perfect

name

perfect

description

Session-after-session product perfection loop for PoF. The strongest available model (Fable) directs — it walks context-map.json context-by-context, proposes 5 challenged, high-value directions per context (features, design elevations, significant optimizations), gates them with the user until 10 are accepted, then orchestrates one Opus builder subagent per context in isolated worktrees while making every review/merge decision itself. All state lives in the Obsidian pof vault so any future session resumes the loop exactly where the last one stopped. Invoke with `/perfect [init|propose|build|status|reflect] [context-name]`.

Perfect — the direction-and-delivery loop

One model is best at judgment — seeing what would make a product excellent, challenging its own ideas, reviewing diffs ruthlessly. Cheaper strong models are great at execution inside a well-scoped brief. /perfect wires the two together in a permanent loop: Fable directs, Opus builds, the vault remembers. Each session moves PoF measurably closer to the best UX, architecture, and feature quality it can have; no session ever starts from zero.

Roles — Director and Builders

• Director (the main session — Fable, or the strongest model available). Owns everything that is judgment: opportunity-scoring contexts, drafting directions, adversarially challenging them before the user ever sees them, running the acceptance gate, writing builder briefs, answering builders' product questions mid-flight, reviewing every diff, deciding merge/redo/drop, running the repo gates, committing, and writing the vault. The Director never delegates a decision to a builder and never rubber-stamps a builder's diff.
• Builders (Opus subagents, model: "opus", one per context). Each receives a tight brief (direction specs + acceptance criteria + the context's file_paths scope + repo-convention digest) and implements in its own worktree. Builders return a structured report; when they hit a genuine product ambiguity they return the question instead of guessing — the Director answers via SendMessage and the builder continues.
• Scouts (Explore subagents, cheap). Produce the per-context current-state brief the Director synthesizes directions from. Never used for judgment.

The Obsidian vault — durable loop state

Resolve the vault root (first hit wins), then use $VAULT/Perfect/:

for v in "C:/Users/kazda/Documents/Obsidian/pof"; do
  [ -d "$v" ] && VAULT="$v" && break
done
# Portable fallback: if no Obsidian vault exists, use <repo>/.perfect/ (same schema — still an Obsidian-openable folder).

Perfect/
  Perfect.md               # HOME / Map-of-Content — always reflects current truth:
                           #   mission, the scored context QUEUE with the CURSOR,
                           #   the ACCEPTED POOL (n/10), shipped ledger headline, link to last session
  config.md                # per-repo overlay: gates to run, worktree recipe, wave size,
                           #   direction sizing rules, cooldown, + ## Skill improvement log
  contexts/<name>.md       # one per context-map context (long-lived, updated in place)
  directions/<slug>.md     # one per direction (long-lived; the atom of the whole loop)
  sessions/<YYYY-MM-DD[-n]>.md  # immutable run records, each ends with a `next:` pointer

Context note (contexts/<name>.md):

---
name: <context-map name>        type: perfect/context
group: <group>                  category: ui|api|lib|data|test|config
opportunity: <0-10>             # value reach × headroom × strategic fit (Director's judgment)
last_proposed: <YYYY-MM-DD|never>   cooldown_until: <date|—>
directions: ["[[<slug>]]", …]
---
## Current state   (scout brief digest + file:line evidence — refreshed each proposal pass)
## Direction history   (proposed / accepted / REJECTED-and-why — rejections are memory too)
## Shipped   (direction → commit SHA → observed effect)

Direction note (directions/<slug>.md):

---
slug: <kebab, stable>           type: perfect/direction
context: "[[<context-name>]]"   lens: feature|ux|optimization|robustness|wildcard
status: proposed | accepted | building | shipped | failed | dropped | rejected
size: S|M|L                     # must fit ONE builder session (≲15 files, no cross-context schema break)
proposed: <date>  accepted: <date|—>  shipped: <date|—>  commit: <sha|—>
---
## What & why   (the user value, one paragraph, no fluff)
## Evidence   (file:line of the gap/opportunity in today's code)
## Acceptance criteria   (3-6 checkable bullets — the builder's contract AND the review checklist)
## Risks / non-goals
## Build record   (builder report digest, review verdict, gate results — filled during build)

Session note: phases run, contexts covered, accept/reject tallies, build outcomes with SHAs, deltas, and next: <the exact resumption instruction for the following session>.

Vault hygiene: slugs are stable; update notes, never duplicate. Subagents may fail to write files in some harnesses — after any parallel phase the Director MUST ls the target dir and backfill missing notes from the agents' returned content before trusting "written".

