ip-uspto

name	ip-uspto
description	Draft, review, and revise USPTO non-provisional utility patent applications (specification, claims, abstract, drawings, formal sections per 37 CFR) through the canonical anvil lifecycle extended with USPTO-specific phases.
domain	ip
type	skill
user-invocable	false

anvil:ip-uspto — USPTO non-provisional utility patent applications

The ip-uspto skill produces non-provisional utility patent applications targeting filing at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. It extends the canonical anvil lifecycle (draft → review → revise → figures → audit) with four USPTO-specific phases (intake, inventorship, pre-flight, finalize) and is the proving ground for the N parallel critics, one reviser framework primitive.

This skill targets AIA non-provisional utility applications (first-inventor-to-file framing, post–16 March 2013). Provisional applications are handled by the sibling skill anvil:ip-uspto-provisional (claims-optional, enablement-depth-first — issue #433); design patents are out of scope for v0.

Artifact contract

A patent thread is a single patent application authored across one or more revisions. A thread is identified by a slug (e.g., acme-widget, foo-method). Each thread occupies a portfolio directory that contains:

<portfolio>/
  <thread>/                       Optional thread root with brief and reference material
    BRIEF.md                      Structured inventor brief (intake output, or hand-authored)
    refs/                         Optional reference material (transcripts, sketches, lab notebooks)
    prior-art/                    Operator-supplied prior art (PDFs or markdown summaries)
    fto-refs/                     Operator-supplied third-party references for FTO triage (ip-uspto-fto input; distinct from prior-art/ — FTO targets may postdate priority)
    inventorship.md               Inventorship matrix (inventorship phase output)
    inventorship-evidence/        Optional (ip-uspto-inventorship --evidence); thread-level like the matrix
      inventorship_map.json       Element/feature → repo-paths map (semi-manual seed; cached; --reseed discards)
      evidence.jsonl              Append-only git evidence rows (reduction-to-practice citations only)
    .anvil.json                   Optional per-thread overrides (max_iterations, critic set)
  <thread>.1/                     First drafted version (immutable once written)
    spec.tex                      Specification (LaTeX, using anvil-uspto.cls)
    claims.tex                    Claims block (independent + dependent)
    abstract.txt                  Abstract (≤150 words, plain text)
    drawings/                     Figure stubs or rendered drawings
      fig-1.tex                   (TikZ flowcharts) or fig-1.svg / fig-1.pdf
      drawing-descriptions.md     Stub descriptions for human illustrator (default v0)
    _outline.json                 Section-by-section drafting plan (control surface; see "Outline control surface")
    _progress.json                Phase state for this version
    _revision-log.md              (revisions only) Maps prior critic findings to changes
  <thread>.1.review/              General reviewer sibling (clarity, structure, voice)
  <thread>.1.s101/                §101 statutory subject matter critic
  <thread>.1.s112/                §112 enablement / written description / definiteness critic
  <thread>.1.claims/              Claim breadth + dependency-tree critic
  <thread>.1.priorart/            Novelty / §102 / §103 positioning critic
  <thread>.1.audit/               Final fact-check (audit phase only; post-convergence)
  <thread>.1.preflight/           Pre-flight mechanical compliance scan (post-revise, pre-review)
  <thread>.2/                     Revised version (after revise consumes ALL critic siblings)
  <thread>.2.review/
  ...
  <thread>.{N}/                   Terminal version, marked READY then AUDITED then FINALIZED
  <thread>.final/                 Finalize phase output (assembled submission package)
    spec.pdf
    drawings.pdf
    ads-placeholder.txt
    fee-sheet-placeholder.txt
    inventorship-attestation.md
    _manifest.json

Versioned dirs (<thread>.{N}/) and critic sibling dirs (<thread>.{N}.<tag>/) are immutable once their _progress.json records the phase as done. Revisions are produced as a new version dir, never by editing in place.

