3274db2757
* fix(#2526): drop gsd-ui-auditor's uncallable Playwright-MCP block The agent declares `tools: Read, Write, Bash, Grep, Glob, Skill` — no `mcp__*` grant of any kind — while its body presented a `<playwright_mcp_approach>` block as the *preferred* capture path. That branch was unreachable by construction: the availability check had a fixed answer, the three `mcp__playwright__*` calls could never dispatch, and the "when Playwright-MCP is NOT available" fallback was the only branch that ever ran — 39 lines of instruction loaded on every /gsd-ui-review spawn that also invited the model to claim a capture path it could not take. Remove the dead block, leaving the CLI screenshot path as the sole documented approach. Guard the class in tests/mcp-tool-inheritance.test.cjs, which already owns agent MCP-grant parity: the new block generalizes the #1284 researcher check from two agents and one dispatch table to every agents/*.md and its whole body — no agent may document an `mcp__<server>__*` namespace absent from its own `tools:` declaration. Frontmatter is read through the canonical parser (gsd-core/bin/lib/frontmatter.cjs) rather than a hand-rolled scan, so inline CSV, block sequences, flow arrays, quoted scalars and full-line comments are handled by construction; inline comments inside a scalar survive that parser, so they are stripped explicitly. The check is server-level by design, ignores prose metavariables like `mcp__X__*`, matches hyphenated server ids, and carries a discovery guard plus negative controls for every documented boundary so it cannot decay into a vacuous pass. The session-level Playwright-MCP pass in gsd-core/workflows/ui-review.md is deliberately untouched — workflow files carry no fixed allowlist, so their availability check is genuinely runtime-detected and honest. Fixes #2526 * chore(#2526): set changeset fragment pr to 2594 The fragment shipped with the documented `pr: 0` placeholder because the PR number does not exist until the PR is opened, and scripts/changeset/parse.cjs rejects `pr <= 0`. Now that the PR is open, set the real number so changeset-lint passes. * test(#2526): cover the two-char server-id boundary of the metavariable exclusion The length-1 "prose metavariable" exclusion was tested at length=1 and at real ids (>=3 chars), but never at length=2 — the limit+1 boundary where a server id starts being recognized. Review finding on #2594: `mcp__ab__foo` in a body with no grant must flag `['ab']`. * fix(#2526): treat a bare mcp__* grant as covering every server `grantedServers()` stripped `mcp__*` to the empty string and dropped it via `if (server)`, so an allowlist that grants every MCP server read as granting none — and the guard then fired against a body the grant plainly covered. That is the one input shape that inverts the check, turning it against a correct agent rather than merely missing a bad one. A `/^mcp__\*+$/` token now sets a GRANT_ALL sentinel that short-circuits `ungrantedServers()`. The sentinel `*` is outside REFERENCE_RE's character class, so no body reference can collide with it. A bare `mcp__` with no wildcard stays a typo rather than a grant and keeps failing closed. No agent uses the `mcp__*` spelling today, so this was latent rather than live. Two negative controls pin both halves. * fix(#2526): scan the frontmatter description for MCP references too `ungrantedServers()` scanned `stripFrontmatter(content)` only, so an `mcp__foo__bar` reference in the `description` field escaped the check. That field ships with the agent and the dispatcher reads it, which makes a dead reference there exactly as dead as one in the body. Only `description` is added to the scanned surface, never the whole frontmatter: `tools:` is the grant list itself, so scanning it would let every allowlist satisfy itself and turn the guard vacuous. A negative control pins that boundary alongside the new positive case. All 34 per-agent tests still pass with the wider surface, so no live agent verdict changes — this was latent. * test(#2526): give multi-character placeholders a convention the checker knows The metavariable exclusion is `length === 1`, so the natural placeholders `mcp__SRV__*` and `mcp__SERVER__*` were flagged as real references — and the failure message then offered an author two remedies ("grant the namespace or drop the block") that both misread what they wrote. Adopts the angle-bracket half of the suggested fix: `mcp__<SERVER>__*` is the sanctioned multi-character placeholder, exempt by construction because `<` is outside the reference pattern's character class. This pins an existing property rather than adding a special case. Declines the all-caps half. An all-caps exemption would be a false NEGATIVE for any real server spelled in caps, and a guard that misses a dead reference fails in exactly the direction this check exists to prevent. The bare-caps form keeps firing; the message now names the convention as a third remedy. Also corrects "grants neither" in that message, which was wrong for any count other than two. * test(#2526): pin the zero-length server id, completing the boundary triple `mcp____foo` yields `[]`, but for a different reason than the length-1 case: it is unrepresentable by `/mcp__([A-Za-z0-9_-]+?)__/g` since `+?