Files
msd-core/docs/CLI-TOOLS.md
Tom Boucher ff4a57b78c chore(#1671): migrate the remaining 13 LARGE/XL workflows to the fragment model — Phase 6.3 (#3030)
* chore(#2994): fragmentize progress.md forensic audit onto the fragment model

Extract the --forensic-gated forensic_audit step to
workflows/progress/steps/forensic-audit.md behind a section marker, and
repair progress.md's init line to forward --forensic so the atom is
actually true in production rather than only under direct CLI tests.

progress.md shrinks 32630 -> 27207 bytes.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(#2994): fragmentize the four manifest-wired workflows

new-project, quick, new-milestone and progress each already had a
dedicated cmdInit* entry point but zero marked sections. Extract nine
gated bodies to workflows/<wf>/steps/ behind section markers and repair
each init line to forward its flags.

Fold --full into the discuss/research/validate facts inside cmdInitQuick
so the when= grammar never sees an OR, per the chunked-mode precedent.

Fixes found while working, per the no-defer rule:
- cmdInitProgress passed no phase info to buildSectionManifestField, so
  state:phase-mvp-mode was permanently false — an atom in the vocabulary
  whose fact could never be computed.
- the quick init router folded flag tokens into the free-text
  description, which the new forwarding would have corrupted.
- a #2508 dispatch note was nested inside quick.md's Agent(prompt=)
  fence, leaking orchestrator guidance into the subagent prompt.
- progress.md had a 3-vs-4 backtick outer-fence imbalance.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(#2994): fragmentize verify-work.md and admit state:ui-phase-active

Wire cmdInitVerifyWork to buildSectionManifestField — it was a dedicated
entry point that never emitted a manifest — and mark two sections.

state:ui-phase-active folds (plan:pre hooks include an active ui step) OR
(the phase dir holds a *-UI-SPEC.md) into one boolean in init.cts, so the
grammar still sees a single operator-free atom. The inner Playwright-MCP
check stays as prose inside the fragment: it is live session state and no
init seam can precompute it.

The MVP false-branch note is a real fallback, not redundant prose, so it
sits outside the marker — gating it away would delete the text needed
precisely when MVP mode is off.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(#2994): follow moved workflow content in drift guards

Retarget every guard that asserted on content this branch moved into
workflows/<wf>/steps/, mirroring 815b3d897. Each retargeted assertion was
verified to still fail when its step file is blanked, so none was
weakened into vacuity.

Three assertions in verify-mvp-uat were genuinely red. Three more were
worse than red — passing for the wrong reason:
- quick-commit-boundary and worktree-cleanup anchored on indexOf('Step
  5.6'), which matched a later cross-reference and sliced 16069 chars
  that coincidentally held the asserted substrings. Replaced with an
  expandWorkflowSections helper that splices step content back in place.
- phase6-review-capabilities lost its end boundary and widened to EOF.
- playwright-ui-verify matched 'UI' in an unrelated bullet and 'fall
  back' in a subagent-dispatch line after the real content moved.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(#2994): fragmentize code-review and complete-milestone, admit three atoms

Add dedicated cmdInitCodeReview and cmdInitCompleteMilestone entry points
alongside the shared generic ones rather than modifying them — init.phase-op
and init.manager carry a CRITICAL blast radius (179 dependents, 24
processes) and stay byte-identical for their other callers.

Admit flag:--fix, state:fallow-enabled and state:git-create-tag, each with
a consuming section and a fact its own entry point computes.

Both sections had the resolver-in-body hazard: the fallow config-gate and
the git.create_tag check each sat inside the very block being gated, so
gating would have disabled the resolver that decides the gate. Both are
hoisted into init and the bodies now consume the resolved fact.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(#2994): retarget code-review and milestone drift guards, fix two red tests

Retarget guards that asserted on content moved into steps/, proving
non-vacuity by blanking each step file and confirming failure.

Also fixes two genuinely red tests found while working, per the no-defer
rule:
- workflow-fragments' frozen-vocabulary lock was missing
  state:ui-phase-active, so commit 7ef7f8336 shipped red. Lint and build
  both passed over it, which is why neither is sufficient verification.
- code-review's quick.md capability-hook assertion carried a stale
  delimiter after the 18ff35d20 extraction.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(#2994): fragmentize autonomous.md and admit state:plan-strategy-converge

Five sections share one atom, the pattern plan-phase already uses for
flag:--research-phase. The atom folds --converge OR --cross-ai into a
single boolean in cmdInitAutonomous so the grammar stays operator-free.

cmdInitAutonomous is additive; init.milestone-op, init.manager and
init.phase-op are untouched and still consumed. The $PLAN_STRATEGY bash
resolver is deliberately retained — ungated local-planning bullets still
read it, so the init-side fact supplements it rather than replacing it.

converge-fail-fast required splitting one bash fence so the always-run
CONVERGENCE_ARGS construction stays outside the marker. All three
flag-absent fallbacks were left outside their markers.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(#2994): fragmentize review and discuss-phase-assumptions

Admit state:reviewer-instances-configured (two peripheral notes share it;
the core reviewer-lane dispatch stays unmarked — it is the workflow's
primary always-evaluated logic, not an optional branch) and
state:auto-advance-active, which folds --auto OR two config keys into one
boolean so the grammar stays operator-free.

discuss-phase-assumptions was the highest-risk edit in this PR. Its
auto_advance step is a full if/elif/else; gating it whole would have
deleted the flag-absent fallback needed exactly when --auto is off. Split
verified exact: resolvers 636-651 and the 'End here' fallback 668-669 both
stay outside the marker; only 653-667 is gated.

