critique

name	critique
description	Use when a non-trivial design decision, code change, release, rename, deletion, spec, or workflow change needs a before-the-fact critique. Probe distinct failure angles, then run a counterweight pass that separates real blockers from over-worry before the change locks in.

Critique

Use this when the next risk is not implementation detail alone, but locking the wrong change or carrying the wrong fear into the next slice.

critique is the structured before-the-fact counterpart to retro. The substrate is the same across targets — pre-lock-in stress with anchor- discriminated multi-angle review followed by one counterweight pass — and the target reference shapes the angle distribution and output. Decision pre-mortem (Klein lineage) is one of those targets; code/PR critique, release critique, rename critique, and spec critique reuse the same substrate.

Task-completing repo work always records critique before closeout. Scale the pass, not the obligation: use the risk boundary or meaningful slice as the review unit, not every commit. See references/cadence.md.

When this standalone critique skill runs, it always means a fresh bounded subagent review. bounded limits scope and time box, not execution mode. There is no same-agent or local standalone critique variant.

Delegated reviewer fast path: if you are a bounded angle/counterweight/fresh-eye reviewer spawned by a parent, see ../../shared/references/disposition-reviewer-brief.md Delegated Reviewer Fast Path before treating the canonical path as blocked.

Caller contract:

• pass the pending change artifact or a tight source summary
• state success and out-of-scope lines up front
• consume the returned four-bin triage directly: Act Before Ship, Bundle Anyway, Over-Worry, Valid but Defer
• write any change-affecting result back into the caller's durable contract
• record Fresh-Eye Satisfaction as parent-delegated, nested-delegated, or blocked <host-signal>

Autonomous trigger: if no pending artifact or source summary is supplied, do not ask first by default; follow references/autonomous-trigger.md, infer a bounded target with low inference risk when repo evidence converges, and ask only when ambiguity changes the target reference, stakes, or effects.

Target Selection

Pick the reference that matches the change. The target reference owns the angle distribution, the counterweight-bin specifics, and the output shape; the substrate (angles + counterweight + four bins) is shared.

Trigger phrase	Reference
decision premortem, design lock-in	references/premortem-decision.md
code critique, PR/commit/snippet/repo review	references/code-critique.md
release critique, release lock-in	references/release-critique.md
rename critique, deletion, slug churn	references/rename-critique.md
spec critique, pre-impl spec lock-in	references/spec-critique.md

If the call is ambiguous, ask which target reference applies before spawning angles. Do not silently pick a target that changes the angle distribution.

Bootstrap

Resolve $SKILL_DIR per ../../shared/references/bootstrap-resolution.md. Read only the smallest change surface that makes the next move legible. For no-argument slash-command use, run the autonomous trigger scan first.

If .agents/critique-adapter.yaml declares ≥1 packet_sections, run the prepare runner once before spawning angle subagents (see references/prepare-packet.md).

# Required Tools: rg
# Missing-binary protocol: ../../shared/references/binary-preflight.md
rg --files docs skills
sed -n '1,220p' docs/handoff.md 2>/dev/null || true
rg -n "spec|decision|follow-up|non-goal|out of scope|acceptance|risk|rename|delete|remove|migration" .
python3 "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/resolve_adapter.py" --repo-root .
python3 "$SKILL_DIR/scripts/prepare_packet.py" --repo-root . --prepared-for "<short label>"

If a current spec, plan, PR proposal, issue, diff, or release artifact already exists, use that as the change contract. Do not restate the whole project history.

Workflow

1. Restate the pending change.
   • what is being changed, removed, or locked
   • what capability or failure is at stake
   • what would count as success
   • what is explicitly out of scope for this pass
2. Pick a bounded set of contrasting angles.
   • at least two angle subagents plus one separate counterweight subagent; default to three angles, expanding to four only for a clearly broad change (cross-surface, breaking, migration-heavy, or release plus doc cascade)
   • choose angles that can disagree meaningfully, not five near-duplicates
   • use the target reference's Anchor Angle Distribution; see also references/angle-selection.md
3. Run the angle pass.
   • use bounded fresh-eye subagents with one angle each, applying adapter reviewer_tiers.high-leverage spawn fields when the host exposes them
   • when the repo's adapter declares ≥1 packet_sections, pass the prepare-packet markdown render to each subagent and record the consumed packet path plus the runner's exact reviewed-input binding in the closeout (references/prepare-packet.md)
   • do not collapse the counterweight into one of the angle subagents; keep it as a separate skeptical pass
   • ../../shared/references/fresh-eye-subagent-review.md owns spawn enforcement: the rail-1 snapshot/verify around each reviewer spawn, the capability check required before reporting the canonical path blocked, and the stop-instead-of-local-substitute rule when the host cannot provide subagents
4. Collapse the findings into one candidate concern list.
   • deduplicate overlap
   • keep evidence and cited source paths with each concern when available
   • prefer concerns that would change the next move, not generic worry
5. Run one counterweight pass.
   • act like a skeptical senior engineer pushing back on paranoia, speculative consumers, and expensive hypotheticals
   • triage each concern using references/counterweight-triage.md plus the target reference's Counterweight Bins specifics
   • preserve the four bins explicitly so caller skills can consume the result without re-triaging the same fear list
6. Persist the change memory.
   • if a concern changes the change, tighten the spec, plan, release contract, code diff, or rename plan immediately
   • if a rejected concern matters to future readers, write it into a short Deliberately Not Doing or equivalent section in the durable artifact
7. End with the next move.
   • what must change before implementation, merge, or release
   • what can be bundled cheaply
   • what is over-worry and should be ignored
   • what is valid but explicitly deferred

Output Shape

The result should usually include:

• Execution
• Fresh-Eye Satisfaction
• Packet Consumed — <path>, n/a (no adapter sections), or blocked <reason> per references/prepare-packet.md
• Reviewed Input Identity — packet path, exact packet SHA-256, and input identity SHA-256 when a packet was consumed
• Target — which reference shaped this run
• Change
• Capability at Stake
• Angles
• Findings
• Counterweight Triage (optional Structured Findings per references/counterweight-triage.md)
• Deliberately Not Doing
• Next Move

The target reference's Output Shape section names additional sections required for that target (for example, release surface-lock inventory or rename slug-drift evidence).

If the host blocks the canonical subagent path before execution, report Execution: blocked <host-signal> and the next move; record Fresh-Eye Satisfaction as parent-delegated when parent-level delegation satisfied the contract, or nested-delegated only when recursive delegation actually ran.

Guardrails

• Do not turn critique into broad ideation. Start from an actual pending change.
• Keep the counterweight pass owned, not a paranoia backlog: triage every concern into the four bins, never skip it or treat all concerns as equal, and don't open more angles than you can triage honestly. Persist rejected-but-recurring concerns to Deliberately Not Doing (Workflow step 6), not chat. See references/counterweight-triage.md. (Target-distribution, no-same-agent, and no-nested-spawn rules are stated once above — Target Selection, the concept block, and the delegated-reviewer fast path.)

References

• references/premortem-decision.md
• references/code-critique.md
• references/release-critique.md
• references/rename-critique.md
• references/spec-critique.md
• references/cadence.md
• references/autonomous-trigger.md
• references/confirmed-input-over-anchoring.md
• references/angle-selection.md
• references/counterweight-triage.md
• references/prepare-packet.md
• references/adapter-contract.md
• ../../shared/references/agent-assessment-invariant.md
• ../../shared/references/fresh-eye-subagent-review.md