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Dennis Alexis Valin Dittrich 1017898cb9 fix(#3771 ): make remediation examples non-binding and surface revision conflicts (#3916 )

* fix(#3771): separate the binding property from the advisory remediation

Checker findings fused "what property failed" with "how to fix it" into a
single `fix_hint` and never marked which half binds. The checker rendered
every hint under a "must fix" heading, the orchestrators injected the issues
verbatim and ordered targeted updates, and the shared revision references
mapped each hint to a prescriptive strategy — so a contract-following planner
applied a hint literally even when a smaller mechanism satisfied the same
property, or when the hint contradicted a locked decision. There was no
channel to report that conflict, and every attempt burned a revision
iteration.

Checker side: every issue now carries a binding `required_property` (the
invariant that failed) plus its evidence and severity, and `fix_hint` is
labelled non-binding wherever it appears — including the human-facing blocker
rendering, so "must fix" unambiguously names the property and never the
example.

Planner side: revision re-checks locked decisions, capability guidance and
existing plan constraints before editing; satisfying a blocker through a
smaller valid alternative counts as addressing it; and a hint that conflicts
with any of those returns `REVISION_CONFLICT` carrying the conflict and the
alternatives considered. Orchestrators route that to user choice or the
configured plan-review convergence loop without consuming retry budget.

Also applied to the UI-spec revision loop and the gap-plan hint, and the
generic pattern's stray `suggested_fix` field name is reconciled to the
plan-checker's `fix_hint`.

Nothing legitimately binding is weakened: blockers still block, severity
still gates, iteration caps and stall escalation still fire, and required
task fields and decision coverage still hold.

Refs #3771

* test(#3771): pin the binding/advisory split across the revision chain

Locks the separation at every link that carries it: the checker's issue
schema and blocker rendering, the planner's constraint re-check and
REVISION_CONFLICT return, the generic pattern's reconciled field names, and
each orchestrator's conflict routing without retry-budget consumption. Also
pins what must not have been weakened — blockers, severity gating, iteration
caps and stall escalation.

Red against the pre-fix prose: 32 of 34 assertions fail (the 2 that pass are
the preservation checks, correctly).

Refs #3771

* chore(#3771): add changeset fragment for the remediation-binding fix

* chore(#3771): acknowledge the remediation-binding growth

Five runtime-loaded files grow: the two checkers carry the binding/advisory
split where the model reads it (a `required_property` on every dimension
example, since a schema the examples contradict teaches the examples), and
the three orchestrators carry the REVISION_CONFLICT route, which has to live
with the `iteration_count`/`revision_count` state it declines to spend.

Deletes tests/emitted-drift-acks/3172-stated-failing-direction.json: it is
fully spent on next and still owned plan-phase.md, so it walls off a key it
can no longer clear (#3078). Its removal is the documented remedy for the
duplicate-key collision, not drive-by cleanup.

* fix(#3771): close the review gaps in the conflict contract

Adversarial review (Codex, Antigravity) found four real defects in the first
pass, each confirmed against the source before acting:

- The UI checker's structured return still ordered `Fix: {exact fix required}`
and "list each BLOCK dimension with exact fix required". The dimension
examples had been marked non-binding but the rendering the researcher
actually reads had not — the same omission this issue is about.
- `ui-phase` and the canonical `revision-loop` flow incremented their counter
BEFORE dispatching the reviser, so "do NOT increment on REVISION_CONFLICT"
was unreachable prose: the iteration was already spent. The increment now
sits on the return path in both.
- The conflict gate offered "accept as-is", which is an early exit from a
still-failing blocker — a weakening the brief explicitly forbids. The three
options are now adopt an alternative / override the constraint / amend the
constraint; every one resolves the conflict. Accepting an unaddressed blocker
remains available only at the unchanged iteration-cap escalation.
- The convergence route was declarative: nothing in
plan-review-convergence.md could receive a conflict. plan-phase now records
it in REVIEWS.md — the channel that loop already consumes — convergence
refuses to declare convergence over an open entry, and routing back into a
run convergence itself started is explicitly excluded as a cycle. `quick` has
no REVIEWS.md and no phase, so its convergence branch was dead prose and is
deleted in favour of asking the user.

Also reconciles the last two drifted field names (`finding`, `affected_field`)
to the plan-checker schema, and repairs a silent no-op: the few-shot
`required_property` insertion never applied because those lines are
blockquoted, and the test's own block filter was anchored on indentation only,
so a vacuous loop passed over zero blocks. Both are fixed and the filter now
asserts it found blocks.

Refs #3771

* chore(#3771): extend the growth acknowledgment for the review round

plan-review-convergence.md joins the list: the conflict route needed a
receiving end, and it lands on the seam that loop already reads (REVIEWS.md)
rather than a new mechanism. The plan-phase, ui-phase and gsd-ui-checker
entries gain the second-pass reasoning — an executable convergence branch, the
increment moved onto the return path, and the structured return that still
ordered an exact fix.

* fix(#3771): make the conflict route bounded, ordered, and owned

Round-2 adversarial review found five more defects, each confirmed in the
source before acting:

- The convergence gate sat AFTER `gsd_run state planned-phase` and the success
banner, so a run could write and announce convergence over an unresolved
conflict. OPEN_CONFLICTS is now read from REVIEWS.md and is part of the
converged CONDITION, evaluated before any write.
- plan-phase's cycle-exclusion ("unless this run was invoked by convergence")
was not a question the orchestrator can answer at runtime. plan-phase now
never invokes convergence at all — it records the conflict when a phase
REVIEWS.md exists and resolves it with the user in-place, which removes the
cycle instead of describing it.
- Closure had no owner. plan-phase writes the row, so plan-phase strikes it
resolved; convergence only reads. An open row is a live blocker, never a
stale artifact.
- Declining to increment the counter removed the only bound on the conflict
path: an agent returning the same conflict forever would loop unattended. A
conflict naming the same `required_property` twice in a row is now a stall
and escalates through the existing gate.
- verify-work's gap-plan revision loop hands `<revision_context>` to
gsd-planner and so inherits the whole contract, but stated none of it and
could not handle the conflict return. It is now covered like the others, and
is in the test's orchestrator table.

Refs #3771

* chore(#3771): acknowledge the round-2 growth

verify-work.md joins the list — the flow the second review found missed — and
the plan-phase, ui-phase and plan-review-convergence entries gain the
round-2 reasoning: the gate moved ahead of the state write, the convergence
hand-off replaced with a runtime-checkable record-and-resolve, and the
recurrence bound that replaces the counter the conflict path stopped spending.

* fix(#3771): make the convergence gate countable and stop the conflict fall-through

Third adversarial round (Antigravity) found three defects:

- The OPEN_CONFLICTS pipeline had no `grep -v '~~'` despite its own comment
claiming one, and `grep -c '^| '` also counts a markdown table's header and
separator rows — every resolved conflict would have read as open and
convergence would have deadlocked instead of converging. plan-phase now
records each conflict as a `- [ ]` checklist line and flips it to `- [x]`, so
the gate is an exact fixed-string match with no table parsing.
- "then continue below" fell through to the checker spawn, so a SECOND
REVISION_CONFLICT would have been handed to the checker as though it were a
revised plan. plan-phase, quick and verify-work now re-evaluate the return
from the top of the conflict handler; ui-phase already looped back.
- revision-loop.md still described plan-phase routing a conflict to the
convergence loop instead of asking — the behaviour round 2 removed. Recording
is now stated as being in addition to asking, never instead of it.

Refs #3771

* chore(#3771): bring the changeset in line with what shipped

Two review rounds widened the change after the fragment was written:
verify-work's gap-plan revision and the convergence loop are covered, two
more drifted field names are reconciled, and the conflict path carries an
explicit recurrence bound.

* fix(#3771): declare and emit the REVISION_CONFLICT marker

check:contract-drift on CI caught what local lint never reached: four
workflows dispatch on `## REVISION_CONFLICT`, but no agent declared or emitted
it — an orphan consumer, matching a marker nothing produces. The shared
reference (planner-revision.md Step 7b) described the return; the agent
definitions did not carry it.

gsd-planner and gsd-ui-researcher now emit the marker in-fence alongside their
other return markers, and both registry rows in agent-contracts.md declare it.
gsd-planner's Consumed by gains the two workflows that dispatch on it and were
missing from the row.

The gate is right: a return contract belongs where the agent is defined, not
only in a reference the agent happens to load.

Refs #3771

* chore(#3771): acknowledge the return-marker growth

gsd-planner.md and gsd-ui-researcher.md each gain the REVISION_CONFLICT
marker that check:contract-drift requires them to emit.

