1720aacf0c
* test(#1949): add failing-first tests for <precondition> element Red phase for issue #1949 (Design by Contract: <precondition> element asserted before task execution). Tests assert: - docs/reference/plan-md.md documents the new <precondition> element - agents/gsd-planner.md @-references planner-preconditions.md and stays under the 49152-char cap (progressive-disclosure requirement) - gsd-core/references/planner-preconditions.md exists and documents the three emission cases mandated by the issue (user_setup / prior-phase artifact / env-var) and the contract triad mapping - agents/gsd-executor.md asserts <precondition> before task execution and routes unmet preconditions through existing checkpoint machinery - cmdVerifyPlanStructure (behavioral via runGsdTools) accepts plans both with and without <precondition> — the additive-validation guarantee - Parity assertion: plan-md.md and planner-preconditions.md agree on the canonical tag spelling (DEFECT.GENERATIVE-FIX-DIVERGENCE guard) Most prose-contract assertions are Red until the implementation lands. The behavioral validator assertions pass immediately (regression guards proving the validator already accepts unknown optional tags). * feat(#1949): <precondition> task element — Design by Contract Add an optional <precondition> element to <task> in PLAN.md (issue #1949, The Pragmatic Programmer Topic 23). The front-of-task side of the plan contract — preconditions (before) ↔ postconditions (<verify>/<done>/ <acceptance_criteria>, after) ↔ invariants (must_haves.truths, across the whole plan). Together with the tracer-bullet proposal (#1945), this closes both ends of the 'outrunning your headlights' failure mode for an autonomous AI executor. Acceptance criteria met: - <precondition> is an optional element on <task>; plans that omit it validate unchanged (cmdVerifyPlanStructure checks for presence of required tags, does not reject unknown optional tags). - gsd-executor evaluates the precondition before any other task work. Unmet halts execution with a checkpoint:human-verify and no partial commit; met or absent produces no visible change to execution flow. Unmet is never auto-approved under AUTO_CFG=true — a missing prerequisite is a fact the executor cannot establish on its own. - gsd-planner emits <precondition> in exactly the three cases the issue mandates: user_setup consumption, prior-phase artifact dependency, and env-var/runtime-config dependency. - Tests cover met, unmet, and absent preconditions plus the additive- validator guarantee. Files: - gsd-core/references/planner-preconditions.md (NEW): full emission rules, the three cases with worked examples, format guidance, anti-patterns, the contract triad mapping, and the executor assertion contract. Progressive disclosure. - agents/gsd-planner.md: slim <precondition> note in Task Anatomy with @-reference to the new file. To stay under the 49152-char agent-file cap (27-char headroom before this change), the inline <comment_text_discipline> and <region_scoped_negative_gate> summaries are compressed to one-line pointers — their full rules already live in planner-antipatterns.md, so no content is lost. - agents/gsd-executor.md: new step 0 'Precondition check' in the execute_tasks loop, before the type dispatch, routing unmet through checkpoint_return_format. - docs/reference/plan-md.md: new Preconditions section in the schema reference, with the canonical example and the three emission cases. - CONTEXT.md: Precondition glossary entry as a sibling of Tracer Bullet. - docs/INVENTORY.md + INVENTORY-MANIFEST.json: row for the new references/planner-preconditions.md (regen via gen-inventory-manifest). - tests/precondition-element.test.cjs: failing-first tests covering schema docs, planner emission