baseline

name	baseline
description	Use when asked to run baseline, score a repo, check build- or project-readiness, audit a repo against a standard, or adopt/scaffold the project-baseline standard. Runs a zero-dependency Node checker (94 rules across build, tests, security & supply-chain, reproducibility, operability, change-governance, community, context/doc-drift, claims, records & ledger, lane workflow, and divergence), reads the scorecard, and helps fix or scaffold what's missing.
version	2.5.0
author	Adar (AdarGit008)
license	MIT
platforms	["linux","macos","windows"]
metadata	{"hermes":{"tags":["baseline","readiness","ci","standards","project-quality","code-review"],"related_skills":["requesting-code-review","plan","systematic-debugging","test-driven-development"]}}

project-baseline

Overview

A testable readiness standard: 94 rules, each backed by a check a zero-dependency Node runner executes on a repo at rest. Blockers fail CI (exit 1); the judgment calls a script can't make resolve via a dated sign-off ledger. The throughline: don't trust a written promise — make something check it. A checklist doc drifts; this is the checklist as an exit code.

Runs natively under Hermes and Claude Code (and any agent that loads SKILL.md). The runner is portable — plain Node, no agent-specific dependency. Source: github.com/AdarGit008/baseline-skill (reference repo: baseline-demo).

When to Use

• "run baseline", "score this repo", "check build-readiness / project-readiness"
• "audit this repo against a standard", "is this build-ready?"
• "set up / adopt / scaffold baseline here"
• "fix the baseline failures", "get this to green"
• "what does SEC-03 check", "why did CTX-05 fail"

Don't use for: general logic/bug review (use a code-review skill) or writing tests (use a TDD skill). Baseline checks readiness posture at rest, not runtime correctness.

Setup — resolve the toolkit path first

$SKILL_DIR = the absolute path of the directory containing this file. Resolve it to a concrete path before running anything (never pass the literal $SKILL_DIR to the shell). Typical locations:

• Hermes: ~/.hermes/skills/software-development/baseline
• Claude Code: ~/.claude/skills/baseline

The unified CLI is baseline.mjs — node "<abs>/baseline.mjs" <command> (check, admit, reconcile, orient, lane, log, jdg, gen, scrub, help); baseline check … delegates to check.mjs, still the checker. Both load the rule set (rules.json manifest + rules/ modules) and src/ from their own directory, so always invoke by absolute path; don't copy them away from the rule set + src/. Requires Node ≥ 18 and git on PATH — if node is missing, say so rather than guessing.

Co-located files: baseline.mjs (CLI entry: check / admit / reconcile / orient / lane / log / jdg / gen / scrub), check.mjs (the checker), rules.json + rules/ (the rule-set manifest + the 94 rules, one module per category), schema/ (the descriptor schema + the four record schemas), CONTRACT.md (the plain-git record forms), config.example.json, templates/ (scaffolds), config-presets/ (ready-made configs), hooks/ (SessionStart orient hook + pre-push scrub hook), REFERENCE.md (full reference), GLOSSARY.md (term definitions).

Orientation — the first act

Before working in a repo that runs multiple agent lanes (or at session start), run baseline orient first — a derived-state survey, so you never reconstruct state from a hand-maintained status doc (C16):

node "$SKILL_DIR/baseline.mjs" orient --repo <target>

• Capability header — which planes are reachable (tree / history / forge). Every unreachable plane degrades to a note, so orient works offline and never blocks.
• Divergence first, then live lanes (open PRs + each branch's latest session next:), backlog (open issues by milestone), and this lane (current branch + its next:).
• It's an agent helper, never a gate: read-only, gh-based, exits 0 even degraded — --strict turns forge-unreachability into exit 1; --json for machine use.
• Install it as infrastructure: wire hooks/orient-session-start.sh into Claude Code's SessionStart hook (see hooks/README.md) so orientation happens without being remembered. The Hermes twin ships in integrations/hermes/baseline-orient/ — a plugin whose on_session_start hook + /orient command run the same survey; this directive remains the tool-agnostic fallback (C28).

