fix(check): tolerate an unverifiable check instead of dying on it

bin/check-mcp-env exits 2 for "could not run" -- no jq, or no env-file -- and the gate was written to report that as a NOTE rather than fail: "$DIR/check-mcp-env" "$DIR/.mcp.json" "$HOME/.op-env" case $? in 0) ;; 2) echo "NOTE: ..." ;; *) fail=1 ;; esac That tolerance never executed. Task runs each cmds block under `sh -e`, so a bare command exiting non-zero aborts the shell before `case $?` is reached. main went red on the very commit that added the check (run #57), with `task: Failed to run task "check": exit status 2`. It passed locally because this host has both jq and ~/.op-env, so the check exited 0 and the untested branch never ran. CI has neither. A tolerated exit code that is only tolerated where it never fires is not tolerated at all. `|| rc=$?` puts the invocation in a compound command, which `set -e` exempts, so `case` is reached. Both exit-2 paths verified: no env-file (the new test's precondition) and no jq (PATH sandbox, same SKIP message CI printed). The test pins the tolerance itself rather than the checker: it points HOME at an empty directory, which is exactly CI's condition, and asserts `task check` exits 0 AND still says it could not verify -- silence would mean skipped rather than tolerated. Bump-Type: patch Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
feat(mcp): unpark the gitea server — it needs no AgentSecrets token
2026-09-07 20:14:19 +02:00 · 2026-09-07 07:24:23 +02:00 · 2026-09-05 12:25:10 +02:00 · 2026-08-30 09:49:22 +00:00 · 2026-08-30 11:48:56 +02:00 · 2026-08-30 08:58:34 +02:00
41 changed files with 2165 additions and 92 deletions
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 {
  "name": "skills",
  "description": "Mathias's engineering skills library, plus the hooks and MCP servers that make it enforceable: TDD, clean code, debugging, specs, discovery, CI, and secret hygiene.",
-  "version": "0.13.1",
+  "version": "0.19.1",
  "author": {
    "name": "Mathias",
    "url": "https://git.d-ma.be/mathias"
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 {
-  "_comment": "Tailscale Serve on koala, not the public d-ma.be hostnames. The public path exits to Cloudflare and NPM to reach a k3s service on the same machine most sessions run on, which imposes rate limits and message-size caps on tool results. Serve terminates TLS with a real Tailscale cert and proxies to the NodePort over loopback, so traffic reaches the service from koala itself and satisfies the default-deny-ingress NetworkPolicy with no cluster change. Clients need 'tailscale set --accept-dns=true' for the MagicDNS name to resolve; see mathias/skills#24.",
+  "_comment": "Tailscale Serve on koala, not the public d-ma.be hostnames. The public path exits to Cloudflare and NPM to reach a k3s service on the same machine most sessions run on, which imposes rate limits and message-size caps on tool results. Serve terminates TLS with a real Tailscale cert and proxies to the NodePort over loopback, so traffic reaches the service from koala itself and satisfies the default-deny-ingress NetworkPolicy with no cluster change. Clients need 'tailscale set --accept-dns=true' for the MagicDNS name to resolve; see mathias/skills#24. Every ${VAR} below must be one ~/.op-env defines -- bin/check-mcp-env enforces that, because an undefined one sends an empty Authorization header and reports as 'requires authentication', which is indistinguishable from a revoked credential.",
  "mcpServers": {
    "brain": {
      "type": "http",
@@ -11,23 +11,24 @@
    "infra": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://koala.tail30472e.ts.net:8444/mcp"
+    },
+    "gitea": {
+      "_comment": "gitea-mcp authenticates by PASS-THROUGH: the bearer is a Gitea PAT, which the server validates against Gitea and then acts as. So no dedicated MCP token is needed, and the AgentSecrets blocker that parked this entry (skills#32, #33) never applied to it -- DMABE_GITEA_API_TOKEN is op://HomeLab and already in the session environment. Verified 2026-09-07: initialize 200 (serverInfo gitea-mcp) and tools/list returns 41 tools. Two DIFFERENT PATs both authenticate while GITEA_MCP_TOKEN 401s, which is what proves this is pass-through validation and not a static-token comparison.",
+      "type": "http",
+      "url": "https://koala.tail30472e.ts.net:8446/mcp",
+      "headers": {
+        "Authorization": "Bearer ${DMABE_GITEA_API_TOKEN}"
+      }
    }
  },
  "_parked": {
-    "_reason": "cad and gitea-mcp are proxied, reachable and AUTHENTICATING: tailscale serve 8445 -> 127.0.0.1:31877 and 8446 -> 127.0.0.1:30340; an MCP initialize with the correct bearer returns 200 from both (serverInfo gitea-mcp 0.1.0, cad aed2aaf). They stay parked only because nothing puts those two tokens into the session environment. Both live in the 1Password AgentSecrets vault, and by deliberate design (infra#224, closed) no single identity on koala reads both vaults: koala-homelab is HomeLab-only and resolves ~/.op-env, koala-agentsecrets-write is AgentSecrets-only and lives in ~/.op-agent-write.env. Adding an AgentSecrets reference to ~/.op-env does NOT degrade gracefully -- `op run` fails wholesale and every other token, BRAIN_MCP_TOKEN included, goes unresolved with it. Enabling needs a read-scoped AgentSecrets identity in the session-env path; see mathias/skills#32, #33.",
+    "_reason": "cad is proxied, reachable and AUTHENTICATING: tailscale serve 8445 -> 127.0.0.1:31877, and an MCP initialize with the correct bearer returns 200 (serverInfo cad aed2aaf). It stays parked only because nothing puts CAD_MCP_TOKEN into the session environment. It lives in the 1Password AgentSecrets vault, and by deliberate design (infra#224, closed) no single identity on koala reads both vaults: koala-homelab is HomeLab-only and resolves ~/.op-env, koala-agentsecrets-write is AgentSecrets-only and lives in ~/.op-agent-write.env. Adding an AgentSecrets reference to ~/.op-env does NOT degrade gracefully -- `op run` fails wholesale and every other token, BRAIN_MCP_TOKEN included, goes unresolved with it. Enabling needs a read-scoped AgentSecrets identity in the session-env path; see mathias/skills#32, #33. gitea was parked here for the same stated reason and has been unparked: it needs no AgentSecrets token at all, because gitea-mcp is pass-through-authenticated.",
    "cad": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://koala.tail30472e.ts.net:8445/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "Authorization": "Bearer ${CAD_MCP_TOKEN}"
      }
-    },
-    "gitea": {
-      "type": "http",
-      "url": "https://koala.tail30472e.ts.net:8446/mcp",
-      "headers": {
-        "Authorization": "Bearer ${GITEA_MCP_STATIC_TOKEN}"
-      }
    }
  }
 }
@@ -100,9 +100,11 @@ default to point into `~/dev`.
 | `AGENTS_SKILLS_DIR` | `$HOME/.agents/skills` |
 | `CRUSH_SKILLS_DIR` | `$HOME/.config/crush/skills` |
 | `OPENCODE_SKILLS_DIR` | `$HOME/.config/opencode/skills` |
+| `ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON` | `$HOME/.gemini/config/skills.json` (registers `AGENTS_SKILLS_DIR` as a path entry; needs `jq`) |
 | `SKILLS_EXTRA_SOURCES` | unset (colon-separated extra source directories) |

-Antigravity and Mistral Vibe targets were removed — unused.
+The Mistral Vibe target was removed — unused. Antigravity's was removed for
+the same reason and re-added once it came back into use.