Adds emitted-drift acks for the two files that grew — review.md (+55 B)
and autonomous.md (+737 B from 80799211c, which had none and would have
red-gated the push.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(#2994): fragmentize docs-update, update, transition and new-milestone Part A

Completes the 13-workflow rollout. Three of these had no init call at all
and gained a dedicated entry point plus their first gsd_run query line.

Admits state:is-monorepo and adds state:next-channel, state:workstream-active
and state:flat-mode. Vocabulary 26 -> 30 atoms.

Part A of new-milestone applies when NO workstream is active — the negation
of state:workstream-active. Rather than teach the grammar negation, which is
the Greenspun drift the frozen list exists to prevent, it gets a separate
positively-phrased atom whose fact is the inverse. Part B, which always runs,
stays outside the marker.

flag:--verify-only is deliberately NOT admitted: docs-update has no
contiguous purely-additive region for it, and an atom without a consuming
section is dead vocabulary. Evidence recorded in the slice report.

update.md reuses its existing resolved $GSD_TOOLS rather than prepending the
canonical preamble, which would have clobbered it.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#2994): stop automated-ui-verification re-resolving its own gate, retire dead vocabulary

Two defects the new tests caught.

The automated-ui-verification step re-ran gsd_run loop render-hooks and
recomputed UI_PHASE_ACTIVE inside a body that is only read when that fact
is already true — the circular self-disabling pattern this design forbids,
introduced by 3c654b168. cmdInitVerifyWork now exposes ui_phase_active and
the step consumes it. Its launcher preamble goes too: no gsd_run remains.
The Playwright-MCP check stays as prose — that is live session state.

Dead vocabulary predating this PR: flag:--full and state:needs-codebase-map
were admitted with a gate-1 claim that never materialized. flag:--full is
removed, redundant once quick folds it into discuss/research/validate.
state:needs-codebase-map gets the real consumer it always lacked, gating
new-project's codebase-map offer. Vocabulary 30 -> 29, and no atom is now
without a consuming section.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(#2994): add the atom-admission, inversion and resolver-hoist gates

The two existing parity guards prove vocabulary/predicate symmetry but
never that a fact is computed — an atom no cmdInit* assembles evaluates
false forever. These close that hole:

- per-atom satisfiability for all 29 atoms, plus an anti-vacuity assertion
  so the loop cannot silently cover zero atoms
- dead-vocabulary check against the shipped manifest
- inversion guard: the flag-absent fallbacks in discuss-phase-assumptions
  and verify-work must stay outside their markers
- data-driven resolver-hoist guard over the shipped manifest, so a future
  extraction cannot reintroduce the circular class
- compound-fold coverage (--full, --cross-ai, --rc, config-only --auto)
- null-vs-[] degraded/computed distinction, and flag value shapes

Also repairs the frozen-vocabulary lock, which was stale and red for the
seven atoms earlier commits on this branch shipped.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* docs(#2994): add changeset for the fragment-model rollout

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* test(#2994): cite the issue on the two new allow-test-rule exemptions

ADR-456 requires an issue ref on the same line as the annotation.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* docs(#2994): correct the atom-count claims after retiring flag:--full

The vocabulary doc comments still said 30 entries; it is 29 since
flag:--full was removed as dead vocabulary.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#2994): dedupe the phase-fallback block and harden --ws parsing

Review findings.

MAJOR: the three new init entry points each pasted a verbatim copy of the
guardedFindPhase/guardedGetRoadmapPhase fallback, taking the repo from four
copies to seven — DEFECT.GENERATIVE-FIX. Extracted applyRoadmapFallback and
folded six of the seven; each call site keeps its own field-set via a
closure. Duplication removed rather than papered over with a parity test.
cmdInitPhaseOp stays out: its fallback omits has_reviews, so it is not a
byte-identical copy, and it is CRITICAL-radius.

LOW, pre-existing: GSD_WS captured [^[:space:]]+ and expands unquoted, so a
workstream name holding glob metacharacters would expand against the
filesystem. Narrowed to [A-Za-z0-9._-]+. The unquoted expansion is kept —
it must word-split into two args and vanish when empty.

Also restores the vocabulary ordering convention, and fixes a masked test
bug the mandated run surfaced: the flag-forwarding guard checked only the
first init line per workflow, but new-milestone has two, so a real failure
was reporting exit 0.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#2994): drop the stale new-milestone emitted-drift ack

new-milestone.md was acked for a +406 B growth measured against an
intermediate commit. Net against origin/next it SHRANK by 8 bytes, so
nothing needed the ack and it explained nothing — which the differential
attribution check reports as a stale acknowledgment, not a pass.

update.md's entry stays: it genuinely grew +703 B.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#2994): resolve the 15 failures from the full matrix run

All 15 were real and identical on both lanes.

REAL REGRESSION: autonomous.md hit 41479 chars against the #2196 guard's
40960 cap — a CHARS cap distinct from the LARGE tier byte cap, which the
five section stubs pushed it over. Extracted the 3a.5 UI Design Contract
body to references/; now 39968 chars, and the file nets -795 B vs base, so
its growth ack is deleted rather than left stale.

REAL DEFECT: docs referenced /gsd-transition, which is not a live
registered command. Reworded.

STALE FIXTURE: the emission byte-identity test hardcoded two marked
workflows; this branch legitimately marks fifteen. Fixture corrected — the
source was right.