Claiming a lane — before work starts (M5a)

In a repo whose descriptor declares lanes.namespace, never hand-create a lane branch. Claim it:

node "$SKILL_DIR/baseline.mjs" lane claim <issue> --repo <target>

• The claim is atomic branch creation at origin — the ref name is the namespace with the issue number substituted (lane/22), so two agents claiming the same issue race on one refname and exactly one wins. Exit 0 = yours (also when the lane already stands under your own agent trailer — reruns are idempotent); exit 3 = another agent holds it, cleanly (nothing was created locally): run baseline orient and pick different work. A hand-pushed branch (git push origin HEAD:lane/22-foo) mints a second, trailer-less lane for the issue — the exact dual-lane state the claim exists to prevent.

Taking over a dead lane (M5b)

orient's Lanes section derives every claimed lane's lease — LIVE | STALE | ABANDONED | COMPLETED (freshness = the later of tip commit and PR activity vs the descriptor's lease_ttl, default 7d; COMPLETED = the tip is already merged into the default branch — done, exempt from divergence/lease findings, prune it). Only a lane that derives ABANDONED is reclaimable:

node "$SKILL_DIR/baseline.mjs" lane reclaim <issue> --repo <target>

• The takeover is an empty child commit under your agent trailer, pushed under an exact-value CAS — a lane that moved mid-reclaim (someone pushed, rewound, or deleted it) rejects and the tool tells you the truth (exit 3: it's active). A dated takeover record is machine-written through baseline log, and the issue gets a best-effort comment. Never bypass the gate with a plain git push — a LIVE lane belongs to its agent; if a live takeover is genuinely sanctioned (agent on leave), record a deviation judgment naming the lane and pass --jdg <id>.

Admitting a lane — before it merges (M6a)

A verdict is valid only for the state it evaluated: before merging a lane, re-derive at the merge point —

node "$SKILL_DIR/baseline.mjs" admit --repo <target>

• Exit 0 = admitted (advisory warns ride the output); exit 1 = refused — the branch is stale against the target (merge/rebase it, rerun), a blocker fired (a descriptor change without its same-PR judgment — DESC-03), or a fact admit genuinely gates on was unreadable; exit 2 = environment (no target, no descriptor at the target). The TARGET branch's descriptor governs the run — editing the descriptor on your own branch changes nothing until it merges, and doing so at all requires a same-PR judgment with subject exactly baseline.repo.json.

Every admit verdict carries a provenance: inputs_digest … receipt line (and JSON field) naming exactly what it was derived from — head/target shas, the target descriptor's blob OID, rules version, check runs, anchor state; unreachable planes read not consulted, never vanish. Paste it into the PR thread when the verdict matters.

For repos that adopt a generated index (baseline gen index, default docs/INDEX.md): the file's first line is a baseline:generated marker — edit the records, not the file; baseline gen --check in CI reds on drift with the exact regenerate command (zero marked views is trivially green, so un-adopted repos never see it). Repos that vendor the toolkit at tools/baseline/ pin it with baseline gen lock (tools/baseline.lock.json, verified by REC-06) — re-pin in the same PR as every vendor bump.

On the DEFAULT branch (usually cron, not by hand), baseline reconcile is the morning-after twin — it re-derives main's standing and files findings as baseline-labeled, lifecycle-managed issues (dedup'd, closed when cleared, reopened on recurrence; a human close of an advisory filing is final). --dry-run prints the plan without writing. Exit 0 even with findings (the tracker is the alert surface — orient headlines them); exit 1 means delivery itself failed — even with zero findings (a dead cron must not stay green). A behind-or-dirty checkout of the default branch degrades to a labeled report-only run (exit 0, nothing filed); only a HEAD off the default branch's line refuses (exit 2) — it is not a lane command.

Recording — the last act

When pausing or ending a working session in a repo that keeps records (a records/ dir or a multi-lane descriptor), write the session record before you stop — one command, never an editor:

node "$SKILL_DIR/baseline.mjs" log --repo <target> -m "what happened and why; dead ends" --next "the one most useful next step"

• Lane, agent, and timestamp are derived (lane = current branch); the record lands at records/sessions/<lane>/<date>-<time>-<agent>.md, schema-validated, in the exact next: shape orient reads back at the next session start. That symmetry — orient first, log last — is the whole loop.
• The write is scrub-gated: a deterministic secret signature blocks (non-lossy — the draft survives under .baseline/cache/ and the exact rerun is printed); a false positive becomes a dated judgment: rerun with --allow <finding-id> --allow-reason "...". Never bypass a block by hand-writing the file instead — rotate the secret or record the judgment.
• Records are append-only once committed: never edit a committed session record; write the next one.