contract, executor assertion contract, reference-file presence + the three cases, behavioral additive- validator guarantee, and a parity assertion (DEFECT.GENERATIVE-FIX- DIVERGENCE guard). - .changeset/quick-hawks-bark.md: Added fragment. Companion to #1945 (tracer bullets). * chore(#1949): regen agent-size baseline + install-tree goldens Documented baseline regenerations required by the feat(#1949) prose changes (RULESET.AGENT_SIZE_BUDGET + golden-install-parity): - npm run size:baseline — locks in the new gsd-executor.md size (+1050 bytes: the precondition-check step 0 block). gsd-planner.md is net smaller (-142 bytes: compressed two inline summary blocks whose full rules already lived in planner-antipatterns.md to make room for the slim <precondition> pointer). No hard-cap breach. - npm run gen:golden — pick up the new references/planner-preconditions.md + the two changed agent files across all 18 runtime install trees. Both regens are CI-mandated after intentional agent/reference changes; see CLAUDE.md 'RULESET.AGENT_SIZE_BUDGET' and the comments in tests/golden-install-parity.test.cjs. * fix(#1949): bound <precondition> checks to read-only (security review) Apply the security-review finding (LOW, isolated /security-review subagent): the executor's 'run the cheapest check' phrasing for a plan-author-controlled prose line was broader than ideal — a hostile plan author could craft a <precondition> whose 'cheapest check' is side-effecting (curl to an attacker host under the guise of verification, rm -rf before checking, secret emission). The risk is inherited from GSD's existing plan-trust model (<verify>, <action>, <done> already direct the executor to run arbitrary shell), so <precondition> does not materially expand it. But the new prose actively directs execution ('run the check') rather than passively consuming the element, so the bound is worth making explicit. Tightened across all four surfaces that describe the check shape: - agents/gsd-executor.md step 0: 'Verify with read-only checks only — file existence, env var presence (no value output), idempotent GET /health-style pings. Do NOT run commands with side effects (writes, network POSTs, secret emission) as the check; if a side-effecting check seems required, halt and surface via checkpoint instead.' - gsd-core/references/planner-preconditions.md Format section: same bound, plus the halt-and-surface escape hatch. - docs/reference/plan-md.md Preconditions section: mirrored. - CONTEXT.md Precondition glossary entry: mirrored. Regenerated agent-size baseline (executor grew 46186 -> 46440; still under the 49152 cap) and install-tree goldens. * chore(#1949): backfill changeset pr number 2422 Per CONTRIBUTING.md changeset workflow + feature-builder directive Step 8.7: backfill the placeholder pr:0 with the real PR number immediately after gh pr create returns. Avoids the fail_invalid_fragment gate. * fix(#1949): cite [#1949] on allow-test-rule exemption (ADR-456) CI's lint:ci runs lint-allow-test-rule-refs which per ADR-456 requires every // allow-test-rule: exemption on a NEW test file to carry an issue reference (#NNN or URL). My earlier push omitted it. Local 'npm run lint' (eslint) does NOT run this check — only 'npm run lint:ci' does. CLAUDE.md explicitly warns: 'lint:ci ≠ lint — CI runs lint:ci; a local pass is not the gate.' I should have run lint:ci before pushing; correcting now. Pattern matches the companion feature's test file: tests/tracer-bullet.test.cjs:1 // allow-test-rule: source-text-is-the-product [#1945]
GSD Core documentation
Documentation is organised into four quadrants: tutorials help you learn by doing, how-to guides solve specific tasks, reference states authoritative facts, and explanation explores concepts and design decisions.