* fix(#3771): hoist the shared conflict protocol out of the workflows

Two CI failures, both correct gates:

- tests/few-shot-calibration.test.cjs pins the plan-checker calibration file
at exactly 4 examples (2 positive, 2 negative). The example added in the
first pass broke that balance — and described PLANNER behaviour in the
CHECKER's calibration set, which is the wrong surface for it. Removed; the
smaller-alternative rule is already normative in gsd-plan-checker.md and
planner-revision.md, and pinned by the regression suite.
- tests/phase6-capstone-conformance.test.cjs (ADR-857 phase 6, #1168) requires
plan-phase.md to stay BELOW its pre-phase-6 baseline of 94519 bytes. The
inline conflict block pushed it to 94988.

The fix for the second is the one that should have been made first: the
record/resolve/close protocol and the recurrence bound were identical in four
workflows, and revision-loop.md — which plan-phase already @-imports — is what
a shared contract is for. The protocol now lives there once; plan-phase states
only its bindings (which counter, which artifact, which next step) and points
at it. plan-phase.md: 94988 -> 92739, under the ratchet with headroom, and the
four-way duplication is gone.

quick, ui-phase and verify-work do not import the reference, so they keep their
inline statements. The suite asserts each rule against what the runtime
actually loads for that orchestrator, not against the file in isolation.

Refs #3771

* docs(#3771): state the shared-protocol relationship accurately

Three of the four revision-bearing workflows do not @-import revision-loop.md,
so 'follows it verbatim' overstated the coupling. Only plan-phase defers; the
others restate the rules inline and this section is the authority they must
agree with.

* refactor(#3771): name the authority instead of restating it four times

Self-review finding: the same ~700-byte reviser paragraph was inlined in four
prompts while gsd-planner already loads planner-revision.md whenever
<revision_context> is present (agents/gsd-planner.md:555, :588) — a fifth copy
of the same contract. Four places to edit in lockstep is precisely the drift
class this PR exists to fix; the generic pattern calling the field
suggested_fix while the checker emitted fix_hint is what that looks like after
a year.

Each prompt now carries only the load-bearing clauses and names the authority
it summarises. Deliberately NOT reduced to a bare pointer: these are LLM
prompts, and a contract stated only in a file the reader is supposed to fetch
is the failure mode of this very bug. The saving is modest (~50 bytes each) —
the point is the named source of truth, not the bytes.

Suite: dropped seven assertions that pinned heading text and bold-lead
phrasing a reword would break without changing what the runtime is told; their
neighbours already pin the same contract by content. 519 -> 499 lines, 61
tests. Red gate against origin/next: 56 of 61 fail.

Refs #3771

* fix(#3771): sanitize agent-authored conflict text and bound total conflicts

Cross-AI review (agy/Gemini) raised two security findings. I confirmed the
first by running the gate's own awk against a crafted file and reproduced it
exactly; the second is a real hole in my bound.

1. FAIL-OPEN in the convergence gate. The conflict text is agent-authored and
is appended to REVIEWS.md, which the gate scans with an awk that stops at
the next '## ' heading. One line of agent text beginning '## ' ends that
scan early, so conflicts below it are never counted and convergence declares
success over a live blocker. Measured: 3 open conflicts, awk returned 2.

Fixed at the write boundary, which is the trust boundary: every field has
newlines and tabs collapsed to spaces and a leading '#', '-', '|' or fence
stripped, so one conflict is exactly one line. Both producing agents now
declare their fields single-line plain text, and the reader states the
invariant it depends on so a later edit cannot silently break it. Verified:
3 open + 1 resolved now counts 3; missing file and absent section count 0.

2. The recurrence bound was 'same required_property twice in a row', which an
agent alternating property names never trips, leaving the un-incremented
conflict path unbounded. Now bounded twice: the repeat rule catches the
common case, and the THIRD conflict return of a loop escalates whatever
property it names. A conflict still never consumes a revision iteration;
this cap is separate from and additional to the revision cap.

Rejected from the same review: deleting 'a planner that reaches
required_property by a smaller or different mechanism has addressed the issue
in full' from the CHECKER prompt as misplaced. It is load-bearing exactly
there. A checker that does not know a different mechanism counts will re-flag
the issue on re-check, which is the revision loop that never terminates. The
argument offered for deleting it, that the checker evaluates the new state
independently, describes the failure mode.

Refs #3771

* fix(#3771): fail closed on an unverifiable convergence gate

Second cross-AI pass (agy, this time with the full files rather than the diff)
found two more, both real:

1. The gate read REVIEWS_FILE with `2>/dev/null || echo 0`, so an unreadable or
empty path counted as ZERO open conflicts and converged. That path is
resolved a few lines earlier by a pre-existing unquoted
`ls ${phase_dir}/${padded_phase}-REVIEWS.md` (line 346, not touched by this
PR), which yields an empty string rather than an error when the path
contains a space. Unverifiable is not clean: the gate now tests -z and -r
first and BLOCKS. Verified both branches.

The unquoted ls itself is left alone deliberately — it predates this change
and belongs to the reviews lookup, not the conflict gate. Fixing it at my
own boundary removes its effect on this gate without widening scope.

2. REVIEWS.md is writable by the review agent, which could flip a `- [ ]` to
`- [x]` or delete the section and forge the state of a blocking gate. The
section now declares a single writer: /gsd:plan-phase appends and closes,
every other agent leaves it byte-for-byte alone, readers read.

Also trimmed a clause that explained the increment ordering by reference to
what the file said before this PR. Commit history is not instruction, and
these files are prompts.

Rejected: the claim that quick's conflict gate deadlocks autonomous pipelines
by asking the user. Its existing max-iteration escalation in the same file
already asks the user the same way; this adds no new interaction class.
Noted but out of scope: the per-dimension YAML example blocks and the shim
boilerplate duplicated across agent prompts both predate this change.

Refs #3771

* fix(#3771): count conflicts by line shape, not by section

CodeRabbit review on the rehearsal PR. Five findings, all valid, all applied.

The best one is a deletion. The convergence gate scanned between
'## Plan-Revision Conflicts' and the next '## ' heading, and that scan stops at
the FIRST heading it meets — so one stray '## ' line hid every conflict beneath
it and returned 0, converging over a live blocker. Reproduced: section-scan 0,
shape-scan 1. Sanitizing at the write boundary does not cover a hand-edited,
legacy, or foreign-written REVIEWS.md, so the reader needed its own guarantee.

It now matches the conflict line SHAPE anywhere in the file:

grep -c '^- \[ \] .*required_property:'

No section bookkeeping, nothing a heading can truncate, and it composes with the
writer's sanitization (which strips a leading '-' from agent text, so agent prose
cannot forge the shape). Verified: injected heading -> 1, all resolved -> 0.

The other four:

- Both checkers told the author never to emit a contradictory fix_hint, then
offered an escape hatch that put the forbidden route in the hint anyway. They
now name NO route in that case and state only that the property conflicts with
the constraint. A hint carrying a forbidden route is applied by anyone who
trusts hints.
- The REVISION_CONFLICT marker description in gsd-planner.md was narrower than
planner-revision.md: it covered a contradictory hint but not an unreachable
required_property. A planner reading only the agent file would have burned
retry budget on the case the reference routes to a conflict.
- The few-shot calibration examples used uppercase BLOCKER/INFO while the schema
defines blocker/warning/info. Pre-existing, but it is the same schema-vs-example
disagreement this PR exists to end, and the file was already being edited.
- verify-work's re-entry instruction existed but sat after the Bounded clause, so
the paragraph read "re-spawn ... stop re-spawning ... after re-spawning". The
re-entry now immediately follows the re-spawn, and states that only a
non-conflict return may reach the checker or increment iteration_count.

Refs #3771

* fix(#3771): resolve the contradictory scope_sanity severity examples

Sixth CodeRabbit finding, posted outside the diff range and missed on my first
read — I had claimed all findings were addressed after reading only the five
inline comments. This one was in the review body.

agents/gsd-plan-checker.md carried TWO scope_sanity examples with identical
metrics (5 tasks, 12 files) and OPPOSITE severities: warning in Dimension 5,
blocker in <examples>. Line 872 states "2-3 tasks/plan good, 4 warning, 5+
blocker" and the severity table lists warning as "Scope 4 tasks (borderline)",
so the warning example contradicted both.

ADR-2629 Decision 5's "over budget is a WARNING, never a blocker" does not
excuse it: that rule governs the smart-zone TOKEN estimate (the estimate-check
verb, lines 299-306), which is a different axis from task count. Verified in
source before touching it.

The contradiction is pre-existing but this PR made it binding and visible:
severity is now declared part of the binding payload, and both examples were
given the same required_property, so they now disagree on the severity of an
identical finding about an identical property.

Deviating from the proposed correction, which was warning -> blocker: that
would duplicate the <examples> entry outright (same tasks, files, severity).
The Dimension 5 example is instead made a genuine 4-task borderline warning, so
the file keeps one worked example per severity and the thresholds, the severity
table and both examples finally agree.

Refs #3771

* fix(#3771): stop laundering a grep error into zero open conflicts

Seventh CodeRabbit finding — from a SECOND review round my own CR-4 push
triggered, which I had not looked for. This one is a regression I introduced
while fixing the previous fail-open.

