Files

Tom Boucher d28ab7c8f7 enhance(#3243 ): sync installed codex .toml model/effort to the passive posture (#3296 )

* feat(#3243): sync installed codex .toml model/effort to the passive posture

Implements ADR-2313 D7, and owns the Codex .toml typed IR that Phase 1's
review assigned to this phase.

The IR exists for a structural reason, not tidiness: this phase has to
PARSE these files, and a parser kept bug-compatible with a separate
renderer is the generative-fix-divergence shape this epic already dealt
with once for the model predicate. So Phase 2's parsing MOVES here
rather than being copied — agent-install-check now imports it, and its
test file passing unchanged is the proof the extraction altered nothing.

The load-bearing property is byte-identical round-trip: render(parse(x))
=== x. Without it a sync silently reformats a user's file — line
endings, key order, BOM, trailing newline — turning a two-line repair
into a whole-file diff in their dotfile repo. The IR keeps original
lines and removes targeted ones rather than reconstructing from parsed
fields, which is what makes that property hold.

It also reconciles a real contradiction between Phase 2 and ADR-2313. An
unterminated developer_instructions block: the reader excludes the rest
of the file, deliberately failing toward a false positive, because
misreading prose as a pin only wastes a user's time. The writer must
refuse, because proceeding on a malformed document rewrites it. A false
positive is the safe direction for a reader and the dangerous one for a
writer. So the parse reports the fact and the two consumers branch on
it — one parse, one truth, two policies, instead of two parsers that
agree today.

The sync leaves a legal real-Codex pin and its coupled effort untouched,
reported skipped rather than synced; strips a stale Anthropic or tier
model and an orphaned effort; keeps dry-run as the default; refuses any
file whose parse fails; and skips symlinks exactly as the Claude path
already did. The Claude path itself is byte-identical.

PARSE_REASON.NO_HEADER from the ADR's illustrative snippet is
deliberately not implemented — a missing header is legal, not an error,
so it would be a dead enum member that the enum-lock test then pins.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#3243): preserve per-line endings and make the codex write atomic

Two findings from an isolated review, both in the write path.

BLOCKER: mixed line endings broke the byte-identical round-trip. `eol`
was a single whole-file flag and split(/\r?\n/) discarded each line's
own terminator, so render re-joined with ONE style and normalized every
line — even with zero strips performed. A file with one CRLF line and
the rest LF came back fully converted. That falsified the A14 guarantee,
violated the design's "must not silently rewrite every line", and made
the CONTEXT.md glossary claim wrong. It was untested because A12 and B15
only cover PURE CRLF; no mixed-ending fixture existed anywhere.

Fixed by keeping each line's terminator alongside its content, so render
is a plain concatenation and a strip removes only the target line and
its own terminator. `eol` survives as informational metadata that render
never reads. Seven fixtures added for the paths nothing exercised:
mixed endings unmodified and with a strip, a lone \r, a file ending on
the block's closing ''' with no newline, multiple trailing newlines, a
BOM-only file, and an empty file.

MINOR, but it contradicted this phase's own contract: the write was
in-place open-truncate, so a failure between truncate and completion
leaves a truncated .toml — exactly what ADR-2313 says must never happen.
The Codex path now writes a sibling temp file and renames over the
target, which is atomic on one filesystem, with cleanup on failure. It
uses the repo's existing retryRenameSync rather than a hand-rolled
rename, and deliberately NOT platformWriteSync, whose normalizeContent
would mangle the very CRLF and trailing-newline bytes the round-trip
property exists to preserve.

The Claude path keeps its in-place write untouched. It has the same
shape, but changing it is not this phase's business and its tests must
stay byte-identical.

B20 previously mocked writeFileSync to throw BEFORE touching anything,
so it proved nothing about a mid-write failure — its passing comment was
true only because of how the mock was built. It now performs a real
truncated write wherever writeFileSync is called, catching both the
naive direct-to-target path and the new temp path, and asserts the
target is byte-identical afterwards with no stray temp file left.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#3243): preserve the trailing-newline state when stripping a last line

Caught by B17, one of this phase's own tests — the suite working, not a
test problem.

Content is reconstructed as the concatenation of lines[k] +
terminators[k], so a file with no trailing newline has '' as its last
terminator. removeLine spliced out both arrays at the same index, which
is right for a middle line but wrong for the last one: it dropped the
empty terminator and left the PREVIOUS line's newline in place. A file
ending `...\nmodel = "sonnet"` with no trailing newline came back
as `...\n`, gaining a newline the user never wrote.

The new last line now inherits the removed line's terminator, so a
removal leaves the file exactly as if that line had never been written.
Removing the only line yields an empty file rather than a stray
terminator.

Both stripModel and stripReasoningEffort funnel through the one
removeLine, confirmed rather than assumed, so a single fix covers both —
including the row-B7 shape where a stale model and its orphaned effort
are removed in sequence and the second removal targets the last line.

Two of the four new cases are honestly not red-first and say so in
their comments: removing a last line that HAS a trailing newline only
exposes the bug under mixed EOL, since uniform files coincidentally
have equal terminators on both sides; and removing the only line
already degenerated correctly through Array.slice. They are kept as
guards for the new branch rather than dressed up as catches.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* docs(#3243): document the codex repair path and close the loop

How-to: the Codex-400 entry added in Phase 2 told users to re-run the
installer, because that was the only repair available then. It now leads
with `effort sync` and keeps the reinstall as the alternative, with the
reason to prefer one — a reinstall regenerates the agent files
wholesale, so anyone who hand-edited theirs loses those edits. Detect,
preview, apply is now one continuous path in one place.

Reference: docs/COMMANDS.md had no `effort sync` entry at all — the same
gap `validate agents` had in Phase 2, found the same way. The entry
documents BOTH runtimes, because the command genuinely forks on runtime
and describing only the new half would misdescribe it.

The write flag is `--apply`. The design doc and test matrix both said
`--no-dry-run` throughout, which does not exist — verified against the
actual arg parser in gsd-tools.cjs before writing. Documenting a flag
that does not exist is worse than documenting nothing, because it fails
at the moment someone needs it.

Both surfaces state that only the targeted lines are removed and every
other byte is preserved. That is a user-visible guarantee rather than an
implementation note: it is the difference between a two-line diff and a
reformatted file in someone's dotfile repo, it is what the IR's
round-trip property exists to deliver, and writing it down makes it a
contract a future change has to break knowingly.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#3243): inherit the trailing-newline state, not the line ending style

My previous rule was subtly wrong and this phase's own test caught it.

"The new last line inherits the removed line's terminator" copies the
removed line's STYLE as well as its presence. A26 uses mixed endings on
purpose — line one terminated \r\n, the model line terminated \n — so
inheriting silently rewrote line one's ending to \n. That is precisely
the defect class the mixed-EOL blocker fix existed to eliminate,
reintroduced one layer down by the fix for it.

The correct rule inherits the EMPTINESS only. If the removed line had no
terminator, the new last line loses its own, preserving "this file has
no trailing newline". Otherwise the new last line keeps its own
terminator: it is already a newline, and already the right style for
that line.

A26's assertion moved too, and that deserves saying plainly rather than
burying: it previously encoded my wrong rule. Changing a test to match
the implementation is usually the mistake, so it was checked from first
principles instead — a file whose first line ends \r\n and whose last
line ends \n, with that last line removed entirely, must be the first
line with its own \r\n intact. The new expectation is what the user's
file should actually look like; the old one was wrong.

A29 adds the interaction nothing covered: the compounding case (strip a
stale model, then its orphaned effort, the second removal landing on the
last line) with non-uniform endings either side. The two fixes meet
there and nothing exercised the meeting point.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#3243): drop the phantom trailing line from the IR representation

Root cause, not another patch on the removal rule. Three consecutive
fixes there each surfaced the next issue, which was the signal that the
data model was wrong.

splitPreservingTerminators left a phantom empty final entry for any file
ending in a newline: "a\nb\n" became lines ['a','b','']. So for the
common case the real last content line was NOT the last array element,
removeLine's isLastLine check never matched it, and every rule I gave
was reasoning about the wrong element.

What hid it: render was already a plain concatenation, so a phantom
empty line with an empty terminator contributes nothing to the output.
A14's byte-identical round-trip could never have caught it — the defect
is byte-neutral until a removal shifts the index arithmetic under it.
That is worth recording, because "the round-trip test is green" was
exactly the reassurance that kept the search pointed elsewhere.

The representation is now 1:1 — terminators[i] follows lines[i] and may
be '' — with no phantom, verified across empty, no-trailing-newline,
trailing-newline, blank-line and mixed-CRLF inputs. render stays a plain
concat and needs no special cases. With the phantom gone the removal
rule is correct as stated and finally applies to the genuinely last
element.

Consumers checked rather than assumed: the block-range detector and
header scanner are agnostic to array shape, and Phase 2's reader uses
its own independent split, so tests/agent-install-check.test.cjs is
untouched and still passes unchanged.

One test expectation was wrong and is corrected rather than quietly
adjusted: A18 asserted a 7-element terminators array whose trailing ''
was the phantom itself. It now asserts the six real terminators, which
is what the invariant lines.length === terminators.length requires.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(#3243): backfill changeset pr number (#3296)

---------

Co-authored-by: sim <sim@local>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>

2026-08-10 01:31:15 -04:00

101 KiB

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GSD Core Command Reference

Command reference for GSD Core — syntax, flags, options, and examples for every stable command. For feature details see Feature Reference; for workflow walkthroughs see User Guide; for the docs index see README.

Command Syntax

Claude Code / Copilot / OpenCode / Kilo: /gsd-command-name [args] (hyphen form)
Codex: $gsd-command-name [args]

The hyphen and colon forms are runtime-specific spellings of the same command. Whichever runtime you're on, the installer writes the correct form into your runtime's command directory.

Skill Runtime Behavior (Claude Code)

Heavy workflow skills (/gsd-plan-phase, /gsd-execute-phase, /gsd-autonomous) declare effort: max, signalling maximum token budget to the runtime. These skills are spawning orchestrators — they must run at top level so they retain the Agent tool needed to spawn subagents. They do not carry context: fork (see #921).

Quick-status skills (/gsd-progress, /gsd-stats) declare effort: low, directing the runtime to use a minimal token budget for fast reads.

These fields are Claude Code–specific frontmatter. On runtimes that do not recognise them (Antigravity, Codex, Cursor, etc.) the fields are silently ignored — existing behaviour is unchanged.

Namespace Meta-Skills

Six namespace routers ship as the first-stage entry points in v1.40. They keep the eager skill-listing token cost low (~120 tokens for 6 routers vs ~2,150 for a flat 86-skill listing) while the full surface remains directly invocable. The model selects a namespace, then routes to the concrete sub-skill. See #2792.

Command	Routes to
`/gsd-workflow`	Phase pipeline — discuss / plan / execute / verify / phase / progress / next
`/gsd-project`	Project lifecycle — milestones, audits, summary
`/gsd-quality`	Quality gates — code review, debug, audit, security, eval, ui
`/gsd-context`	Codebase intelligence — map, graphify, docs, learnings
`/gsd-manage`	Management — config, workspace, workstreams, thread, update, ship, inbox
`/gsd-ideate`	Exploration & capture — explore, sketch, spike, spec, capture

The namespace skills are additive — every existing concrete command (e.g. /gsd-plan-phase, /gsd-code-review --fix) is still invocable directly.

Core Workflow Commands

`/gsd-new-project`

Initialize a new project with deep context gathering.

Flag	Description
`--auto @file.md`	Auto-extract from document, skip interactive questions

Prerequisites: No existing .planning/PROJECT.md Produces: PROJECT.md, REQUIREMENTS.md, ROADMAP.md, STATE.md, config.json, research/, CLAUDE.md

/gsd-new-project                    # Interactive mode
/gsd-new-project --auto @prd.md     # Auto-extract from PRD

`/gsd-onboard`

Guide an existing codebase through first-time GSD onboarding. The command checks repo state, routes you through codebase mapping, optional docs ingest, project initialization, and creates an onboarding summary once planning exists.

