gentle-ai-collab-perfect

name	gentle-ai-collab-perfect
description	Trigger: contributing to Gentleman-Programming/gentle-ai as an external collaborator. Strict issue-first workflow, honest PR bodies, contributor-vs-maintainer scope, chained-PR strategy, verification protocol, docstring coverage. Load whenever the active repo is Gentleman-Programming/gentle-ai and any part of the contribution flow is in scope: opening an issue, drafting or editing a PR body, splitting a change into chained/stacked PRs, or auditing a PR before requesting review.
license	Apache-2.0
metadata	{"author":"ardelperal","version":"0.1"}

When to use

Use this skill when the active repo is Gentleman-Programming/gentle-ai and the contributor is an external collaborator (not the maintainer). Scope of the skill:

• Opening or commenting on issues
• Drafting, editing, or auditing PR bodies
• Choosing a chained-PR strategy (Stacked vs Feature Branch Chain)
• Cross-checking PR claims against the GitHub API
• Deciding whether an action is contributor-scope or maintainer-scope

Do NOT load this skill for:

• Using gentle-ai as an installer (Gentleman-Programming/gentle-ai is the installer itself; not this skill)
• Reading docs, debugging tests, or reviewing the codebase in general
• Tasks on a different repository

The skill assumes the contributor is working from wherever they push — a fork, a personal working repo, or anywhere they have write access. It deliberately does not assume a fork. Use it whether you push to ardelperal/gentle-ai, to a personal fork, or to a contributor org.

---

Source of truth — inspect the repo, don't infer

Before recommending any contribution action, inspect the relevant current source. The repo documents every constraint; pulling rules verbatim beats guessing.

Source	What it tells you
CONTRIBUTING.md	Issue-first workflow, label taxonomy, branch naming regex ^(feat|fix|chore|docs|style|refactor|perf|test|build|ci|revert)\/[a-z0-9._-]+$, Conventional Commits format, 400-line review budget
.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md	Required PR body sections (Linked Issue, PR Type, Summary, Changes, Test Plan, Automated Checks, Contributor Checklist, Notes for Reviewers)
.github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE	Current issue templates, forms, and routing policy
Discovered GitHub labels	Current label names and availability; do not infer them from this skill
.github/workflows/pr-check.yml	Automated gates: Check Issue Reference, Check Issue Has status:approved, Check PR Has type:* Label, Check PR Cognitive Load
skills/branch-pr/SKILL.md	Branch + PR creation mechanics
skills/chained-pr/SKILL.md	Chained vs Stacked PR strategy mechanics
internal/assets/skills/issue-creation/SKILL.md	Canonical issue discovery, drafting, privacy review, and publication authority
skills/cognitive-doc-design/SKILL.md	Doc-writing principles
skills/comment-writer/SKILL.md	Tone for comment replies

These files evolve. Re-read them at the start of every contribution.

---

Hard rules (do not negotiate)

1. Issue-first is mandatory. No PR opens without an issue that already has status:approved from a maintainer. Enforced by pr-check.yml and CONTRIBUTING.md.
2. Use Closes/Fixes/Resolves #N in the PR body. Refs #N does NOT satisfy Check Issue Reference. Verified empirically on this repo.
3. Exactly one type:* label per PR. Two type:* labels fail the check. No type:* label fails the check.
4. 400-line budget per PR (additions + deletions). Above that, request size:exception from a maintainer with rationale documented in the PR body.
5. No Co-Authored-By trailers on commits. AI attribution is not acceptable in this repo.
6. No force-push to main. It is protected.
7. PR body checkboxes must reflect API state. If gh pr view --json labels shows labels: [], do not check the "type:* added" box — write a ## Pending maintainer actions section instead.
8. PR titles follow ^(type)(\(scope\))?!?: <description> with exactly one scope (no comma). See skills/branch-pr/SKILL.md for the regex.
9. Pre-existing test failures are named honestly. This repo has pre-existing failures in pi_codegraph, tui/sync, and similar packages. Acknowledging them with the verification method (e.g. git stash baseline) is mandatory. Claiming "all tests pass" without that context is dishonest.

