cospec-verify-change

name	cospec-verify-change
description	Dress-rehearse a change before archiving — validate strictly, walk the verification ledger, and name the hard archive gates.
license	MIT
compatibility	Requires the cospec CLI (@aligned-team/cospec).
metadata	{"author":"cospec","generatedBy":"cospec@0.5.1","contentHash":"sha256:51f08c47b884a9466591d5b559af25a5d9b80545431b1eb06d7af18ae414eb8c"}

Dress-rehearse a change before archiving it. This workflow does not archive — it runs cospec validate --strict, walks the verification ledger to observed evidence, and names the hard gates /cospec:archive will enforce.

All work goes through cospec. Never call openspec directly, and never hand-edit the bookkeeping under openspec/changes/.

1. Select the change

If the user named one, use it. Otherwise run cospec list --json and pick, or ask.

2. Validate

cospec validate <slug> --strict

Fix every ERROR and every WARNING it reports before continuing. This includes the archive-precondition checks (targets exist, no zero-op deltas, no ADDED collisions, scenarios are well-formed) — do not proceed to the ledger walk with a validation failure outstanding.

3. Walk the verification ledger

Read openspec/changes/<slug>/verification.md. For each row shaped - [ ] N.M @layer (owner) probe -> result:

• Run the probe.
• Record the actual observed result after ->, replacing the placeholder.
• Flip the box to [x] once the observed result is recorded.
• If you will not run a row, do not fake it: write - [~] N.M @layer (owner) probe -> defer: <honest reason> instead.

No bare - [ ] row may remain when this step is done. Do not edit the ledger to invent evidence for a probe you did not actually run.

4. Confirm tasks are complete

Read openspec/changes/<slug>/tasks.md. Every box must be [x]. If any are not, finish the remaining work (or tell the user which are outstanding) before moving on.

5. Name the gates archive will enforce

Tell the user /cospec:archive runs two hard gates, neither of which accepts --force:

• archive/verification-incomplete — fails if any ledger row is still a bare - [ ].
• archive/scenario-preservation — fails if a spec delta would drop a scenario the living spec already has.

This workflow only checks these preconditions; it does not run the archive.

6. Hand off

Tell the user the change is dress-rehearsed and the next step is /cospec:archive.