Flag	Description
`--fast`	Prefer the lightweight `/gsd-map-codebase --fast` mapping handoff; a complete map is still required before `/gsd-new-project`
`--text`	Use numbered plain-text gates instead of TUI menus

Prerequisites: Existing repo or planning docs. For empty greenfield projects, use /gsd-new-project. Produces: .planning/codebase/ via map-codebase, .planning/ via new-project or ingest-docs, and .planning/onboarding/SUMMARY.md after project setup.

/gsd-onboard           # Guided brownfield onboarding
/gsd-onboard --fast    # Use lightweight codebase mapping first, then complete the map before project setup

`/gsd-workspace`

Manage GSD workspaces — create, list, or remove isolated workspace environments with repo copies and independent .planning/ directories.

Flag	Description
`--new`	Create a new workspace (use with `--name`, `--repos`, etc.)
`--list`	List active GSD workspaces and their status
`--remove <name>`	Remove a workspace and clean up git worktrees
`--name <name>`	Workspace name (used with `--new`)
`--repos repo1,repo2`	Comma-separated repo paths or names (used with `--new`)
`--path /target`	Target directory (default: `~/gsd-workspaces/<name>`)
`--strategy worktree\|clone`	Copy strategy (default: `worktree`)
`--branch <name>`	Branch to checkout (default: `workspace/<name>`)
`--auto`	Skip interactive questions

Use cases:

Multi-repo: work on a subset of repos with isolated GSD state
Feature isolation: --repos . creates a worktree of the current repo

Produces: WORKSPACE.md, .planning/, repo copies (worktrees or clones)

/gsd-workspace --new --name feature-b --repos hr-ui,ZeymoAPI
/gsd-workspace --new --name feature-b --repos . --strategy worktree  # Same-repo isolation
/gsd-workspace --list
/gsd-workspace --remove feature-b

`/gsd-spec-phase`

Clarify WHAT a phase delivers through Socratic questioning with quantitative ambiguity scoring, then probe for omitted edges. Produces SPEC.md before discuss-phase.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number

Flag	Description
`--auto`	Skip interactive questions; Claude selects recommended defaults and writes SPEC.md
`--text`	Use plain-text numbered lists instead of TUI menus (required for `/rc` remote sessions)

Position in workflow: spec-phase → discuss-phase → plan-phase → execute-phase → verify

Edge Coverage (Step 5.5): After the ambiguity gate passes, spec-phase runs an edge-completeness probe over each requirement. It raises only applicable categories from a closed 8-category taxonomy (boundary, adjacency, empty, encoding, ordering, precision, idempotency, concurrency), proposes one concrete candidate edge per category, and records each as covered / dismissed (reason required) / backstop / unresolved in a ## Edge Coverage SPEC section. Unresolved applicable edges soft-gate the spec (Resolve / Write-anyway-flagged / Keep-probing); covered and backstop edges are later lifted into plan-phase must_haves. Under --auto the probe never auto-dismisses — it auto-covers where a defensible acceptance criterion exists, otherwise auto-backstops.

Prohibition Coverage (Step 5.6): After the edge probe, spec-phase runs a prohibition-completeness probe — a two-stage prose pass (adversarial recall → precision classifier) that surfaces the unwritten must-NOT constraints (values/safety/ethics) the spec never forbids. Each is resolved to resolved (a NEGATIVE acceptance criterion, carrying a test or judgment verification tier) / dismissed (reason required) / unresolved, recorded in a ## Prohibitions (must-NOT) SPEC section. Resolved prohibitions are lifted into plan-phase must_haves.prohibitions; judgment-tier items soft-gate at verify time (never silent, never hard-halt) and unwired test-tier items fail closed. Under --auto the probe never auto-dismisses; canon-bound concerns (OWASP / GDPR / fairness) are referred to /gsd-secure-phase.

Prerequisites: .planning/ROADMAP.md exists Produces: {phase}-SPEC.md (with a ## Edge Coverage section)

/gsd-spec-phase 1                  # Interactive spec + edge probe for phase 1
/gsd-spec-phase 3 --auto           # Auto-select defaults; never auto-dismisses an edge
/gsd-spec-phase 2 --text           # Plain-text menus for remote sessions

`/gsd-discuss-phase`

Gather phase context through adaptive questioning before planning.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	No	Phase number (defaults to current phase)

Flag	Description
`--all`	Skip area selection — discuss all gray areas interactively (no auto-advance)
`--auto`	Auto-select recommended defaults for all questions
`--batch`	Group questions for batch intake instead of one-by-one
`--analyze`	Add trade-off analysis during discussion
`--power`	File-based bulk question answering from a prepared answers file
`--assumptions`	Surface Claude's implementation assumptions about the phase without an interactive session

Prerequisites: .planning/ROADMAP.md exists Produces: {phase}-CONTEXT.md, {phase}-DISCUSSION-LOG.md (audit trail)

/gsd-discuss-phase 1                # Interactive discussion for phase 1
/gsd-discuss-phase 1 --all          # Discuss all gray areas without selection step
/gsd-discuss-phase 3 --auto         # Auto-select defaults for phase 3
/gsd-discuss-phase --batch          # Batch mode for current phase
/gsd-discuss-phase 2 --analyze      # Discussion with trade-off analysis
/gsd-discuss-phase 1 --power        # Bulk answers from file
/gsd-discuss-phase 3 --assumptions  # Surface Claude's assumptions before planning

`/gsd-ui-phase`

Generate UI design contract for frontend phases.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	No	Phase number (defaults to current phase)

Prerequisites: .planning/ROADMAP.md exists, phase has frontend/UI work Produces: {phase}-UI-SPEC.md

/gsd-ui-phase 2                     # Design contract for phase 2

`/gsd-plan-phase`

Research, plan, and verify a phase.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	No	Phase number (if omitted, the orchestrating workflow reads ROADMAP.md and targets the next unplanned phase — not a `gsd-tools.cjs` CLI feature)

Flag	Description
`--auto`	Skip interactive confirmations
`--research`	Force re-research even if RESEARCH.md exists
`--skip-research`	Skip domain research step
`--research-phase <N>`	Research-only mode: spawn researcher for phase `<N>`, write RESEARCH.md, exit before planner. Supersedes the deleted standalone research command (#3042).
`--view`	Research-only modifier: when used with `--research-phase`, print existing RESEARCH.md to stdout and exit (no spawn).
`--gaps`	Gap closure mode (reads VERIFICATION.md, skips research)
`--skip-verify`	Skip plan checker verification loop
`--prd <file>`	Use a PRD file instead of discuss-phase for context
`--ingest <path-or-glob>`	Use ADR file(s) instead of discuss-phase for context synthesis
`--ingest-format <auto\|nygard\|madr\|narrative>`	Optional ADR parser format override for `--ingest`
`--reviews`	Replan with cross-AI review feedback from REVIEWS.md
`--bounce`	Run external plan bounce validation after planning (uses `workflow.plan_bounce_script`)
`--skip-bounce`	Skip plan bounce even if enabled in config
`--mvp`	MVP enrichment on top of the default tracer-first ordering — frames the phase goal as a user story and, on Phase 1 of a new project with no prior phase summaries, also emits `SKELETON.md` (Walking Skeleton). Vertical slicing is now the default (see `--no-tracer`); `--mvp` no longer turns it on. Can be persisted on a phase via `Mode: mvp` in ROADMAP.md, which applies `--mvp` automatically without the flag.
`--no-tracer`	Opt out of the default tracer-first decomposition and plan horizontal layers (the legacy default). By default every plan leads with one production-quality end-to-end `tracer` slice that the executor verifies before any expansion task.
`--no-reversibility-gates`	Suppress the human checkpoint that a one-way-door decision normally earns, for runs you intend to leave unattended. By default a decision rated `one-way` — undoing it needs a data migration, breaks a published contract, or is impossible — gets a `checkpoint:decision` inserted before the task that implements it. Ratings are still recorded on tasks and `costly` decisions are still flagged, so the flag changes what stops the run, not what the plan remembers.
`--tdd`	TDD mode — planner applies `type: tdd` to eligible behavior-adding tasks so each begins with a failing test. Composable with `--mvp`: `--mvp --tdd` produces vertical slices where every behavior-adding task starts red-green. The leading `tracer` task also starts red under `--tdd`.
`--granularity <coarse\|standard\|fine>`	Override the planning granularity for this invocation, ignoring config. Valid values: `coarse`, `standard`, `fine`. Takes precedence over `granularities.planning`, top-level `granularity`, and `planning.granularity` config.

Smart-zone estimate report (#2631). Every generated PLAN.md carries an optional estimate block ({tokens, tasks, confidence}). During the plan-check pass, gsd-plan-checker runs each plan's estimate.tokens through estimate-check against the configurable workflow.smart_zone_tokens budget (default 100000) and reports the result; a plan above budget gets a concrete split recommendation. The report is advisory and never blocks planning, and it is skipped with --skip-verify since it runs inside the verification pass. confidence is derived from how many completed phases carry recorded actuals — low means fewer than three, so the figure is not yet calibrated for your project. See ADR-2629.

Prerequisites: .planning/ROADMAP.md exists Produces: {phase}-RESEARCH.md, {phase}-{N}-PLAN.md, {phase}-VALIDATION.md; {phase}/SKELETON.md when Walking Skeleton mode fires

Research-only mode (--research-phase <N>):

No modifier: when RESEARCH.md already exists, auto-uses it — emits a one-line notice and exits, no prompt.
With --research: force-refresh — re-spawn researcher unconditionally, no prompt.
With --view: print existing RESEARCH.md to stdout, no spawn. Errors if RESEARCH.md missing.

Package Legitimacy Gate (v1.42.1): When the researcher recommends external packages, it runs gsd-tools query package-legitimacy check --ecosystem <npm|pypi|crates> <pkg> on each one and writes a ## Package Legitimacy Audit table to RESEARCH.md recording Registry, Age, Downloads, Source Repo, and legitimacy verdict. Verdicts are computed from live registry APIs (npm, PyPI, crates.io):

[SLOP] — package removed from RESEARCH.md entirely; never reaches the planner
[SUS] — package flagged; planner inserts checkpoint:human-verify before the install task
[OK] — package approved; no checkpoint added

Packages sourced from WebSearch are tagged [ASSUMED] (not [VERIFIED]) and treated the same as [SUS] — they get a human checkpoint before install. A failed registry lookup degrades to [SUS] rather than throwing, so it is gated, not silently accepted. slopcheck is an optional escalate-only adapter that no shipped configuration wires; it is not required for the gate to function.

See Package Legitimacy Gate in the User Guide for the full checkpoint format, verdict table, and troubleshooting.

In-repo value citation: For any in-repo discrete value the researcher reports — an enum, a schema or type union, an error code, a status constant, or a filesystem path — a [VERIFIED: …] tag requires that it opened the source-of-truth file with Read during the run and cited the path and line range ([VERIFIED: src/types/order.ts:14-22]). The values are quoted verbatim in RESEARCH.md beside the claim, and any value used in a code example must also appear in that quote; anything else stays [ASSUMED]. A codebase grep, training memory, or a web search do not earn the tag on their own. This stops a plausible-but-drifted enum from reaching PLAN.md — where the planner lifts it into the plan's <interfaces> context block and the executor trusts it as ground truth — and surfacing only as a mid-execution deviation at typecheck.

/gsd-plan-phase 1                              # Research + plan + verify phase 1
/gsd-plan-phase 3 --skip-research              # Plan without research (familiar domain)
/gsd-plan-phase --auto                         # Non-interactive planning
/gsd-plan-phase 1 --bounce                     # Plan + external bounce validation
/gsd-plan-phase 2 --ingest docs/adr/0010.md   # ADR express path for context synthesis
/gsd-plan-phase 2 --ingest 'docs/adr/00*.md' --ingest-format auto
/gsd-plan-phase --research-phase 4             # Research only on phase 4 (auto-uses existing RESEARCH.md, no prompt)
/gsd-plan-phase --research-phase 4 --view      # Print existing RESEARCH.md, no spawn
/gsd-plan-phase --research-phase 4 --research  # Force-refresh research, no prompt
/gsd-plan-phase 1 --mvp                        # Vertical-slice plan for phase 1
/gsd-plan-phase 1 --mvp --tdd                  # Vertical slices + failing test per behavior-adding task

`/gsd-plan-review-convergence`

Cross-AI plan convergence loop — replan with review feedback until no HIGH concerns remain and no actionable MEDIUM/LOW findings remain outside PLAN.md. Runs plan-phase → review → replan → re-review cycles (max 3 cycles by default). Plan-phase runs inline (bare Skill at depth 0 so it can spawn gsd-planner/gsd-plan-checker at depth 1); only gsd-review runs in an isolated Agent. Orchestrator handles loop control, unresolved review counting (HIGH + actionable non-HIGH), stall detection, and escalation.