---

Contributor vs maintainer scope

This split catches external contributors most often. Verify with gh before recommending any action that requires elevated permissions.

Action	Contributor	Maintainer
Open / comment on issues	✅	—
Open a PR from a working branch (wherever they push from)	✅	—
Edit own PR body	✅	—
Push commits to own branches	✅	—
Add status:approved to an issue	❌	✅
Apply type:* label to a PR	❌	✅
Apply size:exception label	❌	✅
Approve action_required fork-PR workflows (fork approval gate)	❌	✅
Review a PR (approve / request changes)	❌	✅
Merge a PR	❌	✅
Push slice/* branches to upstream so cross-fork base refs work	❌	✅

If the contributor's PR is "stuck" on something, the next step is almost always a maintainer action — not the contributor trying it. Trying it surfaces GraphQL 403 (AddLabelsToLabelable, requestReviewsByLogin, deployment-protection API) and makes the contributor look unaware of the workflow.

Verified empirically in this repo (July 2026): gh pr edit --add-label type:feature returns 403 ardelperal does not have the correct permissions to execute AddLabelsToLabelable. Treat that error as policy, not as a bug.

---

Issue workflow

Use the canonical issue-creation skill at internal/assets/skills/issue-creation/SKILL.md for duplicate discovery, template handling, privacy review, and publication. Apply Gentle AI's current repository policy from CONTRIBUTING.md, .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE, and discovered GitHub labels rather than copying form fields, label names, or commands here.

After submission, return to this collaboration workflow for the contributor/maintainer boundary and the approved-issue gate before PR work. If a maintainer requests technical sub-slices, keep them within the approved issue structure required by the current repository policy and checks.

---

PR workflow

End-to-end steps once the issue (or chain of sub-issues) is approved.

1. Branch.

   git checkout main && git pull
   git checkout -b <type>/<short-description>
   

   Branch name matches the regex in CONTRIBUTING.md. <short-description> is kebab-case, max a few words.

2. Implement. Work-unit commits: each commit is one deliverable unit with its code + tests + docs. Keep rollback reasonable — reverting one commit should not remove unrelated work.

3. Local validation.

   • go build ./... clean
   • go vet ./... clean
   • go test ./internal/... with pre-existing failures acknowledged via git stash baseline. The repo has known pre-existing failures in internal/components/communitytool/pi_codegraph, internal/tui/sync, and similar — confirm they exist with git stash AND git stash pop, then name them in the PR body's Test Plan.

4. Open the PR with gh pr create. Body matches .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md:

   • ## 🔗 Linked Issue → Closes #N (or Fixes/Resolves). Never Refs.
   • ## 🏷️ PR Type → exactly one [x] type:* matching the actual type
   • ## 📝 Summary → one paragraph: what + why
   • ## 📂 Changes → file table with line counts from gh pr view --json additions,deletions,changedFiles
   • ## 🧪 Test Plan → every go test command actually run + result, including pre-existing failures with verification method
   • ## ✅ Contributor Checklist → [x] only where verifiable; [ ] pending maintainer for the rest
   • ## 💬 Notes for Reviewers → chain position, merge order, blockers

5. For chained PRs, add a brief dependency diagram showing your sibling PRs and the merge order. Mark the current PR with 📍.

6. After opening: check and address any items you documented in the body.

---

PR body honesty — the single most often-abused rule

Every [x] in the Contributor Checklist is a public claim that pr-check.yml and the maintainer will verify. Three rules:

1. Mark [x] only when the assertion is true against the API.

   gh pr view <N> --json labels,closingIssuesReferences,additions,deletions,changedFiles
   

   If labels: [], do not check the "type:* added" box. Instead:

   ## Pending maintainer actions
   
   The following are **maintainer-applied per `pr-check.yml` and CONTRIBUTING.md** in this repo — not within contributor scope:
   
   - [ ] `type:feature` label applied to this PR — pending Alan
   - [ ] `size:exception` consideration — see rationale below
   - [ ] Fork workflow approval — 4 runs in `action_required` awaiting Alan
   

2. Numbers and file counts must match the API. If you can't trust the API, recount locally: git diff --stat <base>..<head>.

