msd-core/docs/COMMANDS.md

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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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/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

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/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

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/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

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/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

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/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

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/gsd-plan-phase

Research, plan, and verify a phase.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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/gsd-plan-review-convergence

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

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

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

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

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/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

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/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

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/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

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/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.

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/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

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/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

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/gsd-audit-milestone

Verify milestone met its definition of done.

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

/gsd-audit-milestone

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/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. A window that is genuinely empty — a freshly-declared milestone with no phases yet — is not affected and still completes normally.

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

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

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/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

---

Navigation Commands

/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.

Checkpoint Heartbeats (#2410):

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

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

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

Manager Passthrough Flags:

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

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

---

/gsd-help

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

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

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

---

Utility Commands

/gsd-explore

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-undo

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-import

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-ingest-docs

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-quick

Execute ad-hoc task with GSD guarantees.

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

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

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

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

/gsd-autonomous

Run all remaining phases autonomously.

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

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

/gsd-debug

Systematic debugging with persistent state.

Argument	Required	Description
description	No	Description of the bug

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

Subcommands:

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

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

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

/gsd-add-tests

Generate tests for a completed phase.

Argument	Required	Description
N	No	Phase number

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

/gsd-stats

Display project statistics.

/gsd-stats                          # Project metrics dashboard

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

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 and prune local branches whose upstream has been deleted.

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

/gsd-cleanup

---

Spiking & Sketching Commands

/gsd-spike

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-sketch

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

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

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

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

---

Diagnostics Commands

/gsd-forensics

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

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

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

Investigation covers:

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

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

---

/gsd-extract-learnings

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

Argument	Required	Description
N	Yes	Phase number to extract learnings from

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

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

Extracts:

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

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

---

Workstream Management

/gsd-workstreams

Manage parallel workstreams for concurrent work on different milestone areas.

Subcommands:

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

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

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

---

Configuration Commands

/gsd-settings

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

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

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

/gsd-settings                       # Interactive config

/gsd-config

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

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

--advanced sections:

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

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

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

See CONFIGURATION.md for the full schema and defaults.

/gsd-surface

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

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

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

gsd capability

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

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

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

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

---

Brownfield Commands

/gsd-map-codebase

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

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

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

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

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

/gsd-graphify

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

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

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

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

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

/gsd-mempalace-recall

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-mempalace-capture

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

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

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

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

---

gsd-tools intel api-surface

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

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

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

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

---

gsd-tools refactor

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

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

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

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

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

---

AI Integration Commands

/gsd-ai-integration-phase

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-eval-review

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

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

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

---

Update Commands

/gsd-update

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

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

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

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

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

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

---

Code Quality Commands

/gsd-code-review

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

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-audit-fix

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

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

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

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

---

Fast & Inline Commands

/gsd-fast

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-review

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

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-pr-branch

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

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

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

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

---

/gsd-secure-phase

Retroactively verify threat mitigations for a completed phase.

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

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

Three operating modes:

1. SECURITY.md exists — audit and verify existing mitigations
2. No SECURITY.md but PLAN.md has threat model — generate from artifacts
3. 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.

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validate agents

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

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

node gsd-tools.cjs validate agents

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

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

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

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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

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"

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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 } }

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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.

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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.

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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.)

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Related

• Configuration Reference
• CLI Tools Reference
• Feature Reference
• Docs index