Argument / Flag	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number to plan and review
Reviewer flags	No	Pass through every reviewer lane flag: `--gemini`, `--claude`, `--codex`, `--coderabbit`, `--opencode`, `--qwen`, `--cursor`, `--agy` / `--antigravity`, `--ollama`, `--lm-studio`, `--llama-cpp`, `--kimi-code`
`--all`	No	Run every configured reviewer in parallel
`--max-cycles N`	No	Override cycle cap (default 3)

Exit behavior: Loop exits when both current_high and current_actionable hit zero. Stall detection warns when the total unresolved review count is not decreasing across cycles. Escalation gate asks the user to proceed or review manually when --max-cycles is hit with HIGH or actionable non-HIGH concerns still open.

/gsd-plan-review-convergence 3                    # Default reviewers, 3 cycles
/gsd-plan-review-convergence 3 --codex            # Codex-only review
/gsd-plan-review-convergence 3 --all --max-cycles 5

`/gsd-ultraplan-phase`

[BETA] Offload plan phase to Claude Code's ultraplan cloud; review in browser and import back. The plan drafts remotely so the terminal stays free; review inline comments in a browser, then import the finalized plan back into .planning/ via /gsd-import.

Flag	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number to plan remotely

Isolation: Intentionally separate from /gsd-plan-phase so upstream ultraplan changes cannot affect the core planning pipeline.

/gsd-ultraplan-phase 4                  # Offload planning for phase 4

`/gsd-execute-phase`

Execute all plans in a phase with wave-based parallelization, or run a specific wave.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number to execute
`--wave N`	No	Execute only Wave `N` in the phase
`--cross-ai`	No	Delegate execution to an external AI CLI (uses `workflow.cross_ai_command`)
`--no-cross-ai`	No	Force local execution even if cross-AI is enabled in config

Prerequisites: Phase has PLAN.md files Produces: per-plan {phase}-{N}-SUMMARY.md, git commits, and {phase}-VERIFICATION.md when the phase is fully complete

Package install failures (v1.42.1): If a plan's install step fails, the executor surfaces a checkpoint:human-verify and stops. It does not auto-install a similarly-named alternative. This is intentional — silently substituting package names is how slopsquatting spreads. Respond to the checkpoint after verifying the package on its registry page.

/gsd-execute-phase 1                # Execute phase 1
/gsd-execute-phase 1 --wave 2       # Execute only Wave 2
/gsd-execute-phase 2 --cross-ai     # Delegate phase 2 to external AI CLI

`/gsd-verify-work`

User acceptance testing with auto-diagnosis.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	No	Phase number (defaults to last executed phase)

Prerequisites: Phase has been executed Produces: {phase}-UAT.md, fix plans if issues found

For browser-backed UAT, use a configured browser MCP server. The current Open GSD companion is gsd-browser (gsd-browser mcp), which provides deterministic navigation, versioned refs, assertions, screenshots, visual diffs, recordings, and human takeover. Legacy Playwright MCP servers remain usable when already configured.

/gsd-verify-work 1                  # UAT for phase 1

Coverage-aware UAT routing (#1602). When a SUMMARY.md carries a coverage: frontmatter block, verify-work classifies each deliverable deterministically instead of prompting for every prose bullet: deliverables proven by passing tests are auto-passed (recorded with source: automated, no prompt) and only judgment-dependent deliverables are presented for human sign-off. SUMMARYs without a coverage: block fall back to the previous prose-based extraction unchanged. See the coverage: block reference below.

Honest verifier — insufficient_spec abstention (#1154). A must_haves.truths item carrying the verification: backstop marker (a non-inferable check the edge-probe surfaced at spec time) is graded specially: if the verifier cannot confirm it with explicit evidence (a passing wired held-out/property-based test, or a directly-observed behavior), it abstains — the item is reported unverified — held-out test recommended and the phase verdict becomes human_needed (with reason insufficient_spec, distinct from ordinary manual-UAT human_needed), never a silent passed. Autonomous runs complete with "N unverified non-inferable checks" rather than hard-halting; interactive runs route the item to the end-of-phase human checkpoint. Abstention is exogenous (driven by the backstop tag, never a self-judged "abstain if unsure") and an inferable truth is never abstained. Reliable on capable verifier tiers (sonnet+); the budget haiku tier degrades toward current behavior. See Honest Verifier.

SUMMARY `coverage:` block

A SUMMARY.md may carry an optional coverage: frontmatter block — a list of per-deliverable entries that joins requirements → tests → verification status:

Field	Description
`id`	Stable identifier (`D1`, `D2`…), unique within the SUMMARY
`description`	The deliverable in human-readable form
`requirement`	Optional REQ-ID linking to REQUIREMENTS.md
`verification[].kind`	`unit` \| `integration` \| `e2e` \| `automated_ui` \| `manual_procedural` \| `other`
`verification[].ref`	Test path + descriptor, screenshot ref, or command
`verification[].status`	`pass` \| `fail` \| `unknown`
`human_judgment`	Required boolean. `true` always routes to a human
`rationale`	Required when `human_judgment: true`

A deliverable is auto-passed only when human_judgment: false, its verification list is non-empty, and every entry's status is pass. Anything else — human_judgment: true, an empty verification, a non-pass status, or a schema error — is presented to a human (fail-safe). Inspect the classification directly with:

node gsd-tools.cjs uat classify-coverage --summary .planning/phases/01-foundation/01-01-SUMMARY.md

`/gsd-ship`

Create PR from completed phase work with auto-generated body.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	No	Phase number or milestone version (e.g., `4` or `v1.0`)
`--draft`	No	Create as draft PR

Prerequisites: Phase verified (/gsd-verify-work passed), gh CLI installed and authenticated Produces: GitHub PR with rich body from planning artifacts, STATE.md updated

/gsd-ship 4                         # Ship phase 4
/gsd-ship 4 --draft                 # Ship as draft PR

PR body includes:

Phase goal from ROADMAP.md
Changes summary from SUMMARY.md files
Requirements addressed (REQ-IDs)
Verification status
Key decisions
Optional configured PRD-style sections from ship.pr_body_sections

Ship gates (capability-driven): /gsd-ship runs every active ship:pre gate from the capability registry. Two are on by default:

Security (security capability): blocks while SECURITY.md reports threats_open > 0. Resolve via /gsd-secure-phase {n}.
Broken-windows ledger (broken-windows capability, issue #1950): when workflow.windows_enforce=true is set, blocks while .planning/WINDOWS.md reports any open entry. The ledger accumulates stubs, TODOs, skipped tests, unrun verifies, and unmet truths across phases. Resolve an entry with gsd-tools windows fixed <id> (defect resolved) or gsd-tools windows waive <id> "<reason>" (justified deferral — reason is required and recorded). Inspect via gsd-tools windows status. Enforcement is opt-in (default workflow.windows_enforce=false): enable with gsd config-set workflow.windows_enforce true; tracking continues regardless.

See Custom PR Body Sections for onboarding, examples, and validation rules.

`/gsd-ui-review`

Retroactive 6-pillar visual audit of implemented frontend.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	No	Phase number (defaults to last executed phase)

Prerequisites: Project has frontend code (works standalone, no GSD project needed) Produces: {phase}-UI-REVIEW.md, screenshots in .planning/ui-reviews/

For richer visual evidence, pair this with gsd-browser or another browser MCP server so the audit can capture screenshots, state, console/network context, and reproducible interaction steps.

/gsd-ui-review                      # Audit current phase
/gsd-ui-review 3                    # Audit phase 3

`/gsd-audit-uat`

Cross-phase audit of all outstanding UAT and verification items.

Prerequisites: At least one phase has been executed with UAT or verification Produces: Categorized audit report with human test plan

/gsd-audit-uat

`/gsd-audit-milestone`

Verify milestone met its definition of done.

Prerequisites: All phases executed Produces: Audit report with gap analysis

/gsd-audit-milestone

`/gsd-complete-milestone`

Archive milestone, tag release.

Prerequisites: Milestone audit complete (recommended) Produces: MILESTONES.md entry, git tag

/gsd-complete-milestone

Pre-close artifact audit. Before archiving, the workflow runs gsd-tools audit-open and reports every unresolved item across nine categories:

Category	Source	Open when
Debug sessions	`.planning/debug/`	status not `resolved` / `complete`
Quick tasks	`.planning/quick/`	SUMMARY missing or not `complete`
Threads	`.planning/threads/`	status not terminal
Pending todos	`.planning/todos/pending/`	present
Seeds	`.planning/seeds/`	not yet implemented
UAT gaps	`*-UAT.md`	scenarios still pending
Verification gaps	`*-VERIFICATION.md`	verdict `gaps_found` / `human_needed`
CONTEXT questions	`*-CONTEXT.md`	questions left open
Deferred items	`deferred-items.md`	entry lacks `status: resolved`

If any category is non-empty you are prompted with [R] Resolve / [A] Acknowledge all / [C] Cancel. [A] records the items to STATE.md under its own ## Deferred Items heading and closes as override_closeout; an all-clear closes as verified_closeout.

Note: the deferred-items.md category is the per-phase SCOPE BOUNDARY log a phase agent writes when it finds a defect it should not fix. It is a different artifact from the ## Deferred Items section [A] writes into STATE.md, which records what you acknowledged at close.

Truncated-window guard. Archiving also refuses when the milestone's ROADMAP window is truncated — Cannot mark milestone complete: the ROADMAP window for "<version>" is truncated. This is the case where the milestone's heading is found but its section closes before reaching the roadmap's ### Phase N: region (typically a closed-milestone heading sitting in between), which previously degraded to an over-inclusive filter and archived every phase directory in the project rather than the milestone's own. An unreadable ROADMAP.md or a version with no matching section at all are pre-existing, legitimately-handled states and are not refused here. Same override as below: gsd-tools milestone complete <version> --force. A window that is genuinely empty — a freshly-declared milestone with no phases yet — is not affected and still completes normally.

Unstarted-phase guard. Archiving refuses if the milestone's ROADMAP still lists a phase with no phase directory on disk — Cannot mark milestone complete: ROADMAP lists N unstarted phase(s). If a phase was intentionally deferred or merged without a directory, run gsd-tools milestone complete <version> --force (the /gsd-complete-milestone workflow runs the underlying command without --force, so use the CLI directly to override). A STATE.md milestone: value that does not match <version> prints a WARNING and still runs the guard (#2946).

Sentinel directories stay put. Moving phase directories into the archive (the default, unless --no-archive-phases is passed) now excludes 999.* (backlog) and 0-* (pre-milestone) directories via the same sentinel predicate the unstarted-phase guard already uses. Previously the archive move was scoped only by the milestone window, so a sentinel directory sitting inside that window could be archived along with the milestone's own phases.

`/gsd-milestone-summary`

Generate comprehensive project summary from milestone artifacts for team onboarding and review.

Argument	Required	Description
`version`	No	Milestone version (defaults to current/latest milestone)

Prerequisites: At least one completed or in-progress milestone Produces: .planning/reports/MILESTONE_SUMMARY-v{version}.md

Summary includes:

Overview, architecture decisions, phase-by-phase breakdown
Key decisions and trade-offs
Requirements coverage
Tech debt and deferred items
Getting started guide for new team members
Interactive Q&A offered after generation

/gsd-milestone-summary                # Summarize current milestone
/gsd-milestone-summary v1.0           # Summarize specific milestone

`/gsd-new-milestone`

Start next version cycle.