The rest were drift guards over the eight workflows the earlier sweep did
not cover, retargeted at where the content now lives with non-vacuity
proven by blanking each step file and confirming failure. The GSD_WS
forwarding guard was checked as a possible real break and is not one: the
charclass narrowing is intact and forwarding works end to end.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#2994): drop the ack for a newly-added reference file

A new file's emitted ripple is attributable to the diff that adds it, so
the acknowledgment explained nothing and the differential check reports it
as stale. Removing the last entry removes the fragment — an empty one
signals nothing.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* fix(#2994): retarget the UI-contract guards and clear two transitive advisories

The §3a.5 extraction that brought autonomous.md under the #2196 char cap
moved its body to references/autonomous-ui-design-contract.md, so ten
guards in autonomous-ui-steps and check-ui-safety-gate were asserting it
against the host. Retargeted via a combined read, each proven non-vacuous
by blanking the reference file and confirming failure.

This class had already bitten twice on this branch because each sweep was
scoped to the workflows touched at that moment, so this one was
exhaustive: ~70 test files across all 13 workflows, zero further broken or
vacuous assertions found.

Also clears two high transitive advisories the matrix flagged on one lane
— fast-uri GHSA-7p8r-x3mc-p8w7 and three ip-address SSRF/trust-boundary
issues. Both pre-date this branch: package-lock.json was untouched until
now, so the production tree was byte-identical to the base. Lockfile-only,
package.json unchanged, verified against a real npm ci install.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>

* chore(#2994): backfill changeset pr number to 3030

---------

Co-authored-by: sim <sim@local>
Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
2026-08-03 19:59:58 -04:00

35 KiB
Raw Blame History

GSD CLI Tools Reference

Reference for the gsd-tools CLI (gsd-core/bin/gsd-tools.cjs). For slash commands and user flows, see Command Reference. Return to docs index.


Overview

gsd-tools.cjs centralizes config parsing, model resolution, phase lookup, git commits, summary verification, state management, and template operations across GSD commands, workflows, and agents.

Shipped path gsd-core/bin/gsd-tools.cjs
Implementation 20 domain modules under gsd-core/bin/lib/ (the directory is authoritative)
Status Primary runtime command surface for orchestration, workflows, and automation.

Usage (CJS):

node gsd-tools.cjs <command> [args] [--raw] [--cwd <path>]

Global flags (CJS):

Flag Description
--raw Machine-readable output (JSON or plain text, no formatting)
--cwd <path> Override working directory (for sandboxed subagents)
--ws <name> Workstream context for .planning/workstreams/<name> paths

State Commands

Manage .planning/STATE.md — the project's living memory.

# Load full project config + state as JSON
node gsd-tools.cjs state load

# Output STATE.md frontmatter as JSON
node gsd-tools.cjs state json

# Update a single field
node gsd-tools.cjs state update <field> <value>

# Get STATE.md content or a specific section
node gsd-tools.cjs state get [section]

# Batch update multiple fields
node gsd-tools.cjs state patch --field1 val1 --field2 val2

# Increment plan counter
node gsd-tools.cjs state advance-plan

# Record execution metrics
node gsd-tools.cjs state record-metric --phase N --plan M --duration Xmin [--tasks N] [--files N]

# Recalculate progress bar
node gsd-tools.cjs state update-progress

# Add a decision
node gsd-tools.cjs state add-decision --summary "..." [--phase N] [--rationale "..."]
# Or from files:
node gsd-tools.cjs state add-decision --summary-file path [--rationale-file path]

# Add/resolve blockers
node gsd-tools.cjs state add-blocker --text "..."
node gsd-tools.cjs state resolve-blocker --text "..."

# Record session continuity
node gsd-tools.cjs state record-session --stopped-at "..." [--resume-file path]

# Phase start — update STATE.md Status/Last activity for a new phase
node gsd-tools.cjs state begin-phase --phase N --name SLUG --plans COUNT

# Agent-discoverable blocker signalling (used by discuss-phase / UI flows)
node gsd-tools.cjs state signal-waiting --type TYPE --question "..." --options "A|B" --phase P
node gsd-tools.cjs state signal-resume

State Snapshot

Structured parse of the full STATE.md:

node gsd-tools.cjs state-snapshot

Returns JSON with: current position, phase, plan, status, decisions, blockers, metrics, last activity.

Smart Entry

Read-only situation classifier used by /gsd:next.

node gsd-tools.cjs smart-entry          # Human summary + recommended route
node gsd-tools.cjs smart-entry --json   # Machine-readable result for workflows

The JSON result contains situation, recommended, summary, signals, and ordered actions[]. Detection reads .planning/STATE.md, ROADMAP.md, latest verification/summary artifacts, and git status; it does not write files or dispatch commands.


Phase Commands

Manage phases — directories, numbering, and roadmap sync.