CR-4 replaced the truncatable section scan with:

OPEN_CONFLICTS=$(grep -c '^- \[ \] .*required_property:' "$REVIEWS_FILE" || true)

`|| true` masks every grep failure. grep exits 1 for "no matches" (a legitimate
zero) but 2 for a read error, and `|| true` turns both into an empty capture
that `${OPEN_CONFLICTS:-0}` renders as 0. If REVIEWS.md is removed or becomes
unreadable between the -r check and the scan, the gate reports no conflicts and
convergence proceeds. Proven: unreadable file -> captured empty -> 0.

The status is now inspected, and only exit 1 counts as zero; anything else
blocks.

My first attempt at this fix was itself wrong and my own harness caught it: I
wrote `if ! grep ...; then grep_status=$?`, but `!` inverts the status, so `$?`
in that branch is 0 and every failure reads as success — the clean-file case
printed "BLOCKED (grep exit 0)". The status must be read in the ELSE branch of a
non-negated `if`, which is what CodeRabbit proposed. Both traps are now pinned
by tests.

Verified end to end: all resolved -> 0, no conflicts at all -> 0, injected
heading -> 1, unreadable file -> BLOCKED with grep exit 2.

Refs #3771

* test(#3771): execute the conflict gate instead of reading it

CodeRabbit round three: 0 actionable, 1 nitpick — "these assertions inspect
Markdown source only; they do not prove that grep status 1 produces zero
conflicts or that a scan error exits before convergence." Rated Trivial. It is
the most valuable finding of the three rounds.

This gate has been wrong three times: a section scan a heading could truncate, a
`|| true` that laundered grep's error status into zero, and an `if !` whose `$?`
reported the negation rather than the command. Every one of those passed the
text assertions that existed at the time. I proved each fix by hand in a shell,
and none of that proof lived in the suite.

The gate is one self-contained fenced block, so the test now extracts it from
the workflow — located by content, not line number — writes it to a script and
RUNS it against fixtures: two open plus one resolved counts 2; no matches counts
0 and does not fail; a conflict below an injected `## ` heading still counts; an
unreadable path and an empty path both BLOCK with a non-zero status and no zero
count on stdout.

Non-vacuity proven by mutation rather than asserted. Reverting the gate to each
of its three historical broken forms reds the suite:

section-scan awk -> 7 failures (5 in the gate cases)
|| true -> 4 failures (3 in the gate cases)
if ! (negated $?) -> 4 failures (3 in the gate cases)
restored -> 69 pass, 0 fail

The prose assertions stay: they are the right instrument for a prompt. This
covers the one part of the change that is real shell an orchestrator executes.

Refs #3771

* test(#3771): route the gate harness through the shared test helpers

ESLint's project rules caught three violations in the new harness: an unbounded
execFileSync (DEFECT.UNBOUNDED-SUBPROCESS — an unbounded spawn is an indefinite
hang, and on macOS CI that is how a stuck run stops reporting instead of failing)
and two raw fs.rmSync calls, which skip the Windows-EBUSY retry budget that
helpers.cleanup carries.

Now uses createTempDir/cleanup from tests/helpers.cjs and passes an explicit
30s timeout. Suppressing the rules was available and would have been the wrong
call: both exist because of real CI failure modes on platforms I am not testing
on.

* chore(#3771): backfill the changeset PR number

The pr: field is drift-checked against the PR event payload, so it cannot be
written before the PR exists. Set to 3916.

* fix(#3771): close revision conflict persistence gaps

Use the authoritative review artifact, keep conflict and normal retry paths disjoint, and enforce one writer-reader grammar so malformed state fails closed.

Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: diagnose-issues.md — #3771 marks the gap-plan remediation hint non-binding while keeping root_cause authoritative
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: gsd-plan-checker.md — #3771 separates binding required_property evidence from advisory fix_hint examples across the checker contract
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: gsd-planner.md — #3771 declares the REVISION_CONFLICT return used when remediation contradicts governing constraints
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: gsd-ui-checker.md — #3771 applies the same binding-property and advisory-hint split to UI review findings
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: gsd-ui-researcher.md — #3771 defines the UI revision producer's structured REVISION_CONFLICT return
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: plan-phase.md — #3771 routes and persists bounded revision conflicts before spending the normal retry budget
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: plan-review-convergence.md — #3771 adds the fail-closed owned-block parser and prevents convergence over open conflicts
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: review.md — #3771 emits and preserves the canonical writer-owned conflict block across review regeneration
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: ui-phase.md — #3771 routes UI revision conflicts to resolution before consuming revision_count
Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: verify-work.md — #3771 gives gap-plan revision the same bounded conflict route before iteration_count

* test(#3916): guard rebases against schema drift

Load the current-base progressive-disclosure examples so every integrated issue remains bound by required_property after branch reconciliation.

* test(#3916): skip the extracted-gate suite's bash spawns on win32

Third review round's sole survivor: runConflictGate()/withReviews() spawn
bash against a Node-native temp path built by createTempDir(), which is
backslash-separated on the Windows CI lane and not a path Git Bash is
guaranteed to accept (DEFECT.WINDOWS-TEST-PORTABILITY, matching the
observed CI failure at revision-remediation-binding.test.cjs:844,
ENOENT on a path Windows read as a directory separator). No eslint rule
catches it since the call has neither a chmod nor a `bash -c` form.

Guards the four call sites with the repo's existing skipOnWin32
convention (describe/test `{ skip: IS_WINDOWS }`) rather than
normalizing the harness path to forward slashes, which would defeat the
one test whose purpose is proving the production gate does NOT rewrite
a literal backslash in a POSIX filename.

* fix(#3916): backfill changeset pr field to the fork validation PR number

* fix(#3771): forbid silently accepting an open plan-revision conflict at max-cycles escalation

The max-cycles escalation prompt only surfaced HIGH_COUNT and ACTIONABLE_COUNT; an open
plan-revision conflict (OPEN_CONFLICTS > 0) was never disclosed there, and "Proceed anyway"
could exit successfully over it — exactly the failure mode this PR exists to close (a success
banner over an unresolved conflict nobody resolved). Blockers still block: withhold "Proceed
anyway" and route to Manual review whenever a conflict is open.

* fix(#3771): do not hard-block REVISION_CONFLICT persistence when no REVIEWS.md exists yet

A phase's first-ever revision cycle can return REVISION_CONFLICT before any REVIEWS.md has been
written — REVIEWS_PATH is then legitimately empty, not a corrupt or deleted file. The persistence
gate's own accompanying prose already says the record channel applies 'when REVIEWS_FILE is
non-empty', but the bash condition never checked that, so it hard-blocked every conflict on a
brand-new phase regardless of whether persistence was even expected to run. Require a non-empty
REVIEWS_FILE before treating a missing file as an error.

* chore(#3771): raise the plan-phase.md ADR-857 host-loop ceiling to 96700

The frozen pre-phase-6 ceiling (94519) collided on rebase: this PR's own
REVISION_CONFLICT persistence/routing gate is core planner control flow, not an
un-extracted optional feature, and landed alongside an unrelated, already-merged
same-file growth (the #4.6 context-drift pre-check) already on next. Same
rationale #1298 already established for execute-phase.md's ceiling.

* chore(#3916): backfill changeset pr field to the upstream PR number

* fix(#3771): make the writer-side REVISION_CONFLICT sanitize step real shell

The Conflict Return record channel sanitized agent-authored fields via a
prose instruction ("Sanitize each agent-authored field before appending")
for the orchestrator LLM to apply by hand, while the reader-side gate in
plan-review-convergence.md parses the same slot with real, executed awk.
Flagged Minor across two review rounds (round 4, round 6) since no code
performed the sanitize anywhere.

plan-phase.md's Conflict Return step now runs a real bash gate: sanitize
each field (collapse newline/tab to space, strip a leading #/-/|/fence),
build the one-line record, skip the append if an identical line already
exists (idempotent), insert before the writer-owned end delimiter, and
fail closed if that delimiter is missing rather than silently dropping
the conflict.

tests/revision-remediation-binding.test.cjs extracts and RUNS the new
fence (matching how the reader gate is already tested), composing it
with the existing reader gate: hostile-field fast-check fuzzing, a
repeated-conflict idempotency check, and a missing-delimiter fail-closed
check that the file is left byte-for-byte unchanged on failure.

Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: plan-phase.md — #3916 turns the writer-side
REVISION_CONFLICT sanitize+insert step into real, executed shell instead
of a prose instruction, matching the reader gate's existing rigor

* fix(#3916): backfill changeset pr field to the fork validation PR number

Fork CI's changeset-lint reads the real PR number from its own event
payload; the fragment still carried the upstream number from the last
sync, so the DEFECT.CHANGESET-PR-FIELD-DRIFT check failed on this fork
PR. Re-backfill to the upstream number before the final push.

