docs(index): add dream + experiment-spec rows, and gate the index

Both skills shipped without an index row. The rows existed — on the feature
branches deleted in #22 — and were dropped by the squash-merge that followed
a directory reorg: the SKILL.md landed under skills/, the row did not. Nothing
errored, the index just under-reported the library to every harness reading it.

Adding two rows by hand fixes today and not tomorrow, so the assertion goes in
`task check` via bin/check-index, following the same pattern as
bin/should-skip-release: a real script with a real test, not untested logic
buried in a Taskfile. It checks both directions — a skill with no row, and a
row naming a skill that no longer exists.

Verified by mutation: deleting the `dream` row turns `task check` red and the
report names it.

Closes #15
Bump-Type: patch

.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -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": "0.6.1",
+  "version": "0.8.1",
   "author": {
     "name": "Mathias",
     "url": "https://git.d-ma.be/mathias"

.gitea/workflows/ci.yml

@@ -1,23 +1,52 @@
-name: release
+name: CI
 
-# Auto-tag every push to main with a semver bump derived from the latest
+# Two jobs, in order:
+#
+#   gate — `task check` (structure, frontmatter, manifest/tag parity) plus
+#          `task test` (hooks, doctor, release-skip). Runs on every push and
+#          every PR. Before this existed the suite ran nowhere: CI reported
+#          green having tested nothing (#22).
+#
+#   tag  — auto-tags a push to main with a semver bump derived from the latest
 #          commit footer:
 #            Bump-Type: major  → vX.0.0
 #            Bump-Type: minor  → v0.Y.0
 #            (default)         → v0.0.Z (patch)
-#
+#          Skips when the commit carries the `Skip-Release: true` trailer (the
-# Skips when the latest commit is itself the auto-tagger (commit message
+#          tagger's own manifest bump) to prevent recursion. Gated on `gate`,
-# contains "[skip-release]") to prevent recursion. Tag is pushed back
+#          so a red check cannot ship a tag.
-# to the repo using the GITEA_TOKEN provided by act_runner.
 
-on:
+"on":
   push:
-    branches:
+    branches: ["**"]
-      - main
+  pull_request:
+    branches: [main]
 
 jobs:
-  tag:
+  gate:
+    name: Check / Test
     runs-on: self-hosted
+    steps:
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
+        with:
+          # `task check` compares plugin.json's version to `git describe`;
+          # a shallow checkout has no tags and would skip that assertion.
+          fetch-depth: 0
+
+      - name: Verify toolchain
+        run: task --version
+
+      - name: Structure gate
+        run: task check
+
+      - name: Shell test suite
+        run: task test
+
+  tag:
+    name: Tag release
+    needs: gate
+    runs-on: self-hosted
+    if: github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref == 'refs/heads/main'
     steps:
       - name: checkout
         uses: actions/checkout@v4
@@ -72,16 +101,19 @@ jobs:
           manifest=.claude-plugin/plugin.json
           version="${TAG#v}"
           current=$(sed -n 's/.*"version"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*"\([^"]*\)".*/\1/p' "$manifest" | head -1)
+          git tag -a "$TAG" -m "release $TAG"
+
           if [ "$current" != "$version" ]; then
             sed -i "s/\"version\"[[:space:]]*:[[:space:]]*\"$current\"/\"version\": \"$version\"/" "$manifest"
             git add "$manifest"
             # The trailer below stops this push from re-triggering the tagger.
             git commit -m "chore(release): plugin.json version $version" -m "Skip-Release: true"
-            git push origin HEAD:main
+            # Commit and tag go up in ONE push: the gate job runs `task check`
+            # on the bump commit, and that asserts manifest == latest tag. Two
+            # separate pushes leave a window where it legitimately fails.
+            git push origin HEAD:main "$TAG"
             echo "bumped $manifest to $version"
-          fi
+          else
-
-          git tag -a "$TAG" -m "release $TAG"
-          # gitea-actions checkout uses an x-access-token URL; reuse it.
             git push origin "$TAG"
+          fi
           echo "pushed $TAG"