 ## Checking a host

@@ -110,10 +112,25 @@ Antigravity and Mistral Vibe targets were removed — unused.
 task doctor      # or bin/doctor
 ```

-Reports dangling links, links resolving into a foreign checkout, skill-count
-mismatches, stray entries, and leftover per-skill Claude symlinks. Non-zero
-exit on drift. It also runs at session start via the plugin, so a drifting
-host says so rather than waiting to be discovered.
+Reports dangling links, links into a source nobody configured, skills in the
+checkout with no link, stray entries, leftover per-skill Claude symlinks, and a
+Claude Code plugin sitting on an older generation than the host already has.
+Non-zero exit on drift. It also runs at session start via the plugin, so a
+drifting host says so rather than waiting to be discovered.
+
+All of that compares copies already on the machine — deliberately, since it
+runs in a session hook where latency shows. That leaves one case invisible: a
+host where the checkout, the marketplace clone and the installed plugin all
+agree, and all three are a release behind origin.
+
+```bash
+task doctor -- --online     # or bin/doctor --online
+```
+
+One `git ls-remote` against origin, opt-in. Belongs in a scheduled per-host job,
+not the session hook. An unreachable remote is reported as its own fault rather
+than as staleness — "I could not check" and "you are behind" are different
+answers and only one of them is about the host.

 ## Versioning

@@ -130,13 +147,48 @@ before `task skills:install`; default is `main` for always-current.

 ## Contributing a skill

-1. Add a directory `<short-kebab-name>/`.
-2. Create `<short-kebab-name>/SKILL.md` — start with one-paragraph
-   purpose, then triggers ("use when …"), then mechanics.
-3. Add a row to `SKILLS_INDEX.md` (description + use-when).
-4. Commit directly to `main`. Conventional-commit prefix
+1. Add a directory `skills/<short-kebab-name>/`.
+2. Create `skills/<short-kebab-name>/SKILL.md` with this frontmatter — all four
+   keys are gated by `task check`, and the index table is generated from the
+   last three:
+
+   ```yaml
+   ---
+   name: <short-kebab-name>
+   surfaces: [claude-code, library]   # any of claude-code | library | chat
+   summary: "<one line for the index table>"
+   use_when: "<the trigger, for the index table>"
+   description: <the paragraph the model selects on>
+   ---
+   ```
+
+   Then: one-paragraph purpose, triggers ("use when …"), mechanics.
+3. Run `task index` and commit the regenerated `SKILLS_INDEX.md`. Do **not**
+   hand-edit the table — `task check` regenerates it and fails on a diff.
+4. Pressure-test it before shipping: run the scenario against a subagent that
+   does *not* have the skill, write the skill against what that run actually
+   did, then re-run with it. See `superpowers-writing-skills` and #19.
+5. Commit directly to `main`. Conventional-commit prefix
   (`feat:` / `fix:` / `docs:`). Add `Bump-Type: minor` footer when
   adding a new skill or expanding scope; default patch covers edits.

 This repo is markdown-only and public — never include secrets, client
 names, or anything under NDA in a skill.
+
+## Mode 2 routing candidates
+
+These notes used to sit in each SKILL.md as a `## Mode 2 Routing Note` section.
+They changed nothing about how the skill is invoked — several said so outright —
+and cost context on every load, so they live here instead. Nothing in the repo
+depends on this table; it is a record of which skills looked mechanical enough
+to route to a local model, should a routing layer ever exist.
+
+| Skill | Note |
+|---|---|
+| `cad-babysit` | Phases 2-4 (reading comments/logs, classifying fault vs outcome) are judgment-heavy and should stay Mode 1. Phase 1 (running `cad stuck` and grouping its output) is mechanical and a Mode 2 routing candidate once Plan 6 ships the routing pod. |
+| `code-review` | This skill is invoked identically in Mode 1 (cloud Claude) and Mode 2 (client-local with supervisor routing). The routing layer (Plan 6) does not exist yet; treat this skill as Mode 1 only for now. Findings format and severity classification are unchanged across modes. |
+| `debug` | This skill produces high-volume mechanical output (hypothesis enumeration) and is a candidate for Mode 2 routing to a local model in the future. Until Plan 6 ships the routing pod, treat as Mode 1 only. The hypothesis format and discipline are identical regardless of which model generates them. |
+| `feature-spec` | Spec writing requires interpretation of intent and tradeoff reasoning — work where Claude generally outperforms a 9-13B local model. This skill is intentionally **not** a Mode 2 routing candidate. In Mode 2, the routing layer should leave `feature-spec` calls on Claude. |
+| `session-retrospective` | Reading long session logs and pulling themes is high-volume, mechanical pattern-recognition work — a strong Mode 2 routing candidate. Until Plan 6 ships the routing pod, treat as Mode 1 only. |
+| `tdd` | This skill is invoked identically whether the agent is running in Mode 1 (cloud Claude, no routing) or Mode 2 (client-local, supervisor routing layer). The routing pod (Plan 6) does not exist yet; until it does, treat this skill as Mode 1 only. The discipline does not change between modes — only the model behind the call. |
+| `trainer` | Trainer is the same shape as `session-retrospective` — long-context reading, mechanical filtering — and is a Mode 2 routing candidate. Until Plan 6, treat as Mode 1 only. |
@@ -9,18 +9,20 @@ the SKILL.md, not the table.
 <!-- BEGIN skills-table -->
 | Skill | Description | Use when | Surfaces |
 |-------|-------------|----------|----------|
+| `adr` | Architecture Decision Records — house format, and how to record a decision you cannot make yet | Recording an architectural decision; revisiting one; or deciding between options where the right answer genuinely is not knowable yet | claude-code, library |
 | `atdd` | Acceptance Test-Driven Development workflow | Feature development with acceptance criteria | claude-code, library |
 | `cad-babysit` | Focused human-in-the-loop session working CAD's stuck queue (read-only) | Picking up whatever `cad stuck` flags, with a human present | claude-code, library |
 | `clean-code` | Clean code principles with Go adaptation | Code review, refactoring, new code | claude-code, library |
 | `code-review` | Code smell detection + Go-specific checklist | Pre-merge review | claude-code, library |
 | `cognitive-load` | Cognitive complexity analysis (CLI score) | Identifying hotspots, before refactoring | claude-code, library |
-| `debug` | Hypothesis-first debugging discipline | Any test failure or bug whose cause is not immediately obvious | claude-code, library |
+| `debug` | Hypothesis-first debugging discipline | Any test failure or bug whose cause is not immediately obvious — or a bug report with no failure text, which this skill refuses rather than guesses at | claude-code, library |
 | `discovery-framing` | Problem-before-solution discovery/framing method | Framing/validating a problem before any solution; opportunity sizing | claude-code, library |
 | `dream` | Reflective consolidation pass over an agent's memory directory | Pruning/merging memory files, rebuilding a memory index | claude-code, library, chat |
 | `experiment-spec` | Rigorous experiment spec — falsifiable hypothesis, quantitative acceptance, null-result protocol | Scoping a research/ML phase instead of a feature | claude-code, library |
 | `feature-spec` | Implementation-level feature spec (tighter than spec-driven-dev) | Scoping one feature inside an already-specced project | claude-code, library |
 | `gitea-ci` | Gitea CI/CD pipeline with act_runner, buildah, k3s, GitHub mirror | Setting up or debugging CI on this infra | claude-code, library |
 | `grill-me` | Structured plan interrogation — Quick Poke, Full Grill, Pre-mortem | Stress-testing a plan before committing; end of Diamond 1; before promoting to pre-prod | claude-code, library, chat |
+| `lineage` | Backward decision archaeology — was this tried before, and does the reason it failed still hold | Before proposing something that feels new; when an idea keeps resurfacing; when you inherit code whose reason is gone | claude-code, library |
 | `own-the-task` | Delegation ownership — Intake → Brief → Plan → Execute | A task is handed over open-ended; \"take this off my plate\"; before a plan exists | claude-code, library, chat |
 | `planning` | Planning and task breakdown | Sprint planning, task decomposition | claude-code, library |
 | `playwright` | Playwright E2E testing — setup, HTMX patterns, SSE streams, CI wiring | Adding browser tests to any project with a web UI | claude-code, library |
@@ -47,6 +49,7 @@ the SKILL.md, not the table.
 | `tdd` | Test-Driven Development enforcement | Starting any new feature or fixing a bug | claude-code, library |
 | `telos-load` | Load TELOS intention substrate at session start | Starting any koala session; before architectural decisions; CAD pipeline entry | claude-code, library |
 | `test-design` | Dave Farley test design scoring (Farley Index) | Reviewing or writing tests | claude-code, library |
+| `traceability` | Forward trace — requirement to decision to commit to verification to release, and what cannot be checked | Proving why a change exists; auditing a claim; before an attestation or a compliance ask | claude-code, library |
 | `trainer` | Two-phase brain curation (score candidates, write past quality gate) | Periodic brain pruning and curation | claude-code, library |
 | `user-stories` | Elephant Carpaccio story slicing | Breaking down features | claude-code, library |
 | `web-shot` | Screenshot a running web UI via a koala k3s Playwright job | Visual verification of a running UI when no local browser exists | claude-code, library |
@@ -110,7 +110,16 @@ tasks:
        #    harness instead of erroring.
        sh '{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}/bin/check-surfaces' '{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}' || fail=1

-        # 5. Plugin manifest version must match the latest tag, or installers
+        # 5. A documented session_log call must be one the tool would accept:
+        #    session_id is its only required field, and nine skills omitted it.
+        sh '{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}/bin/check-session-log' '{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}' || fail=1
+
+        # 6. Every skill says when it stops and hands back (#5). Skills whose
+        #    rule is not written yet are listed in bin/escalation-pending.txt,
+        #    which only shrinks.
+        sh '{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}/bin/check-escalation' '{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}' || fail=1
+
+        # 7. Plugin manifest version must match the latest tag, or installers
        #    never see the update (Claude Code gates updates on this field).
        if [ -f '{{.PLUGIN_MANIFEST}}' ]; then
          manifest_v=$(sed -n 's/.*"version"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' '{{.PLUGIN_MANIFEST}}' | head -1)
@@ -129,6 +138,26 @@ tasks:
          echo "ERROR: missing .claude-plugin/plugin.json" >&2; fail=1
        fi

+        # Every ${VAR} a live .mcp.json server interpolates must be one the
+        # session env-file defines. An undefined one is silent: the header
+        # goes out empty and the server reports "requires authentication",
+        # which reads as a revoked credential. Exit 2 means the check could
+        # not run (no jq, or no env-file — CI has neither); that is reported
+        # and not fatal, but it is never treated as a pass.
+        if [ -x "{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}/bin/check-mcp-env" ]; then
+          # `|| rc=$?` is load-bearing, not style. Task runs this block under
+          # `sh -e`, so a bare invocation exiting non-zero kills the shell
+          # before `case` is reached -- the tolerance below never ran, and the
+          # gate died with `exit status 2` on the commit that added it.
+          rc=0
+          "{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}/bin/check-mcp-env" "{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}/.mcp.json" "$HOME/.op-env" || rc=$?
+          case $rc in
+            0) ;;
+            2) echo "NOTE: MCP env wiring unverified on this host" >&2 ;;
+            *) fail=1 ;;
+          esac
+        fi
+
        if [ $fail -ne 0 ]; then
          echo "check FAILED" >&2; exit 1
        fi
@@ -0,0 +1,88 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# check-escalation — every skill states when it stops and hands back.
+#
+# #5 decided this belongs in the body, not the frontmatter: no harness reads
+# frontmatter beyond name/description, so a `failure_criteria:` key would be a
+# guarantee nothing honours. The model reads the body.
+#
+# #37 then had to define which skills need one, and every obvious answer was
+# bad: a hardcoded list rots, sniffing the text for "does it write anything" is
+# unfalsifiable, and a frontmatter flag is the rejected option wearing a hat.
+#
+# So there is no acting set. EVERY skill answers the question. A read-only skill
+# answers it in one line — "read-only; findings are the output, nothing is
+# handed back" — which turns an absence into a claim someone can disagree with.
+#
+# bin/escalation-pending.txt is a ratchet for skills whose real rule has not
+# been written yet (a stop condition nobody thought about is not worth
+# enforcing). It is self-cleaning: a listed skill that HAS a section fails, so
+# the list cannot outlive its reason.
+#
+# Usage: check-escalation [checkout-root]
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=${1:-$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)}
+PENDING="$ROOT/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+fail=0
+
+listed() {
+  [ -f "$PENDING" ] || return 1
+  sed 's/#.*//' "$PENDING" | grep -qx "[[:space:]]*$1[[:space:]]*"
+}
+
+for dir in "$ROOT"/skills/*/; do
+  [ -f "$dir/SKILL.md" ] || continue
+  name=$(basename "$dir")
+
+  if grep -q '^## Escalation' "$dir/SKILL.md"; then
+    if listed "$name"; then
+      echo "ERROR: skills/$name has an Escalation section but is still in bin/escalation-pending.txt — remove it from the list" >&2
+      fail=1
+    fi
+    continue
+  fi
+
+  listed "$name" && continue
+  echo "ERROR: skills/$name has no '## Escalation' section — say when it stops and hands back, or say it never does" >&2
+  fail=1
+done
+
+# A pending entry for a skill that no longer exists is a stale exemption, and a
+# stale exemption is how a gate quietly stops covering something. Looped without
+# a pipe on purpose: a `while read` on the right of a pipe runs in a subshell,
+# so `fail=1` would be set in a process that exits before it is read.
+if [ -f "$PENDING" ]; then
+  entries=$(sed 's/#.*//' "$PENDING" | tr -d '[:blank:]' | grep -v '^$' || true)
+  for entry in $entries; do
+    [ -f "$ROOT/skills/$entry/SKILL.md" ] && continue
+    echo "ERROR: bin/escalation-pending.txt lists '$entry', which has no skills/$entry/SKILL.md" >&2
+    fail=1
+  done
+fi
+
+# --- the ratchet must actually ratchet ---------------------------------------
+# "This list only shrinks" was asserted in five places and enforced in none. A
+# traceability probe falsified it in one run: add an unsectioned skill, append it
+# to the list, gate returns 0. So compare against the list as committed at HEAD —
+# a convention nothing checks is a convention, and this repo has spent a day on
+# what those cost.
+if [ -f "$PENDING" ]; then
+  if ! git -C "$ROOT" rev-parse --git-dir >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    echo "WARN: $ROOT is not a git checkout — cannot verify the pending list only shrank" >&2
+  elif ! git -C "$ROOT" cat-file -e HEAD:bin/escalation-pending.txt 2>/dev/null; then
+    : # first commit introducing the file — nothing to compare against yet
+  else
+    before=$(git -C "$ROOT" show HEAD:bin/escalation-pending.txt 2>/dev/null \
+      | sed 's/#.*//' | tr -d '[:blank:]' | grep -v '^$' | sort -u || true)
+    now=$(sed 's/#.*//' "$PENDING" | tr -d '[:blank:]' | grep -v '^$' | sort -u || true)
+    added=$(printf '%s\n' "$now" | grep -vxF "$before" 2>/dev/null || true)
+    for entry in $added; do
+      [ -n "$entry" ] || continue
+      echo "ERROR: '$entry' was added to bin/escalation-pending.txt — the list only shrinks. Write its '## Escalation' section instead of exempting it." >&2
+      fail=1
+    done
+  fi
+fi
+
+exit $fail
@@ -0,0 +1,89 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# check-mcp-env — assert every variable a live MCP server interpolates is one
+# the session env-file actually defines.
+#
+# Why this is a gate and not a comment: the failure is silent. A header of
+# "Bearer ${FOO}" where FOO is undefined does not error -- it goes out empty,
+# the server answers 401, and Claude Code reports "requires authentication",
+# which reads exactly like a revoked credential. On 2026-09-07 that cost a
+# full investigation on koala before the credential turned out to be fine.
+#
+# Servers under `_parked` are exempt by design. Parked means "reachable, but
+# nothing puts its token in the environment yet" -- flagging those would
+# report the intended state as a fault.
+#
+# Usage:  check-mcp-env <mcp.json> <env-file>
+#
+# Exit 0  every live server's variables are defined
+#      1  at least one is not, named on stderr
+#      2  could not verify (bad usage, unreadable input, jq absent).
+#         Deliberately distinct from 0: an unverified config is not a clean
+#         one, and a gate that cannot run should say so rather than pass.
+
+set -u