* fix(#3771): close the awk -v forgery and same-session close gaps agy found

Adversarial review (gemini-3.8-flash-high via the internal agy review
lane) on the full PR found two BLOCKERs against the just-added
writer-side conflict gate:

1. `awk -v line="${LINE}"` decodes escape sequences in its argument, so
a literal two-character `\n` in agent-authored text became a real
newline inside awk, splitting the appended record across two
physical lines. `tr` only strips actual control bytes, so it never
saw this — it defeated the exact forgery the gate exists to
prevent, both the reader's zero-count and the writer's own
idempotency check. Fixed by passing LINE/END through awk's
ENVIRON, which is not escape-decoded.

2. A conflict resolved and re-spawned within the same plan-phase
session was never flipped from `- [ ]` to `- [x]` — the record
channel bullet said "plan-phase closes it," but no step did. Only
a *separate* `--reviews` re-entry (line ~622, still prose-only)
closes conflicts; the in-session resolve path left them open
forever, permanently blocking convergence. Fixed by carrying the
just-written line in `PENDING_CONFLICT` and closing it in the
`Otherwise` branch before the checker re-spawns.

Also fixed a MAJOR: docs/COMMANDS.md described the `--max-cycles`
escalation gate as uniformly offering "proceed or review manually,"
but the code (this PR's own change) withholds "Proceed anyway"
specifically when a plan-revision conflict is open — only manual
review is offered in that case. Docs now say so.

Not applied: the reviewer's `\r` truncated to plain tr from a MINOR
that also asked for temp-file permission preservation across `mktemp`.
Applying `chmod --reference` is not portable to macOS/BSD `chmod`, so
this is left as a documented low-severity tradeoff — the temp file now
sits alongside REVIEWS.md (same filesystem, atomic `mv`), which was
the same finding's more substantive half. Also not applied: a
suggested `gsd_run review record-conflict` CLI subcommand to
deduplicate the two `awk` blocks — a new command plus wiring is out of
scope for a review-remediation fix.

tests/revision-remediation-binding.test.cjs adds regression coverage
for both BLOCKERs: a literal-backslash-n hostile field composed with
the reader gate, and a close-gate extraction that verifies the flip to
`[x]`, the reader's count dropping to 0, and a fail-closed path when
the pending line is missing.

Emitted-Drift-Ack-Growth: plan-phase.md — #3916 fixes an awk -v escape-
decoding forgery and adds the missing same-session conflict-close step
an adversarial review found in the writer-side gate

* chore(#3916): backfill changeset pr field to the upstream PR number

Fork-validation CI needed pr: 1 to pass its own changeset-lint; restore
pr: 3916 before this push reaches open-gsd/gsd-core.

* fix(#3771): trim plan-phase.md prose back under the XL byte cap

Merging origin/next's unrelated growth pushed plan-phase.md 473 bytes
past the workflow-size-budget XL cap and the ADR-857 phase-6 baseline,
both tripped by CI after review approval. Removed an unpinned inert
bash comment and tightened connective prose in three REVISION_CONFLICT
bullets; no executable shell or test-pinned substring changed.

* chore(rehearsal): pin changeset pr field to fork rehearsal PR #25

Scratch-only commit for the rehearsal branch's own CI. Will not be
carried onto the branch backing upstream #3916 — that keeps pr: 3916.

* fix(#3771): address CodeRabbit findings on the REVISION_CONFLICT protocol

Fork rehearsal PR #25's first CodeRabbit pass surfaced 7 findings against
the already-approved #3916 diff; each verified against current code
before fixing (none hallucinated):

- plan-phase.md: writer-side awk gates now strip a trailing \r before
comparing lines, matching the reader gate (plan-review-convergence.md)
-- a CRLF REVIEWS.md previously made both writer gates fail closed.
- plan-phase.md: the close-fence's REVIEWS_FILE/PENDING_CONFLICT/
CONFLICT_RESOLUTION were read without ever being (re)defined in that
fence -- shell state does not survive across separate fenced blocks
(same convention already documented in review.md). Added the explicit
recompute/set instruction.
- revision-loop.md: previous_conflict_property was never reset after a
normal (non-conflict) revision, so a later, unrelated conflict on the
same property could be misread as a repeat and escalate prematurely.
- gsd-plan-checker.md / few-shot-examples/plan-checker.md: two example
required_property strings were unconditionally binding in a way their
own dimension's rules aren't (no-analog RESEARCH.md fallback; tasks
that create no functions), now scoped to match.
- quick/steps/plan-checker-loop.md: added the same disjoint
"Otherwise (not REVISION_CONFLICT)" branch plan-phase.md already had,
closing an ambiguity between the conflict and non-conflict return paths.
- revision-remediation-binding.test.cjs: the REVIEWS_PATH init-order
assertion used indexOf() without checking for -1, so it would pass
vacuously if either anchor were renamed away.

Also restores an "Export the row's CONFLICT_*" instruction I had cut in
the prior byte-budget trim -- checked non-pinned by tests, but it was the
only text telling the agent to set those vars before the awk block reads
them via ENVIRON.

Net growth from these fixes required reclaiming bytes elsewhere in
plan-phase.md (verified against every pinned substring in
revision-remediation-binding.test.cjs) to stay under the XL tier's
hard 98304-byte cap; final size 98245 bytes.

* fix(#3771): resync the #4079 shrink-only mirror to the current PRE_PHASE6 line

tests/plan-phase-background-wait-wakeup.test.cjs (landed on next via an
unrelated #4079 PR, merged in by this branch's next-sync) mirrored
plan-phase.md's phase6 shrink-only ceiling as a hardcoded local constant
(94519) rather than reading tests/phase6-capstone-conformance.test.cjs's
PRE_PHASE6 value. That value has since been legitimately raised twice
during this PR's own review (94519 -> 96700 -> 98300) to accommodate the
REVISION_CONFLICT persistence/routing gate. The two branches' independent
histories left the mirror stale post-merge -- not a textual git conflict,
but the same class of thing. Resynced to 98300.

* fix(#3771): address round-2 CodeRabbit findings on the conflict gates

CodeRabbit's re-review of the previous remediation commit found two real
issues in what it had already flagged:

- Both writer-side awk CRLF fixes used \`sub(/\r$/, "")\` directly on \`\$0\`,
which mutates it in place -- \`{ print }\` then emitted the CR-stripped
copy for every passed-through line, silently rewriting an unrelated
CRLF REVIEWS.md to LF on any insert or close. Now compares against a
separate \`cur\` copy and prints the original, untouched \`\$0\`.
- The close-fence's "recompute REVIEWS_FILE/PENDING_CONFLICT" prose
implied in-fence derivation, but the fence has no such code and the
test harness (\`runCloseGate\`) deliberately supplies all three as
pre-set env vars -- matching how the open fence's "Export the row's
CONFLICT_*" instruction already works. Reworded to "export ... in the
same invocation", matching that established, test-verified pattern
instead of promising logic that isn't there.

Added a regression test proving the CRLF fix no longer touches
passthrough lines (red against the mutate-in-place version, green now).

* fix(#3771): use a CRLF-safe check in the new passthrough regression test

local/no-crlf-fragile-split forbids splitting readFileSync content on a
literal \n (Windows git-autocrlf checkouts yield \r\n). My CRLF
passthrough-preservation test from the previous commit did exactly that
to inspect the first line. Replaced with a direct startsWith() check
against the known CRLF-terminated header, which needs no split.

* test(#3771): assert the record itself is inserted in the CRLF passthrough test

CodeRabbit nitpick (round 3): the passthrough-preservation test checked
gate status and the pre-existing line's CRLF ending, but never asserted
the new REVISION_CONFLICT record was actually written.

* fix(#3771): address agy/gemini-3.8-flash-high adversarial review findings

Full-PR adversarial review (internal /gsd-review antigravity lane,
gemini-3.8-flash-high) surfaced 9 findings; each verified against current
code before fixing (none hallucinated):

HIGH:
- quick-batch/steps/plan-checker-loop.md never received the
required_property/fix_hint binding language or REVISION_CONFLICT
handling this PR added everywhere else -- a genuinely unmigrated
producing context. Migrated to match quick/steps/plan-checker-loop.md,
and added it to the ORCHESTRATORS consistency battery in
revision-remediation-binding.test.cjs so future drift is caught
automatically.
- The close-fence's PENDING_CONFLICT was an agent-supplied env var that
had to exactly reconstruct a five-field sanitized line across a
multi-minute subagent dispatch -- fragile, and a scalar var also meant
a second simultaneous conflict silently dropped the first on overwrite.
Redesigned to match the open conflict by CONFLICT_DIMENSION/
CONFLICT_PLAN identity instead: the agent re-supplies two short,
already-tracked identifiers rather than reconstructing the full
sanitized text, and each conflict resolves independently regardless of
how many are open. Updated the test harness's runCloseGate contract to
match, and added a two-open-conflicts regression test.

MEDIUM:
- plan-phase.md's `--reviews` replanning path told the reader to "flip
the matching line to [x]" in prose only, with no executable path to
it -- pointed it at the same close gate used in step 12.
- plan-review-convergence.md's reader-gate awk tolerated a blank line
before the opening delimiter but not before the heading that follows
it; a formatter or LLM writer inserting one would hard-abort
convergence on an otherwise well-formed REVIEWS.md. Added the same
tolerance already granted above it, with a regression test.