# Find phase directory by number
node gsd-tools.cjs find-phase <phase>

# Calculate next decimal phase number for insertions
node gsd-tools.cjs phase next-decimal <phase>

# Append new phase to roadmap + create directory
node gsd-tools.cjs phase add <description>

# Insert decimal phase after existing
node gsd-tools.cjs phase insert <after> <description>

# Remove phase, renumber subsequent
node gsd-tools.cjs phase remove <phase> [--force]

# Mark phase complete, update state + roadmap
# Also emits advisory `warnings[]` when a phase SUMMARY references a file that
# is not on disk — see "Phase SUMMARY artifact check" below.
node gsd-tools.cjs phase complete <phase>

# Evaluate HUMAN-UAT results for a phase (markdown-aware; ignores false-positive contexts)
# Returns JSON: { passed, uat_files[], verification_files[], checks[], blockers[], policy }
node gsd-tools.cjs phase uat-passed <phase> [--require-verification]

# Index plans with waves and status
node gsd-tools.cjs phase-plan-index <phase>

# List phases with filtering
node gsd-tools.cjs phases list [--type planned|executed|all] [--phase N] [--include-archived]

Phase SUMMARY artifact check

A phase SUMMARY.md asserts which files the phase created or modified. On phase complete, each SUMMARY in the phase is scanned for referenced file paths and any path that is not on disk is reported in the command's existing warnings[] array — the case where a summary reports work that never landed.

Advisory only. Findings never block completion; the completion gate is the phase's VERIFICATION.md status, which this does not touch. /gsd-execute-phase surfaces the warnings before advancing.

Scope and limits, so the output is not read as more than it is:

  • Paths are recovered heuristically from the SUMMARY body — backticked paths and Created:/Modified:-style lines. Globs, URLs, bare hostnames, and paths resolving outside the project are skipped rather than reported.
  • The key-files: frontmatter block is not read. Its YAML flow-sequence form (created: [a.ts, b.ts]) is not matched by the prose scan, so a summary whose only file claims live there produces no findings.
  • Commit hashes in the SUMMARY are not resolved here. The pattern matches any hex-shaped token in prose, which is too loose to surface.

Every path the scan does recover is checked — there is no cap. The standalone verify-summary verb keeps its historical default of checking the first two.


Roadmap Commands

Parse and update ROADMAP.md.

# Extract phase section from ROADMAP.md
node gsd-tools.cjs roadmap get-phase <phase>

# Full roadmap parse with disk status
node gsd-tools.cjs roadmap analyze

# Update progress table row from disk
node gsd-tools.cjs roadmap update-plan-progress <N>

Config Commands

Read and write .planning/config.json.

# Initialize config.json with defaults
node gsd-tools.cjs config-ensure-section

# Set a config value (dot notation)
node gsd-tools.cjs config-set <key> <value>

# Get a config value
node gsd-tools.cjs config-get <key>

# Set model profile
node gsd-tools.cjs config-set-model-profile <profile>

Capability Commands

The capability command family resolves and mutates capability state (ADR-857). One resolved state composes three substrates: the install profile (.gsd-profile), the runtime surface (.gsd-surface.json), and config gates (.planning/config.json workflow.*). enabled = installed && surfaced; a hook is active only when its capability is enabled and its config gate is on.

capability state

node gsd-tools.cjs capability state [--config-dir <path>] [--raw]

Resolves and prints every capability's installed, surfaced, enabled, and per-hook active state. Read-only. --config-dir selects the runtime config directory (defaults to the resolved Claude home). --raw emits JSON.

capability set

node gsd-tools.cjs capability set <id> [--on | --off] [--gate <key>=<true|false>]... [--config-dir <path>] [--runtime <name>] [--scope <global|project>] [--raw]

Mutates one capability, re-resolves, and reports the result. Two axes:

  • --on / --off (aliases --enable / --disable): the capability on/off switch, applied through the runtime surface. --off unsurfaces the capability; the change is reversible and reclaims the surface budget. A capability that owns no skills has no surface footprint — use --gate for those.
  • --gate <key>=<true|false> (repeatable): toggles one of the capability's own config keys (a hook gate) within an enabled capability.
  • --runtime / --scope: materialise the surface change for that runtime's artifact layout.

After writing, the command re-resolves and prints two message classes to stderr: errors (non-zero exit) — unknown capability id, a --gate key the capability does not own, a non-boolean gate value, or --on for a capability whose skills are not in the install profile; warnings (exit 0) — --on/--off on a skill-less capability, or a capability left surfaced while every hook is gated off ("present but dead"). Exit status is non-zero only when a requested change could not be applied.

Examples:

# Turn the UI capability off
node gsd-tools.cjs capability set ui --off --config-dir ~/.claude

# Keep the capability on, gate one hook off
node gsd-tools.cjs capability set code-review --gate workflow.code_review=false

Teams Status

query teams-status

node gsd-tools.cjs query teams-status [--active]

Read-only detector for claude-code's experimental agent-teams feature (issue #1355). Resolves the runtime via the canonical GSD_RUNTIME → config.runtime → 'claude' precedence, then checks CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS.

Default (no flags): prints a JSON object and exits 0:

{
  "active": false,
  "runtime": "claude",
  "env_present": false,
  "source": "off: flag absent"
}

Fields:

Field Type Description
active boolean true only when CLAUDE_CODE_EXPERIMENTAL_AGENT_TEAMS is strictly truthy ("1" or "true", case-insensitive) and the resolved runtime is "claude"
runtime string The resolved runtime name (e.g. "claude", "codex")
env_present boolean true when the env flag is set to a strictly-truthy value
source string One of: "on: env", "off: flag absent", "off: non-claude"

--active flag: exits 0 if active is true, exits 1 otherwise. Prints nothing. Useful in bash conditionals:

if gsd_run query teams-status --active >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  echo "agent-teams is on"
fi

This command is strictly read-only — no config writes, no disk mutation.


query eval.score

node gsd-tools.cjs query eval.score --covered <N> --total <N> --infra <tooling>,<dataset>,<cicd>,<guardrails>,<tracing>

Deterministic scorer for eval-auditor results. Computes coverage, infrastructure, and overall scores from audited inputs. Called by gsd-eval-auditor in its calculate_scores step — agents must not recompute these values by hand.

