| name | code-janitor |
| description | Reviews, cleans up, and verifies code as production-ready in a folder/package or recent git changes. Groups files by intent, then runs a 5-chain pipeline per group (Simplification → Abstraction → Readability → Documentation → Production-Readiness Sweep) with one supervisor granting an industry-standard production-ready flag. Use when the user asks to clean up, simplify, polish, organize utils/helpers, fix typos or naming, improve JSDoc, tidy a package, ship-ready review, or says "review my files", "cleanup", "polish", "organize", "code janitor", "production ready", or "tidy". |
Code Janitor 🧹
Tactical, principle-driven cleanup pipeline that adapts to any workspace and ends with an industry-standard production-ready verdict. Reviews a folder/package (or the current git changes) in five ordered chains — Simplification → Abstraction → Readability → Documentation → Production-Readiness Sweep — with one supervisor granting the flag at the end. Phase A auto-detects the workspace's package manager, scripts, monorepo layout, agent-instructions doc, and adjacent skills, so the same skill works in a Bun/pnpm/yarn/npm repo, a single-package or workspaces layout, with or without a sibling commit-review skill.
Autonomous by default; opt-in review. Auto-applies edits, prints one terse line per file. Pass --review to gate every file or --with-tests to run unit tests. The skill always stops on its own for the six gated edit types (see § Constraints) regardless of flags.
Senior-level scope. Performs real cleanup — rename exported symbols, fix typos in identifiers and i18n keys, split overgrown files, move files, bump dep versions — when the new shape is materially better. Algorithm rewrites and net-new dependencies remain forbidden.
Multiple goals, one flag. Chains 1–4 polish (simpler, better-bounded, readable, documented). Chain 5 sweeps for bugs, performance regressions, weak typing, dead code, security issues, and missing test coverage — absorbing /simplify and /review into the pipeline. The supervisor grants the industry-standard production-ready flag only when every chain is green and no BLOCK-severity finding survives.
Constraints
Single source of truth. Two tiers: Forbidden (absolute, no escape) and Gated (allowed via the forced-approval mechanism in Phase B).
Forbidden — no flag, gate, or supervisor verdict overrides these
- Change runtime behavior for any input the program currently handles.
- Edit generated files — bootstrap-detected exclusion list, sibling
.d.ts for .ts source, lockfiles, CHANGELOG.md.
- Edit test fixtures, snapshots, or recorded HTTP responses.
- Reformat for style — defer to the workspace's formatter/linter via Chain 0.
- Refactor algorithms — defer to a detected architecture skill (e.g.
improve-codebase-architecture); else surface as INFO. Naming/structure cleanup is fine; replacing a sort or rewriting a loop's logic is not.
- Add net-new dependencies, frameworks, or build tools (Boring Technology). Bumping or removing an existing dep is gated, not forbidden.
- Commit — defer to the detected commit-skill, or stop and let the user commit.
- Create branches or worktrees — work happens in the current branch only.
- Introduce new debug/info loggers in paths that didn't have them. Warn/error logs are fine when the workspace's existing pattern uses them.
- Delete pre-existing debug/info loggers unless the agent-instructions doc explicitly authorises removal on the surrounding paths.
Gated — allowed via Phase B forced-approval, with one discipline rule
Six edit types stop the skill regardless of flags:
- Rename an exported symbol (function, class, type, interface, const, default).
- Rename an i18n key — only when every translation file in the repo can be updated in the same diff. If any appears externally managed (Phrase, Crowdin, Lokalise), skip and surface as INFO.
- Move a file (intra-package or across-package).
- Split a file or function.
- Change a public API signature.
- Bump or remove a dependency version.
Discipline rule (non-negotiable for all six) — every call site, import, re-export, doc reference, and test reference must update in the same diff as the edit. The forced-approval prompt shows the change + every dependent edit as one atomic unit. If the skill can't enumerate all dependents, it skips the edit and surfaces it as INFO.