LOW:
- Clarified that the escalation destination for a stalled conflict is
the same iteration/revision-count cap gate already defined in each of
quick, quick-batch, ui-phase, and verify-work, rather than an
undefined "stall" concept.
- Clarified "twice in a row" means no successful revision intervened,
matching revision-loop.md's now-explicit previous_conflict_property
reset.
- Fixed gsd-ui-researcher.md's stale rationale text, copied verbatim
from planner-revision.md: ui-phase presents the conflict table
directly to the user, it does not persist to a shared file scanned by
heading.

Net growth again required reclaiming bytes in plan-phase.md (verified
against every pinned substring in revision-remediation-binding.test.cjs)
to stay under the XL tier's hard 98304-byte cap; removed a now-dead
PENDING_CONFLICT assignment in the process. Final size 98258 bytes.

* fix(#3771): scope row 48's quick/steps guard away from plan-checker-loop.md

tests/gsd-quick-batch-quick-regression.test.cjs's row 48 (#3676) flagged
this branch's quick-batch/steps/plan-checker-loop.md migration (the agy
HIGH finding) as a violation, because it also edits
quick/steps/plan-checker-loop.md for the same underlying #3771 protocol
fix.

Verified against git history before scoping: 2f64e6230 (#3676's own
landing commit) CREATED quick-batch/steps/plan-checker-loop.md as a new,
independent 119-line file, never a call-site into quick/'s copy. Row
48's "shared primitives, never edits the ordinary quick command" premise
was never about this specific file -- it was always meant to carry its
own per-flow copy of whatever revision-loop contract applies, same as
ui-phase.md/verify-work.md throughout this PR. This is the same
false-positive class the row's own comments already document scoping
away twice (#3730, #2529 round 40); excluded plan-checker-loop.md from
its touched-quick-steps check with the same evidence trail.

* chore(#3771): point changeset pr field at upstream PR 3916

---------

Co-authored-by: davdittrich <davdittrich@gmail.com>
Co-authored-by: CI Rebase Check <ci@gsd-redux>
Co-authored-by: Test <test@test.com>
Co-authored-by: Tom Boucher <trekkie@nomorestars.com>

2026-09-05 15:16:38 -04:00

137 KiB

Raw Blame History

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.

Absent-evidence citation: A compatibility claim the researcher reports — "this library does not support that runtime version" — earns a [VERIFIED: …] tag only from positive evidence. Metadata that is simply missing (no python_requires, no engines field, no per-version classifier, no changelog entry, no matching row in a support matrix) does not qualify, however authoritative the registry or documentation consulted: an absence says nothing about the version you are ruling out and nothing about the version you are standardizing on, so the same evidence would "prove" both. The rule keys on the evidence rather than the wording, so rephrasing the claim positively ("supports only up to 3.13") changes nothing, and an absence is equally not evidence that the version is supported. A present constraint is the opposite case and still earns the tag — requires-python = ">=3.9,<3.12" is a declared exclusion — as does documentation stating the incompatibility affirmatively, which is [CITED: …]. What separates the two is whether the declaration bounds every value or only the ones it names: an explicit range or upper bound speaks about all versions, while an enumerated allow-list that stops short of the target (classifiers running :: 3.9 through :: 3.13 with no :: 3.14) stays silent about the target and remains a governed absence unless the project says the list is exhaustive. See How-to: verify a dependency-compatibility claim. The one route from an absence to [VERIFIED] is a positive falsification attempt: run it against the real target and paste the failing output. Everything short of that stays [ASSUMED], which routes the claim through the usual confirmation checkpoint before it can lock a decision in CONTEXT.md — so a probe you cannot run in this environment costs a checkpoint, not a blocked plan.

/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. Lanes are dispatched sequentially by default; set `review.parallel_lanes` to `true` to dispatch them concurrently within a single review pass
`--max-cycles N`	No	Override cycle cap (default 3)

Exit behavior: Loop exits when current_high and current_actionable hit zero; open ## Plan-Revision Conflicts entries in REVIEWS.md must also be zero. Stall detection warns when the total unresolved review count is not decreasing across cycles. At --max-cycles, the escalation gate offers proceed-or-review-manually for HIGH or actionable non-HIGH concerns, but only manual review when a plan-revision conflict is still open — "Proceed anyway" is never offered over an unresolved conflict.

Consensus gate (2+ reviewers only). When two or more reviewers actually run in a cycle, a HIGH raised by exactly one of them is weighed by what the claim asserts before it counts toward current_high:

Lone reviewer's HIGH asserts	Counts toward `current_high` when
Existence — a symbol, file, flag, commit or ID exists, is absent, or says something specific	source-grounding confirms it, or another reviewer raised the same concern
Judgment — a design or correctness property (missing idempotency, a race, an absent rate limit)	always, unless that reviewer's section opens with an evidence-quality discount marker (`[reviewed-without-source-citations]`, `[reviewed-without-repo-access]`, or a diff-only lane)

Judgment-class findings are deliberately exempt from corroboration: reviewers catch materially different classes of issue, so requiring two of them to independently raise the same architectural concern would suppress exactly what a multi-reviewer setup exists to surface. A suppressed HIGH is still reported, tagged (single-reviewer, unconfirmed) — never dropped. If every reviewer in a cycle carries a discount marker the gate disengages entirely, so a cycle in which nothing was verified can never be counted as converged. current_actionable is unaffected.

With a single reviewer configured — the common case — behavior is unchanged. See reviewer instances for how this interacts with review.reviewer_instances.

What this gate does not do. It weighs evidence, not correctness. A reviewer that cites source evidence anywhere in its review is never discount-marked, so a judgment-class finding it invents still counts on its own — the marker catches "cited nothing" and "had no repo access", not "drew the wrong conclusion from a real citation". That is the deliberate side of the trade: the alternative is requiring corroboration for design findings, which suppresses the genuine architectural concern only one reviewer noticed, and would make adding reviewers weaken the gate. Existence-class claims are the ones tightened here.

/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`

The four phase-scoped categories above (UAT gaps, Verification gaps, CONTEXT questions, Deferred items) read phase directories from both the active .planning/phases/ root and every archived .planning/milestones/vX.Y-phases/ root (#3458) — an item still unresolved when its milestone closed and its phase directory archived stays visible in every later audit instead of silently disappearing. In --json output, an item sourced from an archived milestone carries an archived_milestone field (e.g. "v1.0"); active items omit the field entirely. The human-readable report labels an archived item's line with (archived vX.Y) so a phase number that repeats across milestones (numbering restarts at 01 after each archive) is not misread as one duplicate line.

If any category is non-empty you are prompted with [R] Resolve / [A] Acknowledge all / [C] Cancel. [A] calls gsd-tools audit-open acknowledge once per open item — the CLI writer that actually suppresses each item starting at the next audit-open scan — then records the same items to STATE.md under its own ## Deferred Items heading (a disclosure record, not the suppression mechanism) and closes as override_closeout; an all-clear closes as verified_closeout.

audit-open acknowledge (#3458 follow-up). Suppresses one open item by writing (or refreshing) a verdict-preserving audit_acknowledged marker in the artifact's own frontmatter:

gsd-tools audit-open acknowledge --category <category> --milestone <version> [--at <YYYY-MM-DD>] <identifier flags…>

--category and --milestone are always required; --at defaults to today. The identifier flags depend on --category:

`--category`	Identifier flags
`debug_sessions`	`--slug <slug>`
`threads`	`--slug <slug>`
`seeds`	`--seed-id <id>`
`todos`	`--filename <file>`
`quick_tasks`	`--dir <dir>` (the `.planning/quick/<dir>/` directory name — note this is the ORIGINAL directory name, not the date-stripped `slug` the audit JSON displays)
`uat_gaps`, `verification_gaps`, `context_questions`	`--phase <phase> --file <file>` [`--archived-milestone <version>`]
`deferred_items`	`--phase <phase> --file <file> --text <exact bullet text>` [`--archived-milestone <version>`]

The marker never overwrites the artifact's own status: field for the eight frontmatter-marker categories — only deferred_items is the deliberate exception, where the marker IS the entry's status: field (there is no other meaning for that field on a deferred-items.md bullet). The marker also self-invalidates: it snapshots the artifact's current observed state at acknowledgment time — its status: for most categories, a composite of status: plus its open-scenario count for uat_gaps (a status can stay the same while more scenarios go pending), and a content digest of the full question set (not just a count) for context_questions (so replacing every question's text while holding the count steady still invalidates the snapshot) — and the item resurfaces on its own the moment that snapshot no longer matches — an edited, reopened, or otherwise-changed artifact is never silently suppressed forever. --json output on audit-open (the run subcommand, default) now reports an acknowledged count per category alongside counts, plus an acknowledged.total, so a clean audit (counts.total === 0) can be told apart from one that is clean only because earlier items are still being suppressed (acknowledged.total > 0).

