# GSD Agent Reference

> Full role cards for 22 primary agents plus concise stubs for 12 advanced/specialized agents (34 shipped agents total). The `agents/` directory and [`docs/INVENTORY.md`](INVENTORY.md) are the authoritative roster; see [Architecture](ARCHITECTURE.md) for context.

---

## Overview

GSD uses a multi-agent architecture where thin orchestrators (workflow files) spawn specialized agents with fresh context windows. Each agent has a focused role, limited tool access, and produces specific artifacts.

**Required reading (#3423):** the canonical spawn-block tag is `<required_reading>` on BOTH sides — orchestrators emit it, and gating agents enforce it ("you MUST use the Read tool to load every file listed there before performing any other actions"). The legacy `<files_to_read>` emit-tag is retired and banned repo-wide by `tests/agent-required-reading-consistency.test.cjs`, because a mismatched pair silently disarms the enforcement clause.

### Agent Categories

> The table below covers the **22 primary agents** detailed in this section. Thirteen additional shipped agents (pattern-mapper, debug-session-manager, code-reviewer, code-fixer, ai-researcher, domain-researcher, eval-planner, eval-auditor, framework-selector, intel-updater, doc-classifier, doc-synthesizer, mempalace-curator) have concise stubs in the [Advanced and Specialized Agents](#advanced-and-specialized-agents) section below. For the authoritative 35-agent roster, see [`docs/INVENTORY.md`](INVENTORY.md) and the `agents/` directory.

| Category | Count | Agents |
|----------|-------|--------|
| Researchers | 3 | project-researcher, phase-researcher, ui-researcher |
| Analyzers | 2 | assumptions-analyzer, advisor-researcher |
| Synthesizers | 1 | research-synthesizer |
| Planners | 1 | planner |
| Roadmappers | 1 | roadmapper |
| Executors | 1 | executor |
| Checkers | 3 | plan-checker, integration-checker, ui-checker |
| Verifiers | 2 | verifier, dom-verifier |
| Auditors | 3 | nyquist-auditor, ui-auditor, security-auditor |
| Mappers | 1 | codebase-mapper |
| Debuggers | 1 | debugger |
| Doc Writers | 2 | doc-writer, doc-verifier |
| Profilers | 1 | user-profiler |

---

## Agent Details

### gsd-project-researcher

**Role:** Researches domain ecosystem before roadmap creation.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-new-project`, `/gsd-new-milestone` |
| **Parallelism** | 4 instances (stack, features, architecture, pitfalls) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill, WebSearch, WebFetch, mcp__context7__*, mcp__plugin_context7_context7__*, mcp__firecrawl__*, mcp__exa__*, mcp__tavily__*, mcp__ref__*, mcp__jina__*, mcp__perplexity__* |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | `.planning/research/STACK.md`, `FEATURES.md`, `ARCHITECTURE.md`, `PITFALLS.md` |

**Capabilities:**
- Web search for current ecosystem information
- Context7 MCP integration for library documentation
- Writes research documents directly to disk (reduces orchestrator context load)

---

### gsd-phase-researcher

**Role:** Researches how to implement a specific phase before planning.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-plan-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | 4 instances (same focus areas as project researcher) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill, WebSearch, WebFetch, mcp__context7__*, mcp__plugin_context7_context7__*, mcp__firecrawl__*, mcp__exa__*, mcp__tavily__*, mcp__ref__*, mcp__jina__*, mcp__perplexity__* |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | `{phase}-RESEARCH.md` |

**Capabilities:**
- Reads CONTEXT.md to focus research on user's decisions
- Investigates implementation patterns for the specific phase domain
- Detects test infrastructure for Nyquist validation mapping
- Tags in-repo discrete values (enums, schema unions, error codes, status constants, paths) `[VERIFIED]` only after reading the source-of-truth file that run, citing path and line range, and quoting the values verbatim
- Refuses `[VERIFIED]` for a compatibility claim resting on *missing* metadata (no `python_requires`, no `engines` field, no per-version classifier, no changelog entry, no matching support-matrix row) — an absence constrains no version, and an enumerated allow-list that stops short of the target is still an absence, so only a positive falsification attempt with its failing output pasted earns the tag; anything less stays `[ASSUMED]`

---

### gsd-ui-researcher

**Role:** Produces UI design contracts for frontend phases.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ui-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill, WebSearch, WebFetch, mcp__context7__*, mcp__plugin_context7_context7__*, mcp__firecrawl__*, mcp__exa__*, mcp__tavily__*, mcp__ref__*, mcp__jina__* |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Purple |
| **Produces** | `{phase}-UI-SPEC.md` |