SKILLS_INDEX.md

@@ -19,9 +19,11 @@ This index lists all available engineering skills. Load the full SKILL.md on dem
 | `gitea-ci` | Gitea CI/CD pipeline with act_runner, buildah, k3s, GitHub mirror | Setting up or debugging CI on this infra |
 | `debug` | Hypothesis-first debugging discipline | Any test failure or bug whose cause is not immediately obvious |
 | `feature-spec` | Implementation-level feature spec (tighter than spec-driven-dev) | Scoping one feature inside an already-specced project |
+| `experiment-spec` | Rigorous experiment spec — falsifiable hypothesis, quantitative acceptance, null-result protocol | Scoping a research/ML phase instead of a feature |
 | `playwright` | Playwright E2E testing — setup, HTMX patterns, SSE streams, CI wiring | Adding browser tests to any project with a web UI |
 | `session-retrospective` | Surface non-obvious learnings from a session log | After a coding session ends, before context is lost |
 | `trainer` | Two-phase brain curation (score candidates, write past quality gate) | Periodic brain pruning and curation |
+| `dream` | Reflective consolidation pass over an agent's memory directory | Pruning/merging memory files, rebuilding a memory index |
 | `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 |
 | `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 |
 | `telos-load` | Load TELOS intention substrate at session start | Starting any koala session; before architectural decisions; CAD pipeline entry |
@@ -30,6 +32,7 @@ This index lists all available engineering skills. Load the full SKILL.md on dem
 | `discovery-framing` | Problem-before-solution discovery/framing method | Framing/validating a problem before any solution; opportunity sizing |
 | `stage-gate-review` | Stage-gate product governance (go/no-go council) | Preparing a Product Council ask; building a go/no-go checklist; gate review |
 | `web-shot` | Screenshot a running web UI via a koala k3s Playwright job | Visual verification of a running UI when no local browser exists |
+| `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 |
 | `superpowers-brainstorming` | Structured divergent brainstorming | Generating or expanding a set of ideas |
 | `superpowers-writing-plans` | Writing implementation plans | Planning substantial work before coding |
 | `superpowers-executing-plans` | Executing a written plan step by step | Running an approved plan to completion |

Taskfile.yml

@@ -94,7 +94,12 @@ tasks:
           count=$((count + 1))
         done
 
-        # 3. Plugin manifest version must match the latest tag, or installers
+        # 3. SKILLS_INDEX.md lists exactly the skills that exist. Delegated
+        #    to bin/check-index so the rule is covered by
+        #    tests/check_index_test.sh rather than living untested here.
+        sh '{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}/bin/check-index' '{{.TASKFILE_DIR}}' || fail=1
+
+        # 4. 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)

bin/check-index

@@ -0,0 +1,42 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# check-index — asserts SKILLS_INDEX.md lists exactly the skills that exist.
+#
+# The index is hand-maintained and drifts silently in both directions: a skill
+# ships with no row (`dream` and `experiment-spec` did — their rows lived on
+# branches squash-merged after a directory reorg, so the SKILL.md landed and
+# the row did not, #15), or a row outlives the skill it names. Neither errors
+# anywhere; the library just misreports itself to every harness that reads it.
+#
+# Usage: check-index [checkout-root]   (defaults to this script's repo root)
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=${1:-$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)}
+INDEX="$ROOT/SKILLS_INDEX.md"
+fail=0
+
+if [ ! -f "$INDEX" ]; then
+  echo "ERROR: missing SKILLS_INDEX.md" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+# A row is a table line whose first cell is the skill name in backticks.
+listed=$(sed -n 's/^|[[:space:]]*`\([^`]*\)`.*/\1/p' "$INDEX" | sort -u)
+
+for dir in "$ROOT"/skills/*/; do
+  name=$(basename "$dir")
+  [ -f "$dir/SKILL.md" ] || continue
+  printf '%s\n' "$listed" | grep -qx "$name" || {
+    echo "ERROR: skills/$name has no row in SKILLS_INDEX.md" >&2
+    fail=1
+  }
+done
+
+for name in $listed; do
+  [ -f "$ROOT/skills/$name/SKILL.md" ] || {
+    echo "ERROR: SKILLS_INDEX.md lists '$name', which has no skills/$name/SKILL.md" >&2
+    fail=1
+  }
+done
+
+exit $fail

bin/doctor

@@ -109,6 +109,15 @@ do
     continue
   fi
 
+  # A real directory where a link belongs holds content nothing manages: it
+  # cannot receive new skills and silently shadows the checkout. Distinguished
+  # from the foreign-checkout case below because the fix differs — move it
+  # aside and re-run install.sh, rather than re-point a link.
+  if [ ! -L "$dir" ] && [ -d "$dir" ]; then
+    add FAIL unmanaged "$dir is a real directory, not a link into the checkout — it holds $(count_skills "$dir") unmanaged skill(s); move it aside and re-run install.sh"
+    continue
+  fi
+
   # Resolve to a physical path and confirm it lands inside THIS checkout.
   # A link that resolves to a different checkout is the dangerous case: it
   # works, so nothing complains, while serving stale content.