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 --confirm (#3726: --confirm is required for any mutating run; --force alone does not imply it). 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 --confirm (the /gsd-complete-milestone workflow runs the underlying command without --force, so use the CLI directly to override; --confirm is required for any mutating run — #3726). 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.

Quick-task archival (opt-in, default OFF, #2142). Unlike phase archival above, quick-task archival does not run unless you say yes — doing nothing leaves .planning/quick/ untouched. If .planning/quick/ contains at least one directory, the workflow asks: Archive completed quick tasks into this milestone too? with options Yes — archive quick tasks into v[X.Y] / Skip. Choosing "Yes" passes --archive-quick to the underlying gsd-tools milestone complete call, which moves every directory under .planning/quick/ into .planning/milestones/v[X.Y]-quick/, (re)writes that directory's README.md index (built by scanning the archive directory, not STATE.md), and clears the data rows of STATE.md's ### Quick Tasks Completed table while preserving its header and column variant. Known limit: there is no on-disk record of which milestone a quick task belongs to, so archival buckets all remaining .planning/quick/* into the one milestone being completed — a task predating an earlier, unarchived milestone lands in the current bucket regardless. See Archiving quick tasks for the full walkthrough, including the retroactive path.

`/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

`planning inspect`

Emit a read-only, schema-versioned JSON snapshot of the whole planning state — milestone identity, active phase/plan/status, per-phase verification, roadmap acceptance and UAT evidence (kept separate), requirement rows with mapped-phase traceability, plan and task rows with planned/changed file provenance, and independent accepted_phases / completed_plans fractions.

For downstream tools that need planning state without re-parsing GSD's Markdown. Mutates nothing. Takes no arguments — a stray positional or unknown flag is a fail-loud usage error rather than a silently-ignored one.

node gsd-tools.cjs query planning inspect       # schema-v1 snapshot
node gsd-tools.cjs query planning.inspect       # dotted canonical form, identical
node gsd-tools.cjs query planning inspect --cwd /path/to/project

Check schema_version before reading any other field, and branch on each value's scope — complete with an empty value is a real answer, unreadable is not. Full field reference: CLI Tools. Integration walkthrough: Consume the planning snapshot.

`task resolve-content --plan <path> --task-id <id> --raw`

Resolves one task's content (action/verify/acceptance_criteria/read_first/done) from an external issue tracker instead of reading it inline from a task's PLAN.md body. Called by execute-plan.md's per-task loop, once per task carrying a tracker-id attribute, before that task's read_first gate. See ADR-3646 and Develop a task-content resolver capability.

Argument	Required	Description
`--plan`	Yes	Path to the `PLAN.md` the task belongs to
`--task-id`	Yes	The task's `tracker-id` attribute value, e.g. `beads:GSD-42`
`--raw`	No	Machine-readable JSON output

Exit codes:

Exit	Meaning
`0`	Resolution attempted (or not needed) — see `resolved`/`reason` below
non-zero	Hard halt. A resolver was found and invoked but failed (tracker unreachable, id not found, timeout, malformed JSON output). stderr names the tracker-id, the tracker prefix, and the resolver's error. Never fall back to inline `PLAN.md` content on this outcome.

Output fields (JSON, exit 0 only):

Field	Type	Description
`resolved`	`boolean`	`true` only when a resolver was found, invoked, and returned non-empty content
`reason`	`string`	Present when `resolved` is `false`: `"no-resolver"` (task has a `tracker-id` but no installed capability declares a matching `trackerPrefix`) or `"empty"` (the resolver ran successfully but returned empty/absent content — the one legitimate pre-migration fallback case)
`content`	`object`	Present when `resolved` is `true`. Supersedes this task's inline `<action>`/`<verify>`/`<acceptance_criteria>`/`<read_first>`/`<done>` for every downstream gate in the execute step

node gsd-tools.cjs task resolve-content --plan .planning/phases/03-name/03-1-PLAN.md --task-id beads:GSD-42 --raw

execute-plan.md only invokes this command when the task carries a tracker-id attribute; a task with no tracker-id is unaffected.

`/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.

Nullable percentage. The reported completion percentage is null — never a fabricated 0, 100, or stale value — when the current milestone's phase set is not fully readable/scoped. See CLI-TOOLS.md → A non-COMPLETE scope withholds the percentage entirely.

/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

Phase completion is disk-strict (ADR-3180 §7.4, issue #3186). A phase's status here — and in roadmap analyze, roadmap update-plan-progress, and phase complete — is decided by one rule: a passing *-VERIFICATION.md on disk, checked unconditionally (plan count is never a precondition, so a zero-plan phase with a passing verification reports complete). A ticked - [x] checkbox in ROADMAP.md is a human annotation only; it carries no machine authority and is never consulted for these commands' completion verdicts. roadmap update-plan-progress additionally withholds writing the checkbox/completion date while any plan in the phase has no matching *-SUMMARY.md, mirroring phase complete's own coverage gate.

Which phase comes next is a different question, and the roadmap answers it. Disk-strictness governs whether a phase is complete; it does not decide the successor. phase complete resolves next_phase as the lowest-numbered phase above the completed one that ROADMAP.md declares for the current milestone, regardless of which phase directories happen to exist. Phase numbers decide the sequence — the order rows happen to appear in the file does not — a phase that has not been planned yet has no directory, and must still be selected ahead of a later phase that does. When the roadmap and the directories agree, the directory supplies the spelling (the zero-padded token and its on-disk slug). The directory scan is the fallback only when no readable roadmap phase list exists (#3701; the same rule #3581 established for init.progress).

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-quick-batch`

Batch several /gsd-quick-shaped tasks together — one coordinator plans, dispatches, and merges them as one run (#3676, epic #3344, ADR-1239 "Quick-batch binding"). See Batch quick tasks for a walkthrough.

Argument	Description
Inline task list	A bulleted or numbered list, ≥2 items, one per line
`--file <path>`	Read the task list from a file instead of inline text

Flag	Description
`--jobs auto\|N`	`auto` (default) uses the negotiated dispatch capacity as-is; `N` caps effective concurrency at `min(task count, N, capacity)`
`--validate`	Per-item plan-checker loop (max 2 iterations) + post-merge verification
`--research`	Per-item researcher dispatched before planning
`--resume <batch-id>`	Skip task-list parsing and batch creation; dispatch only the batch's still-eligible items

Not supported in v1: --discuss and --full are rejected with a usage error before any dispatch — run /gsd-quick --discuss/--full per item instead.

/gsd-quick-batch "- fix the login timeout\n- add the retry banner"   # inline list
/gsd-quick-batch --file .planning/my-tasks.md                          # from a file
/gsd-quick-batch --jobs 3 --validate "- item one\n- item two\n- item three"
/gsd-quick-batch --resume 260101-abc                                    # resume an interrupted batch

`/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.

Nullable percentage. The reported completion percentage is null — never a fabricated 0, 100, or stale value — when the current milestone's phase set is not fully readable/scoped (e.g. a truncated or unresolvable milestone window, or an unreadable .planning/phases directory). See CLI-TOOLS.md → A non-COMPLETE scope withholds the percentage entirely.

`/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
`--backfill`	Synthesize missing MILESTONES.md entries from `.planning/milestones/vX.Y-ROADMAP.md` snapshots
`--context`	Probe context-window utilization; warns at 60 %, critical at 70 %

/gsd-health                         # Check integrity
/gsd-health --repair                # Check and fix
/gsd-health --backfill              # Backfill missing MILESTONES.md entries
/gsd-health --context               # Context-utilization triage

STATE.md freshness (W024). STATE.md records the commit it was last written against (state_head in its frontmatter). When the codebase has moved a long way since — 20 commits or more — health adds an advisory noting that STATE.md's contents should be treated as approximate.

This is a freshness proxy, not a drift measurement: the count includes commits that never touched anything STATE.md describes, and the stamp is refreshed by any command that writes STATE.md, so a low count means STATE.md was written recently rather than that its contents are correct. The advisory never changes health's pass/fail status, and stays silent when the stamp is absent or the project isn't a git repo — "unknown" is reported as unknown, not as fresh.

Cross-scope install shadowing (W028). When a runtime is installed at both global and local scope and the host's trigger-resolution rules make one scope's /gsd-* surface unreachable — the Claude Code case: personal skill always beats project command — health adds a WARNING-severity advisory naming the shadowed triggers, the winning scope, and the losing scope. It never changes health's pass/fail status and is never auto-fixable (there is no single correct scope to remove), so --repair never touches it. Identical to the same advisory GSD Core prints at install time. See Interpret install-shadow warnings.

--repair does not apply destructive fixes. Resetting config.json (resetConfig) and regenerating STATE.md (regenerateState) are destructive — the former loses custom settings, the latter loses session history — so --repair reports these fixes as available but never applies them automatically; the suggested command must be run by hand (ADR-3180, #3309). The same migration split two previously-conflated diagnostic codes: W021 now covers only the phase-id-convention mismatch, with the STATE-vs-ROADMAP milestone-complete mismatch it used to also report moving to the new W026; likewise W017 now covers only orphan worktrees, with the stale-worktree case moving to the new W027.