+
+CONFIG=${1:-}
+ENVFILE=${2:-}
+
+if [ -z "$CONFIG" ] || [ -z "$ENVFILE" ]; then
+  echo "usage: check-mcp-env <mcp.json> <env-file>" >&2
+  exit 2
+fi
+
+if ! command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  echo "SKIP: jq not installed -- MCP env wiring unverified" >&2
+  exit 2
+fi
+
+if [ ! -f "$CONFIG" ]; then
+  echo "ERROR: no such config: $CONFIG" >&2
+  exit 2
+fi
+
+if [ ! -f "$ENVFILE" ]; then
+  echo "ERROR: no such env-file: $ENVFILE -- cannot verify MCP variables" >&2
+  exit 2
+fi
+
+# Every "<server>\t<VAR>" pair a live server interpolates. `..` walks the whole
+# value, so a variable is found wherever it is placed, not only under headers.
+refs=$(jq -r '
+  .mcpServers // {}
+  | to_entries[]
+  | .key as $server
+  | (.value | .. | strings)
+  | select(test("\\$\\{"))
+  | [ scan("\\$\\{([A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*)\\}")[] ]
+  | .[]
+  | "\($server)\t\(.)"
+' "$CONFIG" 2>/dev/null) || {
+  echo "ERROR: $CONFIG is not valid JSON -- MCP env wiring unverified" >&2
+  exit 2
+}
+
+if [ -z "$refs" ]; then
+  echo "check-mcp-env: no interpolated variables in live servers"
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+fail=0
+checked=0
+for pair in $(printf '%s\n' "$refs" | tr '\t' ':'); do
+  server=${pair%%:*}
+  var=${pair#*:}
+  checked=$((checked + 1))
+  if grep -qE "^[[:space:]]*(export[[:space:]]+)?$var=" "$ENVFILE"; then
+    continue
+  fi
+  printf 'ERROR: MCP server %s interpolates %s, which %s does not define.\n' \
+    "$server" "$var" "$ENVFILE" >&2
+  printf '       It will send an empty Authorization header and report as "requires authentication".\n' >&2
+  fail=1
+done
+
+if [ "$fail" -ne 0 ]; then
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+printf 'check-mcp-env: %d interpolated variable(s) across live MCP servers, all defined in %s\n' \
+  "$checked" "$ENVFILE"
@@ -0,0 +1,63 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# check-session-log — a skill that documents a session_log call must document a
+# call the tool would actually accept.
+#
+# Nine skills documented the payload and none named `session_id`, which is the
+# tool's only REQUIRED field. An agent following any of them either failed the
+# call or invented an id — and invented ids do not group, so the pass-rate the
+# endpoint computes was being assembled from entries that could not be joined
+# (#36, found by a pressure test against `debug`).
+#
+# Also rejected: `duration_ms: <wall-clock>`. An agent does not observe a clock.
+# A documented field nobody can honestly populate gets fabricated or silently
+# dropped, and fabricated numbers in a metrics stream are worse than no numbers.
+#
+# Usage: check-session-log [checkout-root]
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=${1:-$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)}
+fail=0
+
+for dir in "$ROOT"/skills/*/; do
+  [ -f "$dir/SKILL.md" ] || continue
+  name=$(basename "$dir")
+
+  grep -q 'session_log' "$dir/SKILL.md" || continue
+
+  # Read the PAYLOAD, not the file. The first version of this gate grepped the
+  # whole SKILL.md for "session_id", so a payload missing the field passed as
+  # long as the word appeared anywhere — including in prose explaining that the
+  # field is required. A traceability probe demonstrated it in one sed.
+  payloads=$(grep -n 'session_log' "$dir/SKILL.md" | grep '{' || true)
+
+  if [ -z "$payloads" ]; then
+    # Mentions the tool but documents no call. Nothing to check, and nothing to
+    # get wrong.
+    continue
+  fi
+
+  printf '%s\n' "$payloads" | while IFS= read -r line; do
+    [ -n "$line" ] || continue
+    body=$(printf '%s' "$line" | sed 's/^[0-9]*://')
+    lineno=$(printf '%s' "$line" | cut -d: -f1)
+
+    printf '%s' "$body" | grep -q 'session_id' \
+      || echo "ERROR: skills/$name:$lineno documents a session_log payload with no session_id — the tool's only required field" >&2
+
+    # Any spelling of the key, quoted or not, followed by anything that is not a
+    # bare number. A placeholder nobody can fill gets fabricated or dropped; a
+    # real measurement is fine.
+    if printf '%s' "$body" | grep -Eq '"?duration_ms"?[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*[^0-9,}[:space:]]'; then
+      echo "ERROR: skills/$name:$lineno documents duration_ms as something other than a real measurement — an agent does not observe a clock; omit it" >&2
+    fi
+  done > "$ROOT/.session_log_errors.$$" 2>&1
+
+  if [ -s "$ROOT/.session_log_errors.$$" ]; then
+    cat "$ROOT/.session_log_errors.$$" >&2
+    fail=1
+  fi
+  rm -f "$ROOT/.session_log_errors.$$"
+done
+
+exit $fail
@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@
 #   doctor            human report, non-zero exit on drift
 #   doctor --quiet    print only when something is wrong (SessionStart hook)
 #   doctor --json     machine-readable findings
+#   doctor --online   ALSO ask origin for the latest tag (one network call)
 #
 # POSIX sh on purpose: it runs on macOS and Linux, before any toolchain is
 # guaranteed present, and inside a session-start hook where latency shows.
@@ -21,10 +22,12 @@ set -u

 QUIET=0
 JSON=0
+ONLINE=0
 for arg in "$@"; do
  case "$arg" in
-    --quiet) QUIET=1 ;;
-    --json)  JSON=1 ;;
+    --quiet)  QUIET=1 ;;
+    --json)   JSON=1 ;;
+    --online) ONLINE=1 ;;
    -h|--help)
      sed -n '2,20p' "$0" | sed 's/^# \{0,1\}//'
      exit 0 ;;
@@ -288,6 +291,42 @@ if [ -n "$installed_v" ] && [ -n "$available_v" ] && [ "$installed_v" != "$avail
  add FAIL plugin-version "Claude Code has skills@mathias $installed_v installed but $available_v is available on this host — /plugin update skills@mathias (a host stale enough to matter is running the old doctor, so the first detection may need this run by hand)"
 fi

+# --- optional: the release this host has never fetched ----------------------
+# Every check above compares copies already present, so a host whose checkout,
+# marketplace clone and installed plugin all agree reads as clean while sitting
+# a release behind origin (#38). Closing that needs a network call, which the
+# default run must not make — hence opt-in, for a scheduled per-host job rather
+# than the SessionStart hook.
+#
+# $DOCTOR_LATEST_TAG_CMD is the test seam; it prints the newest remote tag.
+if [ "$ONLINE" -eq 1 ]; then
+  if [ -n "${DOCTOR_LATEST_TAG_CMD:-}" ]; then
+    remote_tag=$(eval "$DOCTOR_LATEST_TAG_CMD" 2>/dev/null | tail -1 | tr -d '[:space:]')
+  else
+    # The URL is never printed: a remote rewritten by url.insteadOf can expand
+    # into a live token.
+    origin=$(git -C "$CHECKOUT" config --get remote.origin.url 2>/dev/null || true)
+    if [ -n "$origin" ]; then
+      remote_tag=$(git ls-remote --tags --refs "$origin" 2>/dev/null \
+        | sed 's#.*refs/tags/##' | sort -t. -k1,1n -k2,2n -k3,3n | tail -1 | tr -d '[:space:]')
+    else
+      remote_tag=''
+    fi
+  fi
+
+  if [ -z "$remote_tag" ]; then
+    # Not drift. A host that cannot reach origin has an unanswered question,
+    # not a stale library, and saying otherwise would make the two look alike.
+    add WARN offline "could not reach origin for the latest tag — this run proves nothing about staleness"
+  else
+    remote_v=${remote_tag#v}
+    if [ -n "$available_v" ] && [ "$remote_v" != "$available_v" ] \
+       && [ "$(newer_version "$available_v" "$remote_v")" = "$remote_v" ]; then
+      add FAIL behind "this host has $available_v; origin has released $remote_v — run 'task update' and '/plugin update skills@mathias'"
+    fi
+  fi
+fi
+
 # --- output -----------------------------------------------------------------
 if [ "$JSON" -eq 1 ]; then
  printf '{"checkout":"%s","expected":%s,"plugin":{"installed":"%s","available":"%s"},"findings":[%s]}\n' \
@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+# Skills whose escalation rule has not been written yet (#37).
+#
+# This list only shrinks. A skill here is exempt from the '## Escalation'
+# requirement until someone writes its real stop conditions; a skill that HAS a
+# section and is still listed fails the gate, so the list cannot outlive its
+# reason.
+#
+# The ones already done were the advisory and read-only skills, where the honest
+# answer is a line. What is left is the acting set — skills that write files,
+# dispatch agents, touch credentials or move releases — and each of those needs
+# a rule someone thought about, not a rote paragraph. Per #19, one at a time.
+
+atdd
+dream
+experiment-spec
+feature-spec
+gitea-ci
+own-the-task
+planning
+playwright
+problem-analysis
+refactoring
+regulatory-risk-assessment
+secret-hygiene
+session-retrospective
+spec-driven-dev
+superpowers-brainstorming
+superpowers-dispatching-parallel-agents
+superpowers-executing-plans
+superpowers-finishing-a-development-branch
+superpowers-receiving-code-review
+superpowers-requesting-code-review
+superpowers-subagent-driven-development
+superpowers-using-git-worktrees
+superpowers-using-superpowers
+superpowers-verification-before-completion
+superpowers-writing-plans
+superpowers-writing-skills
+tdd
+trainer
+user-stories
+web-shot
@@ -17,8 +17,8 @@
 #   /plugin install skills@mathias
 #
 # That path carries the hooks and MCP server definitions too, which symlinks
-# cannot. This script covers the harnesses with no plugin system: Crush, Pi
-# and OpenCode.
+# cannot. This script covers the harnesses with no plugin system: Crush, Pi,
+# OpenCode, and Antigravity.
 #
 # Wiring model — one managed directory, one link per harness:
 #
@@ -27,6 +27,13 @@
 #   ~/.config/crush/skills      -> ~/.agents/skills
 #   ~/.config/opencode/skills   -> ~/.agents/skills
 #
+# Antigravity has no symlink-directory discovery — it reads a path-entries
+# JSON instead (~/.gemini/config/skills.json:
+# {"entries":[{"path":"..."}]}). One entry points at ~/.agents/skills, so it
+# sees exactly the same surfaces-filtered, collision-resolved set every other
+# harness does. Requires jq; skipped with a warning if jq is unavailable —
+# every other target in this script stays dependency-free on purpose.
+#
 # ~/.agents/skills was itself a link to this checkout until #27. That encoded
 # an assumption nobody had stated — that this checkout is the ONLY source of
 # skills on the host — and on flamingo the only way to install this library
@@ -53,7 +60,12 @@ CHECKOUT_DIR="${SKILLS_CHECKOUT_DIR:-$HOME/.local/share/skills}"
 AGENTS_DIR="${AGENTS_SKILLS_DIR:-$HOME/.agents/skills}"
 CRUSH_DIR="${CRUSH_SKILLS_DIR:-$HOME/.config/crush/skills}"
 OPENCODE_DIR="${OPENCODE_SKILLS_DIR:-$HOME/.config/opencode/skills}"
+ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON="${ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON:-$HOME/.gemini/config/skills.json}"
 EXTRA_SOURCES="${SKILLS_EXTRA_SOURCES:-}"
+# Overridable so the jq-absent branch is testable on a host that has jq. That
+# branch is a contract, not a fallback: jq is optional here while every other
+# target in this script is dependency-free.
+JQ="${SKILLS_JQ:-jq}"
 # Recorded beside the managed directory rather than inside it: a stray file in
 # there would look like a skill to every harness reading the dir.
 SOURCES_MANIFEST="$(dirname "$AGENTS_DIR")/$(basename "$AGENTS_DIR")-sources"
@@ -213,6 +225,42 @@ link_dir() {
  log "linked $link → $target"
 }

+# wire_antigravity — register $AGENTS_DIR in Antigravity's skills.json.
+# Merges rather than overwrites: skills.json is a documented user-editable
+# config (json_configs.md), so a hand-added entry (e.g. a personal skills
+# dir) must survive a re-run untouched.
+wire_antigravity() {
+  if ! command -v "$JQ" >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+    log "Antigravity: jq not found — skipping (needed to merge $ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON safely)"
+    return
+  fi
+
+  local existing already updated
+  mkdir -p "$(dirname "$ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON")"
+
+  if [ -s "$ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON" ]; then
+    existing="$(cat "$ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON")"
+  else
+    existing='{}'
+  fi
+
+  already="$(printf '%s' "$existing" | "$JQ" --arg p "$AGENTS_DIR" \
+    '[.entries // [] | .[] | select(.path == $p)] | length' 2>/dev/null)" || {
+    log "Antigravity: $ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON is not valid JSON — leaving it untouched"
+    return 1
+  }
+
+  if [ "$already" -gt 0 ]; then
+    log "Antigravity: $AGENTS_DIR already registered in $ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON"
+    return
+  fi
+
+  updated="$(printf '%s' "$existing" | "$JQ" --arg p "$AGENTS_DIR" \
+    '.entries = ((.entries // []) + [{path: $p}])')"
+  printf '%s\n' "$updated" > "$ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON"
+  log "Antigravity: registered $AGENTS_DIR in $ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON"
+}
+
 main() {
  ensure_checkout

@@ -224,6 +272,7 @@ main() {

  link_dir "$CRUSH_DIR" "$AGENTS_DIR"
  link_dir "$OPENCODE_DIR" "$AGENTS_DIR"
+  wire_antigravity

  log "done — $LINKED_COUNT skill(s) linked from $(sources | wc -l | tr -d ' ') source(s), ref=$REF"
  log "Claude Code: install the plugin instead — /plugin marketplace add $REPO_URL"
@@ -0,0 +1,223 @@
+---
+name: adr
+surfaces: [claude-code, library]
+summary: "Architecture Decision Records — house format, and how to record a decision you cannot make yet"
+use_when: "Recording an architectural decision; revisiting one; or deciding between options where the right answer genuinely is not knowable yet"
+description: Write an Architecture Decision Record in this estate's format — YAML frontmatter, Status/Context/Decision/Consequences/Validation — including the case where the tradeoff is genuinely context-dependent and forcing a resolution would be worse than preserving the tension. Use when recording or superseding an architectural decision, or when a decision keeps getting re-litigated because nobody wrote down why.
+---
+
+# ADR
+
+## Overview
+
+An ADR is the *record* of a decision — the artifact someone reads in eight months when
+they are about to undo it without knowing why it exists. It does not confer the decision;
+a person with authority does that, and this skill never is that person.
+
+Two things make one useful, and neither is the prose quality: a **format consistent
+enough to grep across repos**, and an honest account of **what was not decided**.
+
+## Before you write
+
+Both of these change what goes in the ADR, so they are not cross-references, they are
+steps:
+
+1. **`lineage`** — was this decided before and reversed? The reason it was dropped is
+   usually the most valuable sentence in your Context, and if an earlier ADR exists,
+   yours supersedes it rather than ignoring it.
+2. **`grill-me`** (Full Grill) — find the hole now. It is cheaper here than in the
+   Consequences section of the ADR that supersedes yours.
+
+## When to Use
+
+- Any choice where a reasonable alternative existed and was not taken
+- Superseding or amending an earlier ADR (never edit the old one — see Status)
+- A decision that keeps getting re-litigated, which means the reasoning was never recorded
+- A tradeoff that is genuinely context-dependent — see *Preserving a productive tension*
+
+**Do not use for:** implementation choices with no alternative worth naming, or anything
+a code comment answers. An ADR per function is an ADR nobody reads.
+
+## The format
+
+**Where it goes:** `docs/adr/NNNN-kebab-slug.md`, zero-padded to four digits, numbered
+sequentially within the repo. Frontmatter you cannot locate is not greppable, and half
+the value of the format is that `docs/adr/*` is a known path in every repo here.
+
+**The number is repo-local.** `cad` ADR-0002 and `infra` ADR-0002 are different
+documents. When referring across repos — including in `supersedes` — qualify it:
+`cad#0002`. Within a repo the bare number is fine.
+
+Frontmatter first. It exists so the corpus is machine-readable — "which ADRs does 0004
+supersede", "what is still `proposed`" — and a bespoke header block, however well
+written, cannot answer those.
+
+```markdown
+---
+adr:           0004
+title:         <the decision, as a sentence — not "database choice">
+status:        proposed | accepted | superseded | amended
+date:          2026-08-29
+deciders:      <who accepted it, by name — or "pending: <name>" (QUOTED) while proposed>
+supersedes:    <adr number, or null>
+---
+
+# ADR-0004 — <same title>
+
+## Status
+
+**The frontmatter is authoritative for status and date.** This section exists for the one
+thing the frontmatter cannot hold: *why* it moved — what superseded it and on what
+evidence, or what accepting it was contingent on. If it would only restate the YAML,
+delete it.
+
+## Context
+
+The forces. What is true that makes this a decision rather than a default — constraints,
+the failure that prompted it, what was tried. Name the unknowns explicitly; a decision
+made under uncertainty is not weaker for saying so, it is auditable.
+
+## Decision
+
+One sentence of what was decided, then why *this* option rather than the named
+alternatives. Address the strongest case against, not the weakest.
+
+## Consequences
+
+**Positive:** what this buys.
+
+**Negative / watch:** what it costs, and the specific thing to watch that would tell you
+it was wrong. "Some added complexity" is not a consequence; "the event schema is now the
+coupling surface between cad and every executor — version it deliberately" is.
+
+## Validation
+
+How you will know. A link to the experiment or the metric that proves or kills it, and
+the condition that fires a revisit. An ADR with no validation section is a preference
+with a template around it.
+```
