| name | change-checklist |
| version | 2.1.0 |
| category | software-development |
| description | Mandatory pre-ship verification before calling end_change(). Covers Phase 0 survey, test, multi-OS, multi-role, docs, final verification, and reflexion. Every governance cycle must run this before closing. |
| author | Hermes Cortex |
| license | MIT |
| platforms | ["linux","macos"] |
| metadata | {"hermes":{"tags":["governance","testing","documentation","multi-os","multi-role","quality"],"related_skills":["loop-governance","change-test-loop","two-hard-rules","cron-job-management","survey-before-action","agent-contract"]}} |
Change Checklist — Pre-Ship Validation
The Workmanship Principle
Before the checklist: every change you ship is a reflection of your workmanship.
Do not stop at the obvious path. The easy path — changing one file, running
one test — is never the complete path. For every change, ask:
- What else does this touch? Configs, docs, other agents, deployed state?
- Did I verify the SYMPTOM resolves (not just the code path)?
- Did I check sibling locations for the same flaw?
- Did I run the doctor to see if my change broke something else?
- Did I push changes so the whole fleet benefits?
Agents that ship incomplete work erode trust. The checklist below is the
minimum — your judgment determines when the work is genuinely done.
Writing quality for prompts, docs, and skills
When creating or updating cron prompts, command output examples, or skill
content in this session, apply these two principles:
-
Concrete examples, never abstract placeholders. Show real-looking values
(43 cycles scored, $0.006/run, 2026-07-15 10:01 KST), not annotated
templates ([N] cycles, <cost>, <datetime>). LLMs mimic concrete
structure faithfully; they interpret placeholders loosely.
-
Be concise — every sentence must earn its place. If a sentence doesn't
change agent behavior, it's token waste. After writing, review: "Would the
agent do anything differently if I deleted this?" If no, delete it.
When to Load This Skill
Load this skill before calling end_change() on any change that:
- Modifies scripts (
.sh, .py, .rb, .js)
- Changes deploy configs (nginx, systemd, launchd)
- Adds/modifies crons
- Updates docs that other agents consume
- Changes
cortex-update.sh or install-crons.sh
Phase 0b: Load Domain Skills (Before begin_change)
Run survey-before-action Phase 0a before opening a governance lock. The
full operation-type × file-extension domain-skill mapping table lives there
(survey-before-action is always-loaded, so it is already in context). Load
every matching skill, run skills_list(category=<domain>) for discovery, and
load any referenced — a skill isn't loaded until you've read
its content via .