Argument	Required	Description
`name`	No	Milestone name
`--reset-phase-numbers`	No	Restart the new milestone at Phase 1 and archive old phase dirs before roadmapping
`--ws <name>`	No	Scope the milestone to a workstream; skips the shared `PROJECT.md` write

Prerequisites: Previous milestone completed Produces: Updated PROJECT.md, new REQUIREMENTS.md, new ROADMAP.md

/gsd-new-milestone                  # Interactive
/gsd-new-milestone "v2.0 Mobile"    # Named milestone
/gsd-new-milestone --reset-phase-numbers "v2.0 Mobile"  # Restart milestone numbering at 1
/gsd-new-milestone --ws search "v2.0 Search"  # Scope to a workstream

Phase Management Commands

`/gsd-phase`

CRUD for phases in ROADMAP.md — add, insert, remove, or edit phases with a single consolidated command.

Flag	Description
(none)	Append a new integer phase to the end of the current milestone
`--insert <N>`	Insert urgent work as a decimal phase (e.g., 3.1) after phase N
`--remove <N>`	Remove a future phase and renumber subsequent phases
`--edit <N>`	Edit any field of an existing phase in place
`--force`	Allow editing in-progress or completed phases (used with `--edit`)

Prerequisites: .planning/ROADMAP.md exists Produces: Updated ROADMAP.md

/gsd-phase "Add authentication system"          # Append new phase with description
/gsd-phase --insert 3 "Fix auth race condition" # Insert between phase 3 and 4 → creates 3.1
/gsd-phase --remove 7               # Remove phase 7, renumber 8→7, 9→8, etc.
/gsd-phase --edit 5                 # Edit any field of phase 5
/gsd-phase --edit 5 --force         # Edit phase 5 even if in-progress or completed

`/gsd-mvp-phase`

Guided MVP planning for a phase — prompts for a user story, runs SPIDR splitting check, writes **Mode:** mvp to ROADMAP.md, then delegates to /gsd-plan-phase (which auto-detects MVP mode via the roadmap field).

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number to convert to MVP mode (integer or decimal like `2.1`)

Flag	Description
`--force`	Allow converting an `in_progress` or `completed` phase

Prerequisites: Phase must already exist in ROADMAP.md (created via /gsd-new-project, /gsd-phase, or /gsd-phase --insert). The command does not create new phases — it converts an existing phase.

Behaviour: Collects a structured user story, validates format, runs a SPIDR splitting check, writes **Goal:** and **Mode:** mvp to the phase's ROADMAP.md section, then delegates to /gsd-plan-phase <N>. See How to plan an MVP phase for a walkthrough.

Walking Skeleton: Auto-triggered when --mvp (or mode: mvp) is used on Phase 1 of a new project with no prior phase summaries. The planner produces SKELETON.md alongside PLAN.md.

Produces: Updated ROADMAP.md, then all artifacts from /gsd-plan-phase; SKELETON.md when Walking Skeleton mode fires.

/gsd-mvp-phase 1                    # MVP planning for phase 1
/gsd-mvp-phase 2.1                  # MVP planning for a decimal phase
/gsd-mvp-phase 3 --force            # Convert phase 3 even if in-progress

`/gsd-validate-phase`

Retroactively audit and fill Nyquist validation gaps.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	No	Phase number

/gsd-validate-phase 2               # Audit test coverage for phase 2

`phase uat-passed <N> [--require-verification]`

Runtime-neutral predicate that evaluates HUMAN-UAT results for a phase and reports whether all required checks passed. Uses markdown-aware parsing that ignores false-positive contexts (YAML frontmatter, fenced code blocks, HTML comments, and blockquotes), so incomplete checkbox fragments in prose sections never trigger a false pass.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number to evaluate
`--require-verification`	No	Require at least one `*-VERIFICATION.md` file alongside UAT results; fails if none are found

Output fields (JSON):

Field	Type	Description
`passed`	`boolean`	`true` only when at least one check exists AND all checks pass AND no blockers — fail-closed (no vacuous pass)
`uat_files`	`string[]`	Filenames of `*-UAT.md` files evaluated
`verification_files`	`string[]`	Filenames of `*-VERIFICATION.md` files evaluated
`checks[]`	`{ file, test, name, result, passing }[]`	Per-item evaluation results parsed from heading blocks
`blockers[]`	`string[]`	Human-readable reasons for failure (frontmatter issues, failing/missing test items, policy violations, malformed markdown) — NOT a subset of `checks[]`
`no_uat_artifacts`	`boolean`	`true` when no real UAT test items were parsed (no `*-UAT.md` files, unreadable dir, or files with no test blocks); when `true`, `passed` is always `false`
`policy.require_verification`	`boolean`	Whether `--require-verification` was active

Programmatic access: node gsd-tools.cjs phase uat-passed <N> [--require-verification] [--raw] — see CLI Tools Reference

node gsd-tools.cjs phase uat-passed 3                        # Evaluate UAT for phase 3
node gsd-tools.cjs phase uat-passed 3 --require-verification # Also require VERIFICATION.md
node gsd-tools.cjs phase uat-passed 3 --raw                  # Machine-readable JSON output

`/gsd-next`

Open the state-aware smart-entry launcher. It reads .planning/STATE.md, ROADMAP.md, verification artifacts, and git status, classifies the current situation, shows a short menu, then dispatches exactly one existing GSD command.

This is a launcher/router only — it never performs project work directly. Detection is handled by gsd-tools smart-entry --json; the markdown workflow presents the menu with AskUserQuestion or a numbered --text fallback.

Situations detected: no project, paused work, blockers, failed verification, first-phase setup, planning, executing, pending verification, idle stranded work, complete milestone, or unknown state.

/gsd-next                          # Detect state and route to the best next action

`/gsd-progress`

Show status, next steps, and automatically advance to the next logical workflow step. Reads project state and determines the appropriate action. Use /gsd-next when you want an interactive smart-entry menu before dispatch; use /gsd-progress --next when you want GSD to advance directly.

Flag	Description
`--next`	Automatically advance to the next logical workflow step without manual route selection
`--next --auto`	Like `--next`, but chains steps automatically until milestone completion or a blocking decision
`--next --converge`	When the next action is planning, route it through `/gsd-plan-review-convergence`; requires `workflow.plan_review_convergence=true`
`--cross-ai`	Alias for `--converge`
Reviewer flags	With `--converge`, pass through every reviewer lane flag: `--gemini`, `--claude`, `--codex`, `--coderabbit`, `--opencode`, `--qwen`, `--cursor`, `--agy` / `--antigravity`, `--ollama`, `--lm-studio`, `--llama-cpp`, `--kimi-code`, `--all`, and `--max-cycles N`
`--do "task description"`	Analyze freeform intent and dispatch to the most appropriate GSD command
`--forensic`	Append a 6-check integrity audit after the standard report (STATE consistency, orphaned handoffs, deferred scope drift, memory-flagged pending work, blocking todos, uncommitted code)

Milestone name and version. The milestone this report shows comes from one implementation shared with /gsd-stats, /gsd-manager and roadmap analyze. A name is no longer cut short at a parenthesis (v3.3 — Portability (Windows) keeps its full name), a ### Phase N: heading that mentions a version is never mistaken for the milestone heading, and a milestone that cannot be identified is shown as absent rather than as a plausible-looking v1.0/milestone. See CLI-TOOLS.md → Milestone identity.

Auto-routing behavior (--next):

No project → suggests /gsd-new-project
Phase needs discussion → runs /gsd-discuss-phase
Phase needs planning → runs /gsd-plan-phase (or /gsd-plan-review-convergence when --converge is set)
Phase needs execution → runs /gsd-execute-phase
Phase needs verification → runs /gsd-verify-work
All phases complete → suggests /gsd-complete-milestone

Status reporting is scoped to the current milestone's ROADMAP.md window and sentinel-filtered: 999.* backlog directories and 0-* pre-milestone directories are not counted as current-milestone phases, so the reported progress percentage no longer holds at 100 while phases in the active window are still outstanding.

/gsd-progress                       # "Where am I? What's next?" with auto-routing
/gsd-progress --next                # Advance to next step automatically
/gsd-progress --next --auto         # Chain steps automatically until completion
/gsd-progress --next --auto --converge  # Hands-free run with plan-review convergence
/gsd-progress --do "fix the auth bug"  # Dispatch freeform intent to best GSD command
/gsd-progress --forensic            # Standard report + integrity audit

`/gsd-resume-work`

Restore full context from last session.

/gsd-resume-work                    # After context reset or new session

`/gsd-pause-work`

Save context handoff when stopping mid-phase.

Flag	Description
`--report`	Generate a post-session summary in `.planning/reports/` capturing commits, file changes, and phase progress

/gsd-pause-work                     # Creates continue-here.md
/gsd-pause-work --report            # Creates continue-here.md + session report

`/gsd-manager`

Interactive command center for managing multiple phases from one terminal.

Prerequisites: .planning/ROADMAP.md exists Behavior:

Dashboard of all phases with visual status indicators
Recommends optimal next actions based on dependencies and progress
Dispatches work: discuss runs inline; plan/execute run as background agents on runtimes that support nested background dispatch, or inline on Claude Code
Designed for power users parallelizing work across phases from one terminal
Supports per-step passthrough flags via manager.flags config (see Configuration)

/gsd-manager                        # Open command center dashboard
/gsd-manager --analyze-deps         # Scan ROADMAP phases for dependency relationships before parallel execution

Checkpoint Heartbeats (#2410):

Background execute-phase runs emit [checkpoint] markers at every wave and plan boundary so the Claude API SSE stream never idles long enough to trigger Stream idle timeout - partial response received on multi-plan phases. The format is:

[checkpoint] phase {N} wave {W}/{M} starting, {count} plan(s), {P}/{Q} plans done
[checkpoint] phase {N} wave {W}/{M} plan {plan_id} starting ({P}/{Q} plans done)
[checkpoint] phase {N} wave {W}/{M} plan {plan_id} complete ({P}/{Q} plans done)
[checkpoint] phase {N} wave {W}/{M} complete, {P}/{Q} plans done ({ok}/{count} ok)

If a background phase fails partway through, grep the transcript for [checkpoint] to see the last confirmed boundary. The manager's background-completion handler uses these markers to report partial progress when an agent errors out.

Manager Passthrough Flags:

Configure per-step flags in .planning/config.json under manager.flags. These flags are appended to each dispatched command:

{
  "manager": {
    "flags": {
      "discuss": "--auto",
      "plan": "--skip-research",
      "execute": "--cross-ai"
    }
  }
}

`/gsd-help`

Show GSD commands at the tier you ask for. Default fits one screen; --full is the complete reference; <topic> jumps directly to one section.

/gsd-help                           # One-page tour (default)
/gsd-help --brief                   # ~10-line one-liner refresher of top commands
/gsd-help --full                    # Complete reference (every command, every flag)
/gsd-help <topic>                   # One section only (e.g. /gsd-help debug)
/gsd-help --brief <topic>           # Compact scoped lookup — signature + one-line summary

See gsd-core/workflows/help/modes/topic.md for the full alias table. Unknown topics print the recognized list.

Utility Commands

`/gsd-explore`

Socratic ideation session — guide an idea through probing questions, optionally spawn research, then route output to the right GSD artifact (notes, todos, seeds, research questions, requirements, or a new phase).

Argument	Required	Description
`topic`	No	Topic to explore (e.g., `/gsd-explore authentication strategy`)

/gsd-explore                        # Open-ended ideation session
/gsd-explore authentication strategy  # Explore a specific topic

When the optional research pass runs, each surfaced claim is dispositioned three ways — admit (survives a prompted-to-refute pass and is grounded in a source, shown with the source), refute (a source authoritative for that claim contradicts it, dropped or corrected), or abstain (unverifiable, non-authoritative disagreement, or a source-vs-prior conflict). Abstained claims are listed in a separate Unresolved ledger rather than smoothed into the narrative. (Claims-side analogue of the honest verifier, #1154.)

`/gsd-undo`

Safe git revert — roll back GSD phase or plan commits using the phase manifest with dependency checks and a confirmation gate.

Flag	Required	Description
`--last N`	(one of three required)	Show recent GSD commits for interactive selection
`--phase NN`	(one of three required)	Revert all commits for a phase
`--plan NN-MM`	(one of three required)	Revert all commits for a specific plan

Safety: Checks dependent phases/plans before reverting; always shows a confirmation gate.