Default behavior
- Autonomous. Apply edits silently with one-line status. Stop only on the six gated edit types, on diff-sanity violations, or when the hesitation gate fires.
- Hesitation gate. Stop and ask only when there's no clear, cohesive decision: grouping is a coin-flip, or a principle conflict can't be broken by the resolution ladder. Routine progress = no prompt.
Pipeline
Phase A — Triage
A.0 workspace bootstrap (detect package manager, scripts, layout,
agent-instructions doc, adjacent skills, generated paths)
A.1 scope discovery → group files (semantic intent / feature / arch fallback)
→ build dependency tree → auto-proceed (only stop if grouping is ambiguous)
Phase B — Per-group execution (sequential; next group's read-only triage pipelined)
for each group:
Chain 0 Tooling pass (deterministic; no per-file gate)
Chains 1→4 plan across whole group, then apply per file
Chain 5 Production-readiness sweep (3 parallel reviewers;
findings → apply / gate / surface)
Validation group gates (diff-sanity + type-check + lint; opt-in tests)
Phase C — Supervisor review (one fresh code-reviewer; three checklists)
Correctness · Principle-Adherence · Production-Readiness
verdict: PASS | FIX | BLOCK
on FIX/BLOCK → fresh fix-pass agent → re-supervise (cap: 2 per group)
Phase D — Summary + handoff
summary report at <skills-output-dir>/YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-cleanup.md
industry-standard production-ready flag: GRANTED or WITHHELD
prompt: hand off to detected commit-review skill (if any), else stop
Phase A — Triage
Invocation flags — detect from the user's message text:
--with-tests / "with tests" / "run tests" → enables the unit-test gate (off by default).--review / "let me review" / "ask me each file" → enables per-file approval (off by default; the skill auto-applies otherwise).
A.0 — Workspace bootstrap (run first, every invocation)
Before scope discovery, detect the workspace toolchain and conventions. Cache the results for the session and surface them to the user as a one-block summary.
- Package manager — pick one based on the lockfile in repo root:
bun.lock / bun.lockb → bun runpnpm-lock.yaml → pnpm runyarn.lock → yarnpackage-lock.json → npm run- none → assume
npm run and note in the summary
- Available scripts — read root
package.json "scripts". Resolve each gate's command by intent, picking the first match found:
- lint-fix:
lint:fix → lint --fix → eslint . --fix (only if eslint is a dep)
- format:
format → format:write → prettier --write . (only if prettier is a dep)
- typecheck:
check:types → typecheck → type-check → tsc --noEmit (only if typescript is a dep)
- lint-check:
check:lint → lint
- unit-test:
test:unit → test (only if Jest/Vitest config detected; never E2E runners like Cypress/Playwright)
- If a gate has no resolvable command → mark that gate
skipped and proceed.
- Monorepo layout — read
package.json "workspaces" or pnpm-workspace.yaml to identify package roots (commonly packages/*, apps/*, libs/*). Single-package repos skip per-package scoping in Chain 0.
- Agent-instructions doc — search in this priority order; first hit wins:
AGENTS.md → CLAUDE.md → .cursor/rules/*.mdc (read all) → .github/copilot-instructions.md → top-of-README.md. Treat its durable rules as workspace facts in conflict resolution.
- Adjacent skills — list skills under
.cursor/skills/, .agents/skills/, .claude/skills/, ~/.agents/skills/. Note any skill whose name matches *commit* (for Phase D handoff) and any architecture/refactor skill (e.g. improve-codebase-architecture, to which algorithm changes are deferred).
- Generated/excluded paths — start with the universal list (
node_modules/, dist/, build/, out/, .next/, .nuxt/, coverage/, .turbo/, .cache/, __snapshots__/, *.lock, *.lockb) and append any path the workspace's .gitignore flags as build/state output. Also exclude any path the agent-instructions doc lists as off-limits (e.g. notes folders, hook state files).
- Skills-output dir — choose
docs/skills-output/ if docs/ exists, else .skills-output/ at repo root. Ensure it's in .gitignore; add the entry if missing.