State machine

USPTO extends the standard lifecycle with four phases. Per-thread state, derived from on-disk evidence (not flags):

EMPTY → INTAKE_DONE → INVENTORSHIP_DONE → DRAFTED → REVIEWED → REVISED → … → READY → AUDITED → FINALIZED
                                                       ↑
                                              PRE_FLIGHT_PASSED gates the loop edge

State	Evidence
EMPTY	No <thread>.{N}/ directories exist; brief may or may not exist
INTAKE_DONE	<thread>/BRIEF.md exists and is structured (has the intake frontmatter keys)
INVENTORSHIP_DONE	<thread>/inventorship.md exists with at least one named inventor and a per-independent-claim attribution table
DRAFTED	Latest <thread>.{N}/ exists with spec.tex, claims.tex, abstract.txt, and _progress.json.draft == done; no sibling critic at the same N
REVIEWED	All configured critic siblings (<thread>.{N}.<tag>/) at the latest N are done
PRE_FLIGHT_PASSED	<thread>.{N}.preflight/_summary.md records passed: true (or all blockers were waived)
REVISED	A <thread>.{N+1}/ exists after prior critic siblings + pre-flight at <thread>.{N}
READY	Aggregate score from critic siblings ≥39/45 AND no critical flag at latest N
AUDITED	<thread>.{N}.audit/_summary.md records passed: true alongside a READY version
FINALIZED	<thread>.final/_manifest.json exists with all required submission artifacts referenced

Thresholds: ≥39/45 advances (legal/customer-facing artifact per anvil's threshold table). Any §101 critical flag OR §112 critical flag short-circuits regardless of total score — block until addressed. Other critic critical flags follow the same short-circuit rule.

Iteration cap: default max_iterations: 5. Configurable per-thread by writing { "max_iterations": <N> } to <thread>/.anvil.json. Exceeding the cap marks the thread BLOCKED and requires human review.

Command dispatch

Command	Role	Reads	Writes
ip-uspto	portfolio orchestrator	all <thread>.* dirs under cwd	(none; reports state per thread + recommends next command)
ip-uspto-intake <thread>	intake	inventor disclosure (transcript, brain dump, notes) in <thread>/refs/	<thread>/BRIEF.md (structured)
ip-uspto-inventorship <thread> [--evidence [<repo>]] [--reseed]	inventorship interviewer	<thread>/BRIEF.md, latest <thread>.{N}/claims.tex if present; with --evidence also the implementation repo's git history (via the promoted anvil/lib/inventorship_evidence.py)	<thread>/inventorship.md (matrix); with --evidence also <thread>/inventorship-evidence/ (map + evidence.jsonl; Notes-column citations only)
ip-uspto-pre-flight <thread>	pre-flight checker	latest <thread>.{N}/ (all files)	<thread>.{N}.preflight/ with _summary.md, findings.md, _meta.json
ip-uspto-draft <thread>	drafter	<thread>/BRIEF.md, <thread>/inventorship.md, <thread>/refs/, <thread>/prior-art/; for revisions also prior version + all critic siblings	<thread>.{N}/ with spec/claims/abstract/drawings
ip-uspto-review <thread>	general reviewer	latest <thread>.{N}/	<thread>.{N}.review/
ip-uspto-101 <thread>	§101 critic	latest <thread>.{N}/	<thread>.{N}.s101/
ip-uspto-112 <thread>	§112 critic	latest <thread>.{N}/	<thread>.{N}.s112/
ip-uspto-claims <thread>	claims critic	latest <thread>.{N}/claims.tex + <thread>.{N}/spec.tex	<thread>.{N}.claims/
ip-uspto-prior-art <thread>	prior-art critic	latest <thread>.{N}/ + <thread>/prior-art/**	<thread>.{N}.priorart/
ip-uspto-adversary <thread>	adversarial critic (optional, opt-in via .anvil.json)	latest <thread>.{N}/ + <thread>/prior-art/** (optional)	<thread>.{N}.adversary/ (findings-only — all nine dims null)
ip-uspto-fto <thread>	FTO triage critic (optional, on-demand; .anvil.json opt-in also supported)	latest <thread>.{N}/ + <thread>/fto-refs/** (required)	<thread>.{N}.fto/ (report-only — all nine dims null, never flags; NOT an FTO opinion)
ip-uspto-vision <thread>	drawing vision critic (optional)	rendered drawings under latest <thread>.{N}/drawings/ (SVG/PNG; drawings only — never the spec PDF)	<thread>.{N}.vision/ with _review.json (kind=vision)
ip-uspto-revise <thread>	reviser	latest <thread>.{N}/ + ALL <thread>.{N}.<tag>/ critic siblings	<thread>.{N+1}/ with _revision-log.md
ip-uspto-audit <thread>	auditor	READY <thread>.{N}/	<thread>.{N}.audit/
ip-uspto-figures <thread>	figurer	latest <thread>.{N}/spec.tex + reference numerals	<thread>.{N}/drawings/**
ip-uspto-finalize <thread>	finalizer	AUDITED <thread>.{N}/ + <thread>/inventorship.md	<thread>.final/ with submission package