hooks/secret-guard.sh

@@ -50,11 +50,18 @@ if printf '%s' "$CMD" | grep -Eqi '(^|[;&|]|\s)op\s+document\s+get\b'; then
 fi
 
 # Raw env/secret-file dumps (infra#228/#229 root cause).
-if printf '%s' "$CMD" | grep -Eqi '(^|[;&|]|\s)env(\s|$).*\|.*grep'; then
+#
-  deny "Blocked: 'env | grep' prints matching values in full. Use an existence-only check: [ -n \"\$VAR\" ] && echo set"
+# `env` is a dump only when nothing but options and VAR=value assignments
-fi
+# follow it. `env -u VAR cmd` and `env FOO=bar cmd` EXEC a command with a
-if printf '%s' "$CMD" | grep -Eq '(^|[;&|])[[:space:]]*env[[:space:]]*($|[;&|])'; then
+# modified environment and print nothing themselves — piping those into grep
-  deny "Blocked: bare 'env' prints every variable's value, including secrets. Use an existence-only check: [ -n \"\$VAR\" ] && echo set"
+# filters the command's own output, not the environment (#25). The earlier
+# pattern matched any `env` token followed anywhere later by a pipe into
+# grep, which blocked the documented 1Password write path
+# (`env -u OP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN op item create`) and cost a workaround.
+# Denying only the "no command word follows" shape also catches `env FOO=bar`
+# with no command, which the two previous rules let through.
+if printf '%s' "$CMD" | grep -Eqi '(^|[;&|]|[[:space:]])env([[:space:]]+-[iu][[:space:]]*[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*|[[:space:]]+-[iu]|[[:space:]]+[A-Za-z_][A-Za-z0-9_]*=[^[:space:]]*)*[[:space:]]*($|[|;&])'; then
+  deny "Blocked: this 'env' prints every variable's value, including secrets (no command word follows it, so it dumps rather than execs). Use an existence-only check: [ -n \"\$VAR\" ] && echo set. Note 'env -u VAR cmd' and 'env FOO=bar cmd' are allowed — they run a command."
 fi
 if printf '%s' "$CMD" | grep -Eqi '(^|[;&|]|\s)printenv\b'; then
   deny "Blocked: printenv dumps all env values. Use: [ -n \"\$VAR\" ] && echo set"