/gsd-undo --last 5                  # Pick from the 5 most recent GSD commits
/gsd-undo --phase 03                # Revert all commits for phase 3
/gsd-undo --plan 03-02              # Revert commits for plan 02 of phase 3

`/gsd-import`

Ingest an external plan file into the GSD planning system with conflict detection against PROJECT.md decisions before writing anything.

Flag	Required	Description
`--from <filepath>`	Yes (or `--from-gsd2`)	Path to the external plan file to import
`--from-gsd2`	Yes (or `--from`)	Reverse-migrate a GSD-2 (`.gsd/`) project back to GSD v1 (`.planning/`) format
`--path <dir>`	No	With `--from-gsd2`: path to the GSD-2 project directory (defaults to current directory)

Process: Detects conflicts → prompts for resolution → writes as GSD PLAN.md → validates via gsd-plan-checker

/gsd-import --from /tmp/team-plan.md    # Import and validate an external plan
/gsd-import --from-gsd2                # Migrate from GSD-2 back to v1 (current dir)
/gsd-import --from-gsd2 --path ~/old-project  # Migrate from a different path

`/gsd-ingest-docs`

Bootstrap or merge a .planning/ setup from existing ADRs, PRDs, SPECs, and docs in a repo. Runs parallel classification (gsd-doc-classifier) plus synthesis with precedence rules and cycle detection (gsd-doc-synthesizer). Produces a three-bucket conflicts report (INGEST-CONFLICTS.md: auto-resolved, competing-variants, unresolved-blockers) and hard-blocks on LOCKED-vs-LOCKED ADR contradictions.

Argument / Flag	Required	Description
`path`	No	Target directory to scan (defaults to repo root)
`--mode new\|merge`	No	Override auto-detect (defaults: `new` if `.planning/` absent, `merge` if present)
`--manifest <file>`	No	YAML file listing `{path, type, precedence?}` per doc; overrides heuristic classification
`--resolve auto`	No	Conflict resolution mode (v1: only `auto`; `interactive` is reserved)

Limits: v1 caps at 50 docs per invocation. Extracts the shared conflict-detection contract into references/doc-conflict-engine.md, which /gsd-import also consumes.

/gsd-ingest-docs                            # Scan repo root, auto-detect mode
/gsd-ingest-docs docs/                      # Only ingest under docs/
/gsd-ingest-docs --manifest ingest.yaml     # Explicit precedence manifest

`/gsd-quick`

Execute ad-hoc task with GSD guarantees.

Flag	Description
`--full`	Enable the complete quality pipeline — discussion + research + plan-checking + verification
`--validate`	Plan-checking (max 2 iterations) + post-execution verification only; no discussion or research
`--discuss`	Lightweight pre-planning discussion
`--research`	Spawn focused researcher before planning

Granular flags are composable: --discuss --research --validate is equivalent to --full.

Subcommand	Description
`list`	List all quick tasks with status
`status <slug>`	Show status of a specific quick task
`resume <slug>`	Resume a specific quick task by slug

/gsd-quick                          # Basic quick task
/gsd-quick --discuss --research     # Discussion + research + planning
/gsd-quick --validate               # Plan-checking + verification only
/gsd-quick --full                   # Complete quality pipeline
/gsd-quick list                     # List all quick tasks
/gsd-quick status my-task-slug      # Show status of a quick task
/gsd-quick resume my-task-slug      # Resume a quick task

`/gsd-autonomous`

Run all remaining phases autonomously.

Flag	Description
`--from N`	Start from a specific phase number
`--to N`	Stop after completing a specific phase number
`--only N`	Restrict execution to phase N; lifecycle step is skipped
`--interactive`	Lean context with user input
`--converge`	Route each planning step through `/gsd-plan-review-convergence`; requires `workflow.plan_review_convergence=true`
`--cross-ai`	Alias for `--converge`
Reviewer flags	With `--converge`, pass through every reviewer lane flag: `--gemini`, `--claude`, `--codex`, `--coderabbit`, `--opencode`, `--qwen`, `--cursor`, `--agy` / `--antigravity`, `--ollama`, `--lm-studio`, `--llama-cpp`, `--kimi-code`, `--all`, and `--max-cycles N`
`--text`	Replace `AskUserQuestion` prompts with plain numbered lists

/gsd-autonomous                     # Run all remaining phases
/gsd-autonomous --from 3            # Start from phase 3
/gsd-autonomous --to 5              # Run up to and including phase 5
/gsd-autonomous --from 3 --to 5     # Run phases 3 through 5
/gsd-autonomous --only 4            # Run only phase 4
/gsd-autonomous --only 4 --converge # Run one phase with plan convergence
/gsd-autonomous --converge --all --max-cycles 5
/gsd-autonomous --text              # Run with text-mode prompts

`/gsd-debug`

Systematic debugging with persistent state.

Argument	Required	Description
`description`	No	Description of the bug

Flag	Description
`--diagnose`	Diagnosis-only mode — investigate without attempting fixes

Subcommands:

/gsd-debug list — List all active debug sessions with status, hypothesis, and next action
/gsd-debug status <slug> — Print full summary of a session (Evidence count, Eliminated count, Resolution, TDD checkpoint) without spawning an agent
/gsd-debug continue <slug> — Resume a specific session by slug (surfaces Current Focus then spawns continuation agent)
/gsd-debug [--diagnose] <description> — Start new debug session (existing behavior; --diagnose stops at root cause without applying fix)

TDD mode: When tdd_mode: true in .planning/config.json, debug sessions require a failing test to be written and verified before any fix is applied (red → green → done).

/gsd-debug "Login button not responding on mobile Safari"
/gsd-debug --diagnose "Intermittent 500 errors on /api/users"
/gsd-debug list
/gsd-debug status auth-token-null
/gsd-debug continue form-submit-500

`/gsd-add-tests`

Generate tests for a completed phase.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	No	Phase number

/gsd-add-tests 2                    # Generate tests for phase 2

`/gsd-stats`

Display project statistics.

/gsd-stats                          # Project metrics dashboard

Scoped to the current milestone's ROADMAP.md window and sentinel-filtered: 999.* backlog directories and 0-* pre-milestone directories are not counted as current-milestone phases.

`/gsd-profile-user`

Generate a developer behavioral profile from Claude Code session analysis across 8 dimensions (communication style, decision patterns, debugging approach, UX preferences, vendor choices, frustration triggers, learning style, explanation depth). Produces artifacts that personalize Claude's responses.

Flag	Description
`--questionnaire`	Use interactive questionnaire instead of session analysis
`--refresh`	Re-analyze sessions and regenerate profile

Generated artifacts:

USER-PROFILE.md — Full behavioral profile
CLAUDE.md profile section — Auto-discovered by Claude Code

/gsd-profile-user                   # Analyze sessions and build profile
/gsd-profile-user --questionnaire   # Interactive questionnaire fallback
/gsd-profile-user --refresh         # Re-generate from fresh analysis

`/gsd-health`

Validate .planning/ directory integrity. With --context, probes the context-window utilization guard against the 60 % / 70 % thresholds (added v1.40.0, #2792).

Flag	Description
`--repair`	Auto-fix recoverable issues
`--context`	Probe context-window utilization; warns at 60 %, critical at 70 %

/gsd-health                         # Check integrity
/gsd-health --repair                # Check and fix
/gsd-health --context               # Context-utilization triage

`/gsd-cleanup`

Archive accumulated phase directories from completed milestones and prune local branches whose upstream has been deleted.

Behaviour: Presents a dry-run summary of phase directories to archive (moved from .planning/phases/ into .planning/milestones/v{X.Y}-phases/) and local branches whose upstream is gone (pruned via git fetch --prune). Requires confirmation before writing any changes. The currently checked-out branch is never pruned.

/gsd-cleanup

Spiking & Sketching Commands

`/gsd-spike`

Run 2–5 focused feasibility experiments before committing to an implementation approach. Each experiment uses Given/When/Then framing, produces executable code, and returns a VALIDATED / INVALIDATED / PARTIAL verdict.

Argument	Required	Description
`idea`	No	The technical question or approach to investigate
`--quick`	No	Skip intake conversation; use `idea` text directly
`--wrap-up`	No	Package completed spike findings into a reusable project-local skill

Produces: .planning/spikes/NNN-experiment-name/ with code, results, and README; .planning/spikes/MANIFEST.md --wrap-up produces: .claude/skills/spike-findings-[project]/ skill file

/gsd-spike                              # Interactive intake
/gsd-spike "can we stream LLM tokens through SSE"
/gsd-spike --quick websocket-vs-polling
/gsd-spike --wrap-up                    # Package findings into a reusable skill

`/gsd-sketch`

Explore design directions through throwaway HTML mockups before committing to implementation. Produces 2–3 variants per design question for direct browser comparison.

Argument	Required	Description
`idea`	No	The UI design question or direction to explore
`--quick`	No	Skip mood intake; use `idea` text directly
`--text`	No	Text-mode fallback — replace interactive prompts with numbered lists (for non-Claude runtimes)
`--wrap-up`	No	Package winning sketch decisions into a reusable project-local skill

Produces: .planning/sketches/NNN-descriptive-name/index.html (2–3 interactive variants), README.md, shared themes/default.css; .planning/sketches/MANIFEST.md --wrap-up produces: .claude/skills/sketch-findings-[project]/ skill file

/gsd-sketch                             # Interactive mood intake
/gsd-sketch "dashboard layout"
/gsd-sketch --quick "sidebar navigation"
/gsd-sketch --text "onboarding flow"    # Non-Claude runtime
/gsd-sketch --wrap-up                   # Package winning sketch into a skill

Diagnostics Commands

`/gsd-forensics`

Post-mortem investigation for failed GSD workflows — diagnoses what went wrong.

Argument	Required	Description
`description`	No	Problem description (prompted if omitted)

Prerequisites: .planning/ directory exists Produces: .planning/forensics/report-{timestamp}.md

Investigation covers:

Git history analysis (recent commits, stuck patterns, time gaps)
Artifact integrity (expected files for completed phases)
STATE.md anomalies and session history
Uncommitted work, conflicts, abandoned changes
At least 4 anomaly types checked (stuck loop, missing artifacts, abandoned work, crash/interruption)
GitHub issue creation offered if actionable findings exist

/gsd-forensics                              # Interactive — prompted for problem
/gsd-forensics "Phase 3 execution stalled"  # With problem description

`/gsd-extract-learnings`

Extract reusable patterns, anti-patterns, and architectural decisions from completed phase work.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number to extract learnings from

Flag	Description
`--all`	Extract learnings from all completed phases
`--format`	Output format: `markdown` (default), `json`

Prerequisites: Phase has been executed (SUMMARY.md files exist) Produces: .planning/learnings/{phase}-LEARNINGS.md

Extracts:

Architectural decisions and their rationale
Patterns that worked well (reusable in future phases)
Anti-patterns encountered and how they were resolved
Technology-specific insights
Performance and testing observations

/gsd-extract-learnings 3                    # Extract learnings from phase 3
/gsd-extract-learnings --all                # Extract from all completed phases

Workstream Management

`/gsd-workstreams`

Manage parallel workstreams for concurrent work on different milestone areas.

Subcommands:

Subcommand	Description
`list`	List all workstreams with status (default if no subcommand)
`create <name>`	Create a new workstream
`status <name>`	Detailed status for one workstream
`switch <name>`	Set active workstream
`progress`	Progress summary across all workstreams
`complete <name>`	Archive a completed workstream
`resume <name>`	Resume work in a workstream

Prerequisites: Active GSD project Produces: Workstream directories under .planning/, state tracking per workstream

/gsd-workstreams                    # List all workstreams
/gsd-workstreams create backend-api # Create new workstream
/gsd-workstreams switch backend-api # Set active workstream
/gsd-workstreams status backend-api # Detailed status
/gsd-workstreams progress           # Cross-workstream progress overview
/gsd-workstreams complete backend-api  # Archive completed workstream
/gsd-workstreams resume backend-api    # Resume work in workstream

Configuration Commands

`/gsd-settings`

Interactive configuration of workflow toggles and model profile. Questions are grouped into six visual sections:

Planning — Research, Plan Checker, Pattern Mapper, Nyquist, UI Phase, UI Gate, AI Phase
Execution — Verifier, TDD Mode, Code Review, Code Review Depth (conditional — only when Code Review is on), UI Review
Docs & Output — Commit Docs, Skip Discuss, Worktrees
Features — Intel, Graphify
Model & Pipeline — Model Profile, Auto-Advance, Branching
Misc — Context Warnings, Research Qs

All answers are merged via gsd-tools query config-set into the resolved project config path (.planning/config.json for a standard install, or .planning/workstreams/<active>/config.json when a workstream is active), preserving unrelated keys. After confirmation, the user may save the full settings object to ~/.gsd/defaults.json so future /gsd-new-project runs start from the same baseline.