+
+### The frontmatter must actually parse
+
+It exists to be machine-read, so a block that does not load is worse than no block at
+all: it drops that ADR silently out of every "what is still open?" query, while looking
+correct. Two shapes this template used to suggest are invalid YAML, and both were found
+live in the estate on 2026-09-05 — `openbanking-api` ADR-0001 and `infra` ADR-0019, each
+copied verbatim from here:
+
+| Wrong | Why | Right |
+|---|---|---|
+| `supersedes:    -` | a bare dash is a YAML *sequence entry*, not a string | `supersedes:    null` |
+| `deciders:      pending: Mathias` | the second, unquoted colon reads as a nested mapping | `deciders:      "pending: Mathias"` |
+
+Check before committing:
+
+```sh
+python3 -c "import yaml,sys;yaml.safe_load(open(sys.argv[1]).read().split('---')[1]);print('ok')" docs/adr/0004-*.md
+```
+
+## Preserving a productive tension
+
+Some tradeoffs are not unresolved because nobody thought hard enough. They are
+context-dependent, the context is not settled, and picking now means picking blind.
+Forcing resolution there produces a confident record that is wrong half the time.
+
+Record the tension instead, in the Decision section:
+
+```markdown
+## Decision
+
+Provisional: **<option A>**, on this reasoning: <what makes it safe to pick now>.
+
+<The strongest case for the option you did NOT take, and why it does not win today. The
+plain format demands this and a preserved tension does not get an exemption — the whole
+point is that the loser is still live.>
+
+### The tension, preserved
+
+- **Option A** — <what it assumes, what it costs>
+- **Option B** — <what it assumes, what it costs>
+
+**What we do not know:** <the variable that decides it>
+
+**Preservation strategy:** <what we build now so BOTH stay reachable. This is the
+technical content of the ADR, not a one-liner — enumerate it. It is usually the part both
+options need anyway, which is often most of the work: the schema, the interface seam, the
+idempotency key. Name each piece and say which option it keeps alive.>
+
+**Resolution triggers:** <plural, and one per unknown. Two independent unknowns do not
+collapse into one condition, and a trigger may exist that neither unknown implies.>
+```
+
+Two rules keep this from becoming an excuse:
+
+1. **A preserved tension still ships a decision.** "We will decide later" is not one.
+   Prefer the option whose correctness does not depend on the unknown, say so, and mark
+   it provisional.
+
+   **When no such option exists** — and often none does, because a tension is productive
+   precisely when both options are hostage to the same unknown — do not manufacture a
+   reason that one of them is. That reads as reasoned and will not be re-examined, which
+   makes it worse than an honest arbitrary pick. Fall back, in order: the option that is
+   cheaper to reverse; the one with the lower switching cost given your preservation
+   strategy; the one already built. Then **say that is why you picked it.** "Chosen
+   because it is the cheaper mistake" is a real justification and an auditable one.
+2. **The resolution trigger must be observable by someone who is not you.** "When it
+   becomes a problem" is not a trigger. "When executor count passes five and they are all
+   long-lived services in one cluster" is. A trigger nobody can evaluate is a decision
+   that quietly becomes permanent.
+
+`cad`'s ADR-0001 does this informally under *"Known refinements (recorded, deliberately
+not built yet)"* — sovereignty deferred to a 3-class model *"until a client actually opts
+into an EU provider"*. That clause is the pattern: option, cost, and the event that
+forces the choice.
+
+## Status discipline
+
+- **Never edit an accepted ADR to change its decision.** Write a new one and set
+  `supersedes`. The record of what was believed, and when, is the whole value.
+- **Amend** for corrections that do not change the decision (a broken link, a clarified
+  consequence). Note the amendment inline with its date.
+- **`proposed` is not a parking space.** An ADR that sits proposed for a month *with no
+  named decider* is a decision nobody is making; either accept it provisionally or close
+  it as declined. With a named decider it is a decision waiting on a person, which is a
+  different thing and is chased rather than closed.
+
+## Anti-patterns
+
+| Anti-pattern | Why it fails |
+|---|---|
+| Consequences that are all positive | Then it was not a decision, it was an announcement |
+| "We chose X because it is better" | Names no alternative and no force; unfalsifiable |
+| Written after the code shipped | Reverse-engineers a justification. Record the reasoning while it is still contested |
+| One ADR amended repeatedly | Destroys the history the format exists to keep |
+| No Validation section | Nothing distinguishes a good decision from a lucky one |
+| A tension "resolved" by picking arbitrarily | The next person re-litigates it, having lost the reasoning |
+
+## Escalation
+
+Writes a file, so it acts — but it decides nothing.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the deciders are not you — which, for an agent, is always. An
+ADR records a decision someone with authority made; writing one to *create* that
+authority is how a preference acquires a document number.
+
+So the deliverable is a draft marked `proposed` with **the person who must accept it named
+in `deciders` as `pending: <name>`**, and that hand-back stated in the response, not left
+implied. Naming the decider is the escalation, not a formality — an unnamed one is how a
+proposal sits for a month.
+
+That is the intended state for an agent-authored ADR, and it is not the parking-space
+failure below: a `proposed` ADR with a named decider is waiting on someone; one without is
+waiting on nobody.
+
+Also stop when the Context cannot be written without inventing a constraint. A missing
+force means the decision has not been thought through yet, and an ADR built on an
+invented one is worse than none: it will be cited.
+
+## Cross-References
+
+- `lineage` and `grill-me` — see *Before you write*; they change the content, so they are
+  steps rather than references.
+- `spec-driven-dev` / `feature-spec` — an ADR is the *why*; a spec is the *what*. If you
+  are describing behaviour, you are writing a spec.
@@ -234,8 +234,8 @@ wrong" — it means "nothing on the known list is wrong."
 Call `session_log` once at the end of every phase to record the outcome.

 **At end of each phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "cad-babysit", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" |
-  "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root:
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "cad-babysit", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" |
+  "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root:
  "<absolute path>"}`

 **Phases for this skill:** query, read-comments, read-actions-logs, classify-fault-vs-outcome,
@@ -247,12 +247,6 @@ decide
 - `fail` — the phase could not be completed (e.g. `cad stuck` errored, Gitea was unreachable).
 - `skip` — phase intentionally skipped (e.g. Phase 3 skipped because Phase 2 was conclusive).

-## Mode 2 Routing Note
-
-Phases 2-4 (reading comments/logs, classifying fault vs outcome) are judgment-heavy and should
-stay Mode 1. Phase 1 (running `cad stuck` and grouping its output) is mechanical and a Mode 2
-routing candidate once Plan 6 ships the routing pod.
-
 ## Cross-References

 - Depends on `mathias/cad#14`'s `cad stuck` query — this skill is the ritual around it, not a
@@ -264,3 +258,13 @@ routing candidate once Plan 6 ships the routing pod.
 - `mathias/cad-atlas#11` renders the same `cad stuck` output as a pipeline overlay — read that
  instead of this skill's text output when a visual "where is everything stuck" view is wanted
  over working one row in depth.
+
+## Escalation
+
+Read-only by construction, and the Iron Laws above are the escalation rule: never close
+an issue, never dispatch, never write a label. Everything that is the operator's call
+leaves as a `DECISION NEEDED` block (question / options / recommendation / blocks).
+
+Stop and hand back when: the stuck queue is empty; a diagnosis needs a write you are not
+allowed to make; or two runs in a row produce the same finding, which means the finding
+is not being acted on and repeating it is noise.
@@ -284,3 +284,11 @@ During refactoring:
 - `references/python-adaptation.md` — Python conventions: error chaining, dataclasses, the truthiness trap
 - Load `solid` skill for SOLID principles with Go examples
 - Load `refactoring` skill for systematic refactoring techniques
+
+## Escalation
+
+Advisory during the REFACTOR phase. Suggests; does not restructure behaviour.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the cleanup you are proposing changes behaviour. That is not
+refactoring, it is a change, and it needs its own failing test first — hand back to
+`tdd`.
@@ -253,7 +253,7 @@ Pass-rate is computed downstream by the `/pass-rate` HTTP endpoint, which
 treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.

 **At end of each phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "code-review", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "code-review", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **Phases for this skill:** phase-0-iron-laws, phase-1-context, phase-2-architectural-analysis, phase-3-go-checklist, phase-4-code-smell-detection, phase-5-test-quality

@@ -262,7 +262,7 @@ treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.
 - `fail` — the phase's intended outcome was NOT reached.
 - `skip` — phase was skipped intentionally.

-**Why this matters:** the routing pod (Plan 6) reads pass-rate to decide whether to route a future call to a local model. If your skill never logs, the routing pod sees no data.
+**Why this matters:** pass-rate is what a future routing decision would be based on — whether a given call can be served by a local model instead of a cloud one. A skill that never logs contributes no evidence either way.

 ## Common Go Anti-Patterns

@@ -286,6 +286,11 @@ treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.
 - Load `test-design` skill for reviewing test quality
 - Load `solid` skill for SOLID principle violations

-## Mode 2 Routing Note
+## Escalation

-This skill is invoked identically in Mode 1 (cloud Claude) and Mode 2 (client-local with supervisor routing). The routing layer (Plan 6) does not exist yet; treat this skill as Mode 1 only for now. Findings format and severity classification are unchanged across modes.
+Read-only analysis. Findings are the output; nothing is handed back mid-review.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the diff is large enough that a review would be a skim — say so
+and ask for it in parts, rather than producing confident coverage of a fraction of it; or
+the problem is structural rather than pointwise, in which case name it and hand off to
+`solid` or `refactoring` instead of filing twenty line-level comments about one cause.
@@ -347,3 +347,12 @@ type UserWriter interface {
 - Load `refactoring` skill for systematic techniques to reduce identified hotspots
 - Load `solid` skill for structural fixes (coupling, cohesion)
 - Load `clean-code` skill for naming improvements
+
+## Escalation
+
+Read-only measurement. The score is the output.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the measurement disagrees with the reader's lived experience of
+the code. A metric that says "fine" about code everyone finds hard is evidence about the
+metric, not about the code, and continuing to defend the number is how a measure becomes
+a target.
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
 name: debug
 surfaces: [claude-code, library]
 summary: "Hypothesis-first debugging discipline"
-use_when: "Any test failure or bug whose cause is not immediately obvious"
-description: Systematic hypothesis-first debugging. Generate 3-5 ranked hypotheses with verification steps before suggesting any fix. Use when encountering a bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior.
+use_when: "Any test failure or bug whose cause is not immediately obvious — or a bug report with no failure text, which this skill refuses rather than guesses at"
+description: Systematic hypothesis-first debugging. Requires the failure itself — error text, stack, run id or log — and names what it needs and stops if the report has none, rather than hypothesising into a vacuum. Given evidence, generates 3-5 ranked, falsifiable hypotheses with verification steps before suggesting any fix. Use when encountering a bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior.
 ---

 # Debug
@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ description: Systematic hypothesis-first debugging. Generate 3-5 ranked hypothes

 Debugging is hypothesis generation, not fix generation. The first instinct — "try this and see if it works" — wastes time and teaches nothing. A disciplined debug session produces a small set of ranked, falsifiable hypotheses, each with a concrete verification command. The fix comes after one hypothesis is confirmed, not before.

-**Core principle:** A hypothesis you cannot verify in one command is not a hypothesis — it is a guess.
+**Core principle:** A hypothesis you cannot verify with a single bounded, decisive observation is not a hypothesis — it is a guess. In a repo that observation is usually one command. Above one it may be an instrumented run, or partitioning the last twenty CI runs by trigger type; what makes it a hypothesis is that the observation *discriminates*, not that it fits on one line.

 ## When to Use

@@ -25,6 +25,27 @@ Debugging is hypothesis generation, not fix generation. The first instinct — "
 - Compile errors with clear messages (just fix the typo)
 - Already-diagnosed bugs where you know the cause (go straight to TDD with a regression test)

+### Is it actually diagnosed?
+
+That last exclusion is the one people get wrong, because a confident wrong diagnosis feels
+exactly like a right one. It is diagnosed if you can state the mechanism *and* name the
+observation that would have proved it wrong. If the evidence is "we changed X and it got
+better", that is correlation with a deployment, and this skill applies.
+
+The strongest tell is a run of failed fixes — see below. Three plausible fixes that did
+not eliminate the symptom is not bad luck, it is the diagnosis being wrong.
+
+### Intake: what you need before hypothesising
+
+Before generating anything, confirm you have the failure itself — the error text, the
+stack, the failing run's id, the log. If the report is "it's flaky again" with no
+artifact, **name the specific thing you need and stop**. Iron Law 1 forbids "try X and
+see"; hypothesising into a vacuum is the same failure with better grammar, and it is
+worse because the output looks like analysis.
+
+This is the rule `cad-babysit` already enforces from the other side: read the issue's own
+comments and the job log *first*.
+
 ## Iron Laws

 1. **Never suggest "try X and see what happens."** Every hypothesis must have a specific expected outcome if correct.
@@ -36,8 +57,9 @@ Debugging is hypothesis generation, not fix generation. The first instinct — "
 A system with boundaries (CI → build → signing, API → service → database) hides the
 question "which component is wrong?" behind the question "why is the output wrong?".
 Specify, as a pre-step, what to log entering and leaving **each** boundary, plus
-whether config and environment actually propagated. One run of that narrows the search
-to a single component.
+whether config and environment actually propagated. One run *that reproduces the failure* narrows the search to a
+single component. On an intermittent fault a passing run narrows nothing, so leave the
+instrumentation in across several runs rather than concluding from one.

 This does not suspend Iron Law 2. Still emit 3-5 hypotheses — the boundary spec comes
 first in the output, and each hypothesis says which boundary observation would kill it.
@@ -53,6 +75,10 @@ than fixes that partially worked.) Each one has been narrowing a window rather t
 closing it, and a fourth guess buys another tenth of the rate plus a layer of
 interacting guards nobody can reason about.

+Intake still gates this section. A report of three failed fixes with no artifacts fires
+both rules at once, and intake wins: you cannot aim hypotheses at a premise you have no
+evidence about either. Ask for the log, then aim.
+
 Say that explicitly — the refusal is the finding, not a preamble to it. Then aim the
 hypotheses one level up: the premise those fixes share is itself the thing to falsify.
 This is not an exemption from the output format. It is the format, pointed at the
@@ -76,18 +102,28 @@ For each hypothesis, capture three things:
 - **Verification:** the single command or file inspection that confirms or denies it
 - **Expected outcome if correct:** the specific output you would see

-Order by likelihood. The most likely cause is hypothesis 1.
+Order by likelihood, most likely first. **The ordering is the ranking — do not also
+attach `high`/`medium`/`low` labels.** With five slots and three labels the labels stop
+discriminating (two hypotheses are genuinely both "high" and the label cannot say which
+comes first), and a reader then has two orderings that can disagree. Position already
+carries it.
+
+Where you can say *why* one outranks another — a prior brain entry, a matching symptom,
+a recent change in that area — say that instead of a label. That is information; a label
+is a restatement of the order it sits next to.

 ### Step 3: Output

 Use this format:

 ```
-HYPOTHESIS 1 (likelihood: high): <mechanism in one sentence>
-VERIFY: <exact command or file:line to inspect>
+HYPOTHESIS 1: <mechanism in one sentence>
+WHY FIRST: <what makes it likeliest — a matching symptom, a recent change, a brain entry>
+VERIFY: <exact command, or the bounded observation that discriminates>
 EXPECTED IF CORRECT: <specific output, value, or condition>

-HYPOTHESIS 2 (likelihood: medium): <mechanism>
+HYPOTHESIS 2: <mechanism>
+WHY FIRST: <or why it ranks here rather than first>
 VERIFY: <exact command>
 EXPECTED IF CORRECT: <specific output>

@@ -109,15 +145,15 @@ End with the recommendation, not a fix.
 **Output:**

 ```
-HYPOTHESIS 1 (likelihood: high): parser indexes into pages[0] before checking len(pages) > 0; empty PDFs produce a zero-page document
+HYPOTHESIS 1: parser indexes into pages[0] before checking len(pages) > 0; empty PDFs produce a zero-page document
 VERIFY: rg -n 'pages\[0\]' internal/parser/
 EXPECTED IF CORRECT: at least one site reads pages[0] without a preceding length check

-HYPOTHESIS 2 (likelihood: medium): the test fixture is a zero-byte file rather than a valid empty PDF; pdf library returns nil pages slice instead of empty
+HYPOTHESIS 2: the test fixture is a zero-byte file rather than a valid empty PDF; pdf library returns nil pages slice instead of empty
 VERIFY: ls -la testdata/empty.pdf && file testdata/empty.pdf
 EXPECTED IF CORRECT: file size 0 bytes or "data" rather than "PDF document"

-HYPOTHESIS 3 (likelihood: low): a recently changed dependency reordered the page-extraction API; pages[0] now refers to metadata, not content
+HYPOTHESIS 3: a recently changed dependency reordered the page-extraction API; pages[0] now refers to metadata, not content
 VERIFY: git log --oneline -10 -- go.sum | grep -i pdf
 EXPECTED IF CORRECT: a pdf-library bump in the last few commits

@@ -131,6 +167,7 @@ RECOMMENDED NEXT STEP: Run VERIFY for hypothesis 1 first.
 | "Maybe try restarting the service" | Not a mechanism. Not falsifiable. Teaches nothing if it works. |
 | "Could be a race condition" | Mechanism without specifics. Which two operations race? On what state? |
 | "Let me add some print statements and see" | Skips hypothesis generation. Generates noise, not understanding. |
+| Answering "what's the fix?" from a report with no artifact | Hypothesising into a vacuum. The output looks like analysis, which is what makes it worse than saying "I need the log". |
 | Single hypothesis presented as fact | If you are sure, write the regression test, do not run a debug skill. |
 | Mixing hypotheses with fix suggestions | The skill is diagnose-only. The fix is a TDD task on its hypothesis. |

@@ -139,7 +176,8 @@ RECOMMENDED NEXT STEP: Run VERIFY for hypothesis 1 first.
 The brain holds prior debug sessions across the project. Use it to skip rediscovering known failure modes.

 **At debug start:**
- Run `brain_query` with the error message snippet + the package name. Past sessions may have logged identical or similar failures with their resolved hypotheses.
+- Run `brain_query` with the error message snippet + the package name. On an intake stop you have neither — query the symptom and the component instead ("signed artifact missing CI"), which is worth doing precisely because it may name the artifact to ask for. Past sessions may have logged identical or similar failures with their resolved hypotheses.
+- **A hit is evidence, so cite it inline in the hypothesis it informs** — `(brain: <entry-name>)` — rather than mentioning it once at the top. If a prior entry is why a hypothesis ranks first, the reader needs that at the hypothesis, not in a preamble. If a prior entry contradicts your ranking, say so and rank it anyway if the evidence here is better; the brain records what was true then.

 **After a hypothesis is confirmed:**
 - Run `brain_write` with the failure signature → confirmed mechanism. Future debug sessions on the same area get the answer immediately.
@@ -154,20 +192,21 @@ Pass-rate is computed downstream by the `/pass-rate` HTTP endpoint, which
 treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.

 **At end of each phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "debug", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "debug", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

-**Phases for this skill:** read-failure, generate-hypotheses, output
+**Phases for this skill:** intake, read-failure, generate-hypotheses, output
+
+`intake` exists so that refusing correctly is recordable. A run that stops for want of a
+run id has done the right thing and logs `intake` / `pass`; without that phase the
+refusal logs as a failed `read-failure`, and a metric that penalises the skill's best
+behaviour teaches the next model to hypothesise into the vacuum instead.

 **Status semantics:**
 - `pass` — the phase's intended outcome was reached.
 - `fail` — the phase's intended outcome was NOT reached.
 - `skip` — phase was skipped intentionally.

-**Why this matters:** the routing pod (Plan 6) reads pass-rate to decide whether to route a future call to a local model. If your skill never logs, the routing pod sees no data.
-
-## Mode 2 Routing Note
-
-This skill produces high-volume mechanical output (hypothesis enumeration) and is a candidate for Mode 2 routing to a local model in the future. Until Plan 6 ships the routing pod, treat as Mode 1 only. The hypothesis format and discipline are identical regardless of which model generates them.
+**Why this matters:** pass-rate is what a future routing decision would be based on — whether a given call can be served by a local model instead of a cloud one. A skill that never logs contributes no evidence either way.

 ## Cross-References

@@ -183,6 +222,18 @@ Techniques kept in `debug/references/`, inherited from the deleted
 - `defense-in-depth.md` — load after a root cause is confirmed, to decide which layers
  should have caught it.
 - `condition-based-waiting.md` — load whenever a timeout appears anywhere in the report,
-  including as one of the fixes already tried. A bumped timeout is a symptom.
+  including as one of the fixes already tried. A bumped timeout is a symptom. Not during an
+  intake stop: if you are not analysing yet, a symptom-analysis reference is on the wrong
+  side of the gate.
 - `find-polluter.sh` — run when a test passes alone and fails in the suite, or when
  something in the tree appears that no test admits to creating.
+
+## Escalation
+
+Diagnose only — Iron Law 3 is already an escalation rule: the fix is a separate TDD cycle,
+not this skill's output.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the report contains no failure text and no locator, in which case
+name the specific artifact you need (run id, job log, stack trace) and stop rather than
+hypothesising into a vacuum; or the evidence needed to discriminate between your top two
+hypotheses requires access you do not have.
@@ -152,3 +152,12 @@ hand-wavy. Crisp solution + fuzzy problem = reverse-engineered justification. St

 > Named instances of both war stories are client-tagged and held out of this public skill
 > pending client-store decision. The transferable lesson lives here; the wrapper stays out.
+
+## Escalation
+
+Advisory. Produces a problem brief; commits to nothing.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the evidence needed to size a problem requires talking to
+customers you cannot reach. Sizing a problem from assumptions and presenting it as
+discovery is worse than saying the number is unknown — it launders a guess into a brief
+that later decisions will cite.
@@ -185,7 +185,7 @@ If silhouette ≤ 0.20:

 **After experiment concludes:**
 - `brain_write` to `jepa-fx/failures/` with any new failure modes discovered
- `session_log` with outcome
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "experiment-spec", phase: "conclude", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line outcome>"}`

 ## Cross-References

@@ -245,7 +245,7 @@ Pass-rate is computed downstream by the `/pass-rate` HTTP endpoint, which
 treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.

 **At end of each phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "feature-spec", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "feature-spec", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **Phases for this skill:** draft

@@ -254,11 +254,7 @@ treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.
 - `fail` — the phase's intended outcome was NOT reached (spec rejected, blocked on unresolved questions).
 - `skip` — phase was skipped intentionally.

-**Why this matters:** the routing pod (Plan 6) reads pass-rate to decide whether to route a future call to a local model. If your skill never logs, the routing pod sees no data.
-
-## Mode 2 Routing Note
-
-Spec writing requires interpretation of intent and tradeoff reasoning — work where Claude generally outperforms a 9-13B local model. This skill is intentionally **not** a Mode 2 routing candidate. In Mode 2, the routing layer should leave `feature-spec` calls on Claude.
+**Why this matters:** pass-rate is what a future routing decision would be based on — whether a given call can be served by a local model instead of a cloud one. A skill that never logs contributes no evidence either way.

 ## Cross-References

@@ -148,3 +148,12 @@ This skill maps to the **convergence moments** in the Double Diamond workflow:
 - **Mid-Diamond 2 (Develop):** Use Quick Poke when an agent's experiment result is ambiguous and you're deciding whether to continue or pivot.

 The skill does NOT replace human judgment at convergence points — it sharpens the plan so that judgment is better informed.
+
+## Escalation
+
+Advisory. Produces sharper questions and a better plan; decides nothing.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the plan's weak point is a decision that is the operator's to
+make rather than a gap in reasoning — surface it as a question with options and a
+recommendation, and do not grill past it. Also stop when a round produces no new
+objection: interrogation past that point manufactures doubt rather than finding it.
@@ -0,0 +1,163 @@
+---
+name: lineage
+surfaces: [claude-code, library]
+summary: "Backward decision archaeology — was this tried before, and does the reason it failed still hold"
+use_when: "Before proposing something that feels new; when an idea keeps resurfacing; when you inherit code whose reason is gone"
+description: Backward decision archaeology. Find out whether an idea was already tried here, why it was dropped, and whether that reason still applies — using git history, decision records and the issue tracker rather than asking whoever is still around. Use before proposing a change that feels novel, when inheriting unexplained code, or when the same idea keeps being re-litigated.
+---
+
+# Lineage
+
+## Overview
+
+Most "new" ideas in an established codebase are revivals. The valuable question is never
+"is this a good idea" in the abstract — it is **"was this tried, what killed it, and is
+the killer still alive?"**
+
+A past failure is not evidence against trying again. It is context for trying again
+differently, and the difference between those two readings is usually one commit message.
+
+## When to Use
+
+- Before proposing something that feels new in a codebase older than you
+- When an idea keeps resurfacing and being re-argued from scratch
+- When you inherit code and cannot tell whether a constraint is load-bearing or vestigial
+- Before writing an ADR — the reason a thing was dropped belongs in your Context section
+
+**Do not use for:** code you wrote this week, or a question the current code answers.
+Archaeology on a live construction site is just reading.
+
+## The tool
+
+```sh
+skills/lineage/lineage.sh <term> [repo-path]
+```
+
+Runs the searches people skip because they are fiddly to type. In particular
+`git log -S<term>`, which finds commits where the term's **occurrence count changed** —
+so it surfaces the *removal* as well as the introduction. A plain `--grep` never finds a
+deletion, and the deletion is the whole point.
+
+It also lists files that once carried the term and no longer exist, and names the two
+sources it cannot search for you.
+
+**A no-match is not a finding.** The first version of this tool said a null meant "this is
+new here"; a pressure test caught it asserting exactly that about the most-discussed
+removed feature in this repo — the search term merely had a space in it. One string
+against one repo proves nothing. Try at least three variants (the identifier name, a
+one-word form, the name it would have had) and the brain and tracker searches before
+telling anyone an idea is novel. This is the same rule as the anti-patterns table below,
+and it is there because the tool broke it.
+
+Note also that `--grep` takes a regex and `-S` takes a literal string, so a term
+containing `.`, `[`, `*` or `+` matches differently in the two halves of the output.
+
+## The sequence
+
+**1. Search on the identifier, not the concept.** If the thing had a name in the code —
+a function, a flag, a config key — `git log --all -S<name>` typically returns exactly two
+commits, its birth and its death, on one screen. That is the fastest path to the answer in
+this whole sequence.
+
+Path-scoped log (`git log --all -- <file>`) is the weaker move and it is the one people
+reach for: a function deleted from a file that still exists is the *dominant* removal
+shape, and the path search buries it under every other commit that touched the file.
+
+Concept words are the fallback, and they are lossy — a term with a space in it will miss
+the record entirely. Try several spellings before you conclude anything.
+
+**2. Read the removal commit's full body, not its subject.**
+
+```sh
+git log -1 --format=%B <sha>
+git show --stat <sha>
+```
+
+This is where the answer almost always is. A subject line says *what*; the body says
+*why*, and the why is what you came for. Read the diff too — what was removed alongside
+it tells you how load-bearing it was.
+
+**3. Search outside git — that is where this estate keeps its reasoning.** Two sources,
+both routinely decisive, neither reachable from a commit log:
+
+- **The brain** (`brain_query`). Postmortems and generalized rules live there. In the run
+  that shaped this skill, the single best artifact — the rule abstracted from the incident,
+  with detection one-liners — came from the brain and from nowhere else.
+- **The issue tracker, including comments.** The commit records *that* something was
+  removed; the argument for it is usually in a comment. Search closed issues especially —
+  a closed issue is where a decision usually is.
+
+A git-only search finds the what and misses the why.
+
+**4. Test whether the failure conditions still hold — empirically, not from the record.**
+This is the step that makes the whole exercise worth doing, and it is the one that gets
+hand-waved. Write the conditions down as separate claims, then **run a command per claim**:
+
+| Claim from the record | How you check it today |
+|---|---|
+| "absolute links break across two path roots" | `readlink` one, `test -e` it on this host |
+| "it is gitignored, so nobody sees the rot" | `grep` the ignore file |
+| "the detector does not cover it" | `grep` the detector for the path it scans |
+
+Twenty seconds each, and it converts *"the record claims X"* into *"X is true right now"* —
+which is the only form of the answer worth giving. A constraint that has since been
+removed turns a dead idea live; one that is still true kills a revival on the spot.
+
+**5. Separate the mechanism from the goal.** A revival proposal usually bundles both, and
+they can have opposite verdicts: the goal is still worth wanting, the mechanism is the one
+that failed. Splitting them is often the whole finding — you end up agreeing with the
+proposer and rejecting their implementation, which is a far more useful answer than yes
+or no.
+
+## What "it was tried and failed" can mean
+
+| Reading | Tell | What to do |
+|---|---|---|
+| **Structurally impossible** | The removal commit says *why* it cannot work, not that it broke | Believe it. Look for a different mechanism for the same goal |
+| **Failed under conditions that changed** | The blocker names a version, a host, a tool that has since moved | Re-open it, citing what changed |
+| **Failed on execution** | It broke, was reverted, nobody diagnosed it | Genuinely undecided. The revival is legitimate; budget for the diagnosis |
+| **Never actually tried** | Discussed, an issue exists, no commit | There is no evidence either way. Say so rather than inheriting someone's pessimism |
+| **Still there, in a different shape** | The idea returned under another name | The most missable one — check before you build it twice |
+
+## Output
+
+Answer the question that was asked, then show your work:
+
+- **Verdict** — tried / not tried / tried and later restored differently
+- **The decisive artifact** — commit sha, issue number, or ADR, so the reader can check
+- **What killed it**, quoted from the source rather than paraphrased
+- **Whether that still applies**, per condition, not as a single yes or no
+
+If the decisive evidence is one commit message, quote it. A conclusion that makes the
+reader re-run your search has not saved them anything.
+
+## Anti-patterns
+
+| Anti-pattern | Why it fails |
+|---|---|
+| `--grep` only | Finds discussion, misses deletions. The deletion is the evidence |
+| Reading the commit subject and stopping | Subjects say what; you need why |
+| Treating a past failure as a verdict | Conditions change. That is the entire question |
+| Git-only search | The argument is usually in the issue tracker |
+| "It was tried and it failed" with no sha | Unverifiable, and it will be re-litigated next quarter |
+| Assuming absence means it was never considered | It may have been rejected in a conversation. Say what you searched |
+
+## Escalation
+
+Read-only. Reports what the record says; changes nothing and revives nothing.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the record is genuinely silent — no commit, no issue, no ADR.
+State what you searched and that nothing exists, rather than inferring intent from
+absence. Someone deciding not to build a thing and nobody ever considering it look
+identical in git, and only one of them is an argument.
+
+Also stop when the answer turns on why a *person* did something and the record does not
+say. Ask them. Reconstructing a colleague's reasoning from a diff is how a guess acquires
+a citation.
+
+## Cross-References
+
+- `adr` — what you find here belongs in the Context section of the ADR you are about to
+  write. If the thing was decided before, your ADR supersedes that one; say so.
+- `debug` — the same discipline aimed at a failure rather than a decision: evidence
+  before hypothesis, and the removal commit is evidence.
@@ -0,0 +1,99 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# lineage.sh — decision archaeology for one term.
+#
+# Answers "why does X exist, was it tried before, and is this 'new' idea a
+# revival?"
+#
+# Its real value is that it makes you run `git log -S` at all — that is a nudge,
+# not a capability. -S finds commits where the term's occurrence COUNT changed,
+# so it surfaces a removal; --grep only finds people talking about one. On an
+# identifier name (`wire_claude_repo`) -S typically returns exactly two commits,
+# birth and death, which is the fastest path to the answer in this whole file.
+#
+# Note the two searches do not match the same way: --grep takes a regex, -S takes
+# a literal string. A term containing . [ * + behaves differently in each.
+#
+# Usage: lineage.sh <term> [repo-path]
+#
+# Read-only: nothing here writes, and it never touches the index or worktree.
+
+set -u
+
+[ $# -ge 1 ] || { echo "usage: lineage.sh <term> [repo-path]" >&2; exit 2; }
+TERM_=$1
+REPO=${2:-.}
+
+git -C "$REPO" rev-parse --git-dir >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
+  echo "lineage: $REPO is not a git repository" >&2; exit 2; }
+
+# Say which repo, always. The default is the cwd, and in a worktree-heavy setup
+# that is routinely not the repo the caller means — a confident null against the
+# wrong tree is the worst thing this tool can produce.
+TOPLEVEL=$(git -C "$REPO" rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || printf '%s' "$REPO")
+printf 'searching: %s   term: "%s"\n' "$TOPLEVEL" "$TERM_"
+
+FMT='%h  %ad  %an  %s'
+DATE='--date=short'
+found=0
+
+section() { printf '\n== %s ==\n' "$1"; }
+
+# 1. Commits whose MESSAGE mentions it — the stated reasoning.
+msgs=$(git -C "$REPO" log --all -i --grep="$TERM_" --format="$FMT" $DATE 2>/dev/null || true)
+if [ -n "$msgs" ]; then
+  found=1
+  section "Commits that talk about it (message)"
+  printf '%s\n' "$msgs"
+fi
+
+# 2. Commits where the term was ADDED or REMOVED — the actual history.
+#    -S counts occurrences, so a deletion shows up here and nowhere else.
+picks=$(git -C "$REPO" log --all -S"$TERM_" --format="$FMT" $DATE 2>/dev/null || true)
+if [ -n "$picks" ]; then
+  found=1
+  section "Commits where it appeared or disappeared (-S)"
+  printf '%s\n' "$picks"
+  printf '\n   Oldest is the introduction. Anything after it that removed the term is\n'
+  printf '   the interesting one: read that commit before proposing this again.\n'
+fi
+
+# 3. Files that once contained it and no longer exist.
+deleted=$(git -C "$REPO" log --all --diff-filter=D --name-only --format='%h' -S"$TERM_" 2>/dev/null \
+  | grep -v '^[0-9a-f]\{7,\}$' | grep -v '^$' | sort -u || true)
+if [ -n "$deleted" ]; then
+  found=1
+  section "Files deleted that carried it"
+  printf '%s\n' "$deleted"
+  printf '\n   Recover one with: git -C %s show <sha>^:<path>\n' "$REPO"
+fi
+
+# 4. Decision records naming it.
+docs=$(git -C "$REPO" grep -l -i "$TERM_" -- 'docs/adr/*' 'docs/decisions/*' 'docs/*.md' 'ADR*' 2>/dev/null || true)
+if [ -n "$docs" ]; then
+  found=1
+  section "Decision records naming it"
+  printf '%s\n' "$docs"
+fi
+
+# This estate keeps most of its reasoning OUTSIDE the repo, so the two searches
+# this tool cannot run are usually the decisive ones. Say so every time rather
+# than letting their absence read as a null result.
+section "Not searched here — do these by hand"
+printf 'brain:  brain_query "%s" — decisions and postmortems live there, not in docs/\n' "$TERM_"
+printf 'gitea:  closed issues and their COMMENTS. The argument for a removal is\n'
+printf '        usually in a comment; the commit only records that it happened.\n'
+
+if [ "$found" -eq 0 ]; then
+  printf '\nno match for the exact string "%s" in %s.\n' "$TERM_" "$TOPLEVEL"
+  printf 'This is NOT evidence the idea is new. It is one string against one repo.\n'
+  printf 'Before concluding anything, try: the identifier or function name; a\n'
+  printf 'one-word variant (spaces and punctuation break the match); the name it\n'
+  printf 'would have had; and the brain and issue searches above.\n'
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+printf '\n-- what this cannot tell you --------------------------------------------\n'
+printf 'Why it was removed, if it was. The commit subject is a summary; read the\n'
+printf 'body, the PR, and the issue it closed. A past failure under conditions that\n'
+printf 'no longer hold is not evidence against trying again — it is context for\n'
+printf 'trying again differently.\n'
@@ -116,7 +116,7 @@ Pass-rate is computed downstream by the `/pass-rate` HTTP endpoint, which
 treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.

 **At end of each phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "session-retrospective", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "session-retrospective", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **Phases for this skill:** surfaced

@@ -125,11 +125,7 @@ treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.
 - `fail` — the phase's intended outcome was NOT reached (retrospective could not produce coherent candidates).
 - `skip` — phase was skipped intentionally (no novel learnings worth surfacing).

-**Why this matters:** the routing pod (Plan 6) reads pass-rate to decide whether to route a future call to a local model. If your skill never logs, the routing pod sees no data.
-
-## Mode 2 Routing Note
-
-Reading long session logs and pulling themes is high-volume, mechanical pattern-recognition work — a strong Mode 2 routing candidate. Until Plan 6 ships the routing pod, treat as Mode 1 only.
+**Why this matters:** pass-rate is what a future routing decision would be based on — whether a given call can be served by a local model instead of a cloud one. A skill that never logs contributes no evidence either way.

 ## Cross-References

@@ -261,3 +261,12 @@ Domain types know nothing about HTTP, SQL, or external APIs.
 - `references/python-adaptation.md` — the Python rewrite: Protocol over ABC, and what does not carry over from Go
 - Load `clean-code` skill for naming and structure
 - Load `code-review` skill for detecting violations during review
+
+## Escalation
+
+Advisory. Names principle violations and suggests structure; writes no code.
+
+Stop and hand back when: applying a principle would require a change larger than the one
+under discussion. "This wants dependency inversion" on a two-line fix is a design
+conversation, not a review comment, and forcing it through as one is how a small change
+acquires an architecture.
@@ -332,7 +332,7 @@ Pass-rate is computed downstream by the `/pass-rate` HTTP endpoint, which
 treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.

 **At end of each phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "spec-driven-dev", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "spec-driven-dev", phase: "<phase-name>", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **Phases for this skill:** specify, plan, tasks, implement

@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@ treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.
 - `fail` — the phase's intended outcome was NOT reached (gate blocked, rework required).
 - `skip` — phase was skipped intentionally.

-**Why this matters:** the routing pod (Plan 6) reads pass-rate to decide whether to route a future call to a local model. If your skill never logs, the routing pod sees no data.
+**Why this matters:** pass-rate is what a future routing decision would be based on — whether a given call can be served by a local model instead of a cloud one. A skill that never logs contributes no evidence either way.

 ## Cross-References

@@ -151,3 +151,12 @@ stays in the client boundary**:
 - Council/forum names, internal stage labels, internal tooling, named contacts, strategy
  specifics, deal terms → client dir/org only, local models only, never the public brain.
 - This skill carries the **pattern**; the client carries the **wrapper**. Never merge them.
+
+## Escalation
+
+Advisory. Prepares or chairs a gate; the council decides, not this skill.
+
+Stop and hand back when: a discipline's evidence is missing rather than weak. A gap on a
+gating discipline means do not bring the ask — bring a feedback-only ask instead. Marking
+it "cleared with a note" is precisely the gate theatre the anti-patterns section is
+about.
@@ -365,7 +365,7 @@ Before marking work complete:
 - [ ] Tests use real code (mocks only if crossing a system boundary)
 - [ ] Edge cases and errors covered

-Can't check all boxes? You skipped TDD. Start over.
+Can't check **or deliberately strike** all boxes? You skipped TDD. Start over. A box struck with a stated reason is answered; a box left hanging is not.

 ## When Stuck

@@ -374,7 +374,7 @@ Can't check all boxes? You skipped TDD. Start over.
 | Don't know how to test | Write wished-for API. Write assertion first. Ask Mathias. |
 | Test too complicated | Design too complicated. Simplify interface. |
 | Must mock everything | Code too coupled. Use dependency injection. |
-| Test setup huge | Extract helpers with `t.Helper()`. Still complex? Simplify design. |
+| Test setup huge | Extract helpers (`t.Helper()` in Go, a local `__tracebackhide__ = True` in Python). Still complex? Simplify design. |

 ## Debugging Integration

@@ -406,20 +406,20 @@ Pass-rate is computed downstream by the `/pass-rate` HTTP endpoint, which
 treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.

 **At end of `red` phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "tdd", phase: "red", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "tdd", phase: "red", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **At end of `green` phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "tdd", phase: "green", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "tdd", phase: "green", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **At end of `refactor` phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "tdd", phase: "refactor", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "tdd", phase: "refactor", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **Status semantics:**
 - `pass` — the phase's intended outcome was reached (red: test fails as expected; green: test passes; refactor: tests still pass after refactor).
 - `fail` — the phase's intended outcome was NOT reached (test compiled when it shouldn't, test still fails after green attempt, refactor broke tests).
 - `skip` — phase was skipped intentionally (e.g. refactor not warranted).

-**Why this matters:** the routing pod (Plan 6) reads pass-rate to decide whether to route a future `tdd` call to a local model. If your skill never logs, the routing pod sees no data and may default-route or default-not-route in a way that doesn't reflect real performance.
+**Why this matters:** pass-rate is what a future routing decision would be based on — whether a `tdd` call can be served by a local model instead of a cloud one. A skill that never logs contributes no evidence either way, and a decision made on no evidence is a coin flip wearing a metric.

 ## Final Rule

@@ -429,7 +429,3 @@ Otherwise → not TDD
 ```

 No exceptions without Mathias's permission.
-
-## Mode 2 Routing Note
-
-This skill is invoked identically whether the agent is running in Mode 1 (cloud Claude, no routing) or Mode 2 (client-local, supervisor routing layer). The routing pod (Plan 6) does not exist yet; until it does, treat this skill as Mode 1 only. The discipline does not change between modes — only the model behind the call.
@@ -82,3 +82,11 @@ created in a CAD session should trace to a TELOS GOAL. Every GOAL
 traces to a PROBLEM.

