner without stopping. A later veto is a forward correction, never
a history rewind.
- new agent: specify/agents/spec-skeptic.md (read-only, one lens per dispatch)
- specify Step 6 + Iron Law: approval may come from the auto-sign gate,
never from model self-confidence
- boss: third notify category, §"Spec auto-sign", rationalisations, red flags
- profile-schema + template: the opt-in slot
- pipeline.md, agent-template.md, README: the auto-sign path documented
Add `specify` as a third co-equal entry path into the dev cycle: it
produces an approved spec from already-settled sources (an exhaustive
issue, a long in-context design discussion, or a design brainstorm just
ratified) with review but no interview. This is the producing half of a
deliberate deciding/producing split — `brainstorm` shrinks to optional
discovery, `specify` becomes the sole spec-production gate before
`planner`, mirroring the RED->GREEN split that keeps tdd/debug honest.
What moved:
- brainstorm/SKILL.md: stripped of the hard-gate, the acceptance
criterion, write-spec, self-review, grounding-check, user-review, and
planner-handoff steps; terminal state is now handing a ratified design
narrative to specify. Steps renumbered 1-5 (production steps left).
- specify/SKILL.md (new): the production core, with a precondition gate
(Step 1.5) that bounces to brainstorm the moment the sources do not
resolve a load-bearing decision — the same discipline tdd uses.
- The grounding-check agent moved brainstorm/agents/ -> specify/agents/
(no-orphan-agents: it lives under its dispatcher), refs repointed.
- boss/SKILL.md: Entry-path reflection is now three-way (tdd / specify /
brainstorm). specify dispatches autonomously (bounded, no interview)
and pauses at its user-review gate; only a fresh brainstorm cycle
stays a pre-dispatch bounce-back.
- pipeline.md, README, profile-schema, the profile template, and the
migration layout updated so every pipeline rendering agrees; specify
is a CORE node (not opt-in, unlike tdd) carrying gates: [planner].
Design alternative rejected: parallel sibling skills sharing a
docs/spec-production.md (extract-to-doc). Chosen extract-and-chain
instead — the shared surface is ~70%, so a shared doc would either
become the skill body or drift; chaining keeps one executed home for the
gates.
Verification (prose repo, no test suite): the spec's internal-
consistency grep suite (no two-path drift, no direct brainstorm->planner
edge, specify referenced in every rendering, grounding-check single home
under specify, specify structural completeness) all green. Orchestrator
inspection additionally fixed two dead step-refs the plan under-scoped
(a "(Step 4)" lift-validation pointer and a "Skipping Step 7
self-review" red flag, both pointing at steps brainstorm no longer has)
and corrected six pre-existing brainstorm->planner renderings in
pipeline.md and tdd that predated this cycle.
Known follow-ups (non-blocking): the committed spec writes
`skills/specify/` in places (typo; skill dirs are repo-top-level) — to
be corrected separately. The grounding-check hard-gate was degenerate
for this very cycle (this repo has no profile and no test suite); the
skip is documented in the spec and the session.
boss pointed at 'the project's CLAUDE.md' as the sole source of
universal rules, in both the Iron Law and the cross-references.
That misses the user-level ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md identity/security
layer, which the dev architecture documents as loaded in every
session above the project file — and which carries the most
autonomy-relevant binding of all: external-service-consent rules
that explicitly name /boss and that autonomy does not lift.
The asymmetry was one-directional: the user-level file is
boss-aware (it constrains /boss by name), but boss was not
user-level-aware. Reference both layers so a reader deriving
'what binds me' from boss alone cannot miss the top layer. No
user-specific content is encoded — the consent rule is named
generically and portably.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Step 3 framed `tdd` as a conditional add-on ("if the profile enables
the tdd phase, dispatch tdd") while `brainstorm` read as the default
spine. The orchestrator inherited that tilt and routed feature work to
`brainstorm` by reflex.
Replace it with an explicit Entry-path reflection run before every
feature dispatch: the two are co-equal, the choice is made per item by
the design line, and the one-line verdict is recorded in the loop. The
autonomy asymmetry (tdd proceeds, a fresh brainstorm cycle bounces
back) is reframed as a context-budget consequence, not a ranking, with
a guard against hardening it into an "im Zweifel brainstorm" reflex.