**Capabilities:**
- Detects design system state (shadcn components.json, Tailwind config, existing tokens)
- Offers shadcn initialization for React/Next.js/Vite projects
- Asks only unanswered design contract questions
- Enforces registry safety gate for third-party components
- **Enumerates the component inventory rather than recalling it (#2845):** the UI-SPEC's `## Component Inventory` carries a provenance line — the command that enumerated it, the count it returned, the resolved `<package>@<version>`, and the date — or, when nothing can enumerate it, a `Could not enumerate: <reason>` record in the same slot

---

### gsd-assumptions-analyzer

**Role:** Deeply analyzes codebase for a phase and returns structured assumptions with evidence, confidence levels, and consequences if wrong.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `discuss-phase-assumptions` workflow (when `workflow.discuss_mode = 'assumptions'`) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | Structured assumptions with decision statements, evidence file paths, confidence levels |

**Key behaviors:**
- Reads ROADMAP.md phase description and prior CONTEXT.md files
- Searches codebase for files related to the phase (components, patterns, similar features)
- Reads 5-15 most relevant source files to form evidence-based assumptions
- Classifies confidence: Confident (clear from code), Likely (reasonable inference), Unclear (could go multiple ways)
- Flags topics that need external research (library compatibility, ecosystem best practices)
- Output calibrated by tier: full_maturity (3-5 areas), standard (3-4), minimal_decisive (2-3)

---

### gsd-advisor-researcher

**Role:** Researches a single gray area decision during discuss-phase advisor mode and returns a structured comparison table.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `discuss-phase` workflow (when ADVISOR_MODE = true) |
| **Parallelism** | Multiple instances (one per gray area) |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill, WebSearch, WebFetch, mcp__context7__*, mcp__plugin_context7_context7__* |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | 5-column comparison table (Option / Pros / Cons / Complexity / Recommendation) with rationale paragraph |

**Key behaviors:**
- Researches a single assigned gray area using Claude's knowledge, Context7, and web search
- Produces genuinely viable options — no padding with filler alternatives
- Complexity column uses impact surface + risk (never time estimates)
- Recommendations are conditional ("Rec if X", "Rec if Y") — never single-winner ranking
- Output calibrated by tier: full_maturity (3-5 options with maturity signals), standard (2-4), minimal_decisive (2 options, decisive recommendation)

---

### gsd-research-synthesizer

**Role:** Combines outputs from parallel researchers into a unified summary.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-new-project` (after 4 researchers complete) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance (sequential after researchers) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Purple |
| **Produces** | `.planning/research/SUMMARY.md` |

---

### gsd-planner

**Role:** Creates executable phase plans with task breakdown, dependency analysis, and goal-backward verification.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-plan-phase`, `/gsd-quick` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep, Skill, WebFetch, mcp__context7__*, mcp__plugin_context7_context7__* |
| **Model (balanced)** | Opus |
| **Color** | Green |
| **Produces** | `{phase}-{N}-PLAN.md` files |

**Key behaviors:**
- Reads PROJECT.md, REQUIREMENTS.md, CONTEXT.md, RESEARCH.md
- Creates 2-3 atomic task plans sized for single context windows
- Uses XML structure with `<task>` elements
- Includes `read_first` and `acceptance_criteria` sections
- Groups plans into dependency waves
- Performs reachability check to validate plan steps reference accessible files and APIs (v1.32)
- Enforces a comment-text discipline HARD GATE at plan-write time (`verify.plan-structure`): a literal that an acceptance criterion negative-greps for (`grep -c 'LIT' file == 0`) must not appear verbatim in an `<action>` body; violations fail plan creation. Use `<!-- planner-discipline-allow: LIT -->` to allowlist a legitimate occurrence. (#429)

---

### gsd-roadmapper

**Role:** Creates project roadmaps with phase breakdown and requirement mapping.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-new-project` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Glob, Grep, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Purple |
| **Produces** | `ROADMAP.md` |

**Key behaviors:**
- Maps requirements to phases (traceability)
- Derives success criteria from requirements
- Respects granularity setting for phase count
- Validates coverage (every v1 requirement mapped to a phase)

---

### gsd-executor

**Role:** Executes GSD plans with atomic commits, deviation handling, and checkpoint protocols.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-execute-phase`, `/gsd-quick` |
| **Parallelism** | Multiple (parallel within waves, sequential across waves) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill, mcp__context7__*, mcp__plugin_context7_context7__* |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Yellow |
| **Produces** | Code changes, git commits, `{phase}-{N}-SUMMARY.md` |

**Key behaviors:**
- Fresh 200K context window per plan
- Follows XML task instructions precisely
- Atomic git commit per completed task
- Handles task types: auto, tracer, checkpoint (human-verify, decision, human-action)
- Tracer feedback gate: after a `tracer` slice, verifies it end-to-end before expansion tasks — autonomous runs halt on failure; interactive runs honor `workflow.human_verify_mode` (under the `end-of-phase` default an automated-only `<verify>` continues with no checkpoint; otherwise a human-verify checkpoint is emitted, #3299)
- Reports deviations from plan in SUMMARY.md
- Invokes node repair on verification failure