The portfolio orchestrator is the user-facing entry point for status; the lifecycle commands are dispatched from it (or invoked directly by the orchestrating agent).

Multi-critic primitive — sibling directory convention

Given an artifact at <thread>.{N}/, critic outputs land in sibling directories with the same parent and name prefix:

<thread>.{N}/                   ← the artifact (immutable once review starts)
<thread>.{N}.review/            ← general reviewer
<thread>.{N}.s101/              ← §101 critic
<thread>.{N}.s112/              ← §112 critic
<thread>.{N}.claims/            ← claims critic
<thread>.{N}.priorart/          ← prior-art critic
<thread>.{N}.adversary/         ← adversarial critic (optional, opt-in; findings-only — all nine dims null, critical-flag eligible)
<thread>.{N}.fto/               ← FTO triage critic (optional, on-demand; report-only — all nine dims null, NEVER flags; triage-for-counsel, not an FTO opinion)
<thread>.{N}.vision/            ← drawing vision critic (optional; kind=vision, scores rendered drawings only)
<thread>.{N}.preflight/         ← pre-flight (mechanical compliance) — produced after revise, pre-review
<thread>.{N}.audit/             ← final fact-check (audit phase, post-convergence only)
<thread>.{N+1}/                 ← reviser output (consumes ALL siblings above)

Naming rule: <thread>.{N}.<tag>/. The <tag> is a single short token; no nesting, no dots within the tag. Discovery is "glob <thread>.{N}.*/ minus the bare <thread>.{N}/".

Uniform critic output schema

Every critic directory contains:

<thread>.{N}.<tag>/
  _summary.md         Scorecard (9-dim /45 partial — critic only fills dimensions it owns) + critical flag boolean
  findings.md         Itemized findings, each with: severity, location (file:section), rationale, suggested fix
  _meta.json          { critic: <tag>, role: <which role md>, started: <iso>, finished: <iso>, model: <hint>, schema_version: 1, scorecard_kind: "machine-summary" }

Uniform schema enables ip-uspto-revise to enumerate findings programmatically without per-critic special-casing. Critics that don't fill a rubric dimension leave it null rather than zero — the reviser aggregates non-null scores by mean.

Schema note: this schema (_summary.md / findings.md / _meta.json) is the canonical machine-summary scorecard kind documented in anvil/lib/snippets/scorecard_kind.md. The memo, paper, slides, and report skills use the human-verdict kind (verdict.md / scoring.md / comments.md); the deck skill is the layered/aggregator reference (both kinds present). The two-kind discriminator (set in _meta.json as scorecard_kind) is how consumers distinguish the shapes without hardcoding skill-specific knowledge — see anvil/lib/snippets/scorecard_kind.md and anvil/lib/snippets/critics.md for the aggregation rules.

Reviser composition

ip-uspto-revise discovers critic siblings, aggregates their scorecards, and either advances or produces the next version. See commands/ip-uspto-revise.md for the full algorithm.