`/gsd-cleanup`

Archive accumulated phase directories from completed milestones, prune local branches whose upstream has been deleted, and — when applicable — retroactively archive quick tasks (#2142).

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.

Retroactive quick-task archival (opt-in, #2142). When .planning/quick/ contains at least one directory, /gsd-cleanup additionally offers to sweep it: Archive ALL {N} quick-task directories into v{X.Y} — {Milestone Name}? This buckets every remaining quick task into this ONE milestone; there is no way to split them per-milestone. with options Yes — archive quick tasks into v{X.Y} / Skip. The target is the single most recent completed milestone (from MILESTONES.md) that does not yet have a v{X.Y}-quick archive directory. If .planning/quick/ is empty, this step is not offered at all. Confirming calls the narrower gsd-tools milestone archive-quick <version> command — the same move/README-index/table-reset logic /gsd-complete-milestone's --archive-quick uses, but without touching ROADMAP.md, REQUIREMENTS.md, MILESTONES.md, or milestone-completion guards, since /gsd-cleanup typically targets a milestone that is already closed. See Archiving quick tasks for the full walkthrough and the silent/failure cases.

/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/phases/{phase-dir}/{padded-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

`gsd-tools check verify-command-paths`

Deterministic resolvability probe over a phase's <automated> verify commands (#2401). Run automatically by /gsd-plan-phase before the plan-check pass and handed to gsd-plan-checker; runnable by hand to see what the checker saw.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number whose `-PLAN.md` files are probed

Flag	Description
`--raw`	Emit the JSON payload with no surrounding prose

Prerequisites: none — an unresolvable phase degrades to a JSON payload with readError set rather than failing. Produces: JSON on stdout. Nothing is written to disk.

It never executes command text. PLAN.md is LLM-authored, so the probe only resolves paths and stats directories; a package.json it finds is read for script names only.

It grounds exactly two forms — a leading cd <literal> chain and npm --prefix <literal> — and refuses to guess at anything else. pushd, make -C, yarn --cwd, pnpm -C, and cargo --manifest-path are not recognized today and report unresolvable.

Each row of commands carries command, plan, task, status, severity, reason, form, rawTarget, target, manifest, script, sentinel, and base. There is deliberately no suggestion field — the probe reports what failed to resolve and leaves the replacement to the planner.

`status`	Meaning
`ok`	Target resolved (a `reason` may still carry an advisory — see below)
`broken`	Target does not resolve, or holds no required manifest — blocker
`unresolvable`	The path could not be grounded (variable, glob, substitution, `~`) — warning
`pending_creation`	An earlier task in this phase creates the target — not a finding
`not_applicable`	No `cd`/`--prefix` to resolve, or a Nyquist `MISSING …` sentinel

`reason`	`severity`	What it means
`missing_dir`	`blocker`	The resolved directory does not exist, or is not a directory
`no_manifest`	`blocker`	The directory exists but holds no `package.json` / `Makefile` the command needs
`dynamic_path`	`warning`	The path contains `$`, a backtick, `*`, `?`, or `~` — refused, not guessed
`outside_root`	`warning`	A bare ancestor climb (`cd ../..`); the base differs under worktree execution
`script_missing`	`warning`	`npm run <script>` names a script the manifest does not define — this phase may add it
`manifest_unreadable`	`warning`	`package.json` is oversized, unparseable, or not a JSON object
`null`	`none`	Nothing to report

A non-empty readError means the probe could not look — distinct from finding nothing.

gsd-tools check verify-command-paths 3 --raw    # probe phase 3's verify commands

See Resolve verify-command path findings.

`gsd-tools check verify-failure-directions`

Deterministic presence probe over a phase's stated failing directions (#3172). Run automatically by /gsd-plan-phase before the plan-check pass and handed to gsd-plan-checker; runnable by hand to see what the checker saw.

Every runnable <automated> command must carry a <fails_when> sibling naming what output constitutes failure. A command with no expressible failure mode is not an acceptance test.

Argument	Required	Description
`N`	Yes	Phase number whose `-PLAN.md` files are probed

Flag	Description
`--raw`	Emit the JSON payload with no surrounding prose

Prerequisites: none — an unresolvable phase degrades to a JSON payload with readError set rather than failing. Produces: JSON on stdout. Nothing is written to disk.

It never executes command text, and it never authors a statement for the planner — a prescribed failure signal would be copied verbatim and carry no information.

Pairing. Within one <task>, each <fails_when> binds to the nearest preceding <automated>; the first statement after a command is the binding one. N runnable commands need N statements. A redundant second statement for the same command is ignored.

Each row of commands carries command, statement, plan, task, status, and severity.

`status`	`severity`	Meaning
`ok`	`none`	A non-empty, non-placeholder statement is bound to this command
`missing`	`blocker`	The command has no `<fails_when>` at all
`empty`	`blocker`	A `<fails_when>` is present but blank
`placeholder`	`blocker`	The whole statement is `TBD`, `TODO`, `N/A`, `NA`, `none`, `unknown`, `TBA`, `?`, or `-` (case-insensitive, whole value only)
`orphan`	`warning`	A `<fails_when>` that follows no command — it satisfies nothing
`sentinel`	`none`	A Nyquist `MISSING — Wave 0 …` placeholder; not runnable, so exempt

The top-level status is blocked when any row is a blocker, unresolvable when the probe could not look, and ok otherwise. A non-empty readError means the probe could not look — distinct from finding nothing.

gsd-tools check verify-failure-directions 3 --raw    # probe phase 3's failing directions

See State a failing direction.

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 both `workflow.code_review_depth` and any matching `workflow.code_review_depth_overrides` path rule — the flag always wins. `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.

The prompt-fed CLI reviewers all start from the same assembled prompt. It is built before any reviewer runs and carries the PROJECT.md excerpt, the roadmap section, every PLAN file, CONTEXT.md, RESEARCH.md and REQUIREMENTS.md — reviewers then open repository files from there, as described above. To keep the Claude reviewer on the same starting footing as the others, its lane declares CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_CLAUDE_MDS=1 CLAUDE_CODE_DISABLE_AUTO_MEMORY=1, so it does not additionally inherit your global CLAUDE.md, the project CLAUDE.md, or Claude Code auto-memory (the two are independently-toggled mechanisms, so each gets its own variable). The pair is merged into that one spawn's environment — it does not affect the session you ran /gsd-review from or any other reviewer in the same run, and it suppresses those memory mechanisms only, not hooks, skills, or MCP configuration. (Inside Claude Code the Claude reviewer is skipped entirely for independence, so this applies when reviewing from another runtime.)

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

Its frontmatter records the model each reviewer resolved to, as models: (the model id, or unknown, with a (reasoning=<level>) suffix when GSD applied a reasoning effort to that lane) and model_sources: (how each value was determined — pinned, served, requested, banner, transcript, or unknown). See Resolved model recording.

Plan coverage manifest (#3301): the assembled prompt tells every prompt-fed reviewer exactly which plan ids exist in this review and the total count, and asks for one heading-verbatim section per id before any cross-plan or overall-risk content — so a review that silently stops partway through a multi-plan phase is no longer indistinguishable from one that covered every plan. A mechanical check grades each reviewer's output against that same id list and records an optional plan_coverage: frontmatter block, present only when a reviewer's output does not mention every id (diagnostic only — it never blocks the run). CodeRabbit is not graded — it is a diff-only reviewer that never receives the prompt carrying the manifest.

# 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.

Prerequisites: Clean working tree — uncommitted changes are rejected before the PR branch is created.

Filter mode: Set by planning.pr_strict. Default (false) keeps structural planning state — STATE.md, ROADMAP.md, MILESTONES.md, PROJECT.md, REQUIREMENTS.md, milestones/** — and drops the transient subdirectories. Strict (true) drops every .planning/ path. The active mode is printed in the run header and in the verification summary.

/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 and the derived sandbox posture.

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

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.

sandbox_posture (#3897, ADR-3473 §8.3) is the sibling check for sandbox_mode: each installed Codex .toml's sandbox_mode is compared against the value its role's own tools: frontmatter derives (Write/Edit declared → workspace-write, else read-only). Same shape and short-circuits as codex_posture — populated only on codex, not_codex elsewhere, read-only, and it never makes validate agents exit non-zero on its own; both posture checks are report-only fields for a human or caller to act on.

Field	Meaning
`ok`	`true` when no installed `.toml`'s `sandbox_mode` disagrees with its derived expectation
`violations[]`	`{agent, file, expected, found}` for a drift, or `{agent, file, reason: "unreadable"}` when the file could not be read
`checked[]`	Every `.toml` inspected
`reason`	`not_codex` (active runtime isn't Codex) or `agents_dir_missing` — mirrors `codex_posture`'s short-circuit reasons

A custom or non-roster agent (no matching file under the bundled agents/*.md source) has nothing to derive an expectation from and is silently excluded from violations — this check only asserts against the shipped roster's own declared tool contract.