---

### gsd-plan-checker

**Role:** Verifies plans will achieve phase goals before execution.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-plan-phase` (verification loop, max 3 iterations) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance (iterative) |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Glob, Grep, Skill |
| **Disallowed Tools** | Write, Edit, MultiEdit |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Green |
| **Produces** | PASS/FAIL verdict with specific feedback |

**Verification Dimensions** — labels match the agent's own `## Dimension <N>` headings:

| # | Dimension |
|---|---|
| 1 | Requirement coverage |
| 2 | Task completeness |
| 3 | Dependency correctness |
| 3b | Undeclared / temporal coupling — advisory; flags same-wave plan pairs coupled through shared mutable state or execution order with no `depends_on` between them |
| 4 | Key links planned |
| 5 | Scope sanity |
| 6 | Verification derivation |
| 7 | Context compliance (when CONTEXT.md exists) |
| 7b | Scope reduction detection |
| 7c | Architectural tier compliance (when RESEARCH.md defines a responsibility map) |
| 8 | Nyquist compliance (when enabled) |
| 9 | Cross-plan data contracts |
| 10 | CLAUDE.md compliance |
| 11 | Research resolution |
| 12 | Pattern compliance |

Two further dimensions carry no number: **Verify Command Format Sanity** and
**Numeric/Factual Claim Authority**.

---

### gsd-integration-checker

**Role:** Verifies cross-phase integration and end-to-end flows.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-audit-milestone` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill |
| **Disallowed Tools** | Write, Edit, MultiEdit |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Blue |
| **Produces** | Integration verification report |

---

### gsd-ui-checker

**Role:** Validates UI-SPEC.md design contracts against quality dimensions.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ui-phase` (validation loop, max 2 iterations) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Glob, Grep, Skill |
| **Disallowed Tools** | Write, Edit, MultiEdit |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | BLOCK/FLAG/PASS verdict |

**Verification Dimensions** — labels match the agent's own `## Dimension <N>` headings:

| # | Dimension |
|---|---|
| 1 | Copywriting |
| 2 | Visuals |
| 3 | Color |
| 4 | Typography |
| 5 | Spacing |
| 6 | Registry Safety |
| 7 | Inventory Provenance |

**Key behaviors:**
- **Inventory provenance (#2845):** a UI-SPEC whose component inventory carries no provenance line is reported as a defect, and the inventory is downgraded from a closed allowlist to a **non-exhaustive list of known-good components** — so an executor is never blocked from something the spec merely failed to mention. A spec with no inventory at all PASSes, which is what keeps every UI-SPEC written before the dimension existed validating unchanged. The checker never executes the recorded command; it reads the spec as a document. **Limits, because the dimension is narrower than it reads:** the line makes an inventory's origin falsifiable, not verified — nothing re-runs the command or compares the count, so a fabricated line passes; the rule is agent-applied like the other six, not a schema check; and "never executes the recorded command" is an instruction rather than a capability boundary, since the checker holds a `Bash` grant it needs for the agent-skills bootstrap. See [Security model → Trade-offs and limits](explanation/security-model.md#trade-offs-and-limits) and [How to design a UI phase](how-to/design-a-ui-phase.md#what-this-check-is-and-is-not).
- **Adversarial stance / "The Auditor" (#1578):** applies explicit BLOCK/FLAG/PASS tiers and an anti-capitulation rule that resists author-framing pressure while still allowing self-correction when the prior dimension application was mistaken. Persona effects are strongest on Sonnet-class reasoning and unvalidated on budget/Haiku-class routing; the criteria and evidence remain authoritative.

---

### gsd-verifier

**Role:** Verifies phase goal achievement through goal-backward analysis.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-execute-phase` (after all executors complete) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill |
| **Disallowed Tools** | Edit, MultiEdit |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Green |
| **Produces** | `{phase}-VERIFICATION.md` |

