| name | skill-sweep |
| description | Mandatory per-turn gate protocol. Runs at the start of EVERY turn.
Four sequential gates must be evaluated before any work begins.
Not optional. Not skippable. Not implicit.
|
| user-invocable | false |
Skill Sweep — Turn Protocol
Mandate
This protocol executes at the start of every turn. Four gates, in order. Each gate produces an explicit output before the next gate opens. Skipping a gate is a protocol violation.
Gate 1: Session Guard
Time: ~10 seconds. Tools: None (reasoning only).
Evaluate session coherence against these criteria:
- 3+ distinct problem domains actively in play
- Current task has no logical connection to the session's first task
- Context has been compacted AND new unrelated work is being added
- Error recovery has permanently shifted focus from original goal
- 2+ tasks are partially done with context competing for space
Output: CLEAR or DRIFT DETECTED (if drift, present handoff prompt per session-guard skill before continuing).
Gate 2: Research
Decision test — the task is mechanical ONLY when ALL three are true:
- The exact change is fully specified by the user (no decisions needed)
- No API, library, pattern, or tool selection is involved
- The correctness of the change can be verified by syntax alone
If ANY answer is NO: research fires. Execute the research skill protocol (WebSearch/WebFetch for Tier 1/2 sources, community discourse, prior art check). No exceptions.
If ALL three are YES: skip research.
Output: RESEARCH COMPLETE (with key findings) or MECHANICAL TASK (with three YES justifications).
Gate 3: Skill Routing
Review the task against all installed skills. Select which apply:
- Domain skills: research, code-review, debugging, planning, project-init, refactoring, tdd
- Rules: epistemic-discipline, source-hierarchy, execution-autonomy, root-cause, prior-art, learning-notes
Skills compose together. When one skill's output feeds another skill's phase, use it.
Output: List of active skills and rules for this turn.
Gate 4: Execution + Holistic Review
Execute with all active skills composed. Before shipping ANY output:
- Review the ENTIRE output for the same class of error (per
rules/root-cause.md § One-Pass Holistic Review)
- If code was modified, scan the codebase for the same pattern or mistake
- If the root cause could manifest elsewhere, fix all instances in this pass
Output: SHIPPED after holistic review is complete. Never before.
When No Strong Skill Match Exists
- Proceed with the best available approach
- Note what skill would have been useful
- Apply the epistemological framework and rules directly
- Gates 1, 2, and 4 still apply regardless