Inputs:

Flag Type Description
--covered integer Number of eval dimensions scored COVERED
--total integer Total planned eval dimensions
--infra string Comma-separated list of 5 infra component statuses (order: tooling, dataset, cicd, guardrails, tracing); each value is ok, partial, or missing

Output JSON:

Field Type Description
coverage_score number covered / total × 100
infra_score number (sum of component weights) / 5 × 100 (ok=1, partial=0.5, missing=0)
overall_score number (coverage_score × 0.6) + (infra_score × 0.4)
verdict string PRODUCTION READY (80–100) / NEEDS WORK (60–<80) / SIGNIFICANT GAPS (40–<60) / NOT IMPLEMENTED (0–<40)

Example:

node gsd-tools.cjs query eval.score --covered 3 --total 5 --infra ok,partial,missing,ok,ok
# → {"coverage_score":60,"infra_score":70,"overall_score":64,"verdict":"NEEDS WORK"}

This command is strictly read-only — no config writes, no disk mutation.


query context-predicates

node gsd-tools.cjs query context-predicates --class <CLASS> | --prefix <dotted.prefix> | --contains <text>

Selector surface for the CONTEXT.md predicate fact-store (ADR-1671, #2928). Parses the repo-root CONTEXT.md live on every call via the compiled context-predicates.cjs — it never reads the committed docs/CONTEXT-INDEX.json (that artifact is a CI drift-guard byproduct, not a query source, so it can never go stale relative to the live predicates it answers about).

Selectors (at least one required; when more than one is given they are ANDed together):

Flag Type Description
--class <CLASS> string Exact match on the predicate's class (the segment before the first .)
--prefix <dotted.prefix> string Match predicate ids starting with this dotted prefix
--contains <text> string Case-insensitive substring match against id + ' ' + value

Each flag also accepts the inline-assignment form (--contains=<text>), which is the escape hatch for a flag-shaped value the space-separated form cannot express — e.g. --contains=--dry-run to search for the literal substring --dry-run. The space-separated form (--contains --dry-run) always reads a following --... token as a missing value, by design.

Output JSON:

{
  "matched": 2,
  "predicates": [
    { "id": "RULESET.EXAMPLE", "klass": "RULESET", "value": "…", "line": 42, "section": "Glossary" }
  ]
}
Field Type Description
matched number Count of predicates satisfying all given selectors
predicates array Each entry is a live Predicate — id, klass, value, line (1-based source line), section (nearest enclosing heading)

This command is strictly read-only — no config writes, no disk mutation. See ADR-1671 and Architecture — CLI Tools.


Model Resolution

# Get model for agent based on current profile
node gsd-tools.cjs resolve-model <agent-name>
# Raw output returns the selected model ID/tier.
# JSON output also includes profile and, when the active runtime supports it,
# reasoning_effort.

Agent names: gsd-planner, gsd-executor, gsd-phase-researcher, gsd-project-researcher, gsd-research-synthesizer, gsd-verifier, gsd-plan-checker, gsd-integration-checker, gsd-roadmapper, gsd-debugger, gsd-codebase-mapper, gsd-nyquist-auditor


Verification Commands

Validate plans, phases, references, and commits.

# Verify SUMMARY.md file
node gsd-tools.cjs verify-summary <path> [--check-count N]

# Check PLAN.md structure + tasks
node gsd-tools.cjs verify plan-structure <file>

# Check all plans have summaries
node gsd-tools.cjs verify phase-completeness <phase>

# Check @-refs + paths resolve
node gsd-tools.cjs verify references <file>

# Batch verify commit hashes
node gsd-tools.cjs verify commits <hash1> [hash2] ...

# Check must_haves.artifacts
node gsd-tools.cjs verify artifacts <plan-file>

# Check must_haves.key_links
node gsd-tools.cjs verify key-links <plan-file>

Validation Commands

Check project integrity.

# Check phase numbering, disk/roadmap sync
node gsd-tools.cjs validate consistency

# Check .planning/ integrity, optionally repair
node gsd-tools.cjs validate health [--repair]

# Probe context-window utilization for status-line / hook callers (v1.40.0)
node gsd-tools.cjs validate context

# Context utilization as typed JSON surface (#455)
node gsd-tools.cjs validate context --json

validate context emits a structured envelope with utilization, status (ok / warn / critical at the 60 % / 70 % thresholds), and a suggestion string. The same data backs /gsd-health --context. Pass --json to receive the typed IR directly (useful in scripts and test assertions).


Template Commands

Template selection and filling.

# Select summary template based on granularity
node gsd-tools.cjs template select <type>

# Fill template with variables
node gsd-tools.cjs template fill <type> --phase N [--plan M] [--name "..."] [--type execute|tdd] [--wave N] [--fields '{json}']

Template types for fill: summary, plan, verification


Frontmatter Commands

YAML frontmatter CRUD operations on any Markdown file.

# Extract frontmatter as JSON
node gsd-tools.cjs frontmatter get <file> [--field key]

# Update single field
node gsd-tools.cjs frontmatter set <file> --field key --value jsonVal

# Merge JSON into frontmatter
node gsd-tools.cjs frontmatter merge <file> --data '{json}'

# Validate required fields
node gsd-tools.cjs frontmatter validate <file> --schema plan|summary|verification

Scaffold Commands

Create pre-structured files and directories.

