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
Architect drift review (cycle 9e8b9ec..HEAD) returned drift_found. Three
cycle-introduced items, all repaired here as tidy edits:
- planner/SKILL.md: the cycle never touched it (recon never scoped it,
the feat commit body's "every pipeline rendering agrees" over-claimed).
Its Handoff Contract still named `brainstorm → planner` and the bounce
`planner → brainstorm`; the Input-source cross-ref and two
rationalisation rows still pointed at brainstorm as the spec producer.
All repointed to specify (specify produces and owns the spec; brainstorm
is the optional discovery stage upstream of it). The skip rule now lists
specify in the design path tdd bypasses.
- specify/agents/grounding-check.md: the agent move left one stale pair —
"self-review (Step 7) and user-approval (Step 8)" were brainstorm's old
numbers; in specify they are Step 4 and Step 6.
- profile-schema + template: the `optional: true` per-phase key I
introduced in the plan was undocumented AND rested on a semantic error —
`brainstorm: { gates: [specify] }` reads as "specify cannot start until
brainstorm has run", which is false (specify enters directly from
sources). Corrected to `brainstorm: {}` (an active phase with no hard
gate of its own, like implement); specify keeps `gates: [planner]` as
the one real hard gate. The optional key is gone; brainstorm's
optionality lives in the skip rules and SKILL prose, where it belongs.
Why these escaped the cycle's own grep suite: the consistency greps used
`brainstorm *-> *planner`, which does not match the real renderings
`` `brainstorm` -> `planner` `` (backticks between the words). The same
filter-string blind spot recurred twice this session; the verification
greps here tolerate optional backticks.
Pre-existing debt (NOT cycle-introduced), filed as backlog Brummel/Skills
issue #5 rather than fixed here: docs/migration.md's layout tree and
README's migration-status both predate tdd/glossary/pseudo/issue/
postmortem and misdescribe the roster.
Verdict: cycle drift-clean after these repairs (carry-on). No regression
gate (prose repo, no scripts). Not a milestone close.
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.
Brummel