skill-implementer-hard

name	skill-implementer-hard
description	Execute hard-mode implementation with anti-analysis contracts, per-phase dispatch, and territory-aware execution. Invoke for --hard implementation tasks.
allowed-tools	Agent, AskUserQuestion, Bash, Edit, Read, Write

Implementer Hard Skill

Hard-mode wrapper that delegates implementation to general-implementation-hard-agent subagent. Extends skill-implementer with:

• Single-phase dispatch context (H1): reads handoff JSON to identify next incomplete phase
• Territory parameters (H7): includes territory contract when dispatched from orchestrate-hard
• Anti-analysis contract (H2): passed in delegation context for agent enforcement

Relationship to base skill: Structurally follows skill-implementer postflight pattern. Key difference: when orchestrator_mode=true, uses per-phase dispatch (H1) rather than whole-plan dispatch. Maintenance: mirror postflight changes to this skill.

Context References

Reference (do not load eagerly):

• Path: .claude/context/formats/return-metadata-file.md - Metadata file schema
• Path: .claude/context/contracts/anti-analysis.md - H2 contract (loaded by agent)
• Path: .claude/context/contracts/wrap-up.md - H9 contract (loaded by agent)
• Path: .claude/context/contracts/territory.md - H7 contract (when territory params present)
• Path: .claude/context/contracts/recovery.md - recovery/fix-forward ladder (loaded by agent)
• Path: .claude/context/contracts/phase-closure.md - depth-first phase closure: close one phase before opening the next (loaded by agent)
• Path: .claude/context/contracts/pre-edit-gate.md - per-item evidence before applying a mechanical-list edit (loaded by agent)
• Path: .claude/context/patterns/postflight-control.md - Marker file protocol
• Path: .claude/context/patterns/subagent-continuation-loop.md - Continuation loop pattern

Trigger Conditions

This skill activates when:

• /implement N --hard is invoked and no extension hard variant exists
• Routed here by command-route-skill.sh with effort_flag="hard"
• skill-orchestrate-hard dispatches an implementation phase

---

Execution Flow

Stage 1: Input Validation

task_data=$(jq -r --argjson num "$task_number" \
  '.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num)' \
  specs/state.json)

if [ -z "$task_data" ]; then
  return error "Task $task_number not found"
fi

task_type=$(echo "$task_data" | jq -r '.task_type // "general"')
status=$(echo "$task_data" | jq -r '.status')
project_name=$(echo "$task_data" | jq -r '.project_name')
description=$(echo "$task_data" | jq -r '.description // ""')

if [ "$status" = "completed" ] || [ "$status" = "abandoned" ] || [ "$status" = "expanded" ]; then
  return error "Task is in terminal state [$status]"
fi

---

Stage 1.5: Hard-Mode Cost Note

session_flag_file="/tmp/.hard-mode-notified-${SESSION_ID:-$$}"
if [ ! -f "$session_flag_file" ]; then
  echo "[hard-mode] Hard mode active. Cost: ~3-5x standard. Use --hard for deflection-prone or formally complex tasks." >&2
  touch "$session_flag_file"
fi

---

Stage 2 + Stage 3: Preflight Status Update and Postflight Marker

Source skill-base.sh once, then follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-preflight-flow.md in full for Stage 2 (preflight status update) and Stage 3 (marker creation):

source .claude/scripts/skill-base.sh
padded_num=$(printf "%03d" "$task_number")
skill_name="skill-implementer-hard"
operation="implement"

Marker unification note: this skill's marker previously dropped created and stop_hook_active (Shape C) — a drift, not a hard-mode design decision. Routing through skill_create_postflight_marker restores both fields as part of this conversion, matching every other importer's Shape A schema.

---

Stage 3a: Calculate Artifact Number

next_num=$(jq -r --argjson num "$task_number" \
  '.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num) | .next_artifact_number // 1' \
  specs/state.json)

if [ "$next_num" -le 1 ]; then
  artifact_number=1
else
  artifact_number=$((next_num - 1))
fi

artifact_padded=$(printf "%02d" "$artifact_number")

---

Stage 3b: Single-Phase Dispatch Context (H1)

