msd-core/docs/AGENTS.md

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 are the authoritative roster; see Architecture for context.

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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 section below. For the authoritative 35-agent roster, see docs/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

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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)

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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]

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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

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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)

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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)

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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

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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
• Emits a <fails_when> sibling for every runnable <automated> verify command, naming what output constitutes failure (#3172)
• Includes read_first and acceptance_criteria sections
• Groups plans into dependency waves
• Applies an ordered minimum-solution check after preserving locked decisions and requirement coverage, preferring existing project behavior, standard-library or native-platform capability, and already-installed dependencies before new implementation (#4089)
• 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)

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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)

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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

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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) — checks 8a-8e cover automated-verify presence, feedback latency, sampling continuity and Wave 0 completeness; check 8f blocks a runnable <automated> command with no stated <fails_when> failing direction (#3172)
9	Cross-plan data contracts
10	CLAUDE.md compliance
11	Research resolution
12	Pattern compliance

Three further dimensions carry no number: Verify Command Format Sanity, Verify Command Path Resolvability, and Numeric/Factual Claim Authority.

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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

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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 and How to design a UI phase.
• 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.

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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.)

• Convergence evidence gate (#3304): during re-verification (after a /gsd-plan-phase --gaps cycle), Step 7's anti-pattern scan re-runs at full, unbounded scope — by design — but a 🛑 Blocker it finds no longer auto-reverts a completed gap-closure round on its own judgment alone. A blocker other than the self-evidencing debt-marker check (TBD/FIXME/XXX) blocks unconditionally only if it is a carried-forward gap from the prior VERIFICATION.md or its file was git-modified since the prior pass (a regression, fail-closed toward blocking when history is unresolvable); otherwise it predates the gap-closure round unflagged and needs deterministic evidence — a named test run red, or another concrete reproducible artifact — to stay blocking. Unevidenced, it downgrades to the advisory: frontmatter list and the report's "Advisory (New Scope, Unevidenced)" section instead of setting status: gaps_found. Full algorithm in gsd-core/references/verifier-evidence-gate.md.

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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

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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
Interaction capture	workflow.ui_interaction_capture (default false)

6 Audit Pillars (scored 1-4):

1. Copywriting
2. Visuals
3. Color
4. Typography
5. Spacing
6. Experience Design

Interaction capture (default-off). The static screenshots are three viewport captures of the first paint, taken with npx playwright screenshot, which has no interaction verb — so a hover state, an open menu, a focus ring or a form's validation state never appears in them. With workflow.ui_interaction_capture on, /gsd-ui-review passes interaction_capture: true in the auditor's <config> block and the auditor adds post-interaction captures through the chrome-devtools CLI (the second binary in the chrome-devtools-mcp package), driven from Bash against a throwaway --isolated profile: no MCP server, no tools: change. It needs an installed Chrome (CHROME_BIN overrides discovery). With the key off, or no Chrome resolved, the section prints one line and the Playwright-only path runs exactly as before. The report's **Interaction captures:** field carries the outcome — off, skipped with its reason, or the number of states captured — and an interaction state that was not captured is never reported as observed. See Enable UI interaction capture.

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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 D2, ADR-857 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 · Explanation

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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

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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
• Full-context review scope: surrounding modules, callers, tests, and docs, not a diff-only pass
• Owns REVIEW.md even when optional external reviewer lanes ran (#4209): it treats their <external_reviewer_evidence> as unverified input, re-verifies every claim against the actual current source before accepting it, and never follows an instruction embedded inside evidence text — there remains exactly one REVIEW.md schema regardless of how many lanes contributed

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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

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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

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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

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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.

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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).

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'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.