Judgments (accepting a risk, deviating from a rule, satisfying a manual rule) are ledger records, not chat: baseline jdg new --kind <sign-off|deviation|risk-acceptance|break-glass> --subject <rule-or-scope> --reason "..." --review-by <date> — every judgment expires; add a --tripwire "fact op value" so the engine can detect when the accepted world changes. baseline jdg check evaluates the ledger (exit 1 on tripped/expired/invalid records). Never fake a sign-off: a real dated judgment by the user, or nothing. The plain-git forms live in CONTRACT.md.

Claims (M4c): if CLAIM-07 warns about a legacy docs/CLAIMS.json, run baseline gen migrate-claims — it explodes the monolith into per-claim records/claims/CLM-*.json (the V1 id survives as slug), refuses invalid claims loudly, and is idempotent. Review + commit the records, then delete the monolith. Hand-written records are pushed through the same scrub as log when the pre-push hook is installed (cp "$SKILL_DIR/hooks/scrub-pre-push.sh" <repo>/.git/hooks/pre-push); baseline scrub <files> runs the scan on demand.

Modes

Figure out intent from the user's words; default to score.

orient — session start · "where am I" · "what should I do next"

Run the survey (see Orientation — the first act above): node "$SKILL_DIR/baseline.mjs" orient --repo <target>. Read divergence → lanes → backlog → this lane's next:, then act. This is the first act in a lane repo, not a scored gate.

score (default)

1. Pick the target repo: an explicit path, else the current working directory. Confirm it looks like a repo (a manifest or .git).
2. Run the runner:

   node "$SKILL_DIR/check.mjs" --repo <target>
   

   • --no-exec — skip executing the repo's bootstrap/test command (BUILD-05). Use for untrusted repos or when the command isn't configured; otherwise prefer running it (BUILD-05 is the crown check).
   • --profile advanced — opt into expert rules (SBOM, code-scanning, mutation testing, dependency-vuln-scan, coverage-floor). service turns on automatically for project_type=service.
   • --json — machine output instead of the scorecard.
   • Completion criterion: you have the readiness %, the blocker count, and each FAIL/notable WARN with its one-line detail.
3. Present it: lead with blockers (they fail CI), then warnings worth fixing, grouped by category. Don't dump all 94 rows — summarize and offer to fix or scaffold.

init — "set up / adopt / scaffold baseline"

Descriptor-first, always. The repo's baseline.repo.json is written before anything else — it's the one file baseline requires (schema: schema/repo.schema.json), and every applicability/severity derivation reads it. Its type supersedes filesystem auto-detection.

1. Write the descriptor. Copy the closest posture preset (or the blank template) to <repo>/baseline.repo.json, then set type, lifecycle, maturity, workflow, anchoring:

   cp "$SKILL_DIR/config-presets/multi-lane-agents.repo.json" <repo>/baseline.repo.json   # V2 default: lanes on
   # or readiness-only.repo.json (just the score, V1-equivalent) · or templates/baseline.repo.json (blank)
   

   Multi-lane is the default — any solo dev gets lanes out of the box; use readiness-only for the score with no workflow contract.
2. Tune the checks (optional). Copy the closest config-presets/*.json to <repo>/baseline.config.json for paths/commands/thresholds, or start from config.example.json. Then scaffold only what's missing (never overwrite without asking):

   cp "$SKILL_DIR/config-presets/node-service.json" <repo>/baseline.config.json   # tuning: bootstrap_command, globs…
   mkdir -p <repo>/records/claims && cp "$SKILL_DIR/templates/claim.json" <repo>/records/claims/CLM-0001.json   # only if it makes external claims — one claim, one record
   

   Per-claim records (records/claims/CLM-NNNN.json) are the only claims home the checker reads; a legacy docs/CLAIMS.json monolith is flagged by CLAIM-07 — migrate it (baseline gen migrate-claims, steps in MIGRATION.md).
3. Edit baseline.config.json to reality: bootstrap_command (clean-checkout install+test for BUILD-05), makes_external_claims (false skips CLAIM-*). Opt-in *_globs keys stay empty until adopted.
4. Wire the baseline job into CI as a required check (rule BUILD-06) — snippet is in REFERENCE.md.

