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55 changes: 55 additions & 0 deletions .agents/skills/ask-matt/PHASE-BOUNDARIES.md
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# Phase boundaries

A **phase** is a chunk of work inside a session: the grilling, the implementation, the QA. The definition is fuzzy on purpose: a phase ends when you think *"ok, we're done with that"*.

The **phase boundary** is the gap between two phases, and it is the only place this decision belongs. Mid-phase there is no decision to make: continue, or split the work that's left into subagents. Compacting mid-phase makes the agent lose the thread.

## The five options

| Option | What it does |
| ------------ | --------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Continue** | Stay in the session. No context switch at all. |
| **`/clear`** | Empty the context window and start from nothing. |
| **`/handoff`** | Write a portable markdown file and seed a session anywhere with it. |
| **Subagent** | Send the task to its own context window and get a report back. |
| **`/compact`** | Compress this context and seed a fresh session with the summary. |

## The tree

Work top to bottom at the boundary. The first **yes** wins.

**1. Can you continue in this session?** Two things make the answer yes: the next phase needs this phase as a **primary source**, or you have enough [smart zone](https://www.aihero.dev/ai-coding-dictionary/smart-zone) left (~150k tokens) for the next phase to fit. Grilling → implementation is the standard yes: the implementation wants the reasoning verbatim, not a summary of it. Continue costs nothing and loses nothing, so rule it out before anything else.

**2. Is the context irrelevant to what comes next?** Is everything in this session (the exploration, the decisions, the dead ends) disposable? If so, **`/clear`**. It is the cheapest move on the board: it takes no time and hands back the whole window. `/clear` also isn't terminal: the old session stays resumable.

The cost of getting this wrong is one-way. Clear a *relevant* context and you lose the **why** behind what you built, and no amount of reading the diff back gets it returned.

**3. Do you need to hand off?** `/handoff` is narrow. You need it only when you are:

- swapping to a **new harness** (Claude → Codex),
- moving to a **new directory** or repo,
- sending the work to a **colleague**,
- or forking a side task you found **mid-phase** without derailing what you're doing.

That list is the whole clause. What `/handoff` buys is **portability**: a file that travels. If nothing is travelling, you don't need it.

**4. Can the task be done AFK?** Is it scoped tightly enough to run with you away from the keyboard, no steering? Then send it to a **subagent** and leave this session untouched. Automated review is the standard case: the agent reads the diff and reports, and you aren't needed while it does.

**5. Otherwise, `/compact`.** Relevant context, same harness, same directory, and you need to stay in the loop: this is where the tree lands, and it lands here often. Pass it an instruction (`/compact we're going to QA this area`) so the summary keeps what the next phase needs.

`/compact` is the **default, not the first reach**. It sits at the bottom because the four questions above it are all cheaper or more precise. The failure mode when people start here is a fresh session that is confidently wrong about a decision the summary flattened.

## Primary and secondary sources

Every move except **Continue** turns a **primary source** into a **secondary source**: the session as it happened, replaced by a summary of it. The trade is always the same shape:

| Source | Information | Noise | Room to move |
| --------------------------------- | ----------- | ----- | ------------ |
| Primary (Continue) | Full | Lots | Little |
| Secondary (`/compact`, `/handoff`) | Lossy | Less | Lots |

This is why question 1 comes first. You only pay the lossiness when staying costs more than it saves.

## These are judgement calls

The questions are not objective: each has taste in it, and the same boundary can go two ways on two days. The value is in asking them **in order**, at the boundary rather than in the middle of the work.
69 changes: 44 additions & 25 deletions .agents/skills/ask-matt/SKILL.md

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45 changes: 45 additions & 0 deletions .agents/skills/chief-of-staff/SKILL.md
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---
name: chief-of-staff
description: Pursue a long-running goal in a single session by co-ordinating subagents.
disable-model-invocation: true
---

You are a chief of staff, co-ordinating subagents and schedules to pursue a long-running goal. This session will run for a long time, accruing tribal knowledge and helping you make long-term strategic decisions.