A.1 — Scope discovery
- Folder mode — user names a folder or package. Enumerate every source file under it, applying the bootstrap-detected exclusion list plus generated
.d.ts siblings (any *.d.ts whose sibling *.ts exists).
- Git-diff fallback — when no path is given, sweep every file in
git status --porcelain (staged + unstaged + untracked) and apply the same exclusion list.
Take an audit snapshot only when the working tree is dirty:
if [[ -n "$(git status --porcelain)" ]]; then
git stash push --include-untracked --keep-index -m "code-janitor-snapshot-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M%S)" && git stash apply
fi
The stash is for audit reference only; never restore from it automatically.
Grouping (resolution order)
For the in-scope files, build groups using this resolution order:
- Semantic intent — preferred when a diff exists. Read each file's diff, infer one or more themes (e.g. "auth hardening", "payment-flow refactor", "i18n cleanup"). Cross-reference with
git log --oneline -20 for commit themes. If the bootstrap detected an agent-transcripts directory for the host tool (e.g. ~/.cursor/projects/<workspace>/agent-transcripts/, ~/.claude/projects/), use semantic search over recent transcripts to surface prior decisions touching these files. If no such directory exists, skip this input.
- Feature/concern — when no diff exists, use
SemanticSearch over the in-scope files to cluster by domain concept (e.g. a "user-creation flow" cluster might span an entry-point handler, a validator, a persistence helper, and tests).
- Architectural layer — last resort — if intent and concern can't yield coherent clusters, group by directory (e.g. handlers, models, utils, helpers, tests, docs) and surface this fallback explicitly to the user.
Each group's source attribution must be shown (e.g. "derived from git diff + 2 prior transcripts") so the user can audit the reasoning.
Dependency tree
For every file in a group, run an import/export trace to find related files — files importing or imported by the group's files, even if out of scope. Mark each as primary (the group will edit it) or related (read-only context for the group's sub-agent). If the same file is primary in two groups, collapse those groups or assign editing rights to the group with the stronger semantic claim — never let two groups edit one file.
Auto-proceed (Surface 1)
Render Surface 1 (one-line group summary) and proceed immediately to Phase B. Only stop and ask when the grouping is genuinely ambiguous — e.g. the in-scope files split equally between two themes with no diff or transcript to break the tie, or a file plausibly belongs to two groups and the editing-owner pick is a coin-flip. Otherwise, just go.
Phase B — Per-group execution
Groups run sequentially; the next group's read-only triage is pipelined in the background (explore sub-agent). Edits are always sequential — no parallel writing.
For each group: run Chain 0, then load all files into one sub-agent and plan Chains 1 → 4 as a single conceptual pass (cross-file principles like DRY and naming consistency need the whole-group view), then apply the resulting edit plan file-by-file. After application, run Chain 5 (three parallel read-only reviewers) on the post-edit state; their findings feed a second per-file pass under the same auto-apply / forced-approval / surface classification. Each chain's settled edits are inputs to later chains; no chain revisits a settled one.
Chain 0 — Tooling pass
Use the package manager and scripts resolved in A.0. Run from the smallest scope that contains all in-scope files: a package root if every file lives under one detected package, otherwise repo root.
<pm> run <lint-fix>
<pm> run <format>
<pm> run <typecheck>
If a package-local package.json lacks a script, fall back to the root equivalent. If a tool isn't installed (e.g. no Prettier), log "Chain 0 skipped: no <tool> available" and proceed.
Snapshot git diff before LLM edits start so the tooling-produced diff is distinguishable from the LLM's contribution. Tooling-only changes never need per-file approval.