/gsd-settings                       # Interactive config

`/gsd-config`

Configure GSD settings interactively — workflow toggles, advanced knobs, integrations, and model profile — with a single consolidated command.

Flag	Description
(none)	Common-case toggles: model, research, plan_check, verifier, branching
`--advanced`	Power-user knobs: planning tuning, timeouts, branch templates, cross-AI execution, runtime/output
`--integrations`	Third-party API keys, code-review CLI routing, agent-skill injection
`--profile <name>`	Quick profile switch: `quality`, `balanced`, `budget`, or `inherit`

--advanced sections:

Section	Keys
Planning Tuning	`workflow.plan_bounce`, `workflow.plan_bounce_passes`, `workflow.plan_bounce_script`, `workflow.subagent_timeout`, `workflow.inline_plan_threshold`
Execution Tuning	`workflow.node_repair`, `workflow.node_repair_budget`, `workflow.auto_prune_state`
Discussion Tuning	`workflow.max_discuss_passes`
Cross-AI Execution	`workflow.cross_ai_execution`, `workflow.cross_ai_command`, `workflow.cross_ai_timeout`
Git Customization	`git.base_branch`, `git.phase_branch_template`, `git.milestone_branch_template`
Runtime / Output	`response_language`, `context_window`, `search_gitignored`, `graphify.build_timeout`

All answers merge via gsd-tools query config-set, preserving unrelated keys. API keys are masked (****<last-4>) in all output.

/gsd-config                         # Common-case interactive config
/gsd-config --advanced              # Power-user knobs (six-section prompt)
/gsd-config --integrations          # API keys, review CLI routing, agent skills
/gsd-config --profile budget        # Switch to budget profile
/gsd-config --profile quality       # Switch to quality profile

See CONFIGURATION.md for the full schema and defaults.

`/gsd-surface`

Toggle which skills are surfaced — apply a profile, list, or disable a cluster without reinstall.

Subcommand	Description
`list`	Show enabled and disabled clusters and skills
`status`	Alias for `list` plus token cost summary
`profile <name>`	Write `baseProfile` and re-stage skills
`disable <cluster>`	Add cluster to disabled list and re-stage
`enable <cluster>`	Remove cluster from disabled list and re-stage
`reset`	Delete surface delta; return to install-time profile

/gsd-surface list                   # Show current surface
/gsd-surface profile standard       # Switch to standard profile
/gsd-surface disable utility        # Disable the utility cluster
/gsd-surface reset                  # Restore install-time profile

`gsd capability`

Manage GSD capabilities — first-party (shipped) and third-party overlays. CLI form gsd capability <subcommand>. See the gsd capability command reference for the full contract, source-spec forms, and install layout.

Subcommand	Description
`install <spec> [--integrity …] [--scope global\|project] [--yes] [--shared-file <rel>]…`	Resolve, verify, consent-gate, and install a capability from a registry / git / npm / tarball / local source
`update [<id> \| --all] [--scope …] [--yes]`	Re-resolve a capability's recorded source and upgrade it (atomic stage-then-swap)
`remove <id> [--purge-data] [--scope …]`	Remove an installed overlay capability's files + marker-isolated shared edits (first-party cannot be removed here)
`list [--json]`	List first-party + installed overlay capabilities as a JSON array
`outdated [--json] [--scope …]`	Light-peek each installed overlay's recorded source and report which have a newer version available (per-source matrix; npm ranges resolve the highest matching version; `pinned` for immutable/explicit git refs or exact npm versions; `manual`/`unknown` for sources that can't be auto-checked)
`disable <id>` / `enable <id>`	Toggle a capability's activation state (same as `capability set <id> --off`/`--on`)
`state` / `set <id> …`	Inspect resolved capability state / set activation + per-hook gates

gsd capability list --json                           # All capabilities as JSON
gsd capability install ./my-cap --scope project      # Install a local capability into the project
gsd capability install npm:@org/gsd-cap-x@^1 --yes   # Install from npm, granting executable-surface consent
gsd capability update my-cap                          # Upgrade from its recorded source
gsd capability outdated --json                         # Which installed overlays have a newer version?
gsd capability disable ui                             # Turn a FIRST-PARTY capability off (disable/enable/set are first-party only)
gsd capability remove my-cap --scope project          # Turn the installed overlay off — remove it from the scope it was installed in

Programmatic access: node gsd-tools.cjs capability <subcommand> — see CLI Tools Reference.

Brownfield Commands

`/gsd-map-codebase`

Analyze existing codebase with parallel mapper agents. Use --fast for a quick single-agent scan, or --query to search existing intel. First-time brownfield setup should usually start with /gsd-onboard, which hands off to this command when a map is missing.

Argument	Required	Description
`area`	No	Scope mapping to a specific area
`--fast`	No	Rapid single-focus assessment — spawns one mapper agent instead of four parallel ones (lightweight alternative)
`--query <term>`	No	Search queryable codebase intel files in `.planning/intel/` (requires `intel.enabled: true`)

Flag	Description
`--focus tech\|arch\|quality\|concerns\|tech+arch`	Focus area for `--fast` mode (default: `tech+arch`)

Produces: .planning/codebase/ analysis documents (full mode); targeted document(s) in .planning/codebase/ (--fast); intel query results (--query)

/gsd-map-codebase                   # Full codebase analysis (4 parallel agents)
/gsd-map-codebase auth              # Focus on auth area
/gsd-map-codebase --fast            # Quick tech + arch overview (1 agent)
/gsd-map-codebase --fast --focus quality  # Quality and code health only
/gsd-map-codebase --query authentication  # Search intel for a term

`/gsd-graphify`

Build, query, and inspect the project knowledge graph stored in .planning/graphs/. Opt-in via graphify.enabled: true in config.json (see Configuration Reference); when disabled, the command prints an activation hint and stops.

Subcommand	Description
`build`	Build or rebuild the knowledge graph (runs `graphify update .` inline and refreshes `.planning/graphs/`)
`query <term>`	Search the graph for a term
`status`	Show graph freshness and statistics
`diff`	Show changes since the last build

Produces: .planning/graphs/ graph artifacts (nodes, edges, snapshots)

/gsd-graphify build                 # Build or rebuild the knowledge graph
/gsd-graphify query authentication  # Search the graph for a term
/gsd-graphify status                # Show freshness and statistics
/gsd-graphify diff                  # Show changes since last build

Programmatic access: node gsd-tools.cjs graphify <build|query|status|diff|snapshot> — see CLI Tools Reference.

`/gsd-mempalace-recall`

Recall prior decisions, patterns, and surprises from MemPalace into MEMORY-RECALL.md before planning. Reads CONTEXT.md to derive a search query, runs mempalace wake-up + mempalace_search + mempalace_kg_query/timeline, and writes a deduped recall document. When MemPalace is unavailable the skill writes a stub and continues. Opt-in via mempalace.enabled: true and mempalace.recall_on_plan: true (see Configuration Reference).

Argument	Required	Description
`phase-slug`	No	Phase slug used to scope the search query (defaults to the active phase from CONTEXT.md)

Produces: MEMORY-RECALL.md in the active phase directory (or an "unavailable" stub when MemPalace is unreachable)

/gsd-mempalace-recall          # Recall for the current phase
/gsd-mempalace-recall 03-auth  # Recall scoped to a specific phase slug

`/gsd-mempalace-capture`

File a phase artifact (CONTEXT.md, PLAN.md, or SUMMARY.md) verbatim into MemPalace and mirror decision facts into its temporal knowledge graph. Uses mempalace_check_duplicate before filing, so re-running the same phase is idempotent. Opt-in via mempalace.enabled: true and mempalace.capture_artifacts: true (see Configuration Reference).

Argument	Required	Description
`CONTEXT.md\|PLAN.md\|SUMMARY.md`	No	Artifact to capture (defaults to `CONTEXT.md` when called at `discuss:post`)

Produces: A drawer in the appropriate MemPalace room (decisions, planning, or milestones) plus KG facts when mempalace.mirror_kg: true

/gsd-mempalace-capture CONTEXT.md   # File CONTEXT.md → decisions room
/gsd-mempalace-capture PLAN.md      # File PLAN.md → planning room
/gsd-mempalace-capture SUMMARY.md   # File SUMMARY.md → milestones room

`gsd-tools intel api-surface`

Render the .planning/intel/api-map.json index (built by /gsd-map-codebase) into a human-readable API-SURFACE.md in .planning/intel/. Gated on intel.enabled: true in config.json; when Intel is disabled the command prints an activation hint and exits. The output path is always .planning/intel/API-SURFACE.md — there is no --out or --format flag. When api-map.json is absent or empty the command still writes the file with an explicit "incomplete" banner so consumers never mistake silence for "nothing exists".

Produces: .planning/intel/API-SURFACE.md

node gsd-tools.cjs intel api-surface              # Render api-map.json → API-SURFACE.md

The API-SURFACE.md output lists exported symbols (functions, classes, decorators, constants) grouped by source file with their signatures and detected visibility. When plan_review.source_grounding_authority is set to intel, the plan drift guard reads api-map.json directly rather than invoking the api-surface renderer.

`gsd-tools refactor`

Evaluate the complexity of the files a phase touched and surface a scoped refactor proposal when a function's score crosses refactor.complexity_threshold or jumps past its recorded anchor by more than refactor.complexity_jump_delta. Gated on refactor.trigger_enabled: true in config.json (see Configuration Reference); when disabled, every subcommand prints an activation hint and stops — it is inert otherwise.

Subcommand	Description
`evaluate --phase <N> [--since <ref>] [--raw]`	Analyze files changed since the phase's start commit (or `--since <ref>`) and write a `<NN>-REFACTOR.md` proposal when a candidate triggers
`status [--phase <N>] [--raw]`	List all recorded proposals across phases, or show the proposal for one phase
`accept --phase <N> [--raw]`	Disposition the phase's untriaged proposal as accepted; re-anchors the target function's baseline to its current score
`decline --phase <N> --reason "<text>" [--raw]`	Disposition the phase's untriaged proposal as declined with a recorded reason; re-anchors the baseline the same way

Produces: .planning/phases/<N>/<NN>-REFACTOR.md (from evaluate, only when a candidate triggers)

node gsd-tools.cjs refactor evaluate --phase 3                       # Evaluate phase 3's touched files
node gsd-tools.cjs refactor evaluate --phase 3 --since abc123        # Evaluate against a specific ref
node gsd-tools.cjs refactor status                                   # List all recorded proposals
node gsd-tools.cjs refactor status --phase 3                         # Show phase 3's proposal
node gsd-tools.cjs refactor accept --phase 3                         # Accept phase 3's proposal
node gsd-tools.cjs refactor decline --phase 3 --reason "flat dispatch table, not a real hotspot"  # Decline with a reason

Trigger semantics match ESLint's complexity: {max: N} — strictly greater, so a score exactly equal to refactor.complexity_threshold does not trigger. The jump check compares against the function's anchor (the score recorded the last time it was accepted or declined), not the single-phase change, so it accumulates across phases until dispositioned. refactor accept/refactor decline are the only actions that clear a tracked proposal — the score improving on its own does not. See ADR-1953.

AI Integration Commands

`/gsd-ai-integration-phase`

Generate an AI-SPEC.md design contract for phases that involve building AI systems. Presents an interactive decision matrix, surfaces domain-specific failure modes and eval criteria, and produces AI-SPEC.md with a framework recommendation, implementation guidance, and evaluation strategy.