**Key behaviors:**
- Checks codebase against phase goals, not just task completion
- PASS/FAIL with specific evidence
- Logs issues for `/gsd-verify-work` to address
- Milestone scope filtering: gaps addressed in later phases are marked as "deferred", not reported as failures (v1.32)
- **Test quality audit** (v1.32): verifies that tests prove what they claim by checking for disabled/skipped tests on requirements, circular test patterns (system generating its own expected values), assertion strength (existence vs. value vs. behavioral), and expected value provenance. Blockers from test quality audit override an otherwise passing verification
- Runs the full workspace test suite at most once per verification — proves a test *exists* by enumeration and that it *passes* via a single named test, never re-running the whole suite per must-have.
- **Behavior-dependent calibration (#966):** a must-have that asserts a state transition or a cancellation/cleanup/ordering invariant is marked `⚠️ PRESENT_BEHAVIOR_UNVERIFIED` (not `VERIFIED`) when no test exercises it — excluded from the `verified_truths` score, counted in the `behavior_unverified` frontmatter field, and routed to human verification, so a clean `N/N` certifies behavioral evidence rather than mere symbol presence.
- **Coincidental-reliance advisory (#1955):** a truth that reaches `✓ VERIFIED` is additionally asked *why* it holds. When the recorded evidence shows the truth holding for an incidental reason — `undeclared-precondition`, `incidental-ordering`, or `fixture-only` — the verdict is qualified as `✓ VERIFIED (coincidental-reliance)` and the truth is listed in the `coincidental_reliance_items` frontmatter field with what to harden. This is **advisory**: the base `✓ VERIFIED` token is unchanged, the truth still counts toward `verified_truths`, the overall `status` is unaffected, and no human-verification item is emitted — a passing phase still passes. It classifies evidence the verifier already gathered rather than asking it to rate its own confidence — but it is honestly an **endogenous** check, and `gsd-core/references/honest-verifier.md` records that endogenous gates are measurably weaker than the exogenous `backstop` tag it routes on. Advisory status is the consequence, not a coincidence: a miss costs exactly today's behaviour (a plain `✓ VERIFIED`) and a false positive costs one line of prose, never a failed phase, so a weaker mechanism is affordable here in a way it would not be on a pass/fail axis. Its precision is unmeasured. It complements the two existing axes: `PRESENT_BEHAVIOR_UNVERIFIED` is *no* behavioral evidence, `insufficient_spec` is an under-specified truth, and this is evidence that exists and passes for the wrong reason.

  The advisory is carried by two surfaces. `agents/gsd-verifier.md` (Step 3, sub-step 5c) holds the detection rule, and the verifier's eagerly-imported `gsd-core/references/verifier-phase-gates.md` points at the canonical report template `@~/.claude/gsd-core/templates/verification-report.md`, whose `## Guidelines` carry the same instruction. (The former third surface, the retired `verify-phase` workflow, was deleted as an orphan in #1892 — every verification path is subagent-shaped today.)

---

### gsd-nyquist-auditor

**Role:** Fills Nyquist validation gaps by generating tests.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-validate-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Glob, Grep, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Purple |
| **Produces** | Test files, updated `VALIDATION.md` |

**Key behaviors:**
- Never modifies implementation code — only test files
- Max 3 attempts per gap
- Flags implementation bugs as escalations for user

---

### gsd-ui-auditor

**Role:** Retroactive 6-pillar visual audit of implemented frontend code.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ui-review` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill |
| **Disallowed Tools** | Edit, MultiEdit |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Pink |
| **Produces** | `{phase}-UI-REVIEW.md` with scores |

**6 Audit Pillars (scored 1-4):**
1. Copywriting
2. Visuals
3. Color
4. Typography
5. Spacing
6. Experience Design

---

### gsd-dom-verifier

**Role:** Observes a live DOM and reports which of a wave's stated UI acceptance criteria hold. Additive — never blocks.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `live-dom-uat` capability step at `execute:wave:post` |
| **Parallelism** | One per wave |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Glob, Grep, mcp__chrome-devtools__*, mcp__claude-in-chrome__* |
| **Disallowed Tools** | Edit, Bash, the Playwright MCP family |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | `{phase}-DOM-VERIFY.md` |
| **Gated by** | `workflow.live_dom_uat` (default `false`) |

This is the **only** GSD agent carrying browser MCP tools. `gsd-executor` is deliberately not widened — for a first-party agent the static `tools:` list is the only control that exists ([ADR-1244](adr/1244-capability-ecosystem.md) D2, [ADR-857](adr/857-capability-system.md) D4). It carries no `Bash`: it does not start dev servers or shell out.

**Outcome codes** (`nothing_to_report` and `could_not_look` are never conflated):

| `outcome` | `reason` | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `verified` | `ok` | Criteria existed and were observed |
| `nothing_to_report` | `no_criteria` | The wave stated no UI acceptance criteria |
| `could_not_look` | `no_browser_mcp` | No browser MCP answered |
| `could_not_look` | `profile_locked` | Another instance holds the browser profile |
| `could_not_look` | `target_unreachable` | Nothing serving the target |

**Reference:** [Enable live-DOM verification](how-to/enable-live-dom-verification.md) · [Explanation](explanation/live-dom-uat-capability.md)

---

### gsd-codebase-mapper

**Role:** Explores codebase and writes structured analysis documents.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-map-codebase`, post-execute drift gate in `/gsd-execute-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | 4 instances (tech, architecture, quality, concerns) |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Grep, Glob, Write, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Haiku |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | `.planning/codebase/*.md` (7 documents, with `last_mapped_commit` frontmatter) |