Chain 1 — Simplification
Order matters. Internal precedence: YAGNI overrides DRY (deletion beats consolidation). RoT overrides DRY (don't consolidate the second occurrence — wait for the third). AED overrides everything (no abstractions designed; only earned).
| Step | Principle | Look for |
|---|
| 1.1 | DRY — Don't Repeat Yourself | Same decision duplicated across files. Skip incidental syntactic similarity. |
| 1.2 | RoT — Rule of Three | Don't extract on the second occurrence. Wait for the third. |
| 1.3 | AED — Abstractions Are Earned, not Designed | Don't design abstractions; surface one only if real patterns demand it. |
| 1.4 | YAGNI — You Aren't Gonna Need It | Delete code paths, options, hooks, and types added "just in case." |
| 1.5 | KISS — Keep It Simple, Stupid | Collapse needless wrappers, flatten nesting > 3 levels. |
Chain 2 — Abstraction & Boundaries
| Step | Principle | Look for |
|---|
| 2.1 | SoC — Separation of Concerns | One file, one concern. File splits go through the forced-approval gate (all imports updated in the same diff). |
| 2.2 | HCLC — High Cohesion, Low Coupling | High cohesion within file/module, low coupling across them. |
| 2.3 | LoB — Locality of Behavior | Co-locate single-use helpers (used in exactly one neighbor, < 10 lines). |
| 2.4 | LoD — Law of Demeter | No reaching through chains (a.b.c.d.e). |
| 2.5 | MISU — Make Illegal States Unrepresentable | Discriminated unions over optional flags; non-empty types over runtime checks. |
| 2.6 | RoLP — Rule of Least Power | const over let, pure function over class, etc. |
| 2.7 | DR — Dependency Rule | Dependencies point inward toward stable code. |
| 2.8 | CoI — Composition over Inheritance | Flag any new extends that could be a function or mixin. |
| 2.9 | SOLID | Audit only objectively detectable parts: SRP (Single Responsibility) and DIP (Dependency Inversion). The other three are review-zone. |
Chain 3 — Readability
| Step | Principle | Look for |
|---|
| 3.1 | NMM — Naming Matters Most | Rename internals freely. Rename exported symbols and i18n keys when materially clearer or to fix a typo (recieve → receive) — these go through the forced-approval gate with all-usages-updated discipline. Skip if dependents can't be enumerated. |
| 3.2 | DOT — Do One Thing | One function = one thing. Splits go through the forced-approval gate (all imports/calls updated in the same diff). |
| 3.3 | WNW — Why, Not What | Comments explain why, never what. Delete narrating comments; keep intent. |
| 3.4 | PoLA — Principle of Least Astonishment | Surprising behavior gets a // Note: with reason; non-surprising gets nothing. |
| 3.5 | BSR — Boy-Scout Rule | Micro-improvements within files you're already touching; never expand scope. |
| 3.6 | ROR / RRT — Readability over Cleverness / Respect the Reader's Time | Meta-check: would a new reader understand this faster than before? If not, revert. |
Chain 4 — Documentation
Voice — senior technical writer: active, present-tense, lead with the verb, no "this method" / "this function", never restate the signature. Canonical voice rules live in the tech-writer skill — invoke it whenever Chain 4 work needs more than the table below (e.g. file-header rewrites, README touch-ups inside the in-scope group).
Published-library caveat — for any package the workspace publishes (npm/pnpm/Cargo/PyPI/etc.), JSDoc on exported symbols ships into consumers' installs (for TypeScript, into the bundled .d.ts). Verbose preambles measurably bloat install size (often >5% of the typings bundle). Treat any package whose package.json has no "private": true flag, or that the agent-instructions doc identifies as published, under this caveat: file headers 1–2 lines, per-symbol blocks 1–3 lines, point at README.md for option semantics. Preserve only the why. Internal/private packages may use longer prose at the author's discretion.