You are the Directly Responsible Individual for this goal. You are empowered to think much longer-term than you're used to. You must think on two tracks simultaneously:

- Tactical: how do I complete the immediate task?
- Strategic: how do I modify the environment to improve the outcomes of the _next_ task?

## Schedules

Harness-permitting, you will suggest recurring schedules which can help in achieving the goal.

## Subagents

All work should be done in subagents. Protect your context window.

Use background agents so you can stay in active dialogue with the user.

Communication to and from subagents should be sparse. Communicate primarily through **context pointers**: research notes, previous commits, and others. Don't duplicate information already available via pointers.

## Strategic View

As part of any and all work, FIRST consider how the environment the agents operate in might be improved. Agents thrive in the **pit of success**:

- API's and functions which are extremely constrained and limited
- Lint rules which force correctness
- CODING_STANDARDS.md files which let code reviewers enforce best practices

They also need relevant **data sources** to succeed:

- Logs from critical running processes, like dev servers (or production logs)
- Access to test environment databases
- Access to the browser (when necessary) for clicking around and taking screenshots

Finally, create environments (and codebases) that obey the **"no workarounds"** rule:

- No one-off workarounds, or hacks that bypass established processes
- Any deviations from conventions must be fixed proactively, before feature work is done

Be relentless in improving the environment. Use every user message as an excuse to search for these improvements.
5 changes: 5 additions & 0 deletions .agents/skills/chief-of-staff/agents/openai.yaml
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interface:
display_name: "Chief Of Staff"
short_description: "Pursue a long-running goal in a single session by co-ordinating subagents"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
18 changes: 18 additions & 0 deletions .agents/skills/claude-handoff/SKILL.md
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---
name: claude-handoff
description: Hand the current conversation off to a fresh background agent that picks up the work immediately.
argument-hint: "What will the next session be used for?"
disable-model-invocation: true
---

Write a handoff summary of the current conversation so a fresh agent can continue the work. Save it to the temporary directory of the user's OS, then launch a background agent seeded with it as its prompt: `claude --bg --name "<descriptive name>" -- "$(cat <summary file>)"`. Passing the file keeps the shell from running backticks or expanding `$` in the summary. It starts in the current working directory and returns immediately; the user manages it with `claude agents`.

Always pass `-n`/`--name` with a descriptive name (e.g. `--name "Fix login bug"`); it sets the display name shown in the job list, session picker, and terminal title.

Include a "suggested skills" section in the summary, naming which skills the next agent should call the Skill tool for.

Do not duplicate content already captured in other artifacts (specs, plans, ADRs, issues, commits, diffs). Reference them by path or URL instead.

Redact any sensitive information, such as API keys, passwords, or personally identifiable information, since the summary becomes the agent's prompt.

If the user passed arguments, treat them as a description of what the next session will focus on and tailor the summary accordingly.
5 changes: 5 additions & 0 deletions .agents/skills/claude-handoff/agents/openai.yaml
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interface:
display_name: "Claude Handoff"
short_description: "Hand off to a background agent"
policy:
allow_implicit_invocation: false
60 changes: 30 additions & 30 deletions .agents/skills/code-review/SKILL.md
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---
name: code-review
description: Review the changes since a fixed point (commit, branch, tag, or merge-base) along two axes — Standards (does the code follow this repo's documented coding standards?) and Spec (does the code match what the originating issue/PRD asked for?). Runs both reviews in parallel sub-agents and reports them side by side. Use when the user wants to review a branch, a PR, work-in-progress changes, or asks to "review since X".
description: "Review the changes since a fixed point (commit, branch, tag, or merge-base) along two axes: Standards (does the code follow this repo's documented coding standards?) and Spec (does the code match what the originating issue/spec asked for?). Runs both reviews in parallel sub-agents and reports them side by side. Use when the user wants to review a branch, a PR, work-in-progress changes, or asks to \"review since X\"."
---

Two-axis review of the diff between `HEAD` and a fixed point the user supplies:

- **Standards** — does the code conform to this repo's documented coding standards?
- **Spec** — does the code faithfully implement the originating issue / PRD / spec?
- **Standards**: does the code conform to this repo's documented coding standards?
- **Spec**: does the code faithfully implement the originating issue / spec?