The loop — a vault-driven state machine

Every invocation starts the same way; the vault decides which phase runs.

Phase 0 — Recall & register

1. Read Perfect.md (+ last session's next: pointer). If missing → run init (below).
2. Read context-map.json; diff against contexts/* — new contexts get notes + a queue slot, removed ones get archived (status: retired in frontmatter).
3. Repo rituals: git status — this repo hosts parallel sessions; note foreign WIP files and never sweep them into your commits. Scan MEMORY.md signals that veto directions (e.g. shipped programs, "honest ceiling" verdicts, retired subsystems — don't re-suggest what a prior campaign settled).
4. Announce the resumption point in one sentence, then go where the state machine points: pool < 10 → Propose; pool ≥ 10 (or user said build) → Build.

Init (first run only)

1. Scaffold the vault tree + config.md (record: gates = npm run validate [typecheck + lint + vitest], plus npm run test:e2e only when catalog-pipeline step components/registries are touched; wave size = 3; cooldown = 2 rounds).
2. Score every context 0-10 for opportunity = user-facing reach × headroom (distance from "perfect", judged from context-map metadata, docs/architecture/*, docs/catalog/*, and memory) × strategic fit (active arcs in memory — e.g. transparency/judge campaigns, UE truth ladder, catalog pipeline program). Write the ranked queue into Perfect.md with the cursor at the top. Don't deep-read code yet — scoring is refined per-context at proposal time.
3. Write session note; proceed straight into Propose.

Phase P — Propose (context by context, until the pool holds 10)

Loop while pool < 10 and the user hasn't said stop:

1. Cursor = highest-opportunity context not on cooldown. Prefetch: before presenting context k, launch the scout for context k+1 in the background.
2. Scout (Explore, "very thorough", read-only): given the context's file_paths, entry_points, db_tables → return a current-state brief: what exists, what's rough, dead ends, UX seams, perf smells, with file:line evidence.
3. Draft 5 directions — one per lens by default: feature (new user value), ux (design/flow elevation), optimization (perf/cost/significant simplification), robustness (failure modes, observability, architecture), wildcard (the non-obvious idea a great PM would pitch). Each sized to ONE builder session; a bigger vision ships as its phase-1 slice. Weight the slate by config.md → ## User taste — the lens spread is a starting point, not a quota. Default depth is the engine, not the chrome: for any context with backend/algorithmic substance (pipelines, acceptance engines, harness, judges, UE bridge), most directions should be architecture-level (data model, algorithms, lifecycle, prompt/eval paths, cost structure); UI surfacing appears at most once-twice unless the user steers otherwise. Scout prompts must match this depth (trace the full pipeline, not just the components).
4. Challenge before presenting (the Director argues against itself; a direction that fails any check is replaced, not presented):
   • Does it already exist in code? (scout evidence, not assumption)
   • Was it already proposed/rejected/shipped? (check contexts/<name>.md history + memory — the MEMORY.md campaign ledger is dense; many "obvious" ideas are already DONE)
   • Does it conflict with an active arc or a "removed/settled, don't re-suggest" memory?
   • Is the value claim concrete — can I name the user moment it improves?
   • Can one Opus session genuinely ship it behind the acceptance criteria?
5. Present the 5 in chat — numbered, each: title · lens · size · one-paragraph why · evidence · acceptance criteria. Then gate with AskUserQuestion (multiSelect) — the tool caps options at 4 per question, so use TWO questions in one call: Q1 = directions 1–3, Q2 = directions 4–5 (labels = N · short title, description = one-line value claim + size). The user can annotate via "Other" (e.g. edit 2: …, stop); selecting nothing in both = none accepted.
6. Record outcomes in the vault (rejected ones too, with the user's implied reason — rejections steer future proposals). Accepted → directions/<slug>.md with status: accepted, pool counter++, context gets cooldown_until. Update Perfect.md after every context, not at session end — a killed session must lose nothing.
7. A none gate that carries a steer (the user says what they wanted instead) is a re-scout order, not a rejection of the context: promote the steer to config.md → ## User taste if it generalizes, re-scout at the steered depth/angle, and re-propose the SAME context once before advancing the cursor. Never re-present any rejected direction.