 Traceability chain: PROBLEM → GOAL → SPEC → TICKET → IMPL → TEST
+
+## Escalation
+
+Read-only. Loads intention context; changes nothing.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the brain is unreachable or returns nothing for the wing. Working
+from a remembered TELOS is the failure this skill exists to prevent — say the load failed
+rather than reconstructing it from memory.
@@ -309,3 +309,11 @@ Apply this checklist to every new test:
 - Load `tdd` skill for the full TDD workflow
 - Load `code-review` skill for test quality review during pre-merge review
 - See `clean-code/references/code-smells.md` for testing-specific smells
+
+## Escalation
+
+Read-only scoring of existing tests.
+
+Stop and hand back when: the tests are fine and the *design under test* is what makes them
+awkward. Hard-to-test is a design finding, not a test finding, and rewriting the tests
+around it hides the thing worth knowing.
@@ -0,0 +1,170 @@
+---
+name: traceability
+surfaces: [claude-code, library]
+summary: "Forward trace — requirement to decision to commit to verification to release, and what cannot be checked"
+use_when: "Proving why a change exists; auditing a claim; before an attestation or a compliance ask"
+description: Establish the forward trace for a change — requirement, decision, commit, verification, CI, release, closure — as a chain of links that are each checked rather than asserted. Names the links that cannot be verified from the repository instead of letting them pass as verified. Use when auditing why a change exists, preparing an attestation, or when a claim needs to be provable rather than plausible.
+---
+
+# Traceability
+
+## Overview
+
+A trace is not a story about how a change came to be. It is a chain of links, each of
+which is either **checked** or **named as unchecked**. The value is entirely in that
+distinction: a trace where every link is asserted is a narrative, and narratives are what
+audits exist to defeat.
+
+The chain in this estate:
+
+```
+issue (requirement) → comment (decision) → commit → test/gate → CI run on that sha
+    → release tag → closing comment (evidence)
+```
+
+Note where the decisions live: **in issue comments**, not issue bodies. A tool that reads
+issue titles will trace the wrong thing.
+
+## When to Use
+
+- Auditing why a change exists, especially one nobody remembers making
+- Preparing an attestation, a compliance answer, or a client-facing "how do you know"
+- Before claiming a requirement is satisfied
+- When a claim is repeated in several places, which is the condition under which nobody
+  checks it
+
+**Do not use for:** a change you are about to make. That is `adr` (the decision) and
+`spec-driven-dev` (the requirement). This skill reconstructs; it does not author.
+
+## The tool
+
+```sh
+skills/traceability/trace.sh <sha> [repo-path]
+```
+
+Prints what git can prove — the commit, its files, the test files it touched, the release
+that contains it, every issue it references as a URL — and then prints, every time, the
+three things git **cannot** prove. That last section is the point of the tool.
+
+## The sequence
+
+**1. Run the tool.** It does the mechanical half in one command.
+
+**2. Open the issues it printed, and read the comments.** The requirement is in the body;
+the decision is almost always in a comment, and so is the closure record. A trace built
+from commit messages alone will confidently cite an issue that says something else.
+
+**3. Match CI on the head sha, not on the branch.** "The pipeline is green" is not
+evidence about a commit. Find the run whose `head_sha` is this commit and read its
+conclusion — and check which *job* and which *step* passed, because a run can be red for a
+reason that has nothing to do with the gate you care about, and green overall while the
+gate you care about was skipped.
+
+The estate's `workflow_run_status` returns only the run-level conclusion — no jobs, no
+steps. For that breakdown you have to drop to the API:
+
+```sh
+op run --env-file ~/.op-env -- sh -c 'curl -sS -H "Authorization: token $DMABE_GITEA_API_TOKEN" \
+  "https://git.d-ma.be/api/v1/repos/<owner>/<repo>/actions/runs/<id>/jobs"'
+```
+
+Said explicitly because a step whose tooling dead-ends is exactly where a trace becomes
+"the run was green".
+
+**4. Check that the tests actually cover the behaviour.** A commit that touched a test
+file is not a commit that is verified. Read the assertions and ask what would have to
+break for them to fail. If nothing would, the link is decorative.
+
+**5. Probe the load-bearing claim — try to falsify it.** This is the step that separates a
+trace from a summary, and it is the one that finds things.
+
+Pick the claim the chain rests on, and attack it in a scratch copy:
+
+```sh
+git archive <sha> | (mkdir -p /tmp/probe && tar -x -C /tmp/probe)
+# then break exactly the thing the claim protects, and run the gate
+```
+
+If the gate stays green, the claim is false — regardless of how many places assert it.
+This is not hypothetical: the probe that shaped this skill falsified a "the list only
+shrinks" claim that was stated in five places in the repository and enforced in none.
+
+**6. Look for what cites the commit, not only what it cites.** A commit cannot reference
+an issue filed after it, and that is precisely where an outcome gets falsified. Search the
+tracker for the sha, across issues *and comments*, and `git log --all --grep=<sha>` for
+later commits referring back. In the run that shaped this skill, the issue proving the
+traced commit had *relocated* rather than fixed its defect was filed 90 minutes later and
+was reachable only this way.
+
+**7. Report unverifiable links as unverifiable.** Not as weak links, not as caveats at the
+end. Each gets its own line saying what would be needed to close it.
+
+## What a broken link looks like
+
+| Symptom | What it means |
+|---|---|
+| The commit cites `#37`, and `#37` describes something else | The reference is decoration; someone renumbered or misremembered |
+| A claim appears in five places and a check in none | Convention wearing a mechanism's clothes. Probe it |
+| The gate greps for a heading | Presence is not compliance. A heading with nothing under it passes |
+| `git describe` says unreleased | Usually stale local tags, not an unreleased commit. `git fetch --tags` first |
+| The requirement is a bare `#5` with no URL | Recoverable only while the tracker lives. Not traceable from the repo alone |
+| CI green, but on a different sha | The most common false link, and the easiest to accept by accident |
+
+## Output
+
+State the chain, then the gaps, in that order:
+
+```
+CHAIN
+  requirement  #36 item 3 (defect report)          → verified, read: body + comments
+  requirement  #19 (standing execution bar)        → verified, read
+  decision     comment 8509                        → verified; names the commit
+  commit       b616c51                             → verified
+    claim "nine skills, none named session_id"     → verified against b616c51^: 9/9
+    claim "session_id is the only required field"  → verified against the live tool schema
+  gate         bin/check-session-log               → RED on parent (17 errors), GREEN on it
+  wiring       Taskfile check step 5               → verified; CI runs task check
+  verification tests/check_session_log_test.sh     → verified, 4 cases, both directions
+  CI           run 4880, job "Check / Test"        → verified, head_sha matches, success
+  release      v0.13.3                             → verified against the REMOTE
+
+GAPS
+  - The gate greps the file, not the payload. Probe: stripped session_id from
+    every payload, left the word in prose — gate returned 0. FALSIFIED.
+  - Defect relocated, not removed: #39, filed 90 minutes later by the same
+    author, says so. The commit's outcome claim does not hold.
+```
+
+Four slots that are not optional, each learned by leaving them out:
+
+- **More than one requirement, and they differ in kind.** A defect report and a standing
+  policy bar are both requirements and collapsing them hides which one was not met.
+- **The gate, separately from the test.** A commit that ships a check has three artifacts,
+  not two, and the chain usually rests on the one in the middle.
+- **The RED/GREEN baseline.** Run the gate against the parent commit. Without it you have
+  shown a gate exists, not that it caught anything.
+- **The commit's factual claims, checked.** "Nine skills, none named it" is falsifiable in
+  one command. Without a slot for it, "commit → verified" means only "this sha exists".
+
+Gaps ranked by how much they matter, not by where you found them. A trace whose gap
+section is empty should be suspicious of itself.
+
+## Escalation
+
+Read-only. Reports the chain; changes nothing, and closes no issue on the strength of
+what it finds.
+
+Stop and hand back when: a link's evidence is outside anything you can reach — a tracker
+you cannot read, a CI system you have no access to, a decision made in conversation. Say
+which link and what would close it. An inferred link presented as a traced one is worse
+than a gap, because the gap is honest and the inference is citable.
+
+Also stop before *acting* on a falsified claim. Finding that a gate does not enforce what
+it says is a finding; deciding what to do about it is the owner's call.
+
+## Cross-References
+
+- `lineage` — the same discipline backwards: this asks "does the chain hold", that asks
+  "was it tried before and why did it stop".
+- `adr` — the decision layer of the chain. A trace that reaches an ADR has found the
+  reasoning; a trace that reaches only a commit message has found a summary of it.
@@ -0,0 +1,107 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# trace.sh — the forward trace for one commit, and an honest list of what it
+# could not check.
+#
+# The chain this estate actually uses:
+#
+#   issue (requirement) -> comment (decision) -> commit -> test/gate -> CI run
+#     -> release tag -> closing comment
+#
+# git can prove the middle of that and nothing else. The issue bodies, the
+# comments where decisions actually live, and the CI run are all tracker state.
+# So this prints what git knows and then names, with URLs, the links a human has
+# to follow — because a link nobody checked must not read like a verified one.
+#
+# Usage: trace.sh <sha> [repo-path]
+#
+# Read-only.
+
+set -u
+
+[ $# -ge 1 ] || { echo "usage: trace.sh <sha> [repo-path]" >&2; exit 2; }
+SHA=$1
+REPO=${2:-.}
+
+git -C "$REPO" rev-parse --git-dir >/dev/null 2>&1 || {
+  echo "trace: $REPO is not a git repository" >&2; exit 2; }
+git -C "$REPO" rev-parse --verify --quiet "$SHA^{commit}" >/dev/null || {
+  echo "trace: $SHA is not a commit in $REPO" >&2; exit 2; }
+
+TOP=$(git -C "$REPO" rev-parse --show-toplevel)
+ORIGIN=$(git -C "$REPO" config --get remote.origin.url 2>/dev/null || true)
+# Never print the URL as configured: url.insteadOf can expand it into a live
+# token. Reduce it to owner/repo and use that.
+SLUG=$(printf '%s' "$ORIGIN" | sed -E 's#\.git$##; s#^.*[/:]([^/]+/[^/]+)$#\1#' 2>/dev/null || true)
+
+section() { printf '\n== %s ==\n' "$1"; }
+
+section "Commit"
+git -C "$REPO" log -1 --format='%h  %ad  %an%n%n%B' --date=short "$SHA"
+
+section "Files"
+git -C "$REPO" show --stat --format='' "$SHA"
+
+section "Verification it touched"
+tests=$(git -C "$REPO" show --name-only --format='' "$SHA" \
+  | grep -Ei '(^|/)(tests?|spec)/|_test\.|\.test\.|_spec\.' || true)
+if [ -n "$tests" ]; then
+  printf '%s\n' "$tests"
+else
+  printf 'none — this commit changed no test or spec file.\n'
+  printf 'That is not automatically wrong (docs, config), but if it changed behaviour\n'
+  printf 'it means the change has no verification of its own.\n'
+fi
+
+section "Released in"
+tag=$(git -C "$REPO" describe --tags --contains "$SHA" 2>/dev/null | sed 's/[~^].*//' || true)
+if [ -n "$tag" ]; then
+  printf '%s   (LOCAL tags only — confirm with: git ls-remote --tags origin)\n' "$tag"
+else
+  printf 'no release contains this commit in THIS checkout.\n'
+  printf 'Local tags go stale — run `git fetch --tags` and re-check before\n'
+  printf 'concluding it was never released.\n'
+fi
+
+section "Referenced issues"
+refs=$(git -C "$REPO" log -1 --format='%B' "$SHA" | grep -oE '#[0-9]+' | sort -u || true)
+if [ -n "$refs" ]; then
+  for r in $refs; do
+    n=${r#\#}
+    if [ -n "$SLUG" ]; then
+      printf '%s  ->  https://git.d-ma.be/%s/issues/%s\n' "$r" "$SLUG" "$n"
+    else
+      printf '%s\n' "$r"
+    fi
+  done
+else
+  printf 'none — the commit cites no issue, so its requirement is unrecorded.\n'
+fi
+
+section "Issues that cite THIS commit"
+printf 'Not searchable from the commit — an issue filed after it cannot appear in\n'
+printf 'its message, and that is exactly where an outcome gets falsified. Check:\n\n'
+printf '  git -C %s log --all --grep=%s   # later commits referring back\n' "$REPO" "$SHA"
+if [ -n "$SLUG" ]; then
+  printf '  tracker search for "%s" across issues AND comments\n' "$SHA"
+fi
+printf '\nIn the run that shaped this tool, the issue that falsified the traced\n'
+printf 'commit was filed 90 minutes after it and was reachable only this way.\n'
+
+section "Cannot verify from here"
+cat <<'TXT'
+git proves the commit, its files, and which tag contains it. It cannot prove:
+
+  1. That the issues above say what the commit claims they say. The DECISION is
+     usually in a comment, not the issue body — open them and read the comments.
+  2. That CI actually passed on this exact sha. A green pipeline elsewhere is not
+     evidence about this commit; match on head_sha.
+  3. That the tests listed above assert the behaviour this commit added. A test
+     file touched is not a behaviour covered.
+  4. That any gate this commit ships enforces what its message says it does.
+     Probe it: break exactly the thing the claim protects, in a scratch copy,
+     and see whether the gate goes red.
+
+None of the three is a formality. Each has been the broken link in this estate:
+a claim asserted in five places and enforced in none, a red run whose gate had
+passed, and a gate that greps for a heading and calls it a contract.
+TXT
@@ -231,10 +231,10 @@ Pass-rate is computed downstream by the `/pass-rate` HTTP endpoint, which
 treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.

 **At end of `read` phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "trainer", phase: "read", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "trainer", phase: "read", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **At end of `write` phase:**
- `session_log` with `{skill: "trainer", phase: "write", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", duration_ms: <wall-clock>, project_root: "<absolute path>"}`
+- `session_log` with `{session_id: "<this session's id>", skill: "trainer", phase: "write", final_status: "pass" | "fail" | "skip", message: "<one-line summary>", project_root: "<absolute path>"}`

 **Phases for this skill:** read, write

@@ -243,11 +243,7 @@ treats `pass` as success, `fail` as failure, `skip` as neither.
 - `fail` — the phase's intended outcome was NOT reached.
 - `skip` — phase was skipped intentionally (e.g. no candidates passed the gate, write skipped).

-**Why this matters:** the routing pod (Plan 6) reads pass-rate to decide whether to route a future call to a local model. If your skill never logs, the routing pod sees no data.
-
-## Mode 2 Routing Note
-
-Trainer is the same shape as `session-retrospective` — long-context reading, mechanical filtering — and is a Mode 2 routing candidate. Until Plan 6, treat as Mode 1 only.
+**Why this matters:** pass-rate is what a future routing decision would be based on — whether a given call can be served by a local model instead of a cloud one. A skill that never logs contributes no evidence either way.