**Key behaviors:**
- Read-only exploration + structured output
- Writes documents directly to disk
- No reasoning required — pattern extraction from file contents

**`--paths <p1,p2,...>` scope hint (#2003):**
Accepts an optional `--paths` directive in its prompt. When present, the
mapper restricts Glob/Grep/Bash exploration to the listed repo-relative path
prefixes — this is the incremental-remap path used by the post-execute
codebase-drift gate. Path values that contain `..`, start with `/`, or
include shell metacharacters are rejected. Without the hint, the mapper
runs its default whole-repo scan.

---

### gsd-debugger

**Role:** Investigates bugs using scientific method with persistent state.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-debug`, `/gsd-verify-work` (for failures) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance (interactive) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill, WebSearch |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Orange |
| **Produces** | `.planning/debug/*.md`, knowledge-base updates |

**Debug Session Lifecycle:**
`gathering` → `investigating` → `fixing` → `verifying` → `awaiting_human_verify` → `resolved`

**Key behaviors:**
- Tracks hypotheses, evidence, and eliminated theories
- State persists across context resets
- Requires human verification before marking resolved
- Runs a multi-signal fix-acceptance guardrail (mutation check, no-op/deletion detector, adjacent tests, revert-and-reconfirm) before accepting a fix; degrades gracefully when Stryker or a test suite is absent
- Ranks suspect code by Ochiai suspiciousness from test pass/fail coverage (spectrum-based fault localization) before forming hypotheses; skips cleanly when no coverage exists
- Branches root-cause analysis across ≥2 Ishikawa categories and applies an AND-gate check before committing root_cause (guards against 5-Whys single-cause bias); root_cause may hold a set when the AND-gate fires
- Classifies each failure as Bohrbug / Heisenbug-Mandelbug / Concurrency at Phase 1.75 and routes the investigation technique accordingly (routes Bohrbugs to SBFL+bisect, Heisenbugs to record-replay/stability with SBFL skipped, Concurrency to the atomicity/order/deadlock checklist)
- Hardens regression tests via PBT shrinking (minimized counterexample as the seed), explicit oracle classification (specified/derived/metamorphic/implicit), and boundary neighbors around the fixed equivalence class
- Emits a blameless-postmortem Prevention block at resolution (branching 5-Whys, why-wasn't-this-caught, a concrete recurrence guard) and records `why_not_caught` + `recurrence_guard` in the knowledge base so the same bug class is prevented, not just fixed
- Recalls prior resolved sessions semantically via MemPalace at Phase 0 (top-k meaning-similar), catching same-root-cause/different-wording cases keyword overlap misses; falls back to keyword matching when MemPalace is absent
- Appends to persistent knowledge base on resolution
- Consults knowledge base on new sessions

---

### gsd-user-profiler

**Role:** Analyzes session messages across 8 behavioral dimensions to produce a scored developer profile.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-profile-user` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Purple |
| **Produces** | `USER-PROFILE.md`, `CLAUDE.md` profile section |

**Behavioral Dimensions:**
Communication style, decision patterns, debugging approach, UX preferences, vendor choices, frustration triggers, learning style, explanation depth.

**Key behaviors:**
- Read-only agent — analyzes extracted session data, does not modify files
- Produces scored dimensions with confidence levels and evidence citations
- Questionnaire fallback when session history is unavailable

---

### gsd-doc-writer

**Role:** Writes and updates project documentation. Spawned with a doc_assignment block specifying doc type, mode, and project context.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-docs-update` |
| **Parallelism** | Multiple instances (one per doc type) |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Grep, Glob, Write, Edit, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Purple |
| **Produces** | Project documentation files (README, architecture, API docs, etc.) |

**Key behaviors:**
- Supports modes: create, update, supplement, fix
- Handles doc types: readme, architecture, getting_started, development, testing, api, configuration, deployment, contributing, custom
- Monorepo-aware: can generate per-package READMEs
- Fix mode accepts failure objects from gsd-doc-verifier for targeted corrections
- Writes directly to disk — does not return content to orchestrator

---

### gsd-doc-verifier

**Role:** Verifies factual claims in generated documentation against the live codebase.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-docs-update` (after doc-writer completes) |
| **Parallelism** | Multiple instances (one per doc file) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob |
| **Disallowed Tools** | Edit, MultiEdit |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Orange |
| **Produces** | Structured JSON verification results per doc |

**Key behaviors:**
- Extracts checkable claims (file paths, function names, CLI commands, config keys)
- Verifies each claim against filesystem using tools only — no assumptions
- Writes structured JSON result file for orchestrator to process
- Failed claims feed back to doc-writer in fix mode