skills/cad-babysit/SKILL.md

@@ -0,0 +1,263 @@
+---
+name: cad-babysit
+description: Focused human-in-the-loop session working CAD's stuck queue (cad-stuck output). Read-only — diagnoses, never dispatches, arms a label, or closes an issue. Use when picking up whatever CAD has run into trouble on, with a human present.
+---
+
+# CAD Babysit
+
+## Overview
+
+A deliberately narrow session: pick up whatever CAD has run into trouble on, work it with a
+human present, and stop. This is not an autonomous supervisor — it is a babysitter with a
+person in the room, and that is the point, not a limitation to route around later.
+
+**Core principle:** an unattended supervisor reproduces the exact failure it exists to catch.
+`dispatch` ran dead for eight weeks because it exited 0 and nobody noticed (`dispatch#33`); a
+long-running watcher process that dies quietly has the same property one level up, and
+manufactures false confidence while doing it. With a human present, **the human is the
+liveness check** — that removes the objection entirely and needs no new machinery.
+
+This skill is the ritual around `cad stuck` (`mathias/cad#14`), not a replacement for it.
+Without that query it would be a checklist with no input; the query without this skill is
+data nobody reads carefully. Neither closes the loop alone.
+
+## When to Use
+
+- Picking up CAD's stuck queue with a human present and time set aside to work it
+- After `dispatch` (or any executor) reports a failure and it is not immediately obvious
+  whether it is an infrastructure fault or a real task outcome
+- Reviewing the "awaiting human" queue (issues CI has verified but nobody has closed)
+
+**Do not use for:**
+- Unattended/scheduled runs. This skill assumes a human is present for its entire duration —
+  if nobody is watching, its central safety property (human-as-liveness-check) does not hold.
+- Dispatching, arming a redispatch label, or closing an issue. This skill only ever diagnoses;
+  see Iron Laws.
+
+## Iron Laws
+
+1. **Read-only, always.** No dispatching, no arming labels (including `status:redispatch`), no
+   closing or reopening an issue. A reviewer that can act on its own findings has no
+   independent check — control stays where it already is.
+2. **Every finding cites a locator.** A run id, commit sha, comment permalink, or a specific
+   log line. A finding without one is an unfalsifiable opinion about a machine — do not emit
+   it, and do not soften this into "probably" language instead of dropping it.
+3. **Re-derive, never recall.** State lives in Gitea and Actions, not in this session. Start
+   cold every time: run `cad stuck` fresh, do not carry forward a prior session's worklist.
+   Sessions get compacted and lose exactly the cross-run history that makes a stale worklist
+   dangerous to trust.
+4. **Distinguish "blocked" from "awaiting human".** `cad stuck` already makes this split
+   (`stuck` vs `awaiting_human`); preserve it in every summary. The `awaiting_human` class is
+   the human gate working, not a bottleneck — do not report it as one.
+5. **Anything that is the operator's call surfaces as `DECISION NEEDED`, never gets decided
+   for them.** See Output Format.
+
+## Process
+
+### Phase 1 — Query (re-derive the worklist)
+
+Run `cad stuck` against the estate (the `dispatch-repos.txt` scope, or whatever repo set the
+operator names). This is the only input. Do not substitute a memory of a prior run, a brain
+note, or this issue's own worked examples — all three can be stale within the same day (a
+taxonomy row's cited live example can stop reproducing between when it was written and when
+you run the query, because the underlying state genuinely changed; that is the design working,
+not a bug to paper over).
+
+Group the output by class exactly as `cad stuck` returns it: `stuck` first, `awaiting_human`
+second. Pick ONE row to work per pass — this skill is deliberately narrow, not a full-estate
+sweep.
+
+### Phase 2 — Read the issue's own comments FIRST
+
+Before anything else, before touching Actions or pod logs: read every comment on the issue,
+oldest first. This step exists because it was skipped once and it cost a session — a confident
+wrong root cause was produced from pod logs while the correct diagnosis sat in the issue's own
+comment thread from nine days earlier (`cad-atlas#10`). The rule "read issue comments before
+working" was already written down elsewhere and was not followed; it is written down again
+here because that is exactly the kind of already-known thing a rushed session skips.
+
+What to look for: the bot's own report comments (routing decision, ground-truth verdict,
+attempt count), and any human comment that already contains the diagnosis.
+
+### Phase 3 — THEN the Actions job logs
+
+Only after Phase 2 turns up nothing conclusive, read the CI job logs:
+
+```
+GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/runs           # find the run, match on .run_number
+GET /repos/{owner}/{repo}/actions/jobs/{job_id}/logs   # returns 200, full text, secrets masked
+```
+
+This endpoint works. A prior note claiming it 404s was wrong and cost a diagnosis the day this
+skill was written — do not rediscover that. Get the run id from `/actions/runs`, not from the
+`run_number` shown in a comment (they are different fields; match on `.run_number` to find the
+internal `id` the jobs endpoint needs).
+
+This is where the two most valuable findings of the day this skill is drawn from lived: an
+agent issuing the identical refused command five times and stopping (never trying the tools it
+was actually permitted to use), and a different model, same denial, writing a Go program to
+route around it. Neither is visible from the issue comments alone — no metric produces either
+of them. They need a reader of the raw transcript.
+
+### Phase 4 — Separate infrastructure fault from task outcome
+
+A run that died before turn 1 says nothing about the issue itself. Before concluding anything
+about the WORK, check whether the run reached the model at all:
+
+- Zero turns, a 2-3 record transcript, a "could not start" comment, or a claim label with no
+  attempt comment behind it → infrastructure fault. This is not evidence the issue is hard, ill
+  specified, or that the assigned model is unsuitable — it is evidence something upstream
+  (credit, a key, MCP connectivity, the executor binary) is broken.
+- A run that reached the model, drove tools, and stopped on a ceiling, a denial loop, or a
+  genuine task failure → a real task outcome, worth diagnosing on its own terms.
+
+Four claim labels were burned this exact way in one estate sweep and the tracker read them as
+four handled issues (`dispatch#33`). Get this distinction wrong and everything downstream is
