enforcing-pr-contract

---

name: enforcing-pr-contract description: Use whenever a PR is being authored from a board-superpowers card claim, OR a PR is being reviewed against the board's contract. Enforces the three-part PR contract — Contract A (PR body sections: Automated Verification + Human Verification TODO + Retro Notes), Contract B (linked card body acceptance criteria all in terminal state), Contract C (PR body contains Closes|Fixes|Resolves #<N> auto-close keyword at PR-OPEN time) — and rejects filler. Apply on the Consumer side at PR submission AND on the Producer side during review-queue triage. Apply even when the user doesn't explicitly mention "PR contract" — any time a PR body is being drafted, edited, or reviewed in this plugin's loop, this skill governs. when_to_use: Use whenever drafting, editing, validating, or reviewing a PR body for a card claimed via the consuming-card skill. Also when the Producer reviews open PRs in their review-queue routine. user-invocable: false

enforcing-pr-contract

This skill is a discipline — it enforces a rule that's tempting to skip under shipping pressure. Use it on both sides of the loop: the Consumer drafting a PR and the Producer reviewing one.

Decision tree at a glance

flowchart TD
    PR["PR opened from claim branch"] --> CA{"Contract A:\nPR body 3 sections\nvalid and non-filler?"}
    CA -- no --> Reject["Reject PR;\nroute card back to In Progress"]
    CA -- yes --> CB{"Contract B:\ncard body ACs all\n[x] or [!] with reason?"}
    CB -- "no, has unchecked [ ]" --> Reject
    CB -- "no, [!] without reason" --> Reject
    CB -- yes --> CC{"Contract C:\nPR body has\nCloses/Fixes/Resolves #N\nfor linked card?"}
    CC -- no --> AutoFix["submit-pr.sh\nauto-injects trailer\n(idempotent)"]
    AutoFix --> Pass
    CC -- yes --> Pass(["Validation pass\ncard stays In Review"])

The iron law

A PR opened from a claim/<N>-... branch MUST satisfy three contracts simultaneously:

Contract A — PR body shape

All three sections in this exact order, with non-filler content:

1. ## Automated Verification
2. ## Human Verification TODO (optional in spirit, but must not be filler if present)
3. ## Retro Notes

Contract B — Card body acceptance-criteria sync

The card linked from the claim/<N>-... branch MUST have every acceptance-criterion checkbox in a terminal state by PR-submit time:

• [x] — verified-passing (the default for items the Consumer just shipped).
• [!] — explicitly deferred, with a one-line reason inline ([!] depends on #45 — split as follow-up). Use for items the Consumer cleanly chose NOT to deliver in this PR.
• [ ] — UNSHIPPED. Forbidden at PR-submit time. A [ ] AC means the Consumer has not addressed it; reviewer is left guessing whether it was forgotten or aborted.

The Consumer toggles each checkbox during consuming-card Step 9.5 (PR-submit pre-flight card body sync, action_id 112). Producer-side validation rejects a PR whose linked card has any [ ] AC.

Contract C — PR↔Issue auto-close keyword

The PR body MUST contain a GitHub auto-close keyword referencing the linked card, at PR-OPEN time:

• Closes #<N> — the canonical form scripts/submit-pr.sh auto-injects.
• Fixes #<N> — accepted alternative.
• Resolves #<N> — accepted alternative.

Match is case-insensitive and the keyword must reference the same <N> as the claim/<N>-... branch.

The keyword is what tells GitHub's PR-merge → Issue-close → ProjectV2 Auto-close webhook chain to fire on merge. Without it: Issue stays open after PR merge; ProjectV2 Auto-close workflow never triggers — Status field stays at In Progress post-merge; manual Consumer cleanup is required.

Critical timing: GitHub reads the keyword at PR-OPEN time. Retroactively appending the keyword after PR open does NOT retrigger the webhook for an already-merged PR. This is why submit-pr.sh is the only sanctioned PR-open path: it idempotently injects the trailer at OPEN time.

Why three contracts, not two

• Contract A makes the PR description honest about what was checked by the Consumer.
• Contract B makes the card body honest about what was delivered by the Consumer.
• Contract C makes the PR↔Issue infrastructure linkage honest. Without C, a fully-Contract-A-and-B-compliant PR can still leave the card stuck in In Progress post-merge (observed on PR #42 / #34 — direct gh pr create bypassed submit-pr.sh, missed the trailer at OPEN time, broke the auto-close chain; trailer added retroactively did not fire the webhook).

scripts/submit-pr.sh rejects PRs missing any Contract A section or containing Contract A filler, idempotently auto-injects the Contract C trailer if absent, and (per Contract B) requires the linked card body to have terminal-state ACs. The reviewing-pr-queue routine re-checks all three contracts at review time and routes violators back to the Consumer.

Why this contract exists

Automated Verification = honesty about what was checked without a human looking. Without this section, a PR description becomes "trust me, it works" — and reviewers can't distinguish "I ran 200 tests" from "I compiled it once". The section forces you to enumerate what evidence the human reviewer can rely on.

Human Verification TODO = a list of things the reviewer SHOULD click / observe that machines can't check (visual correctness, copy tone, end-user flow). Optional because some cards are pure mechanical refactors with no visual surface.

Retro Notes = the 30-second forward-look that turns this card's lessons into other cards' input. Without it, the same mistakes get rediscovered N cards later.