---

### gsd-security-auditor

**Role:** Verifies threat mitigations from PLAN.md threat model exist in implemented code.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-secure-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Glob, Grep, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Red |
| **Produces** | Structured verdict (SECURED / OPEN_THREATS / ESCALATE) — orchestrator writes `{phase}-SECURITY.md` (#2119) |

**Key behaviors:**
- Verifies each threat by its declared disposition (mitigate / accept / transfer)
- Does NOT scan blindly for new vulnerabilities — verifies declared mitigations only
- Implementation files are read-only — never patches implementation code
- Unmitigated threats reported as OPEN_THREATS or ESCALATE
- Supports ASVS levels 1/2/3 for verification depth

---

## Advanced and Specialized Agents

Twelve additional agents ship under `agents/gsd-*.md` and are used by specialty workflows (`/gsd-ai-integration-phase`, `/gsd-eval-review`, `/gsd-code-review`, `/gsd-code-review --fix`, `/gsd-debug`, `/gsd-map-codebase --query`, `/gsd-ingest-docs`) and by the planner pipeline. Each carries full frontmatter in its agent file; the stubs below are concise by design. The authoritative roster (with spawner and primary-doc status per agent) lives in [`docs/INVENTORY.md`](INVENTORY.md).

### gsd-pattern-mapper

**Role:** Read-only codebase analysis that maps files-to-be-created or modified to their closest existing analogs, producing `PATTERNS.md` for the planner to consume.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-plan-phase` (between research and planning) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Glob, Grep, Write |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Purple |
| **Produces** | `PATTERNS.md` in the phase directory |

**Key behaviors:**
- Extracts file list from CONTEXT.md and RESEARCH.md; classifies each by role (controller, component, service, model, middleware, utility, config, test) and data flow (CRUD, streaming, file I/O, event-driven, request-response)
- Searches for the closest existing analog per file and extracts concrete code excerpts (imports, auth patterns, core pattern, error handling)
- Strictly read-only against source; only writes `PATTERNS.md`

---

### gsd-debug-session-manager

**Role:** Runs the full `/gsd-debug` checkpoint-and-continuation loop in an isolated context so the orchestrator's main context stays lean; spawns `gsd-debugger` agents, dispatches specialist skills, and handles user checkpoints via AskUserQuestion.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-debug` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance (interactive, stateful) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, Agent, AskUserQuestion |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Orange |
| **Produces** | Compact summary returned to main context; evolves the `.planning/debug/{slug}.md` session file |

**Key behaviors:**
- Reads the debug session file first; passes file paths (not inlined contents) to spawned agents to respect context budget
- Treats all user-supplied AskUserQuestion content as data-only, wrapped in DATA_START/DATA_END markers
- Coordinates TDD gates and reasoning checkpoints introduced in v1.36.0

---

### gsd-code-reviewer

**Role:** Reviews source files for bugs, security vulnerabilities, and code-quality problems; produces a structured `REVIEW.md` with severity-classified findings.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-code-review` |
| **Parallelism** | Typically single instance per review scope |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Orange |
| **Produces** | `REVIEW.md` in the phase directory |

**Key behaviors:**
- Detects bugs (logic errors, null/undefined checks, off-by-one, type mismatches, unreachable code), security issues (injection, XSS, hardcoded secrets, insecure crypto), and quality issues
- Honors `CLAUDE.md` project conventions and `.claude/skills/` / `.agents/skills/` rules when present
- Read-only against implementation source — never modifies code under review

---

### gsd-code-fixer

**Role:** Applies fixes to findings from `REVIEW.md` with intelligent (non-blind) patching and atomic per-fix commits; produces `REVIEW-FIX.md`.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-code-review --fix` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Edit, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Green |
| **Produces** | `REVIEW-FIX.md`; one atomic git commit per applied fix |

**Key behaviors:**
- Treats `REVIEW.md` suggestions as guidance, not a patch to apply literally
- Commits each fix atomically so review and rollback stay granular
- Honors `CLAUDE.md` and project-skill rules during fixes

---

### gsd-ai-researcher

**Role:** Researches a chosen AI/LLM framework's official documentation and distills it into implementation-ready guidance — framework quick reference, patterns, and pitfalls — for the Section 3–4b body of `AI-SPEC.md`.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ai-integration-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance (sequential with domain-researcher / eval-planner) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, WebFetch, WebSearch, mcp__context7__*, mcp__plugin_context7_context7__* |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Green |
| **Produces** | Sections 3–4b of `AI-SPEC.md` (framework quick reference + implementation guidance) |

**Key behaviors:**
- Uses Context7 MCP when available; falls back to the `ctx7` CLI via Bash when MCP tools are stripped from the agent
- Anchors guidance to the specific use case, not generic framework overviews