Key design property: critics are independent and parallelizable. The reviser is the synchronization point. Adding a new critic = adding a new ip-uspto-<critic>.md command + a new sibling tag. No reviser code changes.

Convergence loop

Lifecycle for one revision pass:

DRAFTED → (run all critics) → REVIEWED → (revise consumes ALL siblings) → REVISED → (pre-flight) → loop until convergence → READY → AUDITED → FINALIZED

The default critic set is review + s101 + s112 + claims + priorart. Operator can subset by writing { "critics": ["review", "s101", "s112", "claims"] } to <thread>/.anvil.json (e.g., skip priorart if no prior art was supplied; the reviser refuses to advance without all configured critics present).

Optional adversarial critic (issue #434): the adversary critic (commands/ip-uspto-adversary.md) is opt-in, not default — operators enable it by adding "adversary" to the critics array in <thread>/.anvil.json. It attacks the application (§103 obviousness combinations over supplied prior art + AAPA, design-arounds, §112(a) enablement-hole challenges) rather than verifying it, and is findings-only: all nine rubric dimensions stay null, so the aggregator's mean-of-non-null rule is unaffected; its critical flags short-circuit the verdict like any other critic's. Once configured, the reviser's all-configured-critics-present rule applies to it as-is.

Optional FTO triage critic (issue #446): the fto critic (commands/ip-uspto-fto.md) is on-demand, not default — typically run pre-finalize or before a non-provisional conversion; .anvil.json opt-in (add "fto" to the critics array) is also supported with the adversary's exact mechanism. It screens operator-supplied third-party references in <thread>/fto-refs/ (never performing its own patent search — a dedicated input dir, distinct from prior-art/, because FTO targets may postdate priority) on a 0–4 relevance scale, producing a structured triage-for-counsel report — it is NOT an FTO opinion and says so verbatim in both output artifacts. Like the adversary it is findings-only (all nine dims null), but with one departure: it is report-only and NEVER flags — critical_flag is always false, so an fto sidecar never blocks convergence; severity routes through counsel-action buckets instead. The reviser MAY consume its design-around vectors as claim-ladder additions; it never consumes a verdict from it.

Critic concurrency in v0: critics may be run serially or in parallel. The orchestrator (ip-uspto.md) reports "all configured critics done at version N" as a boolean — it does not enforce concurrency. Parallel spawn is a future enhancement that will land in anvil/lib/critics.py (issue #10); v0 implementations should default to serial for debuggability.

Progress tracking

Each <thread>.{N}/ directory contains _progress.json recording phase state. Schema:

{
  "version": 1,
  "thread": "<thread>",
  "phases": {
    "draft":    { "state": "done",        "started": "2026-05-28T14:00:00Z", "completed": "2026-05-28T14:30:00Z" },
    "figures":  { "state": "in_progress", "started": "2026-05-28T14:35:00Z" }
  },
  "metadata": {
    "iteration": 1,
    "max_iterations": 5
  }
}

Phase states: pending, in_progress, done, failed. Validation is by file existence (does spec.tex exist? does _summary.md parse?), not by flag — _progress.json is a resume hint, not the source of truth. A phase that crashed mid-write should be re-runnable from pending after deleting any partial output.

The canonical _progress.json schema, read-merge-write recipe, and crash recovery contract live in anvil/lib/snippets/progress.md (in an installed consumer repo: .anvil/anvil/lib/snippets/progress.md); every command in this skill follows that convention. The merge is shallow: command updates one phase, preserves all others. All ip-uspto critic siblings (<thread>.{N}.review/, .s101/, .s112/, .claims/, .priorart/, .audit/, .preflight/) follow the machine-summary scorecard kind per anvil/lib/snippets/scorecard_kind.md: each emits _summary.md + findings.md + _meta.json (with scorecard_kind: machine-summary); each fills only its owned rubric dimensions and leaves others null for the reviser's mean aggregation.