Section templates

Automated Verification (required)

## Automated Verification

- [x] `bash scripts/verify-skill-metadata.sh` — pass (5 skills)
- [x] `bash scripts/verify-skill-frontmatter.sh` — pass
- [x] `shellcheck -x scripts/**/*.sh hooks/*.sh` — pass
- [ ] `bash scripts/check-deps.sh` — fails locally (gh project scope), works in CI

Rules:

• Each entry is an EXECUTABLE check (a bash command, a test invocation, a CI job name) — not "tests pass" without saying which tests.
• Use [x] for confirmed-passed, [ ] for known-failing, [!] for "not applicable to this PR" with a one-line reason.
• Empty list is rejected — a PR that mutates code MUST run some check. If you genuinely have nothing automated to verify (rare), put [!] no automated check applicable — pure docs change and explain.

Human Verification TODO (optional, must be non-filler if present)

## Human Verification TODO

- [ ] Open a fresh CC session in this worktree; type "what should I work on" — confirm the entry skill triggers
- [ ] Run `/board-superpowers:consuming-card 12` — confirm the autocomplete shows `[card-number]`

Rules:

• Each entry is an action a HUMAN performs (clicks, observations) — not a re-run of an automated check.
• Filler triggers rejection: (none), N/A, n/a, TBD, nothing to verify — write nothing instead, the section is optional. If you genuinely have a UI / UX surface and nothing to verify, that itself is a smell — push back.

Retro Notes (required; explicit "n/a" allowed)

## Retro Notes

- The `argument-hint` React crash was fixed in CC 2.1.47, but the YAML defensive-quote rule still bites — keep the rule in `verify-skill-frontmatter.sh`.
- Splitting `bsp_audit_local_write` into a separate function vs inlining: chose inline because there's only one caller, but factor out when a second caller appears.

Rules:

• Each entry is a reusable lesson — phrased as something the next card's Consumer can apply, not a narrative of this card's events.
• Acceptable to write n/a — no reusable lessons emerged from this card IF that's genuinely true (small mechanical changes, single-step bug fixes). The section MUST be present even when content is "n/a".

Validation rules (what submit-pr.sh checks)

references/validation-rules.md documents the precise regex set. Summary:

PR body shape (Contract A):

1. The literal heading ## Automated Verification exists.
2. The Automated Verification section is non-empty.
3. The Automated Verification section is not exactly one of the filler phrases (TBD / N/A / etc.).
4. The literal heading ## Retro Notes exists.
5. The Retro Notes section is non-empty.
6. (If ## Human Verification TODO is present) it is not filler.

Card body AC sync (Contract B):

7. The card linked from the claim/<N>-... branch has zero - [ ] lines under its ## Acceptance criteria heading. Every AC must be - [x] or - [!].
8. (If any - [!] appears) the line must continue with prose (≥ 5 chars) explaining the deferral. A bare - [!] is filler.

PR↔Issue auto-close keyword (Contract C):

9. The PR body, after the auto-trailer pass, contains at least one Closes #<N> / Fixes #<N> / Resolves #<N> referencing the --card <N> argument. Idempotent: if the body already contains the keyword for the given card number, no second trailer is appended; if absent, the canonical Closes #<N> trailer is appended once at PR-open time.

The script does NOT enforce ordering of PR body sections beyond the existence of headings. Reviewers care about ordering for readability; the validator cares about presence + (for the card) terminal-state ACs + (for the linkage) the auto-close keyword.

Filler detection

references/filler-detection.md lists the filler catalog. The current floor catches the obvious phrases:

TBD | tbd | TODO: write tests | (none) | n/a | N/A | nothing to verify

A semantic-grade catalog (catching "I checked it manually" without saying what was checked) is in scope for a future iteration but not implemented today.

Beyond filler — the taste reference

submit-pr.sh only catches whole-section filler. PRs can pass the validator and still be low-quality (vague checks, generic "tested locally" claims, retro notes that don't change anyone's behavior). The Producer-side review catches these — references/taste.md documents the good vs bad shapes for each section as a coaching reference. Use it during the review-queue routine when commenting on a PR that passed validation but should have been better.

How the Producer enforces

When the Producer runs the reviewing-pr-queue routine, for each open PR linked to a card it:

1. Fetches the PR body via gh pr view <PR-N> --json body.
2. Fetches the card body via gh issue view <card-N> --json body.
3. Runs the full validation logic as submit-pr.sh — Contract A (PR body shape), Contract B (card body AC sync), AND Contract C (PR body contains auto-close keyword referencing the linked card).
4. If validation fails: comments on the PR pointing at the specific violation (cite which contract + which rule); the Producer then proposes routing the card from In Review back to In Progress (rework signal) and asks the Consumer to acknowledge before transitioning. Contract C violations carry a special note: appending the trailer post-OPEN does NOT fix the auto-close chain — surface this to the architect and prepare for manual cleanup at merge time (Consumer Step 12 stage (a) covers this).
5. If validation passes: leaves the card in In Review for normal review-and-merge.

Whether you are writing the PR (Consumer side) or validating it (Producer side), read these rules from this SKILL.md — there is no second copy in the plugin. An edit here applies to both sides automatically.

Override mechanism

The Producer can override validation for a specific PR by adding the pr-contract-override label BEFORE merge. The override creates an audit-log entry so the bypass is traceable.

Common rationalizations to reject

Rationalization	Reality
"This card is too small to need a full PR contract"	A 1-line bug fix still benefits from the Retro Note that explains WHY — others encountering the same bug get the lesson. The Automated Verification can be [x] manually re-tested the failing case, now passes.
"Retro Notes is forced ceremony"	The bar is "n/a" if nothing emerged. The section's presence forces a 5-second pause to ask "did anything?" — that pause is the value.
"I'll backfill the sections after merge"	Post-merge edits don't reach reviewers. The contract exists for the review moment, not for archaeology.