3. Pre-existing failures must be named and methodology stated. "Tests pass" is dishonest if four packages fail in the git stash-absent baseline. State them:

   > **Known pre-existing failures (not blocking this PR):** `internal/components/communitytool/pi_codegraph`, `internal/tui/sync`, `internal/tui/sddmode` clusters present on `main` are not introduced by this slice; verified identical via `git stash` baseline.
   

Honest rewrites often look like adding content, not removing. Adding ## Pending maintainer actions and a quoted callout for pre-existing failures is normal and expected.

Standard honest-rewrite pattern

When the contributor checks a box that doesn't reflect reality:

• Move the unfulfillable contributor-side check into ## Pending maintainer actions with pending Alan suffix
• Update diff numbers to match the API exactly; if a qualifier is needed (e.g. "slice-specific commits only"), state it explicitly
• For test claims, state the exact local commands run and the count of PASS/SKIP observed; don't aggregate to "all pass" if any were skipped on Windows
• Always name pre-existing repo failures that the contributor observed but did not fix, with the verification method (git stash baseline)
• For process claims (e.g. "blind dual review approved"), reference the artifact (round-1 → round-2 polish commits ARE that evidence)

---

Chained PR strategy

This repo supports two strategies via gentle-ai-chained-pr:

Stacked to main

Use when each slice can land independently. Branches are independent stacks that each target main. The diff "pollutes" with previous-slice commits because GitHub does not allow cross-fork base refs (slice branches live only in the contributor's working repo).

• Pros: simple, each PR is its own atomic change.
• Cons: large chained diffs; reviewers must mentally isolate slice-specific changes; needs size:exception for anything past 400 lines of slice-specific additions.

Feature Branch Chain (tracker PR)

Use when the feature integrates as one atomic unit. The maintainer pushes the slice/* branches to the upstream as branch (not PR); child PR #1 targets the tracker branch, child #2 targets the child #1 branch, child #3 targets child #2. The tracker PR stays draft / no-merge until all children are reviewed and merged.

• Pros: clean per-slice diffs; atomic integration; reversible as a unit.
• Cons: requires maintainer cooperation to push slice branches upstream; slower.

Critical limitation: GitHub does NOT support cross-fork base refs. If your slice branches live only in your working repo, the only options are:

• Stacked to main (with polluted diffs) — accept the reality
• Ask the maintainer to push slice branches upstream so you can do Feature Branch Chain

The maintainer is the only one who can make Feature Branch Chain work; the contributor alone cannot force it.

---

Verification protocol

Before recommending any action that touches permissions, label state, or commit history:

1. Dry-verify with gh first. Attempt the action and surface the error if it fails. Example:

   $ gh pr edit 1132 --add-label type:feature
   → GraphQL: ardelperal does not have the correct permissions to execute `AddLabelsToLabelable`
   

   That output IS your answer. Don't try to work around it.

2. Cross-check PR body claims against the GitHub API.

   gh pr view <N> --json \
     labels,closingIssuesReferences,additions,deletions,changedFiles,\
     headRefName,baseRefName,isCrossRepository,headRepository,maintainerCanModify,\
     reviewDecision,statusCheckRollup
   

3. Cross-check the linked issue state.

   gh issue view <N> --json number,title,state,labels,comments
   

4. After applying a body rewrite, round-trip the body and confirm closingIssuesReferences is populated for the linked issue:

   gh pr view <N> --json body --jq '.body'             # round-trip
   gh pr view <N> --json closingIssuesReferences        # confirm linkage parsed
   

5. Trust the contributor's lived permissions over inferred defaults. If they say "I can only do X", route everything else to the maintainer — don't waste their PR review budget on GraphQL 403s.

6. Always run the actual test command before claiming it passes. "Tests pass" must reflect go test ./path/to/pkg -v output, not hope.