Phase B — Build (one Opus builder per context, Fable decides everything)

1. Wave plan: group the pool's accepted directions by context → one builder per context, ≤ config.wave_size (default 3) concurrent, and ≤ 3 directions per builder brief (a 4-direction brief exceeds one agent-session budget — split a bigger context into two sequential builders). Present the wave plan in one screen; on user go (or when invoked as /perfect build), execute.
2. Worktree per builder — prepared by the Director, NOT via Agent-tool isolation (those worktrees lack node_modules):

   git worktree add .claude/worktrees/perfect-<ctx> -b worktree-perfect-<ctx>
   cmd //c mklink //J ".claude\\worktrees\\perfect-<ctx>\\node_modules" "..\\..\\..\\node_modules"   # junction, NOT copy
   

3. Brief each builder (see template below); launch with model: "opus", subagent_type: "general-purpose", all briefs in one message so they run concurrently.
4. Mid-flight decisions: a builder returning DECISION NEEDED: … gets an answer from the Director via SendMessage — product calls, trade-offs, and scope cuts are Fable's alone. A builder that stops without its final report gets one SendMessage nudge. Builder-death recovery (session limits WILL kill builders): the instant a builder dies, git add -A && git commit --no-verify a wip(…) snapshot inside its worktree (isolated tree — add-all is safe there; never-lose-work beats commit hygiene). Then the Director either finishes the work inline (review the WIP diff, complete gaps, split into per-direction commits along file boundaries — same-file hunks may share a commit if the message says so) or re-briefs a fresh builder after the limit resets with "continue from the WIP commit".
5. Review — the Director earns its title here. Per builder branch: git diff master...worktree-perfect-<ctx> and review against each direction's acceptance criteria, repo conventions (@/ imports, logger not console, no hex colors — @/lib/chart-colors, UI_TIMEOUTS, Result<T,E>, API envelope via apiSuccess/apiFetch, shared-component manifest in CLAUDE.md, ≤200 LOC per generated pipeline file), and taste. Verdict per direction: merge / redo with notes (SendMessage, builder fixes in place) / drop (status: failed, reason recorded). Never merge on "tests pass" alone — read the diff. Docs-vs-code check: when a diff documents a behavior (contract text, formula, doc comment, docs/architecture/* edit), grep for the code that implements it before merging — a contract describing behavior the code doesn't have is worse than nothing.
6. Merge serially: per direction, git merge --squash (or cherry-pick) → ONE atomic commit on master, message feat(<context>): <direction title> + Co-Authored-By footer. Stage per-file, verify git diff --cached --stat matches intent (foreign pre-staged files → git restore --staged them). Run npm run validate on master after each merge; a red gate is fixed inline before the next merge. Concurrent-session DIRTY files blocking a pick: never stash, never wait — commit around them. Dirty shared source file: stage HEAD + your hunks directly into the index (git hash-object -w + git update-index --cacheinfo), content built by git merge-file (base=branch-fork, ours=HEAD, theirs=branch), plus a second merge-file for the working copy — the other session's uncommitted work stays theirs, and their later commit can't revert your change. Shared append-files (registries like layout-lab/steps/index.ts, module-registry.ts, barrel exports): NEVER wholesale-checkout a branch's version across sequential picks — it clobbers earlier picks' registrations. Patch-union (git diff branch~..branch -- file | git apply --3way) or regenerate from source, always.
7. Doc-sync in the same turn: structural changes update the matching docs/architecture/* or docs/catalog/* file in the SAME change (CLAUDE.md law) — plus docs/README.md's doc map if a doc is added/removed.
8. Cleanup: per worktree — cmd //c rmdir the node_modules junction FIRST, then git worktree remove, then delete the branch once its commits are on master.

Phase W — Wrap (every session, even interrupted ones)

1. Update every touched vault note; write the session note with the next: pointer (e.g. next: propose — cursor at catalog-browser-ui, pool 7/10 or next: build wave 2 — harness-autonomy + simulation-tools remain).
2. Perfect.md headline refreshed: pool count, queue cursor, shipped-total, last-session link.
3. Reflect on the skill itself: 2-4 bullets in config.md → ## Skill improvement log — what dragged, what the user overrode, what the next round should change. This log is the input for the between-rounds skill revision.

Direction quality bar (what earns a slot in the 5)

• Value-first: names the user moment it improves; "nice refactor" is not a direction unless it unlocks something.
• Evidence-backed: cites today's code (file:line), not vibes.
• One-session-shippable: ≲15 files, no cross-context schema breaks; else slice it.
• Novel to the vault: not shipped, not pending, not previously rejected (unless the world changed — say so).
• Lens-diverse: default one per lens; substituting a second entry in one lens requires the Director to say why.

