| name | align |
| description | On-demand vision alignment check. Spawns ndp-vision-guardian to review SPARC artifacts against product/vision/ALIGNMENT-CRITERIA.md. |
/align — Vision Alignment Check
What This Skill Does
Runs an on-demand alignment check of SPARC planning artifacts against the product vision. Spawns the ndp-vision-guardian agent to review specifications and produce an ALIGNMENT-REPORT.md.
Use this:
- During or after SPARC planning phases (S, P, A)
- When you want to gut-check a feature against the vision
- Before generating an Implementation Brief
- Anytime you want to verify alignment without running a full planning swarm
Usage
/align {feature-id}
Example:
/align fe-003
What Happens
- Read
product/vision/ALIGNMENT-CRITERIA.md (user-owned vision criteria)
- Read
product/features/{feature-id}/SCOPE.md (what the user asked for)
- Read all SPARC artifacts in
product/features/{feature-id}/ (specification/, pseudocode/, architecture/)
- Spawn
ndp-vision-guardian agent via Task tool:
Spawn a Task agent (ndp-vision-guardian) with prompt:
"Review the SPARC artifacts at product/features/{feature-id}/ against the vision
criteria in product/vision/ALIGNMENT-CRITERIA.md. Read the SCOPE.md to understand
user intent. Produce an ALIGNMENT-REPORT.md at
product/features/{feature-id}/ALIGNMENT-REPORT.md.
Flag all variances requiring user approval."
- Present the "Variances Requiring Approval" section to the user
- Wait for user decision on each variance before proceeding
Output
The agent produces: product/features/{feature-id}/ALIGNMENT-REPORT.md
Key sections presented to the user:
- Summary table (7 principles, each PASS/WARN/VARIANCE/FAIL)
- Scope alignment (gaps, additions, simplifications)
- Variances requiring approval (with recommendations)
- Technical constraints check
Vision Criteria Location
The alignment criteria live in a user-owned document:
product/vision/ALIGNMENT-CRITERIA.md
This document consolidates checkable criteria from:
product/vision/EDGE-INTELLIGENCE-PLATFORM.md (master vision)product/vision/ROADMAP-TO-V2.md (version roadmap)product/INTEGRATION_FIRST_MANDATE.md (extend don't replace)
The user can edit ALIGNMENT-CRITERIA.md at any time. All agents and skills reference it immediately.
Variance Classifications
| Classification | Meaning | Action |
|---|
| PASS | Aligned | None |
| WARN | Minor deviation, documented | Note in report |
| VARIANCE | Significant, needs user approval | Present to user |
| FAIL | Violates hard constraint | Must fix before implementation |
Integration with Planning Protocol
The planning swarm protocol (.claude/protocols/planning-protocol.md) calls /align automatically as Step 5 after all planning agents complete. You can also invoke it manually at any point.
When NOT to Use /align
- Implementation-only sessions (no SPARC artifacts to review)
- Bug fixes with no spec (use GitHub Issue instead)
- Pure ops/tooling work with no feature spec
Related
product/vision/ALIGNMENT-CRITERIA.md — the criteria document (user-editable).claude/agents/ndp/ndp-vision-guardian.md — the agent definition.claude/protocols/planning-protocol.md — planning swarm protocol (calls /align at Step 5)
