| name | flow-next-prime |
| description | Assess codebase agent and production readiness. Classifies the project, verifies commands run, leads with a verdict and ranked next actions. |
| user-invocable | false |
Flow Prime
Comprehensive codebase assessment inspired by Factory.ai's Agent Readiness framework.
Role: readiness assessor, improvement proposer
Goal: full visibility into codebase health, targeted fixes for agent readiness
Two-Tier Assessment
| Category | Pillars | What Happens |
|---|
| Agent Readiness | 1-5 | Scored, maturity level calculated, fixes offered |
| Production Readiness | 6-8 | Reported for awareness, no fixes offered |
This gives you full visibility while keeping remediation focused on what actually helps agents work.
Criteria counts live in pillars.md, never here. pillars.md is the single census source (the legacy scored criteria feeding the maturity level, the informational rows, and the new agent-readiness tier groups AO/DR/TO/HP). Do not restate a count in this file - a hardcoded number drifts the moment a criterion is added. The classification, operability ladder, per-shape playbooks, per-stack matrix, and harness check-set live in the four reference files: classification.md, playbooks.md, stacks.md, harness.md.
Why This Matters
Existence checks lie. A repo can carry a CLAUDE.md, a hook file, and a lint script yet be un-agentic in practice - the file is an empty template, the build is broken, imports don't resolve, or it is really one of 99 sibling repos. Prime judges substance, not existence, and names the single highest-leverage next action.
Agents waste cycles when:
- No closed verify loop → can't confirm a change works without a full CI round-trip; the feedback gate belongs at the RIGHT layer (edit-time/commit format+lint, tests via the verify command + acceptance requirements + CI required check - never a test-running pre-commit hook agents
--no-verify around or stall on)
- Undocumented env vars → guesses, fails, guesses again
- No agent instruction file (or a generic/stale one) → doesn't know project conventions, the operability tier, or which files are off-limits
- The app can't be built or driven → can't verify changes work; a legacy stack with no headless build has no feedback loop at all
These are environment problems, not agent problems. Prime grades them as layered gates and helps fix the ones that help agents work.
Input
Full request: $ARGUMENTS
Accepts:
- No arguments (scans current repo)
--report-only or report only (skip remediation, just show report)--fix-all or fix all (apply all agent readiness fixes without asking)--classify-only or classify only (print the Phase 0.5 classification block and EXIT - the cheap portfolio-triage sweep over many repos; see classification.md)- A path to a different repo root (first non-flag argument)
Examples:
/flow-next:prime/flow-next:prime --report-only/flow-next:prime --classify-only ~/other-project/flow-next:prime ~/other-project
Resolve ROOT from $ARGUMENTS (the first non-flag token; default .). If ROOT is not the
cwd, it MUST thread through everything: cd "$ROOT" before the .flow/meta.json pre-check, the
Phase 0.5 classification probes (the flowctl prime classify emitter takes ROOT as its positional
argument, e.g. flowctl prime classify --json "$ROOT"), and the Phase 2 verification commands; and
every scout dispatch prompt in Phase 1 starts "Assess the repo at ROOT" (scouts scan cwd by default
- without this they'd scan the wrong repo and the report would be confidently wrong end-to-end). If
threading
ROOT isn't feasible, error rather than silently scan cwd.
Route Before Reading References
Parse the mode before loading any reference:
--classify-only: read classification.md directly,
run its emitter + judgment-layer contract, print its fixed classification block,
and EXIT. Do not read workflow.md, pillars.md, playbooks.md, or
remediation.md; never ask, dispatch scouts, verify, report, or remediate.- All other modes: read workflow.md and execute it. The
workflow loads classification, pillars, playbooks, stacks, harness, and
remediation guidance only at their consuming phases.
--report-only stops
after the report and must never load remediation templates.
This dispatch is fail-open for an unknown/malformed mode: use the full workflow,
never silently skip assessment or safety instructions.
The Eight Pillars
Agent Readiness (Pillars 1-5) — Fixes Offered
| Pillar | What It Checks |
|---|
| 1. Style & Validation | Linters, formatters, type checking, pre-commit hooks |
| 2. Build System | Build tools, commands, lock files, monorepo tooling |
| 3. Testing | Test framework, commands, coverage, verification |
| 4. Documentation | README, CLAUDE.md, setup docs, architecture |
| 5. Dev Environment | .env.example, Docker, devcontainer, runtime version |
Production Readiness (Pillars 6-8) — Report Only
| Pillar | What It Checks |
|---|
| 6. Observability | Logging, tracing, metrics, error tracking, health endpoints |
| 7. Security | Branch protection, secret scanning, CODEOWNERS, Dependabot |
| 8. Workflow & Process | CI/CD, PR templates, issue templates, release automation |
Workflow
The mode router above selects the entry reference. Do not pre-read references
for branches that will not execute.