# Create CONTEXT.md template
node gsd-tools.cjs scaffold context --phase N

# Create UAT.md template
node gsd-tools.cjs scaffold uat --phase N

# Create VERIFICATION.md template
node gsd-tools.cjs scaffold verification --phase N

# Create phase directory
node gsd-tools.cjs scaffold phase-dir --phase N --name "phase name"

Init Commands (Compound Context Loading)

Load all context needed for a specific workflow in one call. Returns JSON with project info, config, state, and workflow-specific data. init onboard [--fast] [--text] reports brownfield signals, planning-doc candidates, codebase-map completeness, fast-map readiness, text-mode routing, partial planning state, and onboarding summary status for /gsd-onboard.

node gsd-tools.cjs init execute-phase <phase>
node gsd-tools.cjs init plan-phase <phase>
node gsd-tools.cjs init new-project
node gsd-tools.cjs init new-milestone
node gsd-tools.cjs init onboard [--fast] [--text]
node gsd-tools.cjs init quick <description>
node gsd-tools.cjs init resume
node gsd-tools.cjs init verify-work <phase>
node gsd-tools.cjs init phase-op <phase>
node gsd-tools.cjs init code-review <phase> [--fix]
node gsd-tools.cjs init review <phase>
node gsd-tools.cjs init discuss-phase-assumptions <phase> [--auto]
node gsd-tools.cjs init todos [area]
node gsd-tools.cjs init milestone-op
node gsd-tools.cjs init map-codebase
node gsd-tools.cjs init progress
node gsd-tools.cjs init manager
node gsd-tools.cjs init complete-milestone
node gsd-tools.cjs init autonomous [--converge] [--cross-ai]
node gsd-tools.cjs init docs-update
node gsd-tools.cjs init update [--next] [--rc]
node gsd-tools.cjs init transition

# Workstream-scoped init (`--ws` flag)
node gsd-tools.cjs init execute-phase <phase> --ws <name>
node gsd-tools.cjs init plan-phase <phase> --ws <name>

Large payload handling: When output exceeds ~50KB, the CLI writes to a temp file and returns @file:/tmp/gsd-init-XXXXX.json. Workflows check for the @file: prefix and read from disk:

INIT=$(node gsd-tools.cjs init execute-phase "1")
if [[ "$INIT" == @file:* ]]; then INIT=$(cat "${INIT#@file:}"); fi

Milestone Commands

# Archive milestone
node gsd-tools.cjs milestone complete <version> [--name <name>] [--no-archive-phases]

# Mark requirements as complete
node gsd-tools.cjs requirements mark-complete <ids>
# Accepts: REQ-01,REQ-02 or REQ-01 REQ-02 or [REQ-01, REQ-02]

Agent Skills

Emit the skill block for a given agent type.

# Emit raw XML skill block (default — safe for shell expansion)
node gsd-tools.cjs agent-skills <agent-type>

# Emit typed JSON surface (#455) — { agent_type, block, skills_count, warnings, configured, reason, source, degraded }
node gsd-tools.cjs agent-skills <agent-type> --json

The --json flag returns a typed IR object suitable for structured consumption and test assertions, while the default (no flag) preserves the raw XML output that workflow shell expansions rely on.

--json field reference (as of #1415, Resolution Provenance P2):

Field Type Description
agent_type string The agent type that was queried.
block string The <agent_skills> XML block, or "" when empty.
skills_count number Number of skill paths configured for this agent type.
warnings string[] Per-path warnings for skills that were skipped (missing SKILL.md, unsafe path, etc.). Empty when all configured paths resolved.
configured boolean true when the agent type appears in agent_skills in the config; false when the key is absent entirely.
reason string Resolution reason: "resolved" (block non-empty), "not_configured" (agent not in agent_skills — silent), "configured_empty" (configured but paths list is empty — emits stderr WARNING), "configured_unresolved" (configured with paths but all failed to resolve — emits stderr WARNING).
source string Config provenance: "root" (.planning/config.json), "workstream" (workstream-scoped config), "global-defaults" (~/.gsd/defaults.json), "builtin-defaults" (no project config).
degraded boolean true when a workstream was requested but its config.json was absent and the command fell back to root config; false otherwise.

The command anchors to the project root via findProjectRoot before loading config, so invoking it from a descendant subdirectory resolves the same config as the project root.


Skill Manifest

Pre-compute and cache skill discovery for faster command loading.

# Generate skill manifest (writes to .claude/skill-manifest.json)
node gsd-tools.cjs skill-manifest

# Generate with custom output path
node gsd-tools.cjs skill-manifest --output <path>

Returns JSON mapping of all available GSD skills with their metadata (name, description, file path, argument hints). Used by the installer and session-start hooks to avoid repeated filesystem scans.