Produces: {phase}-AI-SPEC.md in the phase directory

Spawns: 3 parallel specialist agents: domain-researcher, framework-selector, ai-researcher, and eval-planner

/gsd-ai-integration-phase              # Wizard for the current phase
/gsd-ai-integration-phase 3           # Wizard for a specific phase

`/gsd-eval-review`

Audit an executed AI phase's evaluation coverage and produce an EVAL-REVIEW.md remediation plan. Checks implementation against the AI-SPEC.md evaluation plan produced by /gsd-ai-integration-phase. Scores each eval dimension as COVERED/PARTIAL/MISSING.

Prerequisites: Phase has been executed and has an AI-SPEC.md Produces: {phase}-EVAL-REVIEW.md with findings, gaps, and remediation guidance

/gsd-eval-review                       # Audit current phase
/gsd-eval-review 3                     # Audit a specific phase

Update Commands

`/gsd-update`

Update GSD with changelog preview, and optionally sync skills or reapply local patches.

Flag	Description
`--sync`	Sync skills from the GSD registry after updating
`--reapply`	Restore local modifications (patches) after updating
`--next` / `--rc`	Target the `@next` RC dist-tag instead of `@latest` (installs or refreshes a release candidate, e.g. `1.4.0-rc.1`; see ADR #660)

/gsd-update                         # Check for updates and install
/gsd-update --sync                  # Update and sync skills
/gsd-update --reapply               # Update and reapply local patches
/gsd-update --next                  # Install from the @next RC dist-tag

Recovering your own files. The update protects two different buckets, and they recover differently:

Bucket	What it holds	How it comes back
`gsd-local-patches/`	GSD-shipped files you modified	`/gsd-update --reapply` (three-way merge)
`gsd-user-files-backup/`	Files you added inside GSD-managed directories	The update offers a restore before it finishes

When the backup is non-empty, the update lists what it saved, flags anything that may no longer be compatible with the release just installed, and asks whether to restore. Declining leaves the backup untouched — it is never deleted — so you can restore later with gsd-tools restore-custom-files --config-dir <config-dir> --apply.

Code Quality Commands

`/gsd-code-review`

Review source files changed during a phase for bugs, security vulnerabilities, and code quality problems. Use --fix to auto-fix findings after review.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number whose changes to review (e.g., `2` or `02`)
`--depth=quick\|standard\|deep`	No	Review depth level (overrides `workflow.code_review_depth` config). `quick`: pattern-matching only (~2 min). `standard`: per-file analysis with language-specific checks (~5–15 min, default). `deep`: cross-file analysis including import graphs and call chains (~15–30 min)
`--files file1,file2,...`	No	Explicit comma-separated file list; skips SUMMARY/git scoping entirely
`--fix`	No	Auto-fix issues after review — reads REVIEW.md, spawns fixer agent, commits each fix atomically
`--fix --all`	No	Include Info findings in fix scope (default: Critical + Warning only)
`--fix --auto`	No	Fix + re-review iteration loop, capped at 3 iterations

Prerequisites: Phase has been executed and has SUMMARY.md or git history Produces: {phase}-REVIEW.md with severity-classified findings; {phase}-REVIEW-FIX.md when --fix is used Spawns: gsd-code-reviewer agent; gsd-code-fixer agent (with --fix)

Optional structural pre-pass: Set code_quality.fallow.enabled to true to run fallow before the agent review. GSD writes {phase}/FALLOW.json and embeds a Structural Findings (fallow) section in REVIEW.md. Configure scope and profile with code_quality.fallow.scope and code_quality.fallow.profile.

/gsd-code-review 3                          # Standard review for phase 3
/gsd-code-review 2 --depth=deep             # Deep cross-file review
/gsd-code-review 4 --files src/auth.ts,src/token.ts  # Explicit file list
/gsd-code-review 3 --fix                    # Review then fix Critical + Warning findings
/gsd-code-review 3 --fix --all             # Review then fix all findings including Info
/gsd-code-review 3 --fix --auto            # Review, fix, and re-review until clean (max 3 iterations)

`/gsd-audit-fix`

Autonomous audit-to-fix pipeline — runs an audit, classifies findings, fixes auto-fixable issues with test verification, and commits each fix atomically.

Flag	Description
`--source <audit>`	Which audit to run (default: `audit-uat`)
`--severity high\|medium\|all`	Minimum severity to process (default: `medium`)
`--max N`	Maximum findings to fix (default: 5)
`--dry-run`	Classify findings without fixing (shows classification table)

Prerequisites: At least one phase has been executed with UAT or verification Produces: Fix commits with test verification; classification report

/gsd-audit-fix                              # Run audit-uat, fix medium+ issues (max 5)
/gsd-audit-fix --severity high             # Only fix high-severity issues
/gsd-audit-fix --dry-run                   # Preview classification without fixing
/gsd-audit-fix --max 10 --severity all     # Fix up to 10 issues of any severity

Fast & Inline Commands

`/gsd-fast`

Execute a trivial task inline — no subagents, no planning overhead. For typo fixes, config changes, small refactors, forgotten commits.

Argument	Required	Description
`task description`	No	What to do (prompted if omitted)

Not a replacement for /gsd-quick — use /gsd-quick for anything needing research, multi-step planning, or verification.

/gsd-fast "fix typo in README"
/gsd-fast "add .env to gitignore"

`/gsd-review`

Cross-AI peer review of phase plans from external AI CLIs.

Reviewers are prompted to verify the plan's claims against the actual repository source — opening the referenced files and citing file:line evidence with the mechanism — rather than reviewing the plan text in isolation. A reviewer that has no file access flags what it cannot verify instead of asserting it, and file:line-grounded findings are weighted more heavily during consensus synthesis.

Argument	Required	Description
`--phase N`	Yes	Phase number to review

Flag	Description
`--gemini`	Include Gemini CLI review
`--claude`	Include Claude CLI review (separate session)
`--codex`	Include Codex CLI review
`--coderabbit`	Include CodeRabbit review
`--opencode`	Include OpenCode review (via GitHub Copilot)
`--qwen`	Include Qwen Code review (Alibaba Qwen models)
`--cursor`	Include Cursor agent review
`--agy` / `--antigravity`	Include Antigravity CLI review (free with Google credentials)
`--kimi-code`	Include Kimi Code CLI review (Moonshot AI)
`--ollama`	Include Ollama server review
`--lm-studio`	Include LM Studio server review
`--llama-cpp`	Include llama.cpp server review
`--all`	Include all available reviewers (CLI + local model servers)

No jq, curl, or timeout prerequisite. Reviewer lanes used to shell out to these for JSON parsing, HTTP calls, and wall-clock bounding, which made five lanes unavailable on a stock Windows/Git-Bash host (no jq) and left one lane unbounded on stock macOS (no timeout or gtimeout). GSD now does all three itself, so every lane runs with nothing on your PATH but the reviewer's own CLI. A lane that declares an external tool it genuinely needs still reports itself unavailable with an install hint rather than running into an empty review.

Unavailable reviewers: an explicit reviewer flag is an assertion. If you name a reviewer that cannot run on this host — its CLI is not installed, a required external tool is missing, its local server is unreachable, or its egress destination changed (see below) — /gsd-review reports an error for that reviewer and does not proceed with a reduced set. This holds even when other named reviewers are available: --gemini --qwen on a host without qwen fails rather than silently becoming a Gemini-only review.

Reviewers reached through --all or review.default_reviewers behave differently: an undetected reviewer there is reported as an info note and skipped. Use --all for "whatever is available on this host", and review.default_reviewers for a preferred subset that may vary by host.

Changed egress destination: a reviewer lane is sent your plan text, requirements, research findings, and CONTEXT.md decisions. For the local-server lanes (--ollama, --lm-studio, --llama-cpp) the destination comes from a config key such as review.ollama_host, which is an ordinary editable value — including by a pull request. If you installed such a lane as a capability and its host has changed since you consented to it, GSD blocks that lane and tells you both destinations rather than sending your plans somewhere you did not approve. Re-consent to allow the new host. First-party lanes shipped with GSD are unaffected, and a lane you never consented to is not blocked — there is nothing to compare it against.

Default reviewer behavior (no flags):

If review.default_reviewers is unset, /gsd-review runs all detected reviewers (current default behavior).
If review.default_reviewers is set, /gsd-review runs only that subset (for example ["gemini","codex"]).
review.default_reviewers may include names from review.reviewer_instances; each instance runs as its own reviewer identity using its configured adapter/model. Instance names are not CLI flags.
--all always overrides config and runs the full detected set.
Explicit flags (for example --cursor) override both --all and config defaults for that run.

Produces: {phase}-REVIEWS.md — consumable by /gsd-plan-phase --reviews

# set project default reviewers for no-flag /gsd-review runs
gsd config-set review.default_reviewers '["gemini","codex"]'

/gsd-review --phase 2             # runs gemini+codex from config
/gsd-review --phase 3 --all
/gsd-review --phase 2 --gemini
/gsd-review --phase 2 --cursor    # one-off override

`/gsd-pr-branch`

Create a clean PR branch by filtering out .planning/ commits.

Argument	Required	Description
`target branch`	No	Base branch (default: `main`)

Purpose: Reviewers see only code changes, not GSD planning artifacts.

/gsd-pr-branch                     # Filter against main
/gsd-pr-branch develop             # Filter against develop

`/gsd-secure-phase`

Retroactively verify threat mitigations for a completed phase.

Argument	Required	Description
`phase number`	No	Phase to audit (default: last completed phase)

Prerequisites: Phase must have been executed. Works with or without existing SECURITY.md. Produces: {phase}-SECURITY.md with threat verification results Spawns: gsd-security-auditor agent

Three operating modes:

SECURITY.md exists — audit and verify existing mitigations
No SECURITY.md but PLAN.md has threat model — generate from artifacts
Phase not executed — exits with guidance

/gsd-secure-phase                   # Audit last completed phase
/gsd-secure-phase 5                 # Audit specific phase

`/gsd-docs-update`

Generate or update project documentation verified against the codebase.

Argument	Required	Description
`--force`	No	Skip preservation prompts, regenerate all docs
`--verify-only`	No	Check existing docs for accuracy, no generation

Produces: Up to 9 documentation files (README, architecture, API, getting started, development, testing, configuration, deployment, contributing) Spawns: gsd-doc-writer agents (one per doc type), then gsd-doc-verifier agents for factual verification

Each doc writer explores the codebase directly — no hallucinated paths or stale signatures. Doc verifier checks claims against the live filesystem.

/gsd-docs-update                    # Generate/update docs interactively
/gsd-docs-update --force            # Regenerate all docs
/gsd-docs-update --verify-only      # Verify existing docs only

Task Capture & Backlog Commands

`/gsd-capture`

Capture ideas, tasks, notes, and seeds to their appropriate destination. Default mode adds a structured todo; flags route to specialized capture workflows.

Flag	Description
(none)	Capture as a structured todo for later work
`--note [text]`	Zero-friction note — append, list (`--note list`), or promote (`--note promote N`)
`--backlog <description>`	Add to the backlog parking lot using 999.x numbering
`--seed [idea summary]`	Capture a forward-looking idea with trigger conditions
`--list`	List pending todos and select one to work on
`--list-seeds [status]`	List/audit captured seeds, optionally filtered by status (read-only)
`--global`	Use global scope (for note operations)

Backlog: 999.x numbering keeps items outside the active phase sequence; phase directories are created immediately so /gsd-discuss-phase and /gsd-plan-phase work on them. Seeds: Preserve full WHY, WHEN to surface, and breadcrumbs — consumed by /gsd-new-milestone. Audit parked seeds anytime with --list-seeds (optionally --list-seeds dormant).

Produces: .planning/todos/ (default), note files (--note), ROADMAP.md backlog section (--backlog), .planning/seeds/SEED-NNN-slug.md (--seed)

/gsd-capture "Consider adding dark mode support"   # Add todo
/gsd-capture --note "Caching strategy idea"        # Quick note
/gsd-capture --note list                           # List all notes
/gsd-capture --note promote 3                      # Promote note 3 to todo
/gsd-capture --backlog "GraphQL API layer"         # Add to backlog
/gsd-capture --seed "Add real-time collaboration when WebSocket infra is in place"
/gsd-capture --list                                # Browse and act on todos
/gsd-capture --list-seeds                          # Audit all captured seeds
/gsd-capture --list-seeds dormant                  # Filter seeds by status

`/gsd-review-backlog`

Review and promote backlog items to active milestone.