Builder brief template

You are an Opus builder for the `<context>` context of PoF (Pillars of Fortune) —
a Next.js 16 + React 19 + TypeScript + Tailwind 4 + Zustand 5 app (SQLite at ~/.pof/pof.db
via better-sqlite3) that is an AI-powered UE5 C++ game-development assistant.
Work ONLY in this worktree: <abs path>. Your scope is this context's files:
<file_paths from context-map.json>. Touching other contexts requires DECISION NEEDED.

Implement these accepted directions, one atomic commit each, message `feat(<context>): <title>`:
<per direction: What & why · Acceptance criteria · Evidence file:line · Risks/non-goals>

COMMIT EACH DIRECTION THE MOMENT IT IS DONE AND VERIFIED — never batch commits
for the end of the session. An interrupted session must lose at most the
direction in progress, not everything.

FOREGROUND ONLY: run every compile/test as a blocking foreground command and
wait for it — NEVER spawn a background run and "wait for the notification"
(you will idle forever and the Director has to nudge you).

Repo law (non-negotiable — read the repo's .claude/CLAUDE.md first, it is the authority):
- Imports via `@/` alias, never relative `../../`. No raw `console.*` — use `logger` from
  `@/lib/logger` (console.error allowed). No hardcoded hex colors — `@/lib/chart-colors`
  or CSS variables. Timing constants from `UI_TIMEOUTS` in `@/lib/constants.ts`.
- API routes return the `{ success, data|error }` envelope via `apiSuccess`/`apiError`
  (`@/lib/api-utils`); client calls use `apiFetch`/`tryApiFetch` with RELATIVE urls.
  Fallible ops use `Result<T,E>` from `@/types/result.ts`.
- REUSE before building: the Shared Component Manifest in .claude/CLAUDE.md (CliProduce,
  StepFrame, ChartPanel, CandidateGallery, GlbViewer, controls) and the ui/ primitives
  (Modal, TabBar, MeterBar, StatusToken, RangeSlider, ChartLegend, Tooltip…). Never
  hand-roll a spinner/modal/tooltip/status chip.
- Catalog pipeline steps follow View/Produce/Acceptance (CLAUDE.md Rules 1-5): CliProduce
  for the Produce face, derived Acceptance from truth (never a manual toggle), ≤200 LOC
  per generated file, camelCase hierarchy-encoding filenames.
- Zustand v5: never persist transient state; modules are LRU-suspended — use
  `useSuspendableEffect` for timers/polling.
- Tests in src/__tests__/ (vitest, jsdom): NO jest-dom matchers (assert plain DOM),
  add your own `afterEach(cleanup)`, mock react-window if virtualized, assert inline
  colors via rgb not hex.
- Structural changes update the matching docs/architecture/* or docs/catalog/* file in
  the SAME commit.
- Verify before claiming done: `npx tsc --noEmit`, targeted `npx vitest run <files>`,
  and drive the actual flow when a dev server is available (PoF dev = port 3001, NOT
  3000); report what you COULD NOT verify honestly.

If a product decision is ambiguous, STOP that direction and return `DECISION NEEDED: <question>`
with your recommendation — never guess. Final report format:
per direction → status (done|blocked|decision-needed), commits, files, verification evidence, open risks.

Modes

• /perfect — resume the loop wherever the vault says it stopped (the default; covers init on first run).
• /perfect propose [context] — force a proposal pass (optionally jump the cursor to a named context).
• /perfect build — build now with the current pool even if < 10.
• /perfect status — read-only: queue, cursor, pool, in-flight builds, shipped ledger, last session. No agents.
• /perfect reflect — read config.md → Skill improvement log + last sessions and propose concrete edits to THIS skill file.

Guardrails

• Never stash, never git add -A on the shared tree — per-file staging (git add <file> sweeps foreign WIP — author NEW files or git add -p), staged-count check before every commit; other sessions' work is sacred. (Inside an isolated builder worktree, add-all is fine.)
• Cost discipline: scouts are Explore-tier; Opus is spent only on accepted work; the Director never re-runs a scout whose brief is < 1 round old (it's in the context note).
• Honest ledger: a direction only reaches shipped with gates green AND the Director having read the diff; anything else is failed with a reason. No silent drops — every accepted direction's fate is recorded.
• Interruptibility is a feature: write the vault incrementally (after every context in P, after every merge in B) so a killed session resumes losslessly.
• The user is the product owner: the gate is theirs; the Director challenges but never overrides a rejection, and repeated rejections of a lens/context recalibrate the queue scores.
• Push only when the user says so (repo memory law); commits to master are fine, git push is not automatic.