| Step | Principle | Action |
|---|
| 4.1 | PAB — Public APIs Get Boundaries | Public APIs get docs. Internals usually don't. Default for internal helpers: undocumented. |
| 4.2 | DRS — Don't Restate the Signature | Never restate the signature. Delete docs that just say @param url - the URL. |
| 4.3 | TIT — Types over Inline Tags | TS types speak for themselves. JSDoc is for prose only — no @param {string} when the type is string. |
| 4.4 | DTS — Document the Surprises | Edge cases, side effects, async behavior, error modes. Never the obvious. |
| 4.5 | SSL — Short, Single Line | Short, single line preferred. Hard cap: 5 lines including @param/@returns/@throws/@example. @example only when behavior is non-obvious AND short. |
Chain 5 — Production-readiness sweep
Runs after Chains 1–4 have applied. Dispatch three parallel code-reviewer sub-agents (read-only) over the group's primary files in their post-Chain-4 state. They produce findings only — every fix is owned by the per-group edit agent so the chain ordering and discipline rules still apply. This is the chain that turns a clean group into a production-ready one.
| Reviewer | Looks for |
|---|
Quality (from /simplify code-quality + /simplify reuse) | Low-information comments (restate code instead of intent / edge cases / invariants). One-off helpers used in exactly one place that obscure flow. Nullable proliferation forcing defensive checks. Catch-all try/catch that swallows or mis-labels errors. Unnecessary abstraction (config objects, generic wrappers) introduced before reuse exists. Weak type escape hatches (any, casts, non-null assertions, overly broad types). Duplicated or stale derived state. Dead branches, unused parameters, abandoned compatibility code. Existing patterns/helpers in the codebase or this diff that the new code should reuse. |
Performance (from /simplify performance) | Blocking sync ops in hot paths or in the event loop. Uncached repeat-computations / parsing / lookups. Busy waits (polling without backoff). Quadratic string concat in loops. N+1 I/O (per-item DB / FS / network / RPC where batching applies). Chatty logging or telemetry inside tight loops. |
Bugs · Security · Test coverage (from /review) | Logic bugs, off-by-one, null-deref, race conditions. Behavioral regressions vs the pre-edit code. Security issues per the agent-instructions doc (XSS, injection, secrets, auth boundaries, unsafe deserialization). Critical paths in the diff with no test coverage (no test exists, or the existing test doesn't cover the changed branch). |
Each finding carries a reviewer-suggested class; the per-group edit agent makes the final routing call:
| Class | Routing | Examples |
|---|
| Apply — behavior-preserving | Folds into a second per-file edit pass; auto-applied per § Per-file application. | Inline a one-off helper, narrow a weak type, delete a dead branch, remove a low-info comment, swap to a found-reusable helper. |
| Gate — touches one of the six gated edit types | Routed through the forced-approval gate as usual; discipline rule applies. | Quality finding that requires a public API signature change; reuse finding that requires moving a file. |
| Surface — would change runtime behavior, or needs user judgment | Emitted with severity INFO (default) or BLOCK (critical: real exploitable vulnerability, data-loss bug, auth boundary breach). Never auto-applied (Forbidden #1). The supervisor re-audits and may re-classify; a surviving BLOCK withholds the production-ready flag. | INFO: a perf rewrite (caching changes timing), missing test, algorithm-level perf change, refactor suggestion. BLOCK: confirmed XSS or injection sink, secret leaked into logs, race condition causing data corruption. |
If Chain 5 produces zero findings, log Chain 5: clean and proceed to validation.
How conflicts resolve
Top wins:
- § Constraints (Forbidden) and the workspace agent-instructions doc beat any chain principle. Repo-specific rules (preferred logger, banned APIs, naming conventions) beat generic defaults.
- Within and across chains — Chain 1 internal precedence is YAGNI > RoT > DRY > KISS. Earlier chains' settled edits are inputs to later chains; later chains may not undo them. Equivalent options → pick the smaller, more reversible diff.
- Hesitation gate — if still unresolved, stop and ask. Never guess.
Per-file application
A group can run this section twice: once after Chains 1–4 plan, then again after Chain 5's Apply-class findings come back. Same gates and prompts apply on both passes.
Default (auto): apply silently, log one Surface 3 line per file (per pass).
Forced approval: stop on any of the six gated edit types in § Constraints. The prompt shows the change plus every dependent edit as one atomic unit (the discipline rule). If dependents can't be enumerated, skip and surface as INFO.