Both axes run as **parallel sub-agents** so they don't pollute each other's context, then this skill aggregates their findings.

The issue tracker should have been provided to you — run `/setup-matt-pocock-skills` if `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md` is missing.
The issue tracker should have been provided to you. If not, tell the user to run `/setup-matt-pocock-skills`.

## Process

### 1. Pin the fixed point

Whatever the user said is the fixed point — a commit SHA, branch name, tag, `main`, `HEAD~5`, etc. If they didn't specify one, ask for it.
Whatever the user said is the fixed point (a commit SHA, branch name, tag, `main`, `HEAD~5`, etc.). If they didn't specify one, ask for it.

Capture the diff command once: `git diff <fixed-point>...HEAD` (three-dot, so the comparison is against the merge-base). Also note the list of commits via `git log <fixed-point>..HEAD --oneline`.

Before going further, confirm the fixed point resolves (`git rev-parse <fixed-point>`) and the diff is non-empty. A bad ref or empty diff should fail here — not inside two parallel sub-agents.
Before going further, confirm the fixed point resolves (`git rev-parse <fixed-point>`) and the diff is non-empty. A bad ref or empty diff should fail here, not inside two parallel sub-agents.

### 2. Identify the spec source

Look for the originating spec, in this order:

1. Issue references in the commit messages (`#123`, `Closes #45`, GitLab `!67`, etc.) — fetch via the workflow in `docs/agents/issue-tracker.md`.
1. Issue references in the commit messages (`#123`, `Closes #45`, GitLab `!67`, etc.), fetched via the workflow in the tracker doc.
2. A path the user passed as an argument.
3. A PRD/spec file under `docs/`, `specs/`, or `.scratch/` matching the branch name or feature.
3. A spec file under `docs/`, `specs/`, or `.scratch/` matching the branch name or feature.
4. If nothing is found, ask the user where the spec is. If they say there isn't one, the **Spec** sub-agent will skip and report "no spec available".

### 3. Identify the standards sources

Anything in the repo that documents how code should be written, such as `CODING_STANDARDS.md` or `CONTRIBUTING.md`.
Search the repo for every file that documents how code should be written. When `CODING_STANDARDS.md` or `CONTRIBUTING.md` exists, it must be on the list.

On top of whatever the repo documents, the Standards axis always carries the **smell baseline** below — a fixed set of Fowler code smells (_Refactoring_, ch.3) that applies even when a repo documents nothing. Two rules bind it:
On top of whatever the repo documents, the Standards axis always carries the **smell baseline** below: a fixed set of Fowler code smells (_Refactoring_, ch.3) that applies even when a repo documents nothing. Two rules bind it:

- **The repo overrides.** A documented repo standard always wins; where it endorses something the baseline would flag, suppress the smell.
- **Always a judgement call.** Each smell is a labelled heuristic ("possible Feature Envy"), never a hard violation — and, like any standard here, skip anything tooling already enforces.
- **Always a judgement call.** Each smell is a labelled heuristic ("possible Feature Envy"), never a hard violation. Like any standard here, skip anything tooling already enforces.

Each smell reads *what it is* → *how to fix*; match it against the diff:

- **Mysterious Name** — a function, variable, or type whose name doesn't reveal what it does or holds. → rename it; if no honest name comes, the design's murky.
- **Duplicated Code** — the same logic shape appears in more than one hunk or file in the change. → extract the shared shape, call it from both.
- **Feature Envy** — a method that reaches into another object's data more than its own. → move the method onto the data it envies.
- **Data Clumps** — the same few fields or params keep travelling together (a type wanting to be born). → bundle them into one type, pass that.
- **Primitive Obsession** — a primitive or string standing in for a domain concept that deserves its own type. → give the concept its own small type.
- **Repeated Switches** — the same `switch`/`if`-cascade on the same type recurs across the change. → replace with polymorphism, or one map both sites share.
- **Shotgun Surgery** — one logical change forces scattered edits across many files in the diff. → gather what changes together into one module.
- **Divergent Change** — one file or module is edited for several unrelated reasons. → split so each module changes for one reason.
- **Speculative Generality** — abstraction, parameters, or hooks added for needs the spec doesn't have. → delete it; inline back until a real need shows.
- **Message Chains** — long `a.b().c().d()` navigation the caller shouldn't depend on. → hide the walk behind one method on the first object.
- **Middle Man** — a class or function that mostly just delegates onward. → cut it, call the real target direct.
- **Refused Bequest** — a subclass or implementer that ignores or overrides most of what it inherits. → drop the inheritance, use composition.
- **Mysterious Name**: a function, variable, or type whose name doesn't reveal what it does or holds. → rename it; if no honest name comes, the design's murky.
- **Duplicated Code**: the same logic shape appears in more than one hunk or file in the change. → extract the shared shape, call it from both.
- **Feature Envy**: a method that reaches into another object's data more than its own. → move the method onto the data it envies.
- **Data Clumps**: the same few fields or params keep travelling together (a type wanting to be born). → bundle them into one type, pass that.
- **Primitive Obsession**: a primitive or string standing in for a domain concept that deserves its own type. → give the concept its own small type.
- **Repeated Switches**: the same `switch`/`if`-cascade on the same type recurs across the change. → replace with polymorphism, or one map both sites share.
- **Shotgun Surgery**: one logical change forces scattered edits across many files in the diff. → gather what changes together into one module.
- **Divergent Change**: one file or module is edited for several unrelated reasons. → split so each module changes for one reason.
- **Speculative Generality**: abstraction, parameters, or hooks added for needs the spec doesn't have. → delete it; inline back until a real need shows.
- **Message Chains**: long `a.b().c().d()` navigation the caller shouldn't depend on. → hide the walk behind one method on the first object.
- **Middle Man**: a class or function that mostly just delegates onward. → cut it, call the real target direct.
- **Refused Bequest**: a subclass or implementer that ignores or overrides most of what it inherits. → drop the inheritance, use composition.

### 4. Spawn both sub-agents in parallel

Send a single message with two `Agent` tool calls. Use the `general-purpose` subagent for both.
Issue both sub-agent calls together, in the foreground, and aggregate the reports they return.

**Standards sub-agent prompt** — include:
**Standards sub-agent prompt** should include:

- The full diff command and commit list.
- The list of standards-source files you found in step 3, **plus the smell baseline from step 3** pasted in full — the sub-agent has no other access to it.
- The brief: "Report — per file/hunk where relevant — (a) every place the diff violates a documented standard: cite the standard (file + the rule); and (b) any baseline smell you spot: name it and quote the hunk. Distinguish hard violations from judgement calls — documented-standard breaches can be hard, but baseline smells are always judgement calls, and a documented repo standard overrides the baseline. Skip anything tooling enforces. Under 400 words."
- The list of standards-source files you found in step 3, **plus the smell baseline from step 3** pasted in full (the sub-agent has no other access to it).
- The brief: "Report, per file/hunk where relevant, (a) every place the diff violates a documented standard: cite the standard (file + the rule); and (b) any baseline smell you spot: name it and quote the hunk. Distinguish hard violations from judgement calls: documented-standard breaches can be hard, but baseline smells are always judgement calls, and a documented repo standard overrides the baseline. Skip anything tooling enforces. Under 400 words."

**Spec sub-agent prompt** — include:
**Spec sub-agent prompt** should include:

- The diff command and commit list.
- The path or fetched contents of the spec.
Expand All @@ -75,9 +75,9 @@ If the spec is missing, skip the Spec sub-agent and note this in the final repor

### 5. Aggregate

Present the two reports under `## Standards` and `## Spec` headings, verbatim or lightly cleaned. Do **not** merge or rerank findings — the two axes are deliberately separate (see _Why two axes_).
Present the two reports under `## Standards` and `## Spec` headings, verbatim or lightly cleaned. Do **not** merge or rerank findings, because the two axes are deliberately separate (see _Why two axes_).

End with a one-line summary: total findings per axis, and the worst issue _within each axis_ (if any). Don't pick a single winner across axes — that's the reranking the separation exists to prevent.
End with a one-line summary: total findings per axis, and the worst issue _within each axis_ (if any). Don't pick a single winner across axes: that's the reranking the separation exists to prevent.

## Why two axes

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