consistency-check

name	consistency-check
description	Detect inconsistencies across related artefacts and governance constraints. Activate after story generation, after plan preparation, before implementation, or after remediation attempts. Reports issues — does not fix them.
license	MIT
compatibility	Works with any filesystem-based AI coding agent
metadata	{"author":"gaai-framework","version":"1.0","category":"cross","track":"cross-cutting","id":"SKILL-CONSISTENCY-CHECK-001","updated_at":"2026-01-30T00:00:00.000Z","status":"stable"}
inputs	["contexts/artefacts/** (Epics, Stories, Plans, PRDs as applicable)","contexts/rules/**","memory_context_bundle (optional)"]
outputs	["contexts/artefacts/consistency-reports/{story_id}.consistency-report.md","flagged_issues (structured list)"]

Consistency Check

Purpose / When to Activate

Activate:

• After story generation
• After plan preparation
• Before implementation
• After remediation attempts
• During governance gating

This skill reports issues — it does not fix them.

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Process

CRITICAL — Anti-Collision Guard (MUST execute before writing any output file): Before writing contexts/artefacts/consistency-reports/{story_id}.consistency-report.md, check if the target file already exists on disk:

• If it does NOT exist → proceed normally.
• If it DOES exist → read the existing file first. Then decide:
  • If the existing content is from a different entity (different story ID, different epic) → STOP immediately, surface the ID collision to the human, do not proceed.
  • If the existing content is from the same entity and an update is warranted → proceed, but preserve any human edits or prior findings that remain relevant. Treat this as an update, not a replacement.
  • If the existing content is identical or still valid → skip writing, report "no changes needed". This guard prevents the silent data loss incident of 2026-03-17 where concurrent sessions overwrote story files.

Structural Consistency

• Artefacts link properly (Story → Epic → PRD)
• Required artefact fields exist
• Frontmatter identity and linkage correct

Scope Consistency

• Story scopes align with Plans
• Plans contain no out-of-scope actions
• Story acceptance criteria match plan deliverables

Rule Consistency

• No triggered rule goes unhandled
• Compliance status of each artefact
• Rule violations flagged

Completeness Consistency

• No missing acceptance criteria
• No empty or placeholder fields
• No partially generated artefact

Inter-artefact Alignment

• No contradictions between Epics & Stories
• Plan steps correlate with acceptance criteria
• No unresolved split dependencies

Partial artefact handling: If the artefact set is incomplete (e.g., Story exists but parent Epic is absent), check only what is available. Report missing artefacts as ISSUE-{ID}: required artefact absent with severity: medium. Do not fail the entire check.

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Output Format

ISSUE-ID naming convention: use format ISSUE-{STORY_ID}-{NNN} (e.g., ISSUE-E06S18-001).

ISSUE-ID
Type: structural | scope | rule | completeness | alignment
Artefacts involved: ...
Description: concise violation or inconsistency
Why it matters: short impact statement
Severity: low | medium | high | critical
Location: file/path/position

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Quality Checks

• Issues are clearly reported with exact artefact/rule references
• Severity is explicit
• No duplicates
• No invented fixes
• Description fields must not contain fix proposals — report the inconsistency factually

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Non-Goals

This skill must NOT:

• Invent fixes
• Suppress issues
• Judge without evidence

Check everything against everything. Consistency is a governance requirement, not an optimization.