---

### gsd-domain-researcher

**Role:** Surfaces the business-domain and real-world evaluation context for an AI system — expert rubric ingredients, failure modes, regulatory context — before the eval-planner turns it into measurable rubrics. Writes Section 1b of `AI-SPEC.md`.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ai-integration-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, WebSearch, WebFetch, mcp__context7__*, mcp__plugin_context7_context7__* |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Purple |
| **Produces** | Section 1b of `AI-SPEC.md` |

**Key behaviors:**
- Researches the domain, not the technical framework — its output feeds the eval-planner downstream
- Produces rubric ingredients that downstream evaluators can turn into measurable criteria

---

### gsd-eval-planner

**Role:** Designs the structured evaluation strategy for an AI phase — failure modes, eval dimensions with rubrics, tooling, reference dataset, guardrails, production monitoring. Writes Sections 5–7 of `AI-SPEC.md`.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ai-integration-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance (sequential after domain-researcher) |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob, AskUserQuestion |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Orange |
| **Produces** | Sections 5–7 of `AI-SPEC.md` (Evaluation Strategy, Guardrails, Production Monitoring) |

**Required reading:** `gsd-core/references/ai-evals.md` (evaluation framework).

**Key behaviors:**
- Turns domain-researcher rubric ingredients into measurable, tooled evaluation criteria
- Does not re-derive domain context — reads Section 1 and 1b of `AI-SPEC.md` as established input

---

### gsd-eval-auditor

**Role:** Retroactive audit of an implemented AI phase's evaluation coverage against its planned `AI-SPEC.md` eval strategy. Scores each eval dimension `COVERED` / `PARTIAL` / `MISSING` and produces `EVAL-REVIEW.md`.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-eval-review` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill |
| **Disallowed Tools** | Edit, MultiEdit |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Red |
| **Produces** | `EVAL-REVIEW.md` with dimension scores, findings, and remediation guidance |

**Required reading:** `gsd-core/references/ai-evals.md`.

**Key behaviors:**
- Compares the implemented codebase against the planned eval strategy — never re-plans
- Reads implementation files incrementally to respect context budget

---

### gsd-framework-selector

**Role:** Interactive decision-matrix agent that runs a ≤6-question interview, scores candidate AI/LLM frameworks, and returns a ranked recommendation with rationale.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ai-integration-phase` |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance (interactive) |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Grep, Glob, WebSearch, AskUserQuestion |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | Scored ranked recommendation (structured return to orchestrator) |

**Required reading:** `gsd-core/references/ai-frameworks.md` (decision matrix).

**Key behaviors:**
- Scans `package.json`, `pyproject.toml`, `requirements*.txt` for existing AI libraries before the interview to avoid recommending a rejected framework
- Asks only what the codebase scan and CONTEXT.md have not already answered

---

### gsd-intel-updater

**Role:** Reads project source and writes structured intel (JSON + Markdown) into `.planning/intel/`, building a queryable codebase knowledge base that other agents use instead of performing expensive fresh exploration.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-map-codebase --query` (refresh / update flows) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Bash, Glob, Grep |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Cyan |
| **Produces** | `.planning/intel/*.json` (and companion Markdown) consumed by `gsd-tools query intel` |

**Key behaviors:**
- Writes current state only — no temporal language, every claim references an actual file path
- Uses Glob / Read / Grep for cross-platform correctness; Bash is reserved for `gsd-tools query intel` CLI calls

---

### gsd-doc-classifier

**Role:** Classifies a single planning document as ADR, PRD, SPEC, DOC, or UNKNOWN. Extracts title, scope summary, and cross-references. Writes a JSON classification file used by `gsd-doc-synthesizer` to build a consolidated context.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ingest-docs` (parallel fan-out over the doc corpus) |
| **Parallelism** | One instance per input document |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Grep, Glob |
| **Model (balanced)** | Haiku |
| **Color** | Yellow |
| **Produces** | One JSON classification file per input doc (type, title, scope, refs) |

**Key behaviors:**
- Single-doc scope — never synthesizes or resolves conflicts (that is the synthesizer's job)
- Heuristic-first classification; returns UNKNOWN when the doc lacks type signals rather than guessing
- **Extraction discipline (#1578):** few-shot input→output exemplars plus a terminal schema restatement; marks a field absent rather than fabricating a value when the doc lacks the signal.

---

### gsd-doc-synthesizer

**Role:** Synthesizes classified planning docs into a single consolidated context. Applies precedence rules, detects cross-reference cycles, enforces LOCKED-vs-LOCKED hard-blocks, and writes `INGEST-CONFLICTS.md` with three buckets (auto-resolved, competing-variants, unresolved-blockers).