Outline control surface

Each <thread>.{N}/ directory contains _outline.json — a typed control surface that records the section-by-section drafting plan for this version. The outline is load-bearing: it is the diff-able interface where an operator can inspect and edit the structure of the application before the drafter pays for full section generation, and it is the per-section resume index during drafting and revising.

The outline is additive to the existing draft outputs (spec.tex, claims.tex, abstract.txt, drawings/drawing-descriptions.md) — it does not replace them. Each outline section carries the file routing and heading macro the drafter uses to deterministically place its rendered output without re-deriving from the section id.

Schema

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "thread": "<slug>",
  "title": "...",
  "iteration": 1,
  "sections": [
    {
      "id": "field",
      "file": "spec.tex",
      "heading_macro": "\\fieldoftheinvention",
      "target_tokens": 120,
      "key_points": ["..."],
      "sources_to_cite": [],
      "status": "pending"
    },
    {
      "id": "background",
      "file": "spec.tex",
      "heading_macro": "\\background",
      "target_tokens": 1200,
      "subsections": [
        {"id": "problem", "key_points": ["..."]},
        {"id": "prior-approaches", "key_points": ["..."]}
      ],
      "sources_to_cite": ["doi:...", "arxiv:..."],
      "status": "pending"
    },
    {
      "id": "summary",
      "file": "spec.tex",
      "heading_macro": "\\summary",
      "target_tokens": 800,
      "key_points": ["mirror independent claim 1 at higher level", "..."],
      "status": "pending"
    },
    {
      "id": "brief-description-of-drawings",
      "file": "spec.tex",
      "heading_macro": "\\briefdescriptionofdrawings",
      "target_tokens": 200,
      "figures": [
        {"n": 1, "caption": "..."},
        {"n": 2, "caption": "..."}
      ],
      "status": "pending"
    },
    {
      "id": "detailed-description",
      "file": "spec.tex",
      "heading_macro": "\\detaileddescription",
      "target_tokens": 6000,
      "subsections": [
        {
          "id": "feature-1",
          "feature_ref": "BRIEF.md#3.1",
          "key_points": ["..."],
          "ranges": [{"param": "freq", "range": "5GHz-80GHz", "preferred": "40GHz"}],
          "alternatives": [{"param": "substrate", "values": ["Si", "GaAs", "InP"]}],
          "refnums": [10, 12, 14, 16],
          "target_tokens": 1800
        }
      ],
      "status": "pending"
    },
    {
      "id": "claims",
      "file": "claims.tex",
      "target_tokens": 3000,
      "claim_tree": [
        {"n": 1, "type": "independent", "topic": "apparatus", "key_limitations": ["..."]},
        {"n": 2, "type": "dependent", "parent": 1, "topic": "...", "drawn_from": "feature-1#alt:Si"},
        {"n": 9, "type": "independent", "topic": "method", "key_limitations": ["..."]}
      ],
      "status": "pending"
    },
    {
      "id": "abstract",
      "file": "abstract.txt",
      "target_tokens": 200,
      "word_cap": 150,
      "status": "pending"
    }
  ]
}

Field semantics

• schema_version: integer, currently 1. Migrations bump this.
• thread: the thread slug; matches _progress.json.thread.
• title: human title (from BRIEF.md frontmatter).
• iteration: integer matching _progress.json.metadata.iteration. Bumped when the reviser copies the outline forward.
• sections: ordered array; the drafter MUST iterate in array order. The order is the authoritative render order. The minimum required section ids are field, background, summary, brief-description-of-drawings, detailed-description, claims, abstract.
• For each section:
  • id: unique within the array. Maps onto the §5a–§5i drafter steps.
  • file: target file (spec.tex | claims.tex | abstract.txt). Lets the drafter route rendered output deterministically without per-id special-casing.
  • heading_macro: LaTeX macro that opens the section in spec.tex (omitted for claims.tex / abstract.txt, which use their own structure).
  • target_tokens: drafter budget hint. Soft cap; the drafter MAY exceed if the inventive material justifies, but should report the overrun in its closing summary.
  • key_points / subsections / figures / claim_tree: section-specific structured content the drafter conditions on. Free-form within their typed shape.
  • sources_to_cite: optional citation identifiers (DOI, arXiv, USPTO publication number). Slot for future citation primitive.
  • status: lifecycle state, see below.