When orchestrator_mode=true, determine the specific phase to dispatch rather than dispatching the whole plan:

if [ "$orchestrator_mode" = "true" ]; then
  task_dir="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}"
  # Absolute anchor handed to the dispatched agent so it never has to resolve a bare filename
  # against the ambient working directory. SKILL_REPO_ROOT is exported by skill-base.sh when
  # sourced; $(pwd) is a last-resort fallback for direct invocation.
  task_dir_abs="${SKILL_REPO_ROOT:-$(pwd)}/specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}"
  handoff_path_abs="${task_dir_abs}/.orchestrator-handoff.json"
  # Fixed: was the un-scoped "specs/.orchestrator-handoff.json" (collided across tasks and
  # didn't match skill-orchestrate-hard's own TASK_DIR-scoped path). Now scoped per task,
  # matching skill-orchestrate-hard/SKILL.md:131 (`${TASK_DIR}/.orchestrator-handoff.json`).
  handoff_file="${task_dir}/.orchestrator-handoff.json"
  plan_path=$(ls -1 "${task_dir}/plans/"*.md 2>/dev/null | sort -V | tail -1)

  # Fixed: integer-increment phase selection (`next_phase=$((phases_completed + 1))`) could not
  # address N.1/N.2 sub-phase headings or sparse numbering (1, 2, 2.1, 2.2, 3), and had no
  # skeleton-exhaustion signal. Replaced with a heading-scan of the plan file itself, mirroring
  # the base agent's Stage 3 "Find Resume Point" pattern. This is a strict superset: dense
  # integer plans (1, 2, 3, ...) resolve identically to the old increment behavior.
  # Scan phase headings top-to-bottom; first OPEN-alternation heading wins. Sourced from the
  # shared anchor (scripts/lib/phase-heading-patterns.sh) rather than re-derived inline; a
  # non-conforming heading is reported by name rather than silently resuming at a wrong or
  # absent phase -- a silent wrong resume point is more damaging here than a loud stop.
  # Heading form: "### Phase {N or N.1}: {name} [STATUS]"
  #
  # Leaf-worker posture: this check runs in this skill's own bash preamble, strictly before the
  # first `Agent tool:` dispatch below. No subagent has run yet, so no handoff write is owed here
  # (H9 wrap-up binds a dispatched agent's own termination, not this precondition check). The
  # whole-file conformance gate below runs BEFORE the filtered scan, and BEFORE the `else
  # next_phase=1` fallback -- a non-conforming heading is invisible to a PHASE_HEADING_ERE-filtered
  # grep, so gating only the dead inner branch would still let this cascade re-dispatch phase 1
  # when the only open phase in the whole file is non-conforming.
  next_phase=""
  phase_scan_inconclusive=false
  if [ -n "$plan_path" ] && [ -f "$plan_path" ]; then
    . .claude/scripts/lib/phase-heading-patterns.sh
    # --- resume-scan-conformance-gate:begin ---
    # Whole-file conformance check BEFORE the filtered scan below. PHASE_HEADING_ERE admits
    # conforming headings only, so a non-conforming heading is not merely unmatched by that grep --
    # it is INVISIBLE to it, and the scan would silently select the next conforming OPEN heading
    # instead, dispatching out of order on top of unfinished work. has_nonconforming_phase_headings
    # is the required boolean predicate; the `nonconforming_phase_headings | grep -q .` pipe form is
    # forbidden (unsafe under pipefail).
    if has_nonconforming_phase_headings "$plan_path"; then
      warn_nonconforming "$plan_path" "implementer-hard-next-phase" || true
      phase_scan_inconclusive=true
    else
      next_heading=$(grep -E "${PHASE_HEADING_ERE} .*${PHASE_STATUS_OPEN_ERE}" "$plan_path" | head -1)
      if [ -n "$next_heading" ]; then
        next_phase=$(extract_phase_number "$next_heading") || next_phase=""
        if [ -z "$next_phase" ]; then
          # Defense-in-depth only, and unreachable by construction: the grep above already
          # guarantees this line matches PHASE_HEADING_ERE. Funnelled into the same sentinel so
          # there is exactly one inconclusive path, never a second silent one.
          phase_scan_inconclusive=true
        fi
      fi
    fi
    # --- resume-scan-conformance-gate:end ---
  fi

  if [ "$phase_scan_inconclusive" = "true" ]; then
    echo "[hard-mode] STOP: resume-scan found a non-conforming phase heading -- refusing to guess a resume point. See the named, line-numbered warning above." >&2
    exit 1
  fi