Utility Commands

# Convert text to URL-safe slug
node gsd-tools.cjs generate-slug "Some Text Here"
# → some-text-here

# Get timestamp
node gsd-tools.cjs current-timestamp [full|date|filename]

# Count and list pending todos
node gsd-tools.cjs list-todos [area]

# List captured seeds (optionally filter by status: dormant|active|triggered)
node gsd-tools.cjs list-seeds [status]

# Check file/directory existence
node gsd-tools.cjs verify-path-exists <path>

# Append a row to STATE.md's "Quick Tasks Completed" table (schema-backed; #2133)
node gsd-tools.cjs quick-tasks-append --task "<description>"

# Aggregate all SUMMARY.md data
node gsd-tools.cjs history-digest

# Extract structured data from SUMMARY.md
node gsd-tools.cjs summary-extract <path> [--fields field1,field2]

# Project statistics
node gsd-tools.cjs stats [json|table]

# Progress rendering (human-readable)
node gsd-tools.cjs progress [json|table|bar]

# Progress as typed JSON surface (#455)
node gsd-tools.cjs progress --json

# Complete a todo
node gsd-tools.cjs todo complete <filename>

# UAT audit — scan all phases for unresolved items
node gsd-tools.cjs audit-uat

# Cross-artifact audit queue — scan `.planning/` for unresolved audit items
node gsd-tools.cjs audit-open [--json]

# Reverse-migrate a GSD-2 project into the current structure (backs `/gsd-import --from-gsd2`)
node gsd-tools.cjs from-gsd2 [--path <dir>] [--force] [--dry-run]

# Git commit with config checks
node gsd-tools.cjs commit <message> [--files f1 f2] [--amend] [--no-verify] [--respect-staged]

--no-verify: Skips pre-commit hooks. Used by parallel executor agents during wave-based execution to avoid build lock contention (e.g., cargo lock fights in Rust projects). The orchestrator runs hooks once after each wave completes. Do not use --no-verify during sequential execution — let hooks run normally. --files <paths> staging behaviour: by default, --files runs git add -- <path> for each named file before committing. This overwrites any per-hunk staging set up via git add -p. Pass --respect-staged to skip the git add step and commit only what is already in the index within the requested pathspec. If nothing is staged within that scope, the command returns { committed: false, reason: 'nothing staged' } without error. The trailing -- <paths> pathspec on the commit is applied under both modes, so files staged outside the --files scope are never included (#3061 invariant).

# Web search (requires Brave API key)
node gsd-tools.cjs websearch <query> [--limit N] [--freshness day|week|month]

Update Backup and Restore

The two halves of /gsd:update's user-added-file protection. detect-custom-files lists files that exist inside GSD-managed directories but are absent from gsd-file-manifest.json — the update workflow copies those into gsd-user-files-backup/ before the clean-install wipe. restore-custom-files puts them back afterwards.

# List user-added files the installer would destroy (JSON)
node gsd-tools.cjs detect-custom-files --config-dir <config-dir>

# Plan a restore — reports what would be restored, writes nothing
node gsd-tools.cjs restore-custom-files --config-dir <config-dir>

# Restore the eligible entries
node gsd-tools.cjs restore-custom-files --config-dir <config-dir> --apply

restore-custom-files emits one entry per backed-up file:

Field Meaning
path Path relative to the config dir — where the file came from and goes back to
outcome eligible (plan mode) · restored · skipped_destination_managed · skipped_destination_exists · skipped_copy_failed · skipped_unsafe_path
warnings Advisory {code, detail} findings from the compatibility pass; never blocks a restore

Warning codes: destination_managed, destination_exists, missing_referenced_path, missing_referenced_command, frontmatter_missing_field, write_failed.

The compatibility pass runs against the newly installed release, so it catches a backed-up skill that @-references a workflow the new version retired, invokes a /gsd: command that no longer exists, or is missing the name / description frontmatter its runtime needs.

Three things the restore never does: it never deletes the backup, it never overwrites a path the new release ships (skipped_destination_managed), and it never overwrites a different file already on disk (skipped_destination_exists). Symlinked backup entries are skipped outright rather than followed (skipped_unsafe_path). A single unwritable entry is reported and the remaining entries still restore.


Worktree Commands

Diagnose and configure the worktree fork base used by Claude Code's isolation="worktree" executor dispatch. These commands address the branch-divergence condition described in Fix the worktree base-mismatch (exit 42) error.

# Check whether the current HEAD has diverged from the worktree fork base.
# Returns JSON: { shouldDegrade, reason, message, headSha, forkRef, forkSha }
node gsd-tools.cjs worktree base-check

# Write worktree.baseRef:"head" into .claude/settings.local.json (no-clobber).
# Returns JSON: { changed, skipped, previous, baseRef, file }
node gsd-tools.cjs worktree set-baseref

worktree base-check reads worktree.baseRef from a three-layer cascade — .claude/settings.local.json, then .claude/settings.json, then the user/global settings.json under CLAUDE_CONFIG_DIR (or ~/.claude) — and compares the current HEAD SHA against origin/HEAD. Project-level settings take precedence over the user/global layer, so a machine-wide worktree.baseRef:"head" set via /config is honored when no project override exists. The shouldDegrade field is true when the execute-phase orchestrator will fall back to sequential execution. Possible reason values:

reason shouldDegrade Meaning
baseref-head false worktree.baseRef:"head" is set; no mismatch possible
head-matches-fork false HEAD and origin/HEAD are the same commit
head-diverged-from-fork true Branch is ahead of or diverged from origin/HEAD
fork-ref-unknown true origin/HEAD could not be resolved
no-head false Not in a git repo (no HEAD)

worktree set-baseref applies a no-clobber write of worktree.baseRef:"head" to .claude/settings.local.json. If the file already contains an explicit baseRef value other than "head", the existing value is preserved and skipped:"explicit-other" is returned. Malformed JSON causes an error rather than a silent overwrite. Both fresh installs and upgrades of GSD Core run this automatically when workflow.use_worktrees is enabled (the default); the command is also available for manual use — for example, to apply the setting when worktrees were toggled on after installation, or to re-apply it after a settings change.

Wave-manifest recording

The execute-phase orchestrator records each spawned executor's worktree identity into a wave cleanup manifest so the matching cleanup-wave reader can later merge and remove exactly those worktrees.