 ## Cross-References

@@ -0,0 +1,127 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Tests for bin/check-escalation.
+#
+# #5 asked whether SKILL.md needs first-class failure/escalation fields and
+# decided: not frontmatter (nothing reads it), a body section (the model reads
+# that). #37 then had to define WHICH skills need one, and every obvious answer
+# was bad — a hardcoded list rots, content sniffing is unfalsifiable, a
+# frontmatter flag is the rejected option through the back door.
+#
+# So there is no acting set. EVERY skill answers the question; a read-only one
+# answers it in a line. The classification problem disappears, and "this skill
+# never hands back" becomes a stated claim rather than an absence.
+#
+# bin/escalation-pending.txt is a ratchet for skills whose real rule has not
+# been written yet. It is self-cleaning: a skill that has a section AND is still
+# listed fails, so the list cannot silently outlive its reason.
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)
+SUT="$ROOT/bin/check-escalation"
+
+pass=0
+fail=0
+WORK=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/check_escalation_test.$$
+
+if [ ! -f "$SUT" ]; then
+  printf 'FAIL: %s does not exist\n' "$SUT"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+cleanup() { rm -rf "$WORK"; }
+trap cleanup EXIT INT TERM
+
+# fixture <name> — an empty checkout with a bin/ for the pending list.
+fixture() {
+  _f="$WORK/$1"
+  mkdir -p "$_f/skills" "$_f/bin"
+  : > "$_f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+  printf '%s' "$_f"
+}
+
+# skill <root> <name> <has-section>
+skill() {
+  mkdir -p "$1/skills/$2"
+  {
+    printf -- '---\nname: %s\ndescription: d\n---\n\n# %s\n' "$2" "$2"
+    [ "$3" = yes ] && printf '\n## Escalation\n\nStop and hand back when X. Hand back by: saying so.\n'
+  } > "$1/skills/$2/SKILL.md"
+}
+
+# expect <rc> <label> <fixture> [needle]
+expect() {
+  _want=$1; _label=$2; _fx=$3; _needle=${4:-}
+  _out=$(sh "$SUT" "$_fx" 2>&1); _rc=$?
+  if [ "$_rc" -ne "$_want" ]; then
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s (want rc=%s got %s)\n%s\n' "$_label" "$_want" "$_rc" "$_out"; return
+  fi
+  if [ -n "$_needle" ] && ! printf '%s' "$_out" | grep -q "$_needle"; then
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s (rc ok, report never says %s)\n%s\n' "$_label" "$_needle" "$_out"; return
+  fi
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$_label"
+}
+
+f=$(fixture ok); skill "$f" alpha yes
+expect 0 'a skill with an Escalation section passes' "$f"
+
+f=$(fixture missing); skill "$f" alpha no
+expect 1 'a skill with no section fails, naming it' "$f" 'alpha'
+
+f=$(fixture pending); skill "$f" alpha no; printf 'alpha\n' > "$f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+expect 0 'a listed skill is allowed through the ratchet' "$f"
+
+f=$(fixture done); skill "$f" alpha yes; printf 'alpha\n' > "$f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+expect 1 'a listed skill that now HAS a section fails — remove it from the list' "$f" 'escalation-pending'
+
+f=$(fixture stale); skill "$f" alpha yes; printf 'ghost\n' > "$f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+expect 1 'a listed skill that does not exist fails' "$f" 'ghost'
+
+f=$(fixture comments); skill "$f" alpha no
+printf '# a comment, and a blank line follow\n\nalpha\n' > "$f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+expect 0 'comments and blank lines in the list are ignored' "$f"
+
+# --- the ratchet must actually ratchet ---------------------------------------
+# Five places in this repo claimed the pending list "only shrinks" and nothing
+# enforced it. A traceability probe falsified that in one run: add an unsectioned
+# skill, append it to the list, gate returns 0. A convention stated five times is
+# still a convention.
+#
+# Enforcement compares against the list as committed at HEAD, so the fixtures
+# below need a real git repo.
+
+git_fixture() {
+  _f="$WORK/$1"
+  mkdir -p "$_f/skills" "$_f/bin"
+  ( cd "$_f" && git init -q . && git config user.email t@example.com && git config user.name test )
+  skill "$_f" alpha no
+  printf 'alpha\n' > "$_f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+  ( cd "$_f" && git add -A && git commit -qm baseline )
+  printf '%s' "$_f"
+}
+
+f=$(git_fixture ratchet_same)
+expect 0 'an unchanged list passes' "$f"
+
+f=$(git_fixture ratchet_shrink)
+skill "$f" alpha yes
+: > "$f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+expect 0 'removing an entry (and writing its section) passes' "$f"
+
+f=$(git_fixture ratchet_grow)
+skill "$f" beta no
+printf 'alpha\nbeta\n' > "$f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+expect 1 'adding a NEW entry fails — the list only shrinks' "$f" 'beta'
+
+# Outside a git repo the comparison is impossible; that must not be silent.
+f=$(fixture ratchet_nogit); skill "$f" alpha no
+printf 'alpha\n' > "$f/bin/escalation-pending.txt"
+_out=$(sh "$SUT" "$f" 2>&1)
+if printf '%s' "$_out" | grep -qi 'cannot verify'; then
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   an unverifiable ratchet says so rather than passing silently\n'
+else
+  fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL an unverifiable ratchet says so rather than passing silently\n%s\n' "$_out"
+fi
+
+printf '\ncheck_escalation: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]
@@ -0,0 +1,100 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Tests for bin/check-session-log.
+#
+# The regression: nine skills documented a session_log payload and not one of
+# them named `session_id` — the tool's ONLY required field. Every documented
+# call was incomplete, so an agent following any of them either failed the call
+# or invented an id, and invented ids do not group. Found by a pressure test
+# against `debug`, then found to be fleet-wide (#36).
+#
+# Also gated: `duration_ms: <wall-clock>`, which an agent cannot measure. A
+# documented field nobody can honestly populate gets fabricated or silently
+# dropped; both are worse than omitting it.
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)
+SUT="$ROOT/bin/check-session-log"
+
+pass=0
+fail=0
+WORK=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/check_session_log_test.$$
+
+if [ ! -f "$SUT" ]; then
+  printf 'FAIL: %s does not exist\n' "$SUT"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+cleanup() { rm -rf "$WORK"; }
+trap cleanup EXIT INT TERM
+
+# fixture <name> <body> — a checkout with one skill whose SKILL.md is <body>.
+fixture() {
+  _f="$WORK/$1"
+  mkdir -p "$_f/skills/alpha"
+  printf -- '---\nname: alpha\ndescription: a\n---\n\n%s\n' "$2" > "$_f/skills/alpha/SKILL.md"
+  printf '%s' "$_f"
+}
+
+# expect <rc> <label> <fixture> [needle]
+expect() {
+  _want=$1; _label=$2; _fx=$3; _needle=${4:-}
+  _out=$(sh "$SUT" "$_fx" 2>&1); _rc=$?
+  if [ "$_rc" -ne "$_want" ]; then
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s (want rc=%s got %s)\n%s\n' "$_label" "$_want" "$_rc" "$_out"; return
+  fi
+  if [ -n "$_needle" ] && ! printf '%s' "$_out" | grep -q "$_needle"; then
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s (rc ok, report never says %s)\n%s\n' "$_label" "$_needle" "$_out"; return
+  fi
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$_label"
+}
+
+expect 0 'a skill that never mentions session_log is fine' \
+  "$(fixture quiet 'Just a skill. No logging here.')"
+
+expect 0 'a documented call naming session_id passes' \
+  "$(fixture good 'Call `session_log` with `{session_id: "<id>", skill: "alpha", phase: "red", final_status: "pass"}`')"
+
+expect 1 'a documented call omitting session_id fails' \
+  "$(fixture bad 'Call `session_log` with `{skill: "alpha", phase: "red", final_status: "pass"}`')" \
+  'session_id'
+
+expect 1 'documenting duration_ms as wall-clock fails' \
+  "$(fixture clock 'Call `session_log` with `{session_id: "<id>", skill: "alpha", duration_ms: <wall-clock>}`')" \
+  'duration_ms'
+
+# --- the gate must read the PAYLOAD, not the file ---------------------------
+# A traceability probe falsified the original: it grepped the whole file for the
+# string "session_id", so stripping the field from every documented payload and
+# leaving the word once in prose passed cleanly. The exact regression the gate
+# exists to prevent was back in the file and the gate said nothing.
+
+expect 1 'a payload without session_id fails even when prose mentions the word' \
+  "$(fixture prose 'The tool has a required session_id field.
+
+Call `session_log` with `{skill: "alpha", phase: "red", final_status: "pass"}`')" \
+  'session_id'
+
+expect 1 'one bad payload among several fails' \
+  "$(fixture mixed 'Call `session_log` with `{session_id: "<id>", skill: "alpha", phase: "red"}`
+
+Then `session_log` with `{skill: "alpha", phase: "green", final_status: "pass"}`')" \
+  'session_id'
+
+# duration_ms was banned by matching exactly one spelling of it — the historical
+# one. Both of these passed the original gate.
+expect 1 'duration_ms with a JSON-quoted key fails' \
+  "$(fixture jsonkey 'Call `session_log` with `{session_id: "<id>", "duration_ms": <wall-clock>}`')" \
+  'duration_ms'
+
+expect 1 'duration_ms described in prose rather than angle brackets fails' \
+  "$(fixture prosems 'Call `session_log` with `{session_id: "<id>", duration_ms: elapsed wall-clock ms}`')" \
+  'duration_ms'
+
+# A real measurement is allowed: the objection is to a placeholder no agent can
+# fill, not to the field.
+expect 0 'a duration_ms carrying a real value is allowed' \
+  "$(fixture realms 'Call `session_log` with `{session_id: "<id>", duration_ms: 1430}`')"
+
+printf '\ncheck_session_log: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]
@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# `task check` must survive a check that reports "could not verify".
+#
+# The regression these exist for: bin/check-mcp-env exits 2 to mean "I could
+# not run — no jq, or no env-file", which the gate deliberately treats as a
+# reported NOTE rather than a failure. The Taskfile said exactly that:
+#
+#   "$DIR/check-mcp-env" "$DIR/.mcp.json" "$HOME/.op-env"
+#   case $? in 0) ;; 2) echo "NOTE: ..." ;; *) fail=1 ;; esac
+#
+# and it did not work. Task runs each cmds block under `sh -e`, so a bare
+# command exiting non-zero aborts the shell *before* `case $?` is ever
+# reached. The whole gate died with `exit status 2`. Locally the check found
+# jq and exited 0, so it went green; CI has neither jq nor ~/.op-env, so main
+# went red on the very commit that added it (skills run #57, 2026-09-07).
+#
+# A tolerated exit code that is only tolerated on the host where it never
+# fires is not tolerated at all. This pins the tolerance itself.
+#
+# No mocking: pointing HOME at an empty directory removes ~/.op-env, which is
+# exactly the condition CI runs under, so check-mcp-env genuinely exits 2.
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)
+
+pass=0
+fail=0
+
+ok() { pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$1"; }
+no() { fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s\n' "$1"; }
+
+if ! command -v task >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  printf '  SKIP: task not installed -- cannot exercise the gate\n'
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+TMP=$(mktemp -d)
+trap 'rm -rf "$TMP"' EXIT
+
+# Sanity: the precondition must actually hold, or the test proves nothing.
+# An empty HOME means no ~/.op-env, so check-mcp-env cannot verify anything.
+"$ROOT/bin/check-mcp-env" "$ROOT/.mcp.json" "$TMP/.op-env" >/dev/null 2>&1
+rc=$?
+if [ "$rc" -eq 2 ]; then
+  ok 'precondition: check-mcp-env exits 2 when the env-file is absent'
+else
+  no "precondition: expected check-mcp-env to exit 2, got $rc"
+fi
+
+# The assertion. `task check` must still pass, and must say why it could not
+# verify -- silence would mean the check was skipped rather than tolerated.
+out=$(HOME="$TMP" task --dir "$ROOT" check 2>&1)
+rc=$?
+
+if [ "$rc" -eq 0 ]; then
+  ok 'task check passes when MCP env wiring cannot be verified'
+else
+  no "task check exited $rc when check-mcp-env reported unverifiable"
+  printf '%s\n' "$out" | sed 's/^/       | /' | tail -8
+fi
+
+if printf '%s' "$out" | grep -q 'unverified'; then
+  ok 'the unverifiable check is reported, not silently skipped'
+else
+  no 'no NOTE reported -- an unverifiable check must never look like a pass'
+fi
+
+printf '  %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]
@@ -224,5 +224,72 @@ manifest "$f/ck" 0.7.0
 manifest "$f/home/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/mathias" 0.9.0
 assert_fails "$f" '0.9.0' 'a newer marketplace clone is reported'

+# --- 9. --online: the release this host has never fetched ------------------
+# Everything above compares copies already on the host, so a host where the
+# checkout, the marketplace clone and the installed plugin all agree reads as
+# clean while being a release behind origin. Offline by design (#30); this is
+# the opt-in that closes it (#38).
+#
+# The remote lookup is stubbed through $DOCTOR_LATEST_TAG_CMD so no test needs
+# a network or a real remote.
+
+online_fixture() {
+  _f=$(new_fixture "$1"); wire_clean "$_f"
+  installed_state "$_f" "$2"
+  manifest "$_f/ck" "$2"
+  printf '%s' "$_f"
+}
+
+# assert_online <fixture> <stub-tag> <want-rc> <needle> <label>
+assert_online() {
+  _out=$(HOME="$1/home" DOCTOR_CHECKOUT="$1/ck" \
+         DOCTOR_LATEST_TAG_CMD="printf %s\\n $2" sh "$DOCTOR" --online 2>&1); _rc=$?
+  if [ "$3" -eq 0 ] && [ "$_rc" -ne 0 ]; then
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s\n       exited %s on a current host\n       got: %s\n' "$5" "$_rc" "$_out"; return
+  fi
+  if [ "$3" -ne 0 ] && [ "$_rc" -eq 0 ]; then
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s\n       exited 0; staleness went unreported\n' "$5"; return
+  fi
+  if [ -n "$4" ] && ! printf '%s' "$_out" | grep -q -- "$4"; then
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s\n       report never mentions "%s"\n       got: %s\n' "$5" "$4" "$_out"; return
+  fi
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$5"
+}
+
+f=$(online_fixture behind 0.8.0)
+assert_online "$f" v0.9.0 1 '0.9.0' '--online reports a release the host has not fetched'
+
+f=$(online_fixture current 0.9.0)
+assert_online "$f" v0.9.0 0 '' '--online stays quiet when the host is current'
+
+# A host AHEAD of the newest tag is the normal state between a release commit
+# and its tag; that is not drift (same reasoning as check's ordering rule).
+f=$(online_fixture ahead 0.9.1)
+assert_online "$f" v0.9.0 0 '' '--online does not complain about being ahead'
+
+# Without the flag, no lookup happens at all — the stub would report a newer
+# tag and must be ignored.
+f=$(online_fixture offline 0.8.0)
+_out=$(HOME="$f/home" DOCTOR_CHECKOUT="$f/ck" \
+       DOCTOR_LATEST_TAG_CMD="printf v9.9.9\\n" sh "$DOCTOR" 2>&1); _rc=$?
+if [ "$_rc" -eq 0 ]; then
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   the default run performs no remote lookup\n'
+else
+  fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL the default run performs no remote lookup\n       got: %s\n' "$_out"
+fi
+
+# A remote that cannot be reached is not drift and must not be reported as it.
+# An unreachable remote produces no output at all, so it gets its own run
+# rather than an empty stub argument — "prints nothing" and "prints an empty
+# string" are different things and only the first is the case under test.
+f=$(online_fixture unreachable 0.9.0)
+_out=$(HOME="$f/home" DOCTOR_CHECKOUT="$f/ck" \
+       DOCTOR_LATEST_TAG_CMD="true" sh "$DOCTOR" --online 2>&1); _rc=$?
+if [ "$_rc" -ne 0 ] && printf '%s' "$_out" | grep -q 'could not'; then
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   --online reports an unreachable remote as its own fault\n'
+else
+  fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL --online reports an unreachable remote as its own fault\n       rc=%s got: %s\n' "$_rc" "$_out"
+fi
+
 printf '\ndoctor: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
 [ "$fail" -eq 0 ]
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@ SUT="$ROOT/install.sh"

 pass=0
 fail=0
+skipped=0
 WORK=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/install_test.$$

 if [ ! -f "$SUT" ]; then
@@ -55,6 +56,7 @@ run_install() {
    AGENTS_SKILLS_DIR="$_f/home/.agents/skills" \
    CRUSH_SKILLS_DIR="$_f/home/.config/crush/skills" \
    OPENCODE_SKILLS_DIR="$_f/home/.config/opencode/skills" \
+    ANTIGRAVITY_SKILLS_JSON="$_f/home/.gemini/config/skills.json" \
    SKILLS_EXTRA_SOURCES="$_extra" \
    bash "$SUT" 2>&1)
  rc=$?
@@ -156,6 +158,40 @@ else
  no 'configured sources are recorded for doctor' "$out"
 fi