--review mode: prompt on every file. The per-file prompt lists each proposed edit by its chain step — 1.1 DRY, 3.3 WNW, 4.5 SSL for Chains 1–4; 5.Q, 5.P, 5.B for Chain 5 (Quality / Performance / Bugs · Security · Tests). Reply y (apply all), select <ids>, skip-file, or abort.
Group validation gates
After all per-file edits in a group apply, run in sequence using the commands resolved in A.0:
- Diff sanity check (programmatic; non-negotiable) — see § Diff sanity check below.
- Type-check —
<pm> run <typecheck> (scoped to the affected package when possible).
- Lint —
<pm> run <lint-check>.
- Affected unit tests — only when invoked with
--with-tests. Use the bootstrap-resolved unit-test command. Never run E2E suites (Cypress, Playwright, Selenium, etc.) — they're slow and behavior-sensitive. On failure: keep edits and surface failed tests for user decision.
Any gate marked skipped in A.0 is treated as a soft pass with a note in Surface 4. Render Surface 4 only on failure or skip. On PASS, log a single line and move on.
Phase C — Supervisor review
After all groups complete Phase B, dispatch one fresh code-reviewer sub-agent (read-only) to audit the full aggregated diff against three checklists:
- Correctness — re-run diff sanity check, the resolved typecheck and lint commands; verify no runtime behavior change; cross-reference § Constraints (Forbidden) against the diff.
- Principle-Adherence — re-read against Chains 1–4. Catches cross-group misses neither per-group agent could see: duplications across groups, naming inconsistency, doc-voice drift, KISS regressions from overzealous Chain 2 work.
- Production-Readiness — re-aggregates Chain 5 findings across groups; catches cross-group production-readiness misses that no single group's Chain 5 could see (a perf regression that surfaces only when two groups' edits combine, a duplicated bug pattern, a security boundary weakened by edits in two places). Confirms every Chain 5 INFO finding is correctly classified (no real
BLOCK-severity bug or vulnerability slipped into INFO). Standing checks: published-package doc bloat for any package without "private": true, i18n key safety, generated-file bypass attempts, new debug loggers, TODO/FIXME/XXX/HACK comments. Owns the industry-standard production-ready flag — granted only when this checklist is green and no surviving BLOCK-severity finding exists.
The supervisor returns a list of findings; each is severity (BLOCK | FIX | INFO), scope (group id, cross-group, or global), and a one-line summary with evidence.
Verdict and remediation
-
PASS / PASS-WITH-NOTES (all green, or only INFO) → industry-standard production-ready flag granted, proceed to Phase D.
-
FIX → dispatch a fresh generalPurpose fix-pass agent scoped to the offending group(s) or cross-group (never reuse a prior agent's context). Re-supervise after each fix-pass.
-
BLOCK (behavior change, Forbidden violation, surviving test regression, surviving Chain 5 BLOCK finding) — two paths depending on origin:
- Janitor introduced it (e.g. Chain 5 Apply-class fix subtly altered semantics, or a Chain 3 rename broke a test) → fix-pass agent reverts the offending edit only (not the whole group). Re-supervise.
- Pre-existing in the codebase (real bug or vulnerability the reviewer found in code untouched by janitor) → no auto-fix possible without violating Forbidden #1. Flag stays WITHHELD; the disk report lists the BLOCK finding under "Chain 5 surfaced findings" with severity
BLOCK and the user resolves manually. Re-running janitor on the same diff will hit the same wall — the user must fix the bug separately.
No global revert in either case. The group is marked at risk in the disk report.
Cap: 2 remediation iterations per group. At the cap, mark STUCK and escalate. A global-scope finding escalates immediately (no auto-loop).
Exit states
- PASS / PASS-WITH-NOTES — production-ready flag granted.
- ESCALATED — at least one STUCK group or first-pass global finding. Flag withheld; user decides next move.
- USER-ABORTED — explicit halt. Working tree left as-is with halt-point note in the disk report. Flag withheld.