  if [ -n "$next_phase" ]; then
    echo "[hard-mode] Per-phase dispatch: targeting phase ${next_phase} (heading-scan)" >&2
  elif [ -f "$handoff_file" ] && [ "$(jq -r '.skeleton // false' "$handoff_file" 2>/dev/null)" = "true" ]; then
    # Skeleton-exhaustion detection: no incomplete phase heading remains AND the prior dispatch
    # outcome declared skeleton=true. Make the condition legible rather than looping on a
    # nonexistent phase or silently no-op'ing. Routing to the follow-up tasks themselves remains
    # skill-orchestrate-hard's job (see its skeleton-exhaustion routing stage) -- out of scope here.
    follow_up_tasks=$(jq -r '.follow_up_tasks // [] | join(", ")' "$handoff_file" 2>/dev/null)
    follow_up_count=$(jq -r '.follow_up_tasks // [] | length' "$handoff_file" 2>/dev/null)
    echo "[hard-mode] Skeleton plan exhausted -- ${follow_up_count} follow-up tasks pending: {${follow_up_tasks}}" >&2
    next_phase=""
  else
    next_phase=1
    echo "[hard-mode] No incomplete phase heading found and no handoff, dispatching phase 1" >&2
  fi
  # phase_number will be passed in delegation context
fi

---

Stage 4a: Memory Retrieval (Auto)

if [ "$clean_flag" != "true" ]; then
  memory_context=$(bash .claude/scripts/memory-retrieve.sh "$description" "$task_type" "" 2>/dev/null) || memory_context=""
fi

Literature Detection and Injection (Stage 4a, shared block)

Follow @.claude/context/patterns/lit-stage4a-flow.md in full to resolve --lit and set lit_context: call literature-lit-flag-resolve.sh, branch on all six directives (LIT_DISABLED, SUBINDEX_PRESENT, GLOBAL_MISSING, PROMPT_NEEDED, AUTONOMOUS_GLOBAL, SPARSE_PROMPT_NEEDED), issue the real four-option AskUserQuestion for the two interactive directives (including the "Search online to ingest" option wired to the STABLE-CONTRACT literature-ingest-online.sh bridge), apply the two-checkpoint sparse re-prompt after "Use global corpus now", and take the deterministic [lit:auto] autonomous fallback when orchestrator_mode == "true" (never calling AskUserQuestion in that case). This skill supplies the shared block's preconditions: lit_flag, description, and orchestrator_mode (read from the delegation context; default "false" when unset).

Note: lit_flag is independent of clean_flag. Using --clean --lit suppresses memory retrieval but still injects literature briefing. Literature briefing is gated solely on lit_flag == "true".

---

Stage 4: Prepare Delegation Context

Pass anti-analysis contract reference, recovery contract reference (see .claude/context/contracts/recovery.md — fix-forward disambiguation and the 3-rung Recovery Ladder), and territory params (when applicable):

{
  "session_id": "{session_id}",
  "delegation_depth": 1,
  "delegation_path": ["orchestrator", "implement", "skill-implementer-hard"],
  "timeout": 7200,
  "task_context": {
    "task_number": N,
    "task_name": "{project_name}",
    "description": "{description}",
    "task_type": "{task_type}"
  },
  "artifact_number": "{artifact_number}",
  "effort_flag": "hard",
  "model_flag": "{model_flag from command}",
  "plan_path": "{plan_path}",
  "roadmap_path": "specs/ROADMAP.md",
  "phase_number": "{next_phase when orchestrator_mode=true, null otherwise}",
  "territory": "{territory params from orchestrate-hard dispatch, null if not provided}",
  "orchestrator_mode": "{orchestrator_mode}",
  "metadata_file_path": "specs/{NNN}_{SLUG}/.return-meta.json",
  "task_dir": "{task_dir_abs — ABSOLUTE path to the task directory}",
  "handoff_path": "{handoff_path_abs — ABSOLUTE path the agent MUST write its handoff to}",
  "dispatch_seq": "{dispatch_seq from this skill's own delegation context, forwarded unchanged; omit if absent}"
}

Forward dispatch_seq unchanged. If this skill's own delegation context (i.e. the context an orchestrate-hard dispatch passed to it) carries a dispatch_seq field, forward it into the sub-agent's delegation context above verbatim — the same pass-through treatment already given to handoff_path and territory. Never invent, increment, or recompute a value at this layer; only the orchestrator mints one. If absent, omit the field rather than fabricating a value. This is the orchestrator-minted per-dispatch identity Stage 5 of both orchestrate engines compares against the value it minted for the current cycle — see