| name | help |
| description | Use when someone asks what an X2 skill does, which skill to run next, how the gates work, or where an artifact lives. A quick in-flight reference; for the method's rationale, read X2.md at the method repo root. |
X2 Help
X2 in one paragraph: the kernel enforces the invariants in the build, so the skills only exist to
capture human decisions at the right moments. The flow runs through three gates, each a prompted
human turn that blocks the next phase: stories approved; the prototype approved at Claude Design
and then approved again after copy-down (the lock); then ratified green, the audited exit report
read and accepted.
Green is declared by the slice-exit report and audited, never by prose. The sole metric is human
turns per shipped slice, kept in a ledger file in the repo.
The skills, in flow order
| Skill | One line | Gate it requests |
|---|
| stories | Problem discovery to epic-level stories, one line each | Gate 1: stories approved |
| seed | Settle which edition, create the repo from it, arm the CI gate, write CLAUDE.md constraints, start the ledger | none (setup) |
| decompose | D-000 five-lens decomposition, persistent schema, slice one, deltas file | none (stays-ahead turns) |
| design | Whole-product prototype and design system, in its own context | Gate 2a: prototype approved |
| lock | Copy the prototype and full design system into the repo, verify, stamp provenance | Gate 2b: the lock |
| derive-tests | Fidelity ledger and acceptance scenarios derived from the locked portion | none |
| implement | Build all of the locked portion to green autonomously | none (the exit report checks the contract) |
| slice-exit | The exit report: the definition of green, audited by intake | Gate 3: ratified green |
On demand: problem-solve (runtime defect, cause unknown, fewest observation turns),
adopt (an existing project not built with X2 is migrated to run under it), extract
(after a project completes: the quality feedback loop that folds the ledger's evidence back
into the method), kernel (change the claims catalog, manage an edition, measure conformance,
or check the whole kernel is still coherent), and this skill.
Where the durable artifacts live
| Artifact | Home |
|---|
| Standing constraints, turn-report shape | the repo's CLAUDE.md (written by seed) |
| Turn ledger (append-only, one row per human turn) | docs/work/ |
| D-000 decomposition, story set, schema decisions | docs/decisions/D-000-decomposition.md |
| D-0xx decisions from record-gaps | docs/decisions/ |
| Deltas from the edition the project was seeded from | deltas.md |
| Behaviour spec (if the product has one) | design/ |
| Prototype, design system, provenance README | design/prototype/ |
| Per-slice fidelity ledgers | design/ledger/ |
| Slice-exit reports | docs/work/ |
The turn buckets
Every human turn is one of: decision or green-but-wrong (sanctioned), edition-defect,
invariant-gap, or methodology-defect (defects, each recorded as a candidate for the invariants
pass), or admin (uncounted). Intake's classification governs.
Deeper reading
X2.md at the method repo root: the methodology and its rationale.
GLOSSARY.md at the method repo root: every record code the skills cite (MET-n, INV-n,
CONF-n, X-n, B-codes, and the record-layer codes NS-n, CF-n, PC-n), defined in one line each.
kernel/claims/README.md: what the build enforces, which is what the skills no longer say.
record/ at the method repo root: the sanitized cross-project record (negative-space
register and churn table, queued candidates, confirmations, metric history).