Language versions: English · Português (pt-BR) · 日本語 · 简体中文
Tutorials
- Your first project — install to first shipped phase, one guaranteed path
- Onboarding an existing codebase — bring GSD Core to a brownfield repo
- Build your first capability — author a tiny declarative capability and watch it act in the loop
- Install your first capability — install a third-party capability end-to-end: consent, verify, check for updates, remove
How-to guides
- Install on your runtime — runtime-specific install steps for all 16 supported runtimes
- Install a minimal GSD and add skills later — install only the core skills, then grow the surface with profiles and
/gsd:surface - Attach a plugin-provided skill to a GSD agent — use the
global:plugin:skillentry form to load Claude Code plugin skills into agent prompts - Discuss a phase — capture implementation decisions before planning begins
- Resolve edge-coverage findings — turn the spec phase's surfaced domain-boundary edges into covered, dismissed, or backstopped spec decisions
- Resolve prohibition findings — turn the spec phase's surfaced must-NOT constraints into resolved, dismissed, or deferred spec decisions
- Plan a phase — run research, decompose work, and verify plan quality
- Execute a phase — run plans in parallel waves with fresh-context subagents
- Verify and ship — walk through completed work, diagnose failures, and create the PR
- Run phases autonomously — use autonomous mode for unattended phase execution
- Handle quick and fast tasks — use
/gsd-quickand/gsd-fastfor ad-hoc work outside the phase loop - Configure model profiles — switch between quality, balanced, and budget model tiers
- Set up cross-AI review — configure a second AI to review code produced by the primary agent
- Work in parallel with workstreams — run independent lines of work simultaneously using workstreams
- Isolate work with workspaces — use workspaces to sandbox experimental or risky changes
- Debug a failed execution — diagnose and recover from broken or incomplete phase execution
- Spike and sketch — use
/gsd-spikeand/gsd-sketchfor exploratory work before committing to a plan - Design a UI phase — use the UI phase loop for frontend and visual work
- Develop a Capability for GSD 1.5+ — add feature Capabilities, hook fragments, and registry entries
- Add or update a host's integration — set a host's documentation-sourced
runtime.hostIntegrationaxes (ADR-1239 Phase A), with theundocumentedsentinel rule - Turn a capability off (and keep it off) — disable a capability via the surface, or gate individual hooks off without removing the capability
- Drive GSD from a tracker issue — start a phase from a GitHub, Linear, or Jira issue
- Migrate from GSD 2 — upgrade an existing GSD 2 project to GSD Core
- Update GSD — re-run the installer to pick up the latest release
- Clean up get-shit-done-cc — remove leftover old-package artifacts that cause a spurious
⬆ /gsd:updateindicator after migrating to@opengsd/gsd-core - Fix the worktree base-mismatch (exit 42) error — resolve the branch-divergence condition that halts parallel phase execution
- Recover and troubleshoot — fix common problems, rebuild context, and uninstall
Reference
- Commands — every command with flags and examples
- Configuration — full config schema, model profiles, git branching strategies
- CLI tools —
gsd-tools.cjsprogrammatic API for workflows and agents - Features — complete feature index
- Inventory — installed skills and surface map
- STATE.md schema — field-by-field reference for
.planning/STATE.md - CONTEXT.md schema — field-by-field reference for
.planning/phases/<N>/CONTEXT.md - PLAN.md schema — field-by-field reference for
.planning/phases/<N>/PLAN.md - Planning artifacts — all
.planning/files and their roles - Review and verification capabilities — code review, security, and Nyquist capability ownership and hook contracts
- Capability matrix — generated catalogue of every capability's role, tier, extension points, hook kinds, and
engines.gsd - Capability manifest — the full
capability.jsonschema and validation rules gsd capabilitycommand — install / update / remove / list reference for third-party capabilities
Explanation
- Context engineering — how context rot forms and how GSD Core prevents it
- The phase loop — design rationale for the Discuss → Plan → Execute → Verify → Ship cycle
- Multi-agent orchestration — how subagents are spawned, scoped, and coordinated
- Security model — trust boundaries, permissions, and safe automation
- The capability trust model — why third-party capabilities are gated by consent + integrity + reversibility, not a sandbox
- How overlay capabilities compose — why first-party always wins and how the loader resolves precedence, conflicts, and fail-open load-failure warnings
- Architecture — system architecture, agent model, and data flow
- The Embeddable Orchestration System — one public, versioned contract for embedding GSD across many hosts
- Discuss modes — assumptions mode vs interview mode for
/gsd-discuss-phase - Context monitoring — context window monitoring hook architecture
- Issue-driven orchestration — recipe for driving GSD from a tracker issue using existing primitives
Related
- What's new in 1.7.0 — curated highlights of the 1.7.0 release
- Root README — landing page, quickstart, and documentation overview
- Changelog — release history