+# --- Antigravity: jq is optional, so BOTH branches must be tested -----------
+# These three cases inherited whatever jq the host happened to have. koala has
+# it, the CI runner does not, so they passed locally and failed in CI — the
+# classic works-on-my-machine gate. install.sh treats jq as optional by design,
+# which means the skip is a contract and needs a test of its own.
+
+# run_install_nojq <fixture> — same as run_install, with the jq lookup pointed
+# at a binary that does not exist. Deterministic regardless of the host.
+run_install_nojq() {
+  _f=$1
+  _out=$(HOME="$_f/home" \
+    SKILLS_SKIP_FETCH=1 \
+    SKILLS_CHECKOUT_DIR="$_f/ck" \
+    AGENTS_SKILLS_DIR="$_f/home/.agents/skills" \
+    CRUSH_SKILLS_DIR="$_f/home/.config/crush/skills" \
+    OPENCODE_SKILLS_DIR="$_f/home/.config/opencode/skills" \
+    SKILLS_JQ="definitely-not-jq-$$" \
+    bash "$SUT" 2>&1)
+  rc=$?
+  printf '%s' "$_out"
+}
+
+f=$(new_fixture antigravity_nojq)
+out=$(run_install_nojq "$f")
+if [ -e "$f/home/.gemini/config/skills.json" ]; then
+  no 'without jq, no skills.json is written' "$out"
+elif ! printf '%s' "$out" | grep -qi 'jq not found'; then
+  no 'without jq, the skip is reported' "$out"
+elif [ ! -L "$f/home/.agents/skills/alpha" ]; then
+  no 'without jq, the other harnesses are still wired' "$out"
+else
+  ok 'without jq, Antigravity is skipped and the rest still wires'
+fi
+
 # --- 8. surfaces: the library link set is not "every skill" -----------------
 # claude.ai has no shell, no cluster and no checkout, so a chat-only skill
 # linked into Crush is a skill that can never fire, competing for selection
@@ -183,5 +219,59 @@ else
  no 'a source with no surfaces convention is linked as-is' "$out"
 fi

-printf '\ninstall: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
+# --- 9-11. Antigravity's merge behaviour, only where jq exists ---------------
+# These three assert what jq DOES. install.sh treats jq as optional, so on a
+# host without it there is nothing to assert — and failing there is what turned
+# main red: they passed on koala (jq present) and failed on the runner (absent).
+# A skipped case is honest; a case that fails because the host lacks an optional
+# dependency is a false red, and false reds are how a suite stops being read.
+if ! command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  skipped=$((skipped + 3))
+  printf '  SKIP jq absent — Antigravity merge behaviour not covered on this host (3 cases)\n'
+else
+  # skills.json entries must point at $AGENTS_DIR — that carries the
+  # surfaces-filtering, collision handling and multi-source merge. Pointing at
+  # the checkout directly would give Antigravity a different skill set than
+  # every other harness.
+  f=$(new_fixture antigravity)
+  out=$(run_install "$f")
+  AG="$f/home/.gemini/config/skills.json"
+  if [ ! -f "$AG" ]; then
+    no 'Antigravity skills.json is created' "$out"
+  else
+    registered=$(jq -r --arg p "$f/home/.agents/skills" '[.entries[]? | select(.path == $p)] | length' "$AG")
+    if [ "$registered" = "1" ]; then
+      ok 'Antigravity registers the managed agents dir, not the raw checkout'
+    else
+      no 'Antigravity registers the managed agents dir, not the raw checkout' "$(cat "$AG")"
+    fi
+  fi
+
+  f=$(new_fixture antigravity_idempotent)
+  run_install "$f" >/dev/null
+  out=$(run_install "$f")
+  AG="$f/home/.gemini/config/skills.json"
+  count=$(jq '.entries | length' "$AG" 2>/dev/null || echo "?")
+  if [ "$count" = "1" ]; then
+    ok 'Antigravity wiring is idempotent (no duplicate entries)'
+  else
+    no 'Antigravity wiring is idempotent (no duplicate entries)' "entries=$count"$'\n'"$out"
+  fi
+
+  # A user may hand-edit skills.json to point at their own personal skills dir
+  # (json_configs.md documents this). Our merge must not clobber it.
+  f=$(new_fixture antigravity_preserve)
+  mkdir -p "$f/home/.gemini/config"
+  printf '{"entries":[{"path":"/Users/mathias/personal-skills"}]}' > "$f/home/.gemini/config/skills.json"
+  out=$(run_install "$f")
+  AG="$f/home/.gemini/config/skills.json"
+  personal=$(jq -r '[.entries[]? | select(.path == "/Users/mathias/personal-skills")] | length' "$AG" 2>/dev/null || echo 0)
+  if [ "$personal" = "1" ]; then
+    ok 'Antigravity wiring preserves pre-existing hand-authored entries'
+  else
+    no 'Antigravity wiring preserves pre-existing hand-authored entries' "$(cat "$AG")"$'\n'"$out"
+  fi
+fi
+
+printf '\ninstall: %d passed, %d failed, %d skipped\n' "$pass" "$fail" "$skipped"
 [ "$fail" -eq 0 ]
@@ -0,0 +1,90 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Tests for skills/lineage/lineage.sh — the decision-archaeology helper.
+#
+# The techniques this automates are the ones people skip because they are
+# fiddly to type: `git log -S` to find when a thing was introduced AND removed,
+# --diff-filter=D to find files that once existed, and grepping decision records
+# for the term. A skill that only *describes* those is a skill that gets read and
+# not run (#11, #19's "small robust tools over prose").
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)
+SUT="$ROOT/skills/lineage/lineage.sh"
+
+pass=0
+fail=0
+WORK=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/lineage_test.$$
+
+if [ ! -f "$SUT" ]; then
+  printf 'FAIL: %s does not exist\n' "$SUT"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+cleanup() { rm -rf "$WORK"; }
+trap cleanup EXIT INT TERM
+
+# A repo where a thing was built, written about, and then removed.
+mkdir -p "$WORK/repo/docs/adr"
+cd "$WORK/repo" || exit 1
+git init -q .
+git config user.email t@example.com
+git config user.name test
+
+printf 'func WidgetCache() {}\n' > cache.go
+git add -A && git commit -qm "feat: add WidgetCache for lookup speed"
+
+printf -- '---\nadr: 0001\ntitle: use a WidgetCache\n---\nWe chose WidgetCache over a database index.\n' > docs/adr/0001-widgetcache.md
+git add -A && git commit -qm "docs: record the WidgetCache decision"
+
+git rm -q cache.go
+git commit -qm "revert: drop WidgetCache, it went stale under concurrent writes"
+
+cd - >/dev/null || exit 1
+out=$(sh "$SUT" WidgetCache "$WORK/repo" 2>&1)
+
+check() {
+  if printf '%s' "$out" | grep -q "$1"; then
+    pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$2"
+  else
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s\n       output had no %s\n%s\n' "$2" "$1" "$out"
+  fi
+}
+
+check 'add WidgetCache'            'finds the commit that introduced it'
+check 'drop WidgetCache'           'finds the commit that removed it — the revival question'
+check '0001-widgetcache.md'        'finds the decision record naming it'
+check 'cache.go'                   'names the file that no longer exists'
+
+# A no-match must NOT be reported as evidence the idea is new. The first version
+# of this tool said "it means this is new here" and a pressure test caught it
+# asserting exactly that about the most-discussed removed feature in this repo —
+# the search term simply had a space in it. That is the inference the skill's own
+# anti-pattern table forbids, printed in the tool's voice.
+out=$(sh "$SUT" NeverExisted "$WORK/repo" 2>&1)
+if printf '%s' "$out" | grep -q 'NOT evidence the idea is new' \
+   && printf '%s' "$out" | grep -qi 'identifier'; then
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   a no-match refuses to imply novelty and suggests other terms\n'
+else
+  fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL a no-match refuses to imply novelty and suggests other terms\n%s\n' "$out"
+fi
+
+# The repo actually searched is always stated — a confident null against the
+# wrong tree is this tool's worst failure mode, and the default is the cwd.
+out=$(sh "$SUT" WidgetCache "$WORK/repo" 2>&1)
+if printf '%s' "$out" | grep -q "searching: "; then
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   names the repo it searched\n'
+else
+  fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL names the repo it searched\n%s\n' "$out"
+fi
+
+# The sources it cannot reach are named every run, so their absence never reads
+# as a null result.
+if printf '%s' "$out" | grep -q 'brain_query' && printf '%s' "$out" | grep -qi 'closed issues'; then
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   names the sources it cannot search\n'
+else
+  fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL names the sources it cannot search\n%s\n' "$out"
+fi
+
+printf '\nlineage: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]
@@ -0,0 +1,118 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Tests for bin/check-mcp-env.
+#
+# The fault this gate exists for is silent, which is why it needs a gate at
+# all. An `.mcp.json` server whose Authorization header interpolates a
+# variable nothing in the session environment defines does not error: the
+# header goes out empty, the server answers 401, and Claude Code reports
+# "requires authentication". That is indistinguishable from a revoked or
+# expired credential, and on 2026-09-07 it cost a full investigation on koala
+# to establish that the credential was fine and the variable was simply never
+# set.
+#
+# So the property is: every ${VAR} a LIVE server interpolates must be a
+# variable the session env-file actually defines.
+#
+# The `_parked` block is deliberately exempt. Parked servers reference
+# variables nothing provides on purpose -- that is what parked means -- and a
+# gate that flagged them would be reporting the intended state as a fault.
+#
+# Fixtures drive the checker through argv, so no test touches the real host.
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)
+CHECK="$ROOT/bin/check-mcp-env"
+
+pass=0
+fail=0
+WORK=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/mcp_config_test.$$
+
+if [ ! -f "$CHECK" ]; then
+  printf 'FAIL: %s does not exist\n' "$CHECK"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+cleanup() { rm -rf "$WORK"; }
+trap cleanup EXIT INT TERM
+mkdir -p "$WORK"
+
+if ! command -v jq >/dev/null 2>&1; then
+  printf 'SKIP: jq not installed -- bin/check-mcp-env cannot be exercised\n'
+  exit 0
+fi
+
+# ok <name> / bad <name> <detail>
+ok()  { pass=$((pass+1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$1"; }
+bad() { fail=$((fail+1)); printf '  FAIL %s  %s\n' "$1" "${2:-}"; }
+
+# run <mcp-json> <env-file> -> sets $rc and $out
+run() {
+  out=$("$CHECK" "$1" "$2" 2>&1); rc=$?
+}
+
+ENVFILE="$WORK/op-env"
+cat > "$ENVFILE" <<'ENVEOF'
+BRAIN_MCP_TOKEN=op://HomeLab/brain/token
+DMABE_GITEA_API_TOKEN=op://HomeLab/gitea/token
+ENVEOF
+
+# --- a live server whose variable IS defined ---------------------------------
+cat > "$WORK/good.json" <<'JSONEOF'
+{"mcpServers":{"brain":{"type":"http","url":"https://x/mcp",
+ "headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer ${BRAIN_MCP_TOKEN}"}}}}
+JSONEOF
+run "$WORK/good.json" "$ENVFILE"
+[ "$rc" -eq 0 ] && ok "defined variable passes" || bad "defined variable passes" "rc=$rc $out"
+
+# --- a live server whose variable is NOT defined ------------------------------
+# The exact shape that broke: the server looks correct and fails at runtime.
+cat > "$WORK/missing.json" <<'JSONEOF'
+{"mcpServers":{"gitea":{"type":"http","url":"https://x/mcp",
+ "headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer ${GITEA_MCP_STATIC_TOKEN}"}}}}
+JSONEOF
+run "$WORK/missing.json" "$ENVFILE"
+if [ "$rc" -ne 0 ]; then
+  case "$out" in
+    *gitea*GITEA_MCP_STATIC_TOKEN*) ok "undefined variable is flagged, naming server and variable" ;;
+    *) bad "undefined variable is flagged, naming server and variable" "report did not name both: $out" ;;
+  esac
+else
+  bad "undefined variable is flagged, naming server and variable" "rc=0"
+fi
+
+# --- a server with no headers at all (the `infra` shape) ----------------------
+# Unauthenticated by design. Nothing to resolve, so nothing to flag.
+cat > "$WORK/noauth.json" <<'JSONEOF'
+{"mcpServers":{"infra":{"type":"http","url":"https://x/mcp"}}}
+JSONEOF
+run "$WORK/noauth.json" "$ENVFILE"
+[ "$rc" -eq 0 ] && ok "header-less server is not flagged" || bad "header-less server is not flagged" "rc=$rc $out"
+
+# --- parked servers are exempt ------------------------------------------------
+cat > "$WORK/parked.json" <<'JSONEOF'
+{"mcpServers":{"brain":{"type":"http","url":"https://x/mcp",
+  "headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer ${BRAIN_MCP_TOKEN}"}}},
+ "_parked":{"_reason":"no identity provides these yet",
+  "cad":{"type":"http","url":"https://x/mcp",
+   "headers":{"Authorization":"Bearer ${CAD_MCP_TOKEN}"}}}}
+JSONEOF
+run "$WORK/parked.json" "$ENVFILE"
+if [ "$rc" -eq 0 ]; then
+  ok "parked server is exempt"
+else
+  bad "parked server is exempt" "rc=$rc $out"
+fi
+
+# --- malformed JSON must not pass silently ------------------------------------
+# A config the checker cannot read is an unverified config, not a clean one.
+printf '{"mcpServers":{' > "$WORK/broken.json"
+run "$WORK/broken.json" "$ENVFILE"
+[ "$rc" -ne 0 ] && ok "unparseable config does not report success" || bad "unparseable config does not report success" "rc=0"
+
+# --- a missing env-file is unverifiable, not clean ----------------------------
+run "$WORK/good.json" "$WORK/no-such-env"
+[ "$rc" -ne 0 ] && ok "missing env-file does not report success" || bad "missing env-file does not report success" "rc=0"
+
+printf '\n%s: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$(basename "$0")" "$pass" "$fail"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Tests for skills/traceability/trace.sh.
+#
+# The RED run for #10 established what a forward trace costs by hand: sixteen
+# commands, of which the decisive ones were reading issue comments and running a
+# probe against a claim. This tool does the mechanical half — what git can prove
+# — and, more importantly, states what it CANNOT prove, so an unverifiable link
+# never reads as a verified one.
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)
+SUT="$ROOT/skills/traceability/trace.sh"
+
+pass=0
+fail=0
+WORK=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/traceability_test.$$
+
+if [ ! -f "$SUT" ]; then
+  printf 'FAIL: %s does not exist\n' "$SUT"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+cleanup() { rm -rf "$WORK"; }
+trap cleanup EXIT INT TERM
+
+mkdir -p "$WORK/repo/tests"
+cd "$WORK/repo" || exit 1
+git init -q .
+git config user.email t@example.com
+git config user.name test
+# A remote is needed for the tool to turn "#37" into a checkable URL, which is
+# the point of that section.
+git remote add origin https://git.d-ma.be/mathias/demo.git
+
+printf 'baseline\n' > README.md
+git add -A && git commit -qm "chore: baseline"
+
+printf 'gate\n' > gate.sh
+printf 'case\n' > tests/gate_test.sh
+git add -A && git commit -qm "feat(gate): add the thing
+
+Implements the decision recorded in #5, filed as #37.
+
+Closes #37"
+SHA=$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)
+git tag -a v1.2.0 -m "release v1.2.0"
+
+printf 'more\n' >> gate.sh
+git add -A && git commit -qm "chore: later work"
+
+cd - >/dev/null || exit 1
+out=$(sh "$SUT" "$SHA" "$WORK/repo" 2>&1)
+
+check() {
+  if printf '%s' "$out" | grep -q "$1"; then
+    pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$2"
+  else
+    fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s\n       output had no %s\n%s\n' "$2" "$1" "$out"
+  fi
+}
+
+check '#5'              'lists every issue the commit references, not just the closing one'
+check '#37'             'lists the closing reference'
+check 'tests/gate_test.sh' 'names the test files the commit touched'
+check 'v1.2.0'          'names the release that contains it'
+check 'Cannot verify' 'states what it could not verify'
+check 'issues/37'       'emits a checkable URL for the tracker link it cannot follow'
+
+# A commit in no release must say so — "no tag" and "not checked" are different
+# answers and only one of them is about the commit.
+last=$(git -C "$WORK/repo" rev-parse --short HEAD)
+out=$(sh "$SUT" "$last" "$WORK/repo" 2>&1)
+if printf '%s' "$out" | grep -qi 'no release contains'; then
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   an unreleased commit is reported as unreleased\n'
+else
+  fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL an unreleased commit is reported as unreleased\n%s\n' "$out"
+fi
+
+printf '\ntraceability: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]