+about the wrong thing.
+
+### Phase 5 — Decide, or say `DECISION NEEDED`
+
+For each row worked, produce one of:
+
+- **A closed diagnosis** — cause identified, cited to a locator, no operator judgment call
+  required (e.g. "infrastructure fault, credit exhausted, see comment #N — retry is automatic
+  on the next cycle, no action needed").
+- **A `DECISION NEEDED`** — anything that is genuinely the operator's call: whether to close a
+  verified-but-open issue, whether to raise a ceiling, whether to abandon an issue that keeps
+  hitting the same denial. Never make this call on the operator's behalf.
+
+This skill's OWN last act, every time, is to stop — not to dispatch, not to redispatch, not to
+close. Ending a pass is itself the enforcement of Iron Law 1.
+
+## Output Format
+
+For a closed diagnosis:
+
+```
+DIAGNOSIS: <repo>#<issue> — <category from cad stuck, e.g. ceiling_hit>
+CAUSE: <one sentence, cites the mechanism>
+LOCATOR: <url or run id / log line>
+ACTION: <what happens automatically, or "none — informational">
+```
+
+For anything requiring a human call:
+
+```
+DECISION NEEDED: <repo>#<issue>
+QUESTION: <the exact thing only the operator can decide>
+OPTIONS:
+  1. <option> — <consequence>
+  2. <option> — <consequence>
+RECOMMENDATION: <your pick, with reasoning — but the operator decides>
+BLOCKS: <what stays stuck until this is answered, if anything>
+```
+
+End every pass with a one-line summary: `N diagnosed, M decisions needed, stopping.`
+
+## Worked Example
+
+`cad stuck` returns `mathias/cad-atlas#10 [near_attempt_cap] 4 dispatch attempts recorded, at
+or above the near-cap threshold (4 of MaxAttempts=5).`
+
+Phase 2 (issue comments): the issue's own thread already explains the pattern — repeated
+`status:redispatch` re-arming without the label being cleared after a completed attempt.
+
+Phase 3: not needed — Phase 2 was conclusive.
+
+Phase 4: each of the 4 attempts reached the model and ran (not an infrastructure fault) — a
+real re-fire pattern, not a claim-label artifact.
+
+Phase 5 output:
+
+```
+DECISION NEEDED: mathias/cad-atlas#10
+QUESTION: one more automatic attempt remains before MaxAttempts=5 gives up permanently. Let
+  it fire, or intervene now (fix the underlying cause, or manually close/redirect the issue)?
+OPTIONS:
+  1. Let it fire — costs one more headless run; if it fails the same way, dispatch gives up
+     automatically and posts a terminal comment. No action needed until then.
+  2. Intervene now — diagnose why redispatch keeps re-arming (likely: the watcher isn't
+     clearing RedispatchLabel after a serviced run) and fix that before the cap is spent on
+     a symptom rather than the cause.
+RECOMMENDATION: option 2. The pattern (redispatch not self-clearing after a completed run) is
+  already documented as a known operational hazard (dispatch#54) — spending the last attempt
+  on it again teaches nothing new.
+BLOCKS: nothing else; this issue's own progress.
+```
+
+`1 diagnosed, 1 decision needed, stopping.`
+
+## Anti-Patterns
+
+| Anti-Pattern | Why It Fails |
+|---|---|
+| Diagnosing from pod/Actions logs before reading issue comments | The exact mistake that cost a session — the answer was already written down nine days earlier. |
+| Reporting `awaiting_human` rows as a backlog or bottleneck | It is the human gate working. Misreporting it manufactures urgency that isn't there and trains the operator to distrust the queue. |
+| Treating a zero-turn, could-not-start run as evidence about the issue | It is an infrastructure fault. Four claim labels were burned exactly this way and read as four handled issues. |
+| Deciding a `DECISION NEEDED` case on the operator's behalf "to save time" | Removes the one property that makes this skill safe to run unattended-adjacent: the human decides, this skill only prepares the decision. |
+| Applying `status:redispatch`, closing an issue, or adding any label from this skill | Control stays where it is. This skill has no write path and should never be given one. |
+| Carrying forward a worklist from an earlier session instead of re-running `cad stuck` | State changes between sessions (see the worked note on `brain-gardener#190` in `cad#14`'s own acceptance run — its trigger label was gone hours later). A stale worklist gives false confidence, which is the specific failure mode this whole skill exists to avoid. |
+
+## Honest Limitation
+
+This skill encodes the *repeatable* diagnostic sequence: read comments, then logs, separate
+fault from outcome, verify by exit code, re-derive rather than recall. It reliably catches the
+taxonomy `cad stuck` already knows about. It will not, by itself, produce a genuinely novel
+finding the way an unhurried human-plus-agent reading session did the day this skill was
+written — that came from noticing things (an agent editing the file that authorizes it, an
+issue body recommending a command the policy forbids) that no checklist anticipates. Expect
+this skill to be reliable on known failure modes and to miss the next new one. That is an
+acceptable trade as long as nobody mistakes a clean pass through this skill for "nothing is
+wrong" — it means "nothing on the known list is wrong."
+
+## Brain MCP Integration
+
+**At session start:**
+- Run `brain_query` for the domain (`cad`, `dispatch`, the specific repo) to check whether a
+  finding this session is about to produce has already been diagnosed and written up. Do not
+  re-diagnose a known pattern from scratch every session.
+
+**After a genuinely novel finding (not already in the taxonomy or the brain):**
+- `brain_write` the pattern, generalized beyond the specific issue — the failure mode, not the
+  issue number. Do not write routine, already-known-taxonomy findings; that is what `cad
+  stuck`'s own output already records, durably, in Gitea.
+
+**Never:**
+- Write a `DECISION NEEDED` outcome to the brain before the operator has actually decided —
+  that would record a guess as a resolution.
+
+### Logging
+
+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:
+  "<absolute path>"}`
+
+**Phases for this skill:** query, read-comments, read-actions-logs, classify-fault-vs-outcome,
+decide
+
+**Status semantics:**
+- `pass` — the phase's intended outcome was reached (worklist re-derived; comments read;
+  fault/outcome separated; a diagnosis or `DECISION NEEDED` was produced).
+- `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
+  replacement.
+- Load `debug` for the hypothesis-generation discipline if Phase 4's fault/outcome split is
+  itself ambiguous.
+- Load `secret-hygiene` before reading raw Actions job logs if the repo is client-tagged —
+  logs are secret-masked by Gitea but a pasted excerpt into a summary is not.
+- `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.