Status lifecycle

Per-section status values mirror _progress.json phase states:

State	Meaning
pending	Section has not been rendered yet for this version.
in_progress	Section render started but did not complete (crash, abort).
done	Section has been rendered; its bytes in file are valid.
failed	Section render attempted and failed (error captured in _progress.json.phases.draft.errors).

The drafter advances a section from pending → in_progress → done (or failed) one section at a time, persisting _outline.json after each transition so a crash leaves a recoverable state.

Validation rule

Consistent with the rest of the skill: file existence and section presence in the target file win over the flag. A section flagged done whose bytes are absent from file is treated as not-done (re-rendered on resume). A section flagged pending whose bytes ARE present in file (because, say, the operator hand-wrote it) is treated as done (skipped). The flag is a resume hint; the file is the source of truth — same rule as _progress.json.

The draft phase is done only when every section has status: done AND its bytes validate by the file-existence check.

Schema location

The schema is documented inline here for v0. There is no separate schemas/ directory; promotion to a versioned JSON Schema file is deferred to anvil/lib/ extraction under issue #10.

Rubric

See rubric.md for the 9-dimension /45 USPTO scoring schema, the ≥39 advance threshold, and the §101/§112 critical-flag short-circuit policy. The optional ip-uspto-vision critic owns a separate drawing-vision rubric subset (dv1–dv5, /25) documented in the same file — it critiques the rendered drawings only (legibility, line weight/contrast, label placement, figure-number visibility, cross-reference accuracy) and ships its scorecard directly as _review.json (canonical kind=vision schema) rather than the _summary.md/findings.md machine-summary shape the source-side critics use; both are discovered and aggregated uniformly by anvil/lib/critics.py.

Project BRIEF artifact type

ip-uspto is registered as a skill-identity artifact_type value in the shared project-BRIEF registry (anvil/lib/project_brief.py::REGISTERED_ARTIFACT_TYPES / SKILL_IDENTITY_ARTIFACT_TYPES; issue #440, following the #386/#408/#432 pattern for deck/slides/proposal/paper/report). In a shared project BRIEF, a documents: entry with artifact_type: ip-uspto declares that this skill owns the thread. It is NOT a memo subtype: it selects no memo rubric overlay, and memo commands fail loudly when pointed at an ip-uspto-declared thread. anvil:project-migrate's letter-family adoption mode (--adopt-family) writes this value (with a # TODO(operator) confirmation marker) when the operator passes the REQUIRED --artifact-type ip-uspto — there is no inference between a full application and a provisional (ip-uspto-provisional), so the choice is always explicit.

USPTO-specific phases

Beyond the standard draft → review → revise → figures → audit lifecycle, this skill adds four USPTO phases:

Phase	Command	When	Purpose
Intake	ip-uspto-intake	Before first draft	Convert raw inventor disclosure into a structured brief: problem, prior approaches, key inventive features, embodiments, ranges, edge cases. Without this, the drafter hallucinates.
Inventorship	ip-uspto-inventorship	Before first draft; re-checked pre-finalize	Generate inventor interview prompts to attribute each independent claim concept to ≥1 named inventor. 37 CFR 1.63 inventor oath requires correct inventorship; mis-attributed inventorship is grounds for unenforceability. Opt-in --evidence mode mines the implementation repo's git history (the promoted shared anvil/lib/inventorship_evidence.py, pure stdlib + subprocess git) into reduction-to-practice citations that pre-fill the matrix Notes column only — advisory evidence for the attorney interview; conception attribution and the ● rules are untouched.
Pre-flight	ip-uspto-pre-flight	After each revise, before next review	Mechanical compliance scan: paragraph numbering ([0001], [0002], ...), abstract word count ≤150, claims numbered 1..N, no multiple-dependent-on-multiple-dependent claims (37 CFR 1.75(c)), margin/font checks via LaTeX class, render-gate (compile + overfull-box + source-side placeholder scan via anvil/lib/render_gate.py — the LaTeX-skill analog of marp_lint; page_cap=None since patents are uncapped; consumers can override per-thread via <thread>/.anvil.json: render_gate.page_cap; call-site overfull_threshold_pt=2.0 override per the legal-artifact calibration, issue #572 — tighter than the framework default 5.0pt). Deterministic-first with LLM fallback for ambiguous cases. Render-gate is mechanical pass/fail (Check 9, no rubric score) — failure short-circuits pre-flight per the standard rule. See commands/ip-uspto-pre-flight.md Check 9.
Audit	ip-uspto-audit	After convergence, before finalize	Adds a render-gate backstop (issue #572, Check 11): re-invokes compile_and_gate(...) at overfull_threshold_pt=2.0 so a late-revise overfull box introduced AFTER the last pre-flight pass cannot reach FILING-READY unchallenged. The result is written to the audit sibling's _gate.json, which ip-uspto-finalize's pre-finalize gate reads.
Finalize	ip-uspto-finalize	After AUDITED	Assemble submission package: spec.pdf, drawings.pdf, ADS placeholder, fee schedule placeholder, inventorship attestation. Pre-finalize gate (issue #572): reads the audit sibling's _gate.json and refuses to assemble <thread>.final/ when any overfull-box finding is present. Does not file — that is a human + Patent Center action.

Render-gate threshold calibration

The ip-skill pre-flight + audit-backstop call sites pass overfull_threshold_pt=2.0 to compile_and_gate(...), tighter than the framework default of 5.0pt in anvil/lib/render_gate.py. Rationale (issue #572): a filed provisional shipped with a 83.6pt overfull (~16× the framework default; >40× the ip-skill override). The 2.0pt call-site value is the legal-artifact calibration — strict enough to catch margin-breaking content well below the issue body's "egregious / >10pt" line, loose enough that sub-point cosmetic slop still passes. The framework default in render_gate.py remains 5.0pt to avoid disturbing the installation, proposal, datasheet, paper, report consumers that inherit it. The override is per-call-site, not per-skill-config, so an audit done outside the ip-skill commands (e.g., a consumer custom critic) does NOT inherit the tighter threshold unless it passes the same kwarg.

Defaults and overrides

This skill ships with opinionated defaults. Consumers extend liberally via .anvil/skills/ip-uspto/ in their own repo:

• voice.md (optional) — Firm or attorney voice/style guidance the drafter reads in addition to its base prompt.
• rubric.overrides.md (optional) — Add domain-specific critical-flag examples; cannot reduce the base rubric.
• BRIEF.md.example — Reference brief shape; the intake command produces this shape from a disclosure.
• critics/ (optional) — Add custom critic command files (e.g., ip-uspto-mydomain.md). The orchestrator picks them up automatically by glob.

Important caveats

• This skill does NOT file a patent application. It produces a submission-ready package. Filing requires human review, attorney sign-off, and submission via USPTO Patent Center.
• This skill does NOT replace a licensed patent attorney. It is a drafting and review aid. Inventorship attestation (37 CFR 1.63), assignment, and prosecution strategy require a qualified human attorney.
• The prior-art critic does NOT do its own patent search. Operator must supply prior art in <thread>/prior-art/. Patent search is a separate role potentially shipped as a future skill.
• The FTO triage critic produces triage-for-counsel, NOT an FTO opinion. ip-uspto-fto screens only operator-supplied references in <thread>/fto-refs/ (it never searches), renders no infringement or clearance conclusion (0–4 relevance scores + counsel-action buckets are its entire vocabulary), and never marks output as privileged. Licensed patent counsel must validate every finding before any business reliance.
• Provisional applications are handled by the sibling skill anvil:ip-uspto-provisional (issue #433): claims-optional posture, enablement-depth-dominant anvil-ip-provisional-v1 rubric (/45, ≥39; dim 9 Conversion readiness replaces this skill's Claim-spec correspondence), shared anvil-uspto.cls + intake substrate. The natural flow is provisional thread → (≤12 months) → a non-provisional conversion thread in THIS skill referencing it. Design patents remain out of scope — track as separate issues.

