| name | agent-preflight |
| description | Pre-flight checklist that every primary agent runs before opening the pre-implementation gate. Confirms task size, primary AI family, cross-family reviewer routing, grill-me requirement, and the exact `pnpm review:approve-pre-implementation` flags to use. |
Agent Preflight
A short, mandatory pre-flight every primary agent walks before the pre-implementation gate is opened. It exists so that task size, AI-family routing, and grill-me requirements are decided once, up front, instead of being reconstructed at each review checkpoint.
When to Use
- Right after the plan is drafted and before running
pnpm review:approve-pre-implementation.
- After any scope change that could move the task across a size boundary or onto a sensitive surface.
- Skip only for
tiny tasks (typo, formatting-only, mechanical one-line change).
Load / Do Not Load
- Load alongside
using-agent-skills whenever a non-trivial change is starting.
- Do not repeat the full review-lifecycle; that lives in
.agents/workflows/review-lifecycle.md.
- Do not preload reviewer skills here; the gate flags decide which reviewer is invoked later.
Core Workflow
- Identify primary family. State which AI family is doing the work:
copilot, gemini, or codex. This is the running agent's family, not the user's preference.
- Classify task size. Use
.agents/workflows/task-sizing.md to pick tiny | small | medium | large | huge. Record rationale in one sentence.
- Flag sensitive surface. Mark
yes if the change touches auth, secrets, filesystem, shell, network, public contracts, persistent state, or governance/control-plane files. Otherwise no.
- Decide grill-me requirement. Apply the rule:
require_grill = (size ∈ {medium, large, huge}) OR (refactoring_risk ∈ {medium, high}) OR sensitive_surface. If require_grill = yes, the griller's family must differ from the primary family.
- Pick the cross-family reviewer. Choose a reviewer whose family differs from the primary. Same-family reviewers are only allowed in
--mode override with an explicit --override-reason.
- Compose the gate command. Emit the exact
pnpm review:approve-pre-implementation -- ... invocation including --reviewer, --primary-family, --task-size, optional --max-files, and (if applicable) --mode override --override-reason "<rationale>".
- Record the preflight summary in the plan section before opening the gate. The plan reviewer refuses to sign without this summary for any non-
tiny task.
Ask / Escalate
- Ask if the primary family is unclear (rare; usually self-evident).
- Escalate to the user if every available reviewer is same-family. Do not silently flip to
--mode override; require an explicit --override-reason.
- Escalate to
grill-me immediately when the rule above fires; do not defer to plan review.
Output Template
Agent preflight
- Primary family: <copilot|gemini|codex>
- Task size: <tiny|small|medium|large|huge> (rationale: ...)
- Refactoring risk: <none|low|medium|high>
- Sensitive surface: <yes|no> (categories: ...)
- Grill-me required: <yes|no> (griller family if yes: <copilot|gemini|codex>)
- Cross-family reviewer: <copilot-claude|gemini-3.5-flash-high|codex-subagent>
- Gate mode: <standard|override> (override reason if any: ...)
- Max files cap: <number|unbounded>
- Gate command:
pnpm review:approve-pre-implementation -- \
--reviewer <id> \
--primary-family <family> \
--task-size <size> \
[--max-files <n>] \
[--mode override --override-reason "<rationale>"]
References
- Task sizing rules:
.agents/workflows/task-sizing.md
- Reviewer routing matrix:
.agents/reviewers/routing-matrix.md
- Review lifecycle (full):
.agents/workflows/review-lifecycle.md
- Cross-family grill rules:
.agents/skills/grill-me/SKILL.md
- Default
--max-files per size: .agents/references/agent-roles.md (and defaultMaxFilesForSize in tools/scripts/review-gate/shared/shared.ts)
