dogfood

name	dogfood
type	skill
category	meta
description	Delegated instruction testing — write instructions, commission contextless execution, observe friction, iterate, review quality, codify.
triggers	["dogfood","test these instructions","instruction testing","delegated execution test"]
modifies_files	true
needs_task	true
mode	execution
domain	["meta","framework"]
allowed-tools	Agent, Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Edit, Write, Skill
model	opus
version	0.1.0
permalink	skills-dogfood

Delegated Instruction Testing Guidelines

Test whether a set of instructions produces correct, complete, and verified outcomes when executed by a contextless agent. Do not perform the work yourself.

Core Directives

Phase 0: Verification & Data Landscape Mapping

Before writing instructions or propagating subagent results:

• Verify verdicts: Use /verify by citation to evaluate the subagent's actual output (freshness, completeness, limitations) against the original brief. Do not blindly accept or relay its self-reported status.
• Sample data sources: Open and read sample files directly. Do not assume data formats or presence (e.g. verify if a file contains input vs. output).
• Map data channels: Understand how data flows between main agents, subagents, and hooks/logs. Verify the exact delivery mechanism (e.g. tool result vs. system message).
• Glob safety: Avoid globbing large directories (10K+ files) with commands like ls *.md (which fail silently). Use targeted list/find queries (find or ls | head).

Phase 1: Research and Draft

• Write self-contained instructions detailing objectives, exact data paths, sampling parameters, expected output format, and saving locations.
• Work directly in the target skill file for mature instructions. Avoid leaving stray scratch files in the repo.
• Enforce /craft author mode review to check for shallow-execution vulnerabilities before delegating.

Phase 2: Commission Execution

• Scale incrementally: Start with a small batch size (e.g. N=2 tasks) to verify the pipeline before scaling.
• Isolate context: Launch the subagent with only the instruction file as context. Do not provide verbal coaching.
• Execution management: Let the agent run. Do not abort/restart for scope changes; send a redirect message to the running agent instead. Interrupt only for active harm.

Phase 3: Analyze Friction and Iterate

• Analyze transcripts to classify friction (e.g. missing paths, ambiguous criteria, shallow analysis).
• Update the instructions in-place to address root causes, avoiding over-fitting to the specific test instance.
• Run at least 2 verification trials per condition when verifying that an edit closed a gap.

Phase 4: Independent Quality Review

• Commission a separate review agent (e.g. /strategic-review or ) to evaluate depth, accuracy, and fitness of the subagent's deliverables.