skills/gitea-ci/SKILL.md

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ---
 name: gitea-ci
-description: End-to-end Gitea CI/CD setup with self-hosted act_runner, quality gate pipeline, buildctl image build, k3s deploy, and GitHub mirror. Covers act_runner-specific gotchas that are not documented anywhere.
+description: End-to-end Gitea CI/CD setup with self-hosted act_runner, quality gate pipeline, shared buildctl image-build script, k3s deploy, and GitHub mirror. Covers act_runner-specific gotchas that are not documented anywhere.
 ---
 
 # Gitea CI/CD Pipeline Setup
@@ -133,44 +133,39 @@ jobs:
             echo "version-tag=${REF#refs/tags/}" >> "$GITHUB_OUTPUT"
           fi
 
+      # infra#309: do NOT paste a build implementation here. The estate has
+      # exactly one, mathias/infra's ci-templates/build-image.sh, and each
+      # repo carries a byte-identical copy at .gitea/build-image.sh that a
+      # drift gate keeps current.
+      #
+      # Copying the implementation is what made the buildah->buildctl
+      # migration (infra#241) an eleven-repo sprint, and what left this very
+      # skill handing out the broken version for weeks after the app repos
+      # were fixed. Per-repo differences are INPUTS, not edits to the copy.
+      #
+      # To adopt in a new repo:
+      #   1. add the repo to mathias/infra ci-templates/adopters.txt
+      #   2. run `task ci:sync` in mathias/infra -- it writes the copy
+      #   3. commit .gitea/build-image.sh in your repo
+      #   4. call it as below
+      #
+      # Skipping step 1 leaves the copy unmanaged: it works today and falls
+      # silently behind the next time the canonical file changes.
+      #
+      # Inputs: IMAGE (required, usually the workflow-level env), SHA_TAG,
+      # VERSION_TAG, GIT_SHA, IMAGE_SOURCE, BUILD_ARGS, EXTRA_LABELS,
+      # CONTEXT, DOCKERFILE_DIR, DOCKERFILE_NAME, PUSH_LATEST. Read the
+      # canonical file's header for the full list.
+      #
+      # `bash <script>`, not a direct exec: a file written through the Gitea
+      # API lands 0644, and CI that depends on a file mode is a trap.
       - name: Build and push to local registry
-        run: |
+        env:
-          set -e
+          SHA_TAG: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.sha-tag }}
-          # buildctl, NOT buildah (infra#241). The runner is a pod with
+          VERSION_TAG: ${{ steps.meta.outputs.version-tag }}
-          # `capabilities: drop [ALL]` and `allowPrivilegeEscalation: false`,
+          GIT_SHA: ${{ github.sha }}
-          # so rootless buildah cannot remap UID/GID for a fresh base-image
+          IMAGE_SOURCE: ${{ github.repositoryUrl }}
-          # pull and the pod has no OCI runtime -- every `RUN` step fails.
+        run: bash .gitea/build-image.sh
-          # buildctl is a thin client: it hands the build to the host's
-          # buildkitd over a socket, so the privileged work happens on the
-          # host and the pod's securityContext is not in the picture.
-          # The failure is LATENT -- warm base-image layers mask it, so a
-          # buildah step can look fine for weeks and then fail on a cold pull.
-          BUILDKIT_HOST="unix:///run/buildkit/buildkitd.sock"
-          REGISTRY="localhost:5000"
-          REF="${REGISTRY}/${{ env.IMAGE }}:${{ steps.meta.outputs.sha-tag }}"
-          TAR_FILE="$(mktemp)"
-          trap 'rm -f "$TAR_FILE"' EXIT
-
-          buildctl --addr "$BUILDKIT_HOST" build \
-            --frontend dockerfile.v0 \
-            --local context=. \
-            --local dockerfile=. \
-            --opt label:org.opencontainers.image.revision="${{ github.sha }}" \
-            --opt label:org.opencontainers.image.source="${{ github.repositoryUrl }}" \
-            --output type=oci,dest="$TAR_FILE"
-
-          # buildctl has no registry-push equivalent to `buildah push`; skopeo
-          # copies the OCI archive up, once per tag.
-          skopeo copy --dest-tls-verify=false \
-            oci-archive:"$TAR_FILE" docker://${REF}
-          skopeo copy --dest-tls-verify=false \
-            oci-archive:"$TAR_FILE" docker://${REGISTRY}/${{ env.IMAGE }}:latest
-          if [ -n "${{ steps.meta.outputs.version-tag }}" ]; then
-            skopeo copy --dest-tls-verify=false \
-              oci-archive:"$TAR_FILE" \
-              docker://${REGISTRY}/${{ env.IMAGE }}:${{ steps.meta.outputs.version-tag }}
-          fi
-          echo "✓ Image pushed to ${REF}"
 