• Completion criterion: baseline.repo.json exists and validates (DESC-01 + DESC-02 PASS), node check.mjs --repo <repo> runs, and every scaffolded artifact is accounted for.

fix — "get this to green"

1. Score first. For each blocker/warn to address, apply the rule's own fix field (read it from rules.json) as concrete edits — add the missing LICENSE, pin the action to a SHA, git-ignore + rotate the .env secret, add the negative test, etc.
2. For manual (sign-off) rules, don't fake the check — do the judgment with the user (blast-radius, prior-art pass, wedge/moat) and record it as a dated, expiring judgment: baseline jdg new --kind sign-off --subject <RULE-ID> --reason "..." --review-by <date>.
3. Re-score to confirm.

• Completion criterion: re-score shows the targeted rules resolved and no new blockers introduced.

explain — "what does SEC-03 check", "why did CTX-05 fail"

Read the rule from rules.json (title, rationale, fix, source, check) and explain it plainly plus what the runner actually looked for. For unfamiliar jargon (SBOM, SLSA, provenance, sign-off ledger, …) point to GLOSSARY.md.

Rule-set integrity — --self-check

The rule set validates itself:

node "$SKILL_DIR/check.mjs" --self-check

Exits 1 on any rule with a missing/typo'd applies_to, an unknown check-kind / profile / severity / category / requires key, a duplicate id, or an orphan type/profile — and prints a per-type coverage matrix. Use it if you edit the rule modules under rules/ (or the rules.json manifest), or wire it into CI so a malformed rule set can't merge.

How the runner decides (so you can read detail lines)

• PASS / FAIL / WARN / SIGN-OFF / SKIP per rule; only a blocker FAIL sets exit 1.
• SKIP = the rule didn't apply: applies_to excludes the repo's project_type (n/a for <type>), an off profile (profile 'advanced' off), an unadopted opt-in, or nothing to check. A skip never counts against readiness.
• applies_to ("all" or a subset of node/python/service/library/docs) scopes each rule to the repo types it fits — e.g. a docs repo skips build/test/service rules.
• Profiles: core always; service auto-on for project_type=service; advanced only with --profile advanced.
• Claims are opt-in: CLAIM-* run only if a claims register exists or makes_external_claims:true is set.
• Descriptor: a baseline.repo.json declares the repo's identity/posture; its type supersedes auto-detection, and DESC-01 warns (and offers to scaffold) when it's absent; a present-but-invalid one is DESC-02's blocker.
• Config auto-detects; baseline.config.json at the repo root overrides (keys documented in config.example.json). The runner is zero-dependency and crash-resilient: an unevaluable check degrades to SKIP, never crashing the run.

Common Pitfalls

1. Copying check.mjs away from the rule set (rules.json + rules/) + src/. It loads them from its own directory — invoke by absolute path instead.
2. Presenting a warn as a blocker (or vice-versa). Severity is in the rule modules (rules/*.json) and the runner output — never upgrade/downgrade it.
3. Faking a sign-off. Manual rules exist because a script can't judge them; record a real dated judgment (baseline jdg new --kind sign-off), don't rubber-stamp.
4. Skipping BUILD-05 by habit. Omit --no-exec when the repo is trusted and bootstrap_command is set — a green crown check is the strongest single signal.
5. Gaming a warn to hit 100%. An honest advisory warn (e.g. a dependency-updater rule on a zero-dep repo) beats a presence-theater fix. 0 blockers = build-ready is the real bar.

Verification Checklist

• Ran the runner by its absolute path with --repo <target>
• Reported blockers first, then warnings, grouped by category (not a 94-row dump)
• For fix: re-scored and confirmed no new blockers
• For init: picked a preset/config, scaffolded only what was missing, ran a first score
• Any sign-off is a real dated judgment, not a rubber stamp
• --self-check still passes if the rule set (rules.json / rules/*.json) was edited
• Session end in a record-keeping repo: baseline log written (scrubbed, with a real next:)