---

Pre-PR self-audit checklist

Run this in your head (or print and tick) before requesting review:

• Linked issue has status:approved (and the linked PR uses Closes/Fixes/Resolves)
• PR title follows ^(type)(\(single-scope\))?!?: <description> — no comma in scope
• Body uses Closes/Fixes/Resolves #N, not Refs
• Line counts in ## 📂 Changes match gh pr view --json additions,deletions,changedFiles
• No [x] claims contradict what the API shows; moves maintainer-applied actions to ## Pending maintainer actions
• Pre-existing failures named with verification method
• Conventional Commits in title and commit messages
• No Co-Authored-By trailers
• Branch name matches the regex in CONTRIBUTING.md
• Commits are work-unit-sized (one deliverable per commit)
• Chained-slice strategy agreed with the maintainer (Stacked vs Feature Branch Chain)
• Docstring coverage on exported items in the diff ≥80% (CodeRabbit pre-merge check)
• go build ./... clean
• go vet ./... clean
• Local test run with pre-existing failures acknowledged

---

Anti-patterns

Anti-pattern	Symptom	Fix
"type:* added" checkbox while labels: []	CodeRabbit or maintainer catches the lie on first read	Move to ## Pending maintainer actions with pending Alan
Refs #N instead of Closes #N	Check Issue Reference fails; PR auto-rejected	Use Closes/Fixes/Resolves keyword
[x] PR stays within 400 changed lines for a 3,200-line PR	Check PR Cognitive Load fails; size:exception not requested	Compute real totals, document size:exception rationale in Pending maintainer section
feat(tui,cli): wire... title	Title fails the single-scope regex	Use one of feat(tui): ..., feat(cli): ..., feat(tui-cli): ... (dash, not comma)
Slice branches all base on main with stale carry-over commits	Reviewers can't isolate slice-specific changes; size:exception needed	Accept Stacked to main (request exception) OR ask maintainer to push slice branches upstream and use Feature Branch Chain
Trying gh pr edit --add-label as contributor	GraphQL 403 AddLabelsToLabelable	Stop, ask the maintainer via comment on the issue
Burning reviewer attention on smoke-test green	Low-cardinality tests pass without exercising the behavior; reviewer flags in CodeRabbit	Each test asserts specific behavior, not just non-panicking
Pretending local test run = go test ./... clean	Repo has pre-existing failures (pi_codegraph, tui/sync); saying "all tests pass" is dishonest	Run with git stash baseline, name pre-existing failures explicitly
Calling a working repo a "fork" in code or docs	Misrepresents the contributor's relationship to the upstream	Use neutral language: "your working branch", "the contributor's push location", not "your fork"

---

How to apply this skill — workflow for the AI assistant

When you (the AI assistant) are helping a contributor with anything that touches this repo:

1. Before recommending any action, look up the relevant CONTRIBUTING.md / template / workflow section and cite it.
2. Before any label, status, merge, or fork-workflow approval, check the contributor-vs-maintainer scope table; if maintainer-only, route to the maintainer with a comment or note — do NOT suggest the contributor try it.
3. Before recommending body rewrites, fetch the PR's current state and cross-check every claim against the API.
4. Before recommending chained-PR structure, ask the contributor whether each slice can land independently (Stacked) or needs atomic integration (Feature Branch Chain). Be explicit about the cross-fork base-ref limitation.
5. Always use Conventional Commits in title and commit messages.

When in doubt, the right move is more verification, less action.

---

References

• CONTRIBUTING.md — full workflow, label taxonomy, branch naming, commit format, review budget.
• .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md — PR body structure.
• .github/ISSUE_TEMPLATE — current issue templates, forms, and routing policy.
• .github/workflows/pr-check.yml — automated gates.
• skills/branch-pr/SKILL.md — branch + PR creation mechanics in detail.
• skills/chained-pr/SKILL.md — chained vs stacked PR strategy mechanics in detail.
• internal/assets/skills/issue-creation/SKILL.md — canonical issue-creation authority.
• skills/cognitive-doc-design/SKILL.md — doc-writing principles (low cognitive load).
• skills/comment-writer/SKILL.md — tone and structure for PR comments and issue replies.
• skills/work-unit-commits/SKILL.md — splitting commits for review-friendly PRs.

GitHub Actions docs for the action_required gate used in fork PRs: https://docs.github.com/actions/managing-workflow-runs/approving-workflow-runs-from-public-forks