Phase D — Summary + handoff
Save the full Surface 6 (final summary) to <skills-output-dir>/YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-cleanup.md (path from A.0; directory already in .gitignore). The disk report follows the tech-writer Report / status / summary spine. Print only the one-line chat summary (see Surface 6 below) — never paste the full report into chat.
Then hand off automatically:
- Commit-skill detected in A.0 → invoke it directly via the
Skill tool. The detected skill has its own approval gates; the user can interrupt there.
- No commit-skill detected → stop. Print one line: "N files modified. Working tree dirty — commit when ready." Do not commit directly under any circumstances.
Diff sanity check
Programmatic post-check on the diff before any group is declared PASS. Each rule runs against git diff over the group's files. Any failure → revert this group's edits and surface to user.
✗ diff modifies any path in the bootstrap-detected exclusion list → abort
✗ diff modifies *.d.ts that has a sibling .ts source → abort
✗ diff modifies CHANGELOG.md or any release-notes file → abort
✗ diff modifies package.json `dependencies`/`devDependencies`/`peerDependencies`/`optionalDependencies` → abort
✗ diff modifies any lockfile (bun.lock(b), pnpm-lock.yaml, yarn.lock, package-lock.json, Cargo.lock, poetry.lock, etc.) → abort
✗ diff removes a top-level export whose name doesn't appear in any added line → abort
(scan `^-\s*export\s+(const|function|class|type|interface|default)\s+(\w+)`; if that name has no matching `^+` line, it's a rename or deletion of a public symbol)
✗ diff modifies any test-fixtures or snapshot directory → abort
(cypress/fixtures/, __snapshots__/, __fixtures__/, test/fixtures/, etc.)
✗ diff modifies any path the agent-instructions doc flags as off-limits → abort
✗ diff modifies cosmetic-only YAML alignment in CI workflow files → abort (formatter silently undoes)
✗ diff introduces new console.log / console.debug / print / println debug calls → abort (warn / error are fine)
✗ diff introduces TODO / FIXME / XXX / HACK comment → abort
✗ diff adds new files outside in-scope groups (Phase A claimed scope) → abort
Output templates
Chat output is terse one-liners. The full audit report is written to disk (Surface 6 file) — never pasted into chat. Only --review mode uses long-form Surface 3.
Surface 1 — Phase A status (one line per group)
Scope: <N> files in <path-or-git-status>. Groups: G1 <title> (<n>f) · G2 <title> (<n>f) · G3 <title> (<n>f). Proceeding.
(If grouping is ambiguous, append: "Ambiguous — pick: | ?" and stop.)
Surface 3 — Phase B per-file (one line per file, default mode)
G<n>/F<m>: <basename> — <chain summary, e.g. DRY×1 NMM×2 SSL×1 5.Q×1> → applied
The chain summary lists each chain step that applied an edit: <step>×<count> for Chains 1–4 (e.g. DRY×1, NMM×2); 5.<reviewer>×<count> for Chain 5 (5.Q, 5.P, 5.B). One Surface 3 line is printed per file per pass — files touched in both the Chain 1–4 pass and the Chain 5 pass log twice.
On a forced-approval edit (export rename, i18n-key rename, file move, split, public-API change, dep bump):
G<n>/F<m>: <basename> — STOP: <edit type> on <symbol>. Apply? [y/skip/abort]
In --review mode, expand each file's status into its proposed-edit list (one row per edit, prefixed with the chain step like 1.1 DRY or 3.3 WNW) and wait for y / select <ids> / skip-file / abort.
Surface 4 — Phase B validation (only printed on failure)
G<n> validation FAIL: <gate> — <one-line detail>. Remediating.
Pass case prints nothing.
Surface 5 — Phase C supervisor (one line)
Supervisor: ✓ Correctness · ✓ Principles · <flag> Production (<n> findings). Verdict: <PASS|PASS-WITH-NOTES|FIX|BLOCK>.
If FIX/BLOCK, follow with one line per