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | `/gsd-ingest-docs` (after classifier fan-in) |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Write, Grep, Glob, Bash |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Color** | Orange |
| **Produces** | Consolidated context for `.planning/` plus `INGEST-CONFLICTS.md` report |

**Key behaviors:**
- Hard-blocks on LOCKED-vs-LOCKED ADR contradictions instead of silently picking a winner
- Follows the `references/doc-conflict-engine.md` contract so `/gsd-import` and `/gsd-ingest-docs` produce consistent conflict reports
- **Extraction discipline (#1578):** few-shot exemplars plus a terminal schema restatement and a mark-absent (no-fabrication) rule for missing fields.

---

### gsd-mempalace-curator

**Role:** Ship-time memory curation — writes per-agent diary entries, proposes and creates cross-project tunnels, runs wing-scoped sync pruning, and mirrors `extract-learnings` output into MemPalace's temporal knowledge graph with provenance.

| Property | Value |
|----------|-------|
| **Spawned by** | MemPalace capability at `ship:post` (when `mempalace.enabled = true`); diary/tunnels/KG-mirror are then refined by their own toggles |
| **Parallelism** | Single instance |
| **Tools** | Read, Bash, Grep, Glob |
| **Model (balanced)** | Sonnet |
| **Produces** | Diary entry in MemPalace, wing tunnel proposals, KG provenance records |

**Key behaviors:**
- Best-effort only — every operation is `onError: skip`; a MemPalace failure never halts the loop
- Wing-scoped sync pruning (`mempalace sync --wing <wing> --apply`) — never runs a global prune
- Cross-project tunnel proposals when `mempalace.cross_project_tunnels = true`
- Mirrors `extract-learnings` decisions, lessons, patterns, and surprises into the KG with `source_drawer_id` provenance
- Requires MemPalace MCP server or CLI to be reachable; writes a skip-notice stub when unavailable

---

## Agent Tool Permissions Summary

> **Scope:** this table covers the 22 primary agents only. The 13 advanced/specialized agents listed above carry their own tool surfaces in their `agents/gsd-*.md` frontmatter (summarized in the per-agent stubs above and in [`docs/INVENTORY.md`](INVENTORY.md)).

| Agent | Read | Write | Edit | Bash | Grep | Glob | WebSearch | WebFetch | MCP |
|-------|------|-------|------|------|------|------|-----------|----------|-----|
| project-researcher | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| phase-researcher | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| ui-researcher | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| assumptions-analyzer | ✓ | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| advisor-researcher | ✓ | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| research-synthesizer | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | | | | | |
| planner | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ |
| roadmapper | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| executor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| plan-checker | ✓ | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| integration-checker | ✓ | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| ui-checker | ✓ | | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| verifier | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| nyquist-auditor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| ui-auditor | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| codebase-mapper | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| debugger | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | |
| user-profiler | ✓ | | | | | | | | |
| doc-writer | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| doc-verifier | ✓ | ✓ | | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |
| security-auditor | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | | | |

**Principle of Least Privilege:**
- Checkers are read-only (no Write/Edit) — they evaluate, never modify
- Researchers have web access — they need current ecosystem information
- Executors have Edit — they modify code but not web access
- Mappers have Write — they write analysis documents but not Edit (no code changes)

## Completion Contracts (machine-enforced)

Every agent's return contract is declared in [`gsd-core/references/agent-contracts.md`](../gsd-core/references/agent-contracts.md)'s **Agent Registry** table — `(Agent, Completion Markers, Consumed by, Kind)` — and enforced by `npm run check:contract-drift` (part of `lint:ci`).

The `Kind` column records how a caller actually detects the agent's completion:

| Kind | Detection mechanism |
|---|---|
| `sentinel-match` | Exact-case string match against a declared marker (by a workflow, command, or another agent) |
| `artifact+query` | The agent writes a file; the caller reads or queries that artifact |
| `structured-return` | The agent returns parseable sections/JSON inline; the caller reads the return text |

When you add an agent or change what it returns, update its registry row in the same change — a stale row is a build failure, not a documentation cleanup for later. Markers are extracted **fence-aware** (a heading inside a fenced block is the emitted template; the same words outside a fence are prose documentation), producer scope includes `@`-included `gsd-core/references/**` files, and consumers are matched **exact-case** (a case-insensitive hit is reported as a collision, never accepted). A marker that is deliberately emitted but matched by nothing carries an `(unconsumed: <reason>)` annotation — an auditable exemption that waives only the consumer requirement.

The same check also enforces the read-tag pairing: whenever a declared consumer emits `<required_reading>`, the producing agent's instructions must reference the gate (directly or via an `@`-included reference) — and the retired `<files_to_read>` vocabulary may not reappear under `workflows/`, `commands/`, or `agents/`.

For acting on a specific finding, see [How to resolve a contract-drift finding](how-to/resolve-contract-drift-findings.md).