Conversion linkage — referencing a provisional (issue #501)

A non-provisional thread in this skill converts an earlier anvil:ip-uspto-provisional filing through a mechanical §119(e) linkage (no manual priority-claim drafting required):

• Declaration: the non-provisional <thread>/BRIEF.md carries an optional converts_provisional frontmatter block (thread / filing_date / application_number / optional portfolio_path) — see commands/ip-uspto-intake.md §"converts_provisional". This is structured filing data, NOT a refs/ body-citation; cross_thread_refs.py is portfolio-root-relative and does not resolve the cross-portfolio case, so the BRIEF key (with portfolio_path for cross-portfolio) is the declaration surface.
• §119(e) priority-claim text is emitted from that block at two points: a "CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS" paragraph into spec.tex at draft (ip-uspto-draft.md §5a), and the ADS domestic-priority data at finalize (ip-uspto-finalize.md step 10).
• 12-month deadline: the orchestrator (ip-uspto.md step 5) computes filing_date + 12 calendar months via lib/conversion_deadline.py and warns loudly when within 60 days of (or past) the §119(e) deadline.
• Fail loud: a converts_provisional block present with a missing/empty filing_date is an error at draft, finalize, and orchestrator surfacing — never a silently blank priority claim. The authoritative producer copy of the date is the provisional thread's _filing.json (written by ip-uspto-provisional-finalize); the BRIEF key is the consumer copy.
• §112(a) disclosure-coverage check (issue #517): beyond the mechanical date+boilerplate linkage above, the s112 critic (commands/ip-uspto-112.md) gains a converts_provisional-gated §112(a) conversion disclosure-coverage check. When the block is present, the s112 per-claim-limitation support sweep is re-run with the provisional spec.tex as the baseline (resolved via converts_provisional.thread + optional portfolio_path at highest-N): does the provisional disclose each converted claim limitation at §112(a) written-description-and-enablement depth? Findings are advisory FOR COUNSEL — they flag possible new-matter / unsupported converted subject matter (claim-number + provisional-spec-paragraph citations) and never adjudicate priority (never declare priority lost, claim invalid, or conversion failed). An unsupported converted independent-claim limitation is critical-flag eligible; dependent-only / narrowly-supported gaps are non-critical. The check is fail-loud: if the provisional spec.tex cannot be resolved it emits a flagged "could not be performed" finding, never a silent pass. It is dormant / byte-identical when converts_provisional is absent — no new critic, no new orchestrator critic-set entry, no Python lib module, no new rubric dimension (total stays /45); the check rides on existing dim 2 §112(a).

Git sync hook (opt-in, off by default)

Consumers running anvil under an external orchestrator (a sphere channel-agent, a Loom-style daemon) can opt in to a per-phase git commit hook so every lifecycle phase leaves the working tree clean: a repo-level .anvil/config.json with git.commit_per_phase: true (and optionally git.push: true) has each write-bearing ip-uspto command end its phase by staging only the dirs it wrote and committing as anvil(ip-uspto/<phase>): <thread>.{N} [<state>]. The full contract — knob shape, defaults-off rule, commit-message format, staging scope, warn-and-continue failure semantics, and ordering after the _progress.json done write and the #350 sidecar atomic rename — lives in anvil/lib/snippets/git_sync.md (.anvil/anvil/lib/snippets/git_sync.md in an installed consumer repo). All 16 write-bearing ip-uspto commands adopt it; the read-only ip-uspto portfolio orchestrator is exempt by definition. When .anvil/config.json is absent or the knob is false, behavior is byte-identical to a pre-#426 install — the hook is default off.