Maturity Levels (Agent Readiness)
The maturity level is secondary metadata, NOT the headline. The report LEADS with the verdict headline - classification line + operability tier + hard-gate status + top-5 ranked next-actions (see playbooks.md). The level moves below the scores table: at portfolio scale a bare "Level 5" from existence checks is exactly the false signal this skill exists to retire. The level still computes for cross-repo comparability, but a reader acts on the ranked actions, not the badge.
| Level | Name | Description | Score |
|---|
| 1 | Minimal | Basic project structure only | <30% |
| 2 | Functional | Can build and run, limited docs | 30-49% |
| 3 | Standardized | Agent-ready for routine work | 50-69% |
| 4 | Optimized | Fast feedback loops, comprehensive docs | 70-84% |
| 5 | Autonomous | Full autonomous operation capable | 85%+ |
Level 3 is the target for most teams. Don't over-engineer.
The score band above is necessary but NOT sufficient. The maturity level ALSO requires the
per-pillar floors defined in pillars.md (Level 3 needs every pillar ≥40%, L4 ≥60%,
L5 ≥80%). pillars.md is the single source — compute the level there, not from this table alone, or
a repo at 72% overall with one 45% pillar gets reported "Level 4" when it's Level 3.
What Gets Fixed vs Reported
| Pillars | Category | Remediation |
|---|
| 1-5 | Agent Readiness | ✅ Fixes offered via plain-text numbered prompt |
| 6-8 | Production Readiness | ❌ Reported only, address independently |
Guardrails
General
- Never modify code files (only config, docs, scripts)
- Never commit changes (leave for user to review)
- Never delete files
- Respect .gitignore patterns
User Consent
- MUST ask via the plain-text numbered prompt described below for consent.
Ask the user via plain text. Render the options below as a numbered list 1. … N., followed by a final option N+1. Other — type your own answer. Print the question, then the numbered list, then stop and wait for the user's next message before continuing. Parse the reply as: a bare number 1–N+1 → that option; the literal text of an option label → that option; free text after Other → custom answer.
- Always ask before modifying existing files — except under
--fix-all, which waives the prompt for append/merge edits (adding a .gitignore line, augmenting an agent file, appending a hook) INCLUDING their required devDependencies for the Critical/High/Medium tiers. --fix-all still does NOT: overwrite/replace existing file content unseen, touch the Bonus tier (devcontainer, CI workflow — those stay explicit-request-only), or bypass the glossary read-back gate. A destructive overwrite always needs consent even under --fix-all.
- Don't add dependencies without consent (a Critical/High/Medium fix's own devDeps are covered by that fix's consent, incl.
--fix-all; never add unrelated deps)
- Glossary terms are never written unseen — the Phase 5.5 bootstrap shows the full proposal (term + definition + file-ref evidence) at read-back before any
flowctl glossary add; --fix-all does not bypass this gate, and a populated glossary (total_terms > 0) is never rewritten
--fix-all boundaries (resolutions 5/6)
--fix-all auto-applies ONLY in-ROOT, non-structural, non-harness fixes at the Critical/High/Medium tier - the in-root Pillars 1-5 fixes PLUS scored-group agent-file content whose catalog row is marked --fix-all-eligible in its consent column (the ranked catalog carries the tier AND consent columns and is authoritative on which scored-group items qualify - see playbooks.md). It NEVER waives consent for:
- Anything outside the repo
ROOT - the home-base / constellation kit (parent instruction file, repos.yaml, run-everything scripts) is always explicit-consent-only.
- Any harness settings/hook file - deny/ask rule scaffolds, hook wiring, MCP config. A scaffolded hook is exercised in the same pass (never a stub); the offer itself still needs explicit consent.
- All structural / playbook artifacts - a generated map, nested per-package instruction files, the home base, the greenfield bootstrap plan. Structural = restructures the repo → explicit consent regardless of tier.
- On greenfield,
--fix-all applies ONLY to exercised hygiene files (.gitignore, lockfile, .env.example, .editorconfig) - never structural or generated artifacts, and never a bulk-generated instruction file (measured harm).
Re-run reuse (resolution 6): a Phase 7 re-assessment reuses the session's Phase 0.5 classification and R15 answers; only the affected criteria/gates re-verify. The ranked catalog is re-ranked from the updated scores, not re-derived from scratch, and prime does not re-ask a question the user already answered this session.
Scope Control
- Never create LICENSE files — license choice requires explicit user decision
- Never offer Pillar 6-8 fixes — production readiness is informational only
- Focus fixes on what helps agents work (not team governance)
Scouts
Agent Readiness (fast-scout-tier scanners; agents-md-scout + docs-gap-scout on the thinking scout tier)
tooling-scout — linters, formatters, pre-commit, type checkingagents-md-scout — CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md analysis (thinking scout tier — judgment-heavy)env-scout — environment setuptesting-scout — test infrastructurebuild-scout — build systemdocs-gap-scout — README, ADRs, architecture (thinking scout tier — judgment-heavy)
Production Readiness (fast scout tier)
observability-scout — logging, tracing, metrics, healthsecurity-scout — GitHub settings, CODEOWNERS, secretsworkflow-scout — CI/CD, templates, automation
All 9 scouts run in parallel for speed.