Actions per item: Promote (move to active sequence), Keep (leave in backlog), Remove (delete).

/gsd-review-backlog

`/gsd-thread`

Manage persistent context threads for cross-session work.

Argument	Required	Description
(none) / `list`	—	List all threads
`list --open`	—	List threads with status `open` or `in_progress` only
`list --resolved`	—	List threads with status `resolved` only
`status <slug>`	—	Show status of a specific thread
`close <slug>`	—	Mark a thread as resolved
`name`	—	Resume existing thread by name
`description`	—	Create new thread

Threads are lightweight cross-session knowledge stores for work that spans multiple sessions but doesn't belong to any specific phase. Lighter weight than /gsd-pause-work.

/gsd-thread                         # List all threads
/gsd-thread list --open             # List only open/in-progress threads
/gsd-thread list --resolved         # List only resolved threads
/gsd-thread status fix-deploy-key   # Show thread status
/gsd-thread close fix-deploy-key    # Mark thread as resolved
/gsd-thread fix-deploy-key-auth     # Resume thread
/gsd-thread "Investigate TCP timeout in pasta service"  # Create new

Roadmap Management Commands

`roadmap validate`

Validate ROADMAP.md for structural integrity, including milestone-prefix consistency.

Prerequisites: .planning/ROADMAP.md exists Produces: Validation report; exits non-zero on any error or warning

node gsd-tools.cjs roadmap validate

`roadmap upgrade --convention milestone-prefixed`

Migrate legacy Phase N IDs to the milestone-prefixed Phase M-NN convention.

Flag	Required	Description
`--convention milestone-prefixed`	Yes	Target convention to migrate to
`--apply`	No	Write changes to disk (default: dry-run only)

Prerequisites: .planning/ROADMAP.md exists Produces: Dry-run diff (default) or in-place ROADMAP.md rewrite (--apply)

node gsd-tools.cjs roadmap upgrade --convention milestone-prefixed         # dry-run
node gsd-tools.cjs roadmap upgrade --convention milestone-prefixed --apply  # apply

State Management Commands

`effort sync`

Re-align installed agent files with your current effort and model configuration, without a full reinstall.

Prerequisites: GSD installed for a runtime Produces: A structured change report; writes only with --apply

node gsd-tools.cjs effort sync            # dry run — reports, writes nothing
node gsd-tools.cjs effort sync --apply    # write the changes

Flag	Description
`--apply`	Write the changes. Omitted is a dry run — the default reports and touches nothing
`--dry-run`	Explicit dry run (the default)
`--runtime <name>`	Override the runtime instead of reading it from config
`--config-dir <path>`	Point at a specific runtime config directory

On claude it re-syncs the effort: frontmatter of installed gsd-*.md agents.

On codex it repairs .toml files that drift from the passive model posture (ADR-2313) — the counterpart to the detection that validate agents performs:

Situation	What happens
`model` pins a tier alias or a `claude-*` id	the `model` line is removed, so the agent inherits the session model
`model_reasoning_effort` with no `model`	the orphaned effort line is removed (#838)
`model` pins a real Codex id	left untouched, reported `skipped` — an explicit pin is yours to keep
the file cannot be parsed	refused and reported — never partially rewritten
the file is a symlink	skipped, as on the Claude path

Only the targeted lines are removed. Line endings, BOM, key order, comments, blank lines, and any keys GSD does not itself emit are preserved byte-for-byte, so a repair shows up as a two-line diff rather than a reformatted file. Writes are atomic — the file is either its old contents or its new ones, never a partial write.

`validate agents`

Check that the GSD agents are installed for the active runtime — and, on Codex, that the installed .toml files satisfy the passive model posture.

Prerequisites: GSD installed for a runtime Produces: Installed / missing / incomplete agent lists, plus a codex_posture report

node gsd-tools.cjs validate agents

codex_posture is populated only when the active runtime is codex; on every other runtime it reports not_codex and reads nothing from disk. It is read-only — it reports violations and never edits your files.

Violation reason	Meaning
`anthropic_flavored_model`	The `.toml` pins a GSD tier alias (`opus`, `sonnet`, `haiku`, `fable`) or a `claude-*` id. Codex rejects these — the agent fails to spawn with a 400
`orphaned_reasoning_effort`	A `model_reasoning_effort` with no `model`, leaving the model following your Codex session while the effort follows GSD (#838)
`unreadable`	The file could not be read. Other agents are still checked

Presence and posture are separate verdicts: a missing agent is reported in missing, not as a posture violation. See ADR-2313 for the posture itself, and How to recover and troubleshoot for the symptom-led walkthrough.

`state validate`

Detect drift between STATE.md and the actual filesystem.

Prerequisites: .planning/STATE.md exists Produces: Validation report showing any drift between STATE.md fields and filesystem reality

node gsd-tools.cjs state validate

The report also carries a scope field reporting whether the drift derivation could actually run:

`scope`	Meaning
`complete`	The derivation ran over usable input — a resolvable phase, a readable disk scan. `valid`/`warnings`/`drift` are a real answer.
`truncated`	Part of the input was cut short (e.g. the phase's plan/summary scan hit its cap) — the answer may be incomplete.
`unscoped`	`Current Phase` could not be resolved from either frontmatter or body — there was nothing to scope the disk lookup to, so the derivation never ran.
`unreadable`	The frontmatter parse or a filesystem read (the phases directory scan) failed — the derivation could not consult its input.

valid is not routed from scope: valid still means "no drift warnings were found," and scope says whether the scan could actually run. A freshly-initialized project reports {valid:true, warnings:[], drift:{}, scope:'unscoped'} — nothing was wrong, and the phase could not be checked. See Interpret state validate results for how to act on each scope value.

`state sync [--verify]`

Reconstruct STATE.md from actual project state on disk.

Flag	Description
`--verify`	Dry-run mode — show proposed changes without writing

Prerequisites: .planning/ directory exists Produces: Updated STATE.md reflecting filesystem reality

node gsd-tools.cjs state sync             # Reconstruct STATE.md from disk
node gsd-tools.cjs state sync --verify    # Dry-run: show changes without writing

`state rebuild [--dry-run] [--verbose]`

Re-derive STATE.md body structure from canonical sources (frontmatter + .planning/phases/ disk scan). Reconciles ## Current Position prose with frontmatter, drops orphaned rows from the **By Phase:** table, clears template-placeholder field values, and de-duplicates ## Session Continuity Archive blocks down to the 3 most-recent entries. Every mutation is recorded in a structured ## Rebuild Log audit section appended to STATE.md (ADR-1817 §3).

Heavier and manual counterpart to the lightweight, auto-triggered state sync. The two compose non-overlappingly: sync patches three frontmatter fields; rebuild reconciles body structure. Per ADR-1817 §4, rebuild is idempotent — running it twice on a clean file produces no change.

Flag	Description
`--dry-run`	Compute the rebuild and emit a structured preview, write nothing
`--verbose`	Tee the audit-log entries to stderr in addition to writing them to STATE.md

Prerequisites: .planning/STATE.md exists Produces: Reconciled STATE.md with a ## Rebuild Log audit entry (only when drift was reconciled)

node gsd-tools.cjs state rebuild             # Reconcile body structure
node gsd-tools.cjs state rebuild --dry-run   # Preview the diff without writing
node gsd-tools.cjs state rebuild --verbose   # Emit audit-log entries to stderr

`state planned-phase`

Record state transition after plan-phase completes (Planned/Ready to execute).

Flag	Description
`--phase N`	Phase number that was planned
`--plans N`	Number of plans generated

Prerequisites: Phase has been planned Produces: Updated STATE.md with post-planning state

node gsd-tools.cjs state planned-phase --phase 3 --plans 2

`state complete-phase [--phase N]`

Mark the current phase as COMPLETE in STATE.md — updates the body Status, Last Activity, and ## Current Position fields. --phase is optional; when omitted, the phase is resolved from STATE.md's Current Phase/Phase fields (frontmatter current_phase preferred, falling back to the body).

Idempotency guard (#3489): if STATE.md's canonical current phase already names a phase distinct from the one being marked complete — including when that phase lives only in frontmatter current_phase, not the body — the command is a no-op (idempotent: true) rather than rolling STATE.md back to the requested phase's moment-of-completion. If the frontmatter cannot be parsed at all, the command refuses outright (Unable to read STATE.md frontmatter; refusing to run complete-phase to avoid a destructive rollback) instead of guessing.

Prerequisites: .planning/STATE.md exists Produces: Updated STATE.md marking the resolved phase complete, or a no-op when the guard determines the phase was already superseded

node gsd-tools.cjs state complete-phase --phase 3

Community Commands

Community Hooks

Optional git and session hooks gated behind hooks.community: true in .planning/config.json. All are no-ops unless explicitly enabled.

Hook	Purpose
`gsd-validate-commit.sh`	Enforce Conventional Commits format on git commit messages
`gsd-session-state.sh`	Track session state transitions
`gsd-phase-boundary.sh`	Enforce phase boundary checks

Enable with:

{ "hooks": { "community": true } }

Community Invite

To join the GSD Discord community, visit the link in the GSD README or run /gsd-help and follow the Discord link shown there.

Contributing: Skill Description Standards

Skill descriptions (the description: field in each commands/gsd/*.md frontmatter) are injected into every session's system prompt. To keep per-session overhead low, descriptions must be ≤ 100 chars and must not duplicate flag documentation already in argument-hint:.

A lint gate enforces the budget:

npm run lint:descriptions

The check is also run as part of npm test via tests/skill-frontmatter-contract.test.cjs.

Capability commands (third-party)

A capability can ship its own command family by declaring commands: [{ family, module, router }] in its capability.json (ADR-1244 D7). Once the capability is active, running gsd-tools <family> … (equivalently the gsd <family> wrapper) dispatches to the capability's router. The first-party families graphify, intel, and audit-uat/audit-open use exactly this registry-driven seam.

For a project-scoped third-party capability, "active" is decided by the user-owned consent store (${GSD_HOME:-~}/.gsd/consent.json), not by the in-repo ledger. Since #1459, the authoritative project-scope activation gate is a consent record on this machine, bound to the project root and the exact bundle content; a forged or cloned in-repo .gsd-capabilities.json ledger that looks committed activates nothing on its own — see The capability trust model. A global capability (under your own home) is trusted without a per-project record.

Command dispatch is then gated twice. Beyond that primary activation gate, the router module is loaded only from the capability's own install root (a bare .cjs basename, traversal- and symlink-confined), and dispatch additionally requires a committed (non-_pending) entry in the per-runtime .gsd-capabilities.json ledger — a secondary signal that the install actually completed. A capability that is merely present on disk without a committed ledger entry is not command-dispatchable; a project-scoped one is not even active without the consent record. (A project ledger lives in the repo tree and is only as trustworthy as the repository — which is precisely why the consent store, not the ledger, is the project-scope activation gate.)

101 KiB Raw Blame History Unescape Escape

GSD Core Command Reference

Command Syntax

Skill Runtime Behavior (Claude Code)

Namespace Meta-Skills

Core Workflow Commands

/gsd-new-project

/gsd-onboard

/gsd-workspace

/gsd-spec-phase

/gsd-discuss-phase

/gsd-ui-phase

/gsd-plan-phase

/gsd-plan-review-convergence

/gsd-ultraplan-phase

/gsd-execute-phase

/gsd-verify-work

SUMMARY coverage: block

/gsd-ship

/gsd-ui-review

/gsd-audit-uat

/gsd-audit-milestone

/gsd-complete-milestone

/gsd-milestone-summary

/gsd-new-milestone

Phase Management Commands

/gsd-phase

/gsd-mvp-phase

/gsd-validate-phase

phase uat-passed <N> [--require-verification]

Navigation Commands

/gsd-next

/gsd-progress

/gsd-resume-work

/gsd-pause-work

/gsd-manager

/gsd-help