# Append a validated per-agent entry to the wave cleanup manifest.
# Returns JSON: { ok, reason, entry, manifest_path } (exit 0), or
#   { ok:false, reason, hint } with a non-zero exit on a rejected entry.
node gsd-tools.cjs worktree record-agent \
  --manifest <path> --agent-id <id> --path <worktree> --branch <branch> --base <sha>

worktree record-agent appends one {agent_id, worktree_path, branch, expected_base} entry to an already-initialized manifest, validating every field at write time using the same rules the cleanup-wave reader enforces — --branch must match the disposable ^(worktree-)?agent-[A-Za-z0-9._/-]+$ namespace (accepts both agent-<id> and legacy worktree-agent-<id>), and --path/--branch/--base must be non-empty. --agent-id is required (write-strict), even though the reader treats it as optional. A missing or garbled field — or a duplicate (worktree_path, branch) the reader would dedup away — fails loudly with a recovery hint and a non-zero exit without writing, instead of appending an under-populated or silently-dropped entry. Whitespace-only --path/--base are rejected (values are trimmed). The on-disk manifest shape is unchanged (the reader re-derives allowed_bases); the orchestrator still initializes the empty {orchestrator_root, worktrees: []} shell inline before any agent is recorded.


Graphify

Build, query, and inspect the project knowledge graph in .planning/graphs/. Requires graphify.enabled: true in config.json (see Configuration Reference).

# Build or rebuild the knowledge graph
node gsd-tools.cjs graphify build

# Search the graph for a term
node gsd-tools.cjs graphify query <term>

# Show graph freshness and statistics
node gsd-tools.cjs graphify status

# Show changes since the last build
node gsd-tools.cjs graphify diff

# Write a named snapshot of the current graph
node gsd-tools.cjs graphify snapshot [name]

User-facing entry point: /gsd-graphify (see Command Reference).


Module Architecture

Module File Exports
Core lib/core.cjs error(), output(), parseArgs(), shared utilities, compatibility re-exports
State lib/state.cjs All state subcommands, state-snapshot
Phase lib/phase.cjs Phase CRUD, find-phase, phase-plan-index, phases list
Planning Workspace lib/planning-workspace.cjs Planning seam: planningDir, planningPaths, active workstream routing, .planning/.lock
Roadmap lib/roadmap.cjs Roadmap parsing, phase extraction, progress updates
Config lib/config.cjs Config read/write, section initialization
Verify lib/verify.cjs All verification and validation commands
Template lib/template.cjs Template selection and variable filling
Frontmatter lib/frontmatter.cjs YAML frontmatter CRUD
Init lib/init.cjs Compound context loading for all workflows
Milestone lib/milestone.cjs Milestone archival, requirements marking
Commands lib/commands.cjs Misc: slug, timestamp, todos, scaffold, stats, websearch
Model Profiles lib/model-profiles.cjs Profile resolution table
UAT lib/uat.cjs Cross-phase UAT/verification audit
Profile Output lib/profile-output.cjs Developer profile formatting
Profile Pipeline lib/profile-pipeline.cjs Session analysis pipeline
Graphify lib/graphify.cjs Knowledge graph build/query/status/diff/snapshot (backs /gsd-graphify)
Learnings lib/learnings.cjs Extract learnings from phases/SUMMARY artifacts (backs /gsd-extract-learnings)
Audit lib/audit.cjs Phase/milestone audit queue handlers; audit-open helper
GSD2 Import lib/gsd2-import.cjs Reverse-migration importer from GSD-2 projects (backs /gsd-import --from-gsd2)
Intel lib/intel.cjs Queryable codebase intelligence index (backs /gsd-map-codebase --query)
Context Predicates lib/context-predicates.cjs CONTEXT.md predicate fact-store parser/selector (ADR-1671, #2928) — backs query context-predicates and scripts/gen-context-index.cjs's docs/CONTEXT-INDEX.json drift guard
Capability State lib/capability-state.cjs Capability-state resolver — composes install profile, surface, and config into per-capability enabled/active view
Capability Writer lib/capability-writer.cjs Capability-state writer (ADR-1213) — write-side inverse; projects --on/--off/--gate onto surface + config substrates then re-resolves
Worktree Base Ref lib/worktree-base-ref.cjs Worktree fork-base detection and worktree base-check / set-baseref commands (#683)

Reviewer CLI Routing

review.models.<cli> maps a reviewer flavor to a bare model id injected into the CLI's --model (or -m) flag by the code-review workflow. Set via /gsd-config --integrations or directly:

node gsd-tools.cjs config-set review.models.codex    "gpt-5"
node gsd-tools.cjs config-set review.models.gemini   "gemini-2.5-pro"
node gsd-tools.cjs config-set review.models.opencode "claude-sonnet-4"
node gsd-tools.cjs config-set review.models.claude   ""   # clear — fall back to session model

Slugs are validated against [a-zA-Z0-9_-]+; empty or path-containing slugs are rejected. See docs/CONFIGURATION.md for the full field reference.

Secret Handling

API keys configured via /gsd-settings (brave_search, firecrawl, exa_search) are written plaintext to .planning/config.json but are masked (****<last-4>) in every config-set / config-get output, confirmation table, and interactive prompt. See gsd-core/bin/lib/secrets.cjs for the masking implementation. The config.json file itself is the security boundary — protect it with filesystem permissions and keep it out of git (.planning/ is gitignored by default).