`state update <field> <value>`

Update a single STATE.md field.

Prerequisites: .planning/STATE.md exists Produces: {updated: true, preserved: [...]}, or {updated: false, reason, preserved: [...]}

node gsd-tools.cjs state update "Stopped at" "finished the migration"

Frontmatter keys are projections — write the body field

STATE.md's frontmatter is re-derived from the body on every write. So a frontmatter key like stopped_at is not the value; it is a projection of the body field Stopped at:. Ask to update the key and the command refuses, naming the field that does work:

{
  "updated": false,
  "reason": "Field \"stopped_at\" is a body-derived frontmatter key and is not directly writable. Update its body source instead: state update \"Stopped At\" <value>."
}

This is distinct from a field that genuinely is not there, which still reports Field "…" not found in STATE.md. The two used to be indistinguishable (#3699).

Frontmatter key	Body source
`current_phase`	`Current Phase` (or the prose `Phase:` line)
`current_phase_name`	`Current Phase Name` (or the prose `Phase:` name)
`current_plan`	`Current Plan`
`status`	`Status`
`stopped_at`	`Stopped At` / `Stopped at` (under `## Session`)
`paused_at`	`Paused At` (under `## Session`)
`last_activity`	`Last Activity` / `Last activity` (date part)
`last_activity_desc`	`Last Activity Description` (or the prose after the dash)

Keys not in this table have no body source at all — milestone and milestone_name come from ROADMAP.md, progress.* from a scan of .planning/phases/, and last_updated / state_head / gsd_state_version are recomputed on every write. The refusal names which of those applies.

Repairing a document whose body source is missing

If frontmatter carries a key but the body has no source line for it, there is nothing to derive from and neither route can write. In that one case the frontmatter key is directly writable, and the command says so:

{ "updated": true, "wrote": "frontmatter", "preserved": [] }

wrote: "frontmatter" appears only on this repair path — an ordinary update omits it. The fallback is deliberately narrow: it will not fire while any body source line still exists (even one stranded in an archive section), and it will not invent a frontmatter key that is not already there.

`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, as coded diagnostics

node gsd-tools.cjs state validate

Flag	Description
`--strict`	Exit non-zero when the report is not `valid: true`. Off by default.

Without --strict the command always exits 0, including when it reports valid: false — so a CI step or git hook has to parse the JSON to decide whether state is correct. --strict makes the verdict gateable directly:

node gsd-tools.cjs state validate --strict || echo "STATE.md needs attention"

The default is deliberately unchanged: the exit status is observable behavior that reaches downstream consumers who cannot be enumerated, so opting in is a choice the caller makes rather than one imposed on every existing script.

A missing or unreadable STATE.md exits non-zero under --strict too — those report error or valid: false and are as gateable as any drift warning. 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` 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 warnings were found," and scope says whether the scan could actually run. A freshly-initialized project reports {valid:true, warnings:[], 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.

Each warnings entry is a coded diagnostic object ({code, severity, message, remedy}), not a bare string. Every remedy is an ADVISE action naming the command or edit to make — none is auto-applied. S001 is severity: ERROR (STATE.md could not be read at all); every other code is severity: WARNING:

Code	Severity	Meaning
`S001`	error	STATE.md is unreadable/corrupt (embedded NUL or binary content) — reported with `valid:false` and no other checks run
`S002`	warning	No usable `current_phase`/`Current Phase`/`Current Position Phase` value anywhere in STATE.md
`S003`	warning	STATE.md's phase sources (frontmatter vs. body) disagree on the current phase
`S004`	warning	The phases directory, or a directory matching the current phase, is missing or unreadable
`S005`	warning	STATE.md's plan count disagrees with the plan count on disk
`S006`	warning	STATE.md still says "executing" but a `*-VERIFICATION.md` in the phase shows verification passed
`S007`	warning	Every plan in the phase has a summary, but STATE.md still says "executing"
`S008`	warning	STATE.md's `Last activity` value does not begin with a real calendar date, so no reader can date the project's activity
`S009`	warning	The `Last activity` description wrapped onto a second line, and every reader silently drops the remainder

`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

`runtime-identity`

Report the package coordinates of the gsd-tools that is executing. Used by the runtime launcher preamble to confirm a shipped workflow reached this package's tool rather than a different package that also provides a gsd-tools binary.

Prerequisites: none — it reads no project state and needs no resolvable project root Produces: a JSON identity payload on stdout

node gsd-tools.cjs runtime-identity

{
  "packageName": "@opengsd/gsd-core",
  "version": "1.12.0"
}

Field	Type	Value
`packageName`	string	Always `@opengsd/gsd-core`. Baked at build time from `package.json`, so it survives an installed tree that carries no real `package.json`.
`version`	string	The installed host version. Falls back to `0.0.0` when neither `gsd-core/VERSION` nor a runtime-root `package.json` is readable.

--raw emits the same payload on a single line.

The payload is additive-only: consumers must ignore unrecognized keys. version is reported but is not asserted by the launcher check — identity alone determines whether the check passes, so a 0.0.0 development tree still verifies.

The launcher preamble runs this verb once, immediately after it resolves a tool and before any workflow verb executes. It matches the --raw output anchored to the start of the payload — a substring search would accept {"packageName":"get-shit-done-cc","note": "@opengsd/gsd-core"} — and exports the outcome as GSD_IDENTITY_STATUS:

`GSD_IDENTITY_STATUS`	Meaning
`ok`	The resolved tool proved it is `@opengsd/gsd-core`.
`unverified`	It did not. Either a different package, or an `@opengsd/gsd-core` older than this verb. The preamble prints one line to stderr and continues — the rollout is warn-then-fail.

The same verb is still useful by hand for answering "which tool am I actually running?".

See Diagnose which gsd-tools is running for using it, and Runtime identity for the rationale.

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.)

137 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]

planning inspect

task resolve-content --plan <path> --task-id <id> --raw

Navigation Commands

/gsd-next

/gsd-progress

/gsd-resume-work

/gsd-pause-work

/gsd-manager

/gsd-help

Utility Commands

/gsd-explore

/gsd-undo

/gsd-import

/gsd-ingest-docs

/gsd-quick

/gsd-quick-batch

/gsd-autonomous

/gsd-debug

/gsd-add-tests

/gsd-stats

/gsd-profile-user

/gsd-health

/gsd-cleanup

Spiking & Sketching Commands

/gsd-spike

/gsd-sketch

Diagnostics Commands

/gsd-forensics

/gsd-extract-learnings

gsd-tools check verify-command-paths

gsd-tools check verify-failure-directions

Workstream Management

/gsd-workstreams

Configuration Commands

/gsd-settings

/gsd-config

/gsd-surface

gsd capability

Brownfield Commands

/gsd-map-codebase

/gsd-graphify

/gsd-mempalace-recall

/gsd-mempalace-capture

gsd-tools intel api-surface

gsd-tools refactor

AI Integration Commands

/gsd-ai-integration-phase

/gsd-eval-review

Update Commands

/gsd-update

137 KiB

Raw Blame History

`/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`

`/gsd-phase`

`/gsd-mvp-phase`

`/gsd-validate-phase`

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

`planning inspect`

`task resolve-content --plan <path> --task-id <id> --raw`

`/gsd-next`

`/gsd-progress`

`/gsd-resume-work`

`/gsd-pause-work`

`/gsd-manager`

`/gsd-help`

`/gsd-explore`

`/gsd-undo`

`/gsd-import`

`/gsd-ingest-docs`

`/gsd-quick`

`/gsd-quick-batch`

`/gsd-autonomous`

`/gsd-debug`

`/gsd-add-tests`

`/gsd-stats`

`/gsd-profile-user`

`/gsd-health`

`/gsd-cleanup`

`/gsd-spike`

`/gsd-sketch`

`/gsd-forensics`

`/gsd-extract-learnings`

`gsd-tools check verify-command-paths`

`gsd-tools check verify-failure-directions`

`/gsd-workstreams`

`/gsd-settings`

`/gsd-config`

`/gsd-surface`

`gsd capability`

`/gsd-map-codebase`

`/gsd-graphify`

`/gsd-mempalace-recall`

`/gsd-mempalace-capture`

`gsd-tools intel api-surface`

`gsd-tools refactor`

`/gsd-ai-integration-phase`

`/gsd-eval-review`

`/gsd-update`

`/gsd-code-review`

`/gsd-audit-fix`

`/gsd-fast`

`/gsd-review`

`/gsd-pr-branch`

`/gsd-secure-phase`

`/gsd-docs-update`

`/gsd-capture`

`/gsd-review-backlog`

`/gsd-thread`

`roadmap validate`

`roadmap upgrade --convention milestone-prefixed`

`effort sync`

`validate agents`

`state update <field> <value>`