` requires at least one character, so the pattern skips it before the metavariable exclusion is ever consulted. Pinning limit-1 completes the 0/1/2 boundary rule on its own terms and records which mechanism owns the case. * docs(#2526): correct every drifted AGENTS.md Tools row, not just the one The review asked for the one-line `gsd-ui-auditor` correction (missing `Skill`). Sweeping the defect class first — every `**Tools**` row in docs/AGENTS.md against its agent's `tools:` frontmatter — found it was 26 of 34 rows, so the one-line framing was the reviewer's premise rather than the population. Breakdown of the 26: * 21 omitted `Skill`, 6 omitted `Edit` (overlapping) — under-promises, the same drift class as #2526 but in the harmless direction. * 8 wrote `mcp (context7)` as shorthand while frontmatter granted up to 8 servers (firecrawl, exa, tavily, ref, jina, perplexity, both context7s). * 1 was actively wrong: gsd-debug-session-manager documented `Task`, a tool name that no longer exists — the #2526 shape at the doc layer, naming a capability that cannot dispatch. Every row is now the frontmatter `tools:` value verbatim, which is also what makes the parity guard in the following commit non-brittle. The diff is 26 insertions / 26 deletions, all Tools rows. * test(#2526): guard AGENTS.md Tools rows against agent frontmatter The 26 corrected rows in the previous commit were free to drift because nothing asserted the role card and the frontmatter agreed — the same reason the #2526 block itself survived. Correcting them without an invariant just resets the clock. Lands in agent-classification-parity.test.cjs rather than a new file: that suite already owns docs/AGENTS.md as a contract surface, already carries the `allow-test-rule` exemption for treating the doc as the product, and file count is the unit of CI overhead (docs/TESTING-SUITES.md). Compares the row to the frontmatter value VERBATIM, not as a set — a set comparison would keep accepting the "mcp (context7)" shorthand that hid eight grants behind one, which is the under-documentation half of the drift. Carries the same discovery guard #2526's own check uses: a section with a granted `tools:` but no **Tools** row fails loudly, so deleting a row cannot silently retire its assertion. Both halves are negative-controlled — against the pre-fix doc it fails naming 26 rows (gsd-ui-auditor:339 among them), and with a row deleted it fails on the missing-row assertion. * chore(#2526): note the AGENTS.md drift correction in the changeset The role cards are user-visible, and 26 of them documented a tool set the agent did not have. Type, `pr: 2594`, and the trailing `(#2526)` are unchanged. * fix(#2526): use a CRLF-safe split in the AGENTS.md Tools-row guard `lint-tests` (npm run lint:ci) rejected `rawAgentsMd.split('\n')` under the repo's local/no-crlf-fragile-split rule: Windows autocrlf yields CRLF, so a trailing \r rides into the parsed line. Switched to `/\r?\n/`. Caught by CI on the round-3 push before the response comment went out. * docs(#2526): correct the drift tallies stated in c5a9607e Re-derived the census programmatically from the pre-fix doc instead of by eye. The 26-of-34 headline was right; the breakdown was not. Skill omitted 21 -> 22 Edit omitted 6 -> 7 "mcp (context7)" shorthand 8 rows -> 7 rows The 8 was conflating two things: 8 rows omitted MCP grants entirely, but only 7 of them used the "mcp (context7)" shorthand — gsd-executor listed no MCP at all. Also names the one `Agent` omission (gsd-debug-session-manager, the row that still read `Task`). c5a9607e's message keeps the wrong numbers rather than rewriting a pushed branch mid-review; the test comment and changeset are the durable statements and both are corrected here. --------- Co-authored-by: Tom Boucher <trekkie@nomorestars.com>
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GSD Agent Reference
Full role cards for 21 primary agents plus concise stubs for 12 advanced/specialized agents (33 shipped agents total). The
agents/directory anddocs/INVENTORY.mdare the authoritative roster; see Architecture 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.
Agent Categories
The table below covers the 21 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 34-agent roster, see
docs/INVENTORY.mdand theagents/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 | 1 | 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
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
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_firstandacceptance_criteriasections - 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
tracerslice, verifies it end-to-end before expansion tasks — autonomous runs halt on failure; interactive runs emit a human-verify checkpoint - 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 |
8 Verification Dimensions:
- Requirement coverage
- Task atomicity
- Dependency ordering
- File scope
- Verification commands
- Context fit
- Gap detection
- Nyquist compliance (when enabled)
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 |
Key behaviors:
- 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-workto 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(notVERIFIED) when no test exercises it — excluded from theverified_truthsscore, counted in thebehavior_unverifiedfrontmatter field, and routed to human verification, so a cleanN/Ncertifies behavioral evidence rather than mere symbol presence.
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):
- Copywriting
- Visuals
- Color
- Typography
- Spacing
- Experience Design
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_guardin 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.
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.mdproject 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.mdsuggestions as guidance, not a patch to apply literally - Commits each fix atomically so review and rollback stay granular
- Honors
CLAUDE.mdand 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
ctx7CLI 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.mdas 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*.txtfor 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 intelCLI 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.mdcontract so/gsd-importand/gsd-ingest-docsproduce 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-learningsdecisions, lessons, patterns, and surprises into the KG withsource_drawer_idprovenance - 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 21 primary agents only. The 13 advanced/specialized agents listed above carry their own tool surfaces in their
agents/gsd-*.mdfrontmatter (summarized in the per-agent stubs above and indocs/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)