The one principled tilt now lives inside the test: genuine doubt that
one assertion can pin the behaviour is itself the design-fork signal.
Add two rationalisation rows and a red flag naming the default-to-
brainstorm bias.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
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>
Gives the plugin an executable procedure over a project's glossary,
closing the two gaps the glossary-convention infrastructure left open:
no on-ramp to build a glossary for an existing project, and no
conformance check around hand-maintenance.
New `glossary` utility skill (invoked on demand like `issue`, not a
pipeline phase) with a mode dispatch:
- maintain: guided add / change / remove of one entry under a local
conformance check (three-field shape, <=2-sentence definition,
collision scan against existing entries) plus a stale-usage sweep on
change/rename. A non-conforming entry is rejected with the named rule,
not written. The sweep reports drift; it does not block (guidance, not
enforcement).
- bootstrap (user-only): fans out one read-only glossary-extractor agent
per prose slice, merges and clusters their observed variants, auto-
includes clear winners, surfaces contested clusters to the user for the
canonical choice, and leaves unresolved clusters out (never coined).
New `glossary-extractor` agent (read-only, template-conforming): sweeps
one prose slice, reports recurring concept terms + competing variants
with frequencies and locations, coins nothing.
Single-sourcing held throughout: the skill applies the rules in
docs/glossary-convention.md and restates none of them. Authority is
unchanged — maintain keeps the user-any-time / boss-record-reality rule;
bootstrap is user-only, with boss allowed to recommend it via bounce-back
(one wired sentence in boss/SKILL.md). docs/glossary-convention.md gains
a one-line tooling pointer to the skill; README.md lists `glossary` and
`issue` as utility skills and drops the stale 'Eight skills' count the
fresh-context grounding-check flagged (it had silently omitted `issue`).
install.sh links the new skill + agent with no installer change (its glob
covers any top-level dir with a SKILL.md + agents/ subdir; verified).
Docs/prose-only repo, no test runner: all 13 grep presence-gates green
against verified zero baselines; final sweep ALL_PRESENT, install.sh
still parses (bash -n). Implements
docs/specs/2026-05-31-glossary-skill-design.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Pins canonical nomenclature per project so terminology does not drift
and LLM-driven work reuses the established term instead of coining a
synonym each session. The glossary rides the existing standing-reading
mechanism — one optional path slot, no new delivery path.
Single-sourcing, to avoid cross-doc drift:
- `paths.glossary` row in profile-schema.md owns the "set => standing
reading for every role; unset => no-op" semantics; agent-template.md
and pipeline.md each carry one referencing sentence, not a restatement.
- glossary-convention.md owns the format (flat per-term blocks: canonical
heading + Avoid line + <=2-sentence definition) and the boss
record-reality-never-invent write-rule; boss/SKILL.md only points to it.
- glossary.md dogfoods the format on the plugin's own vocabulary
(cycle, milestone, iteration, drift, hard-gate).
Write authority: user any time; boss autonomously but only to record
terms already in consistent use or to settle a drift it just resolved —
never to coin. All other roles are read-only consumers.
No executable surface; this repo has no test runner, so each task closed
on a grep presence-assertion against the file it touched. All eight gates
green (T1 3>=3, T2 5, T3 2, T4 1, T5 1, T6 1, T7 2, final sweep present).
Implements docs/specs/2026-05-31-glossary-integration-design.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
~/dev/skills/skills/boss/ was visually awkward (skills/skills
read twice) and structurally unnecessary — the skills ARE the
repo's main content, not a sub-collection inside it.
Layout changes:
- boss/SKILL.md moves to the repo root
- skills/README.md (migration notes) moves to docs/migration.md
where documentation-about-the-system belongs
- install.sh discovers skills via the SKILL.md marker file
instead of a hardcoded skills/<name>/ path, so future skill
additions just drop in at the root
Cross-references in boss/SKILL.md (../README.md, ../brainstorm,
etc.) now resolve against the repo root instead of the old
skills/ subdir, which is what they describe: top-level
README is the skill table; sibling skill dirs are the other
migrated skills.
Brummel