       # No smoke test step. The one this skill used to recommend ran
       # `sudo k3s ctr run` against the host's containerd -- that worked when

tests/check_index_test.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,70 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Tests for bin/check-index.
+#
+# The regression these exist for: SKILLS_INDEX.md is maintained by hand, and
+# two skills (`dream`, `experiment-spec`) shipped without a row — the index
+# rows lived on feature branches that were squash-merged after a directory
+# reorg, so the SKILL.md landed and the row did not (#15, #22). Nothing
+# errored; the index just quietly under-reported the library.
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)
+SUT="$ROOT/bin/check-index"
+
+pass=0
+fail=0
+WORK=${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/check_index_test.$$
+
+if [ ! -f "$SUT" ]; then
+  printf 'FAIL: %s does not exist\n' "$SUT"
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+cleanup() { rm -rf "$WORK"; }
+trap cleanup EXIT INT TERM
+
+# new_fixture <name> — a checkout with skills/alpha and skills/beta.
+new_fixture() {
+  _f="$WORK/$1"
+  mkdir -p "$_f/skills/alpha" "$_f/skills/beta"
+  printf -- '---\nname: alpha\ndescription: a\n---\n' > "$_f/skills/alpha/SKILL.md"
+  printf -- '---\nname: beta\ndescription: b\n---\n' > "$_f/skills/beta/SKILL.md"
+  printf '%s' "$_f"
+}
+
+index() {
+  _dir=$1; shift
+  printf '# Engineering Skills Index\n\n| Skill | Description | Use when |\n|---|---|---|\n' > "$_dir/SKILLS_INDEX.md"
+  for _n in "$@"; do
+    printf '| `%s` | desc | when |\n' "$_n" >> "$_dir/SKILLS_INDEX.md"
+  done
+}
+
+# expect <0|1> <label> <fixture> [grep-for]
+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=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s (rc ok, but report never names %s)\n%s\n' "$_label" "$_needle" "$_out"; return
+  fi
+  pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$_label"
+}
+
+fx=$(new_fixture complete); index "$fx" alpha beta
+expect 0 'every skill has a row' "$fx"
+
+fx=$(new_fixture missing); index "$fx" alpha
+expect 1 'a skill with no row is reported' "$fx" beta
+
+fx=$(new_fixture stale); index "$fx" alpha beta gamma
+expect 1 'a row for a skill that does not exist is reported' "$fx" gamma
+
+fx=$(new_fixture noindex)
+expect 1 'a missing index is reported' "$fx" SKILLS_INDEX.md
+
+printf '\ncheck_index: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]

tests/ci_gate_test.sh

@@ -0,0 +1,57 @@
+#!/bin/sh
+# Tests for the CI gate workflow.
+#
+# The regression these exist for: this repo had a release workflow that
+# auto-tagged every push to main, and a `task check` / `task test` suite that
+# nothing ever ran. CI reported green having tested nothing — a gate that
+# fails *open*. These assertions pin the wiring so it cannot silently regress.
+
+set -u
+
+ROOT=$(CDPATH= cd -- "$(dirname -- "$0")/.." && pwd)
+SUT="$ROOT/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml"
+
+pass=0
+fail=0
+
+ok() { pass=$((pass + 1)); printf '  ok   %s\n' "$1"; }
+no() { fail=$((fail + 1)); printf '  FAIL %s\n' "$1"; }
+
+if [ ! -f "$SUT" ]; then
+  printf 'FAIL: %s does not exist\n' "$SUT"
+  exit 1
+fi
+ok 'ci.yml exists'
+
+# A pull_request trigger is what gives tbd_ship a CI run to read on the head
+# commit of a branch; without one it fails closed and never merges (#22).
+grep -qE '^  pull_request:' "$SUT" \
+  && ok 'runs on pull_request' \
+  || no 'runs on pull_request'
+
+grep -qE '^ +push:' "$SUT" \
+  && ok 'runs on push' \
+  || no 'runs on push'
+
+grep -qE '^ +- *(run: *)?task check$|task check' "$SUT" \
+  && ok 'gate runs task check' \
+  || no 'gate runs task check'
+
+grep -qE 'task test' "$SUT" \
+  && ok 'gate runs task test' \
+  || no 'gate runs task test'
+
+# The point of the gate: tagging must not happen on a red check.
+tag_job=$(awk '/^  tag:/{f=1} f&&/^  [a-z][a-z_-]*:/&&!/^  tag:/{f=0} f' "$SUT")
+printf '%s' "$tag_job" | grep -qE '^ +needs: *gate' \
+  && ok 'tag job needs the gate' \
+  || no 'tag job needs the gate'
+
+# The old workflow file must be gone, or two workflows race on the same push
+# and the ungated one still tags.
+[ ! -f "$ROOT/.gitea/workflows/release.yml" ] \
+  && ok 'ungated release.yml removed' \
+  || no 'ungated release.yml removed'
+
+printf '\nci_gate: %d passed, %d failed\n' "$pass" "$fail"
+[ "$fail" -eq 0 ]

tests/doctor_test.sh

@@ -112,6 +112,19 @@ mkdir -p "$f/home/.claude/skills"
 ln -sfn "$f/ck/skills/alpha" "$f/home/.claude/skills/alpha"
 assert_fails "$f" 'legacy' 'leftover per-skill Claude symlinks are reported'
 
+# --- 7b. harness dir is a REAL directory, not a link into the checkout -------
+# Found on flamingo 2026-08-26: ~/.config/crush/skills held real directories
+# from a pre-plugin install. The old message read "resolves to
+# <path>, outside the active checkout" — naming the directory as its own
+# resolution target, which is true but useless. It must say the dir is not a
+# link at all, because the fix (move it aside, re-run install.sh) is different
+# from the fix for a link into a foreign checkout.
+f=$(new_fixture realdir)
+mkdir -p "$f/home/.agents" "$f/home/.config/crush/skills/alpha"
+ln -sfn "$f/ck/skills" "$f/home/.agents/skills"
+printf -- '---\nname: alpha\ndescription: a\n---\n' > "$f/home/.config/crush/skills/alpha/SKILL.md"
+assert_fails "$f" 'not a link' 'real directory is reported as unmanaged, not as "outside"'
+
 # --- 7. dangling link inside a harness dir (not the canonical link itself) --
 # Exercises the per-entry scan rather than the canonical-link check: this is
 # the shape the 243 dead links actually had.

tests/secret_guard_test.sh

@@ -61,6 +61,17 @@ expect deny 'op read "op://vault/item/field"' 'op read'
 expect deny 'env | grep -i gitea' 'env piped to grep'
 expect deny 'env' 'bare env'
 expect deny 'printenv' 'printenv'
+expect deny 'env -i | grep -i token' 'env -i with no command is still a dump'
+expect deny 'env FOO=bar' 'env with only assignments and no command is a dump'
+
+# --- allow: `env VAR=x cmd` / `env -u VAR cmd` RUN a command (#25) ---
+# These print nothing themselves; a pipe into grep filters the command's own
+# output, not the environment. Blocking them cost a documented workaround
+# ((unset VAR; cmd)) on the 1Password write path, which is the shape below.
+expect allow 'env -u ANTHROPIC_API_KEY claude --debug -p "ok" 2>&1 | grep -i plugin' 'env -u VAR runs a command'
+expect allow 'env FOO=bar ./script.sh | grep x' 'env VAR=x runs a command'
+expect allow 'env -u OP_SERVICE_ACCOUNT_TOKEN op item create - < item.json' 'env -u on the 1P write path'
+expect deny 'env -u FOO ./run.sh; env | grep -i secret' 'a real dump later in the same line still denies'
 
 # --- deny: kubernetes secret material ---
 expect deny 'kubectl get secret brain-app -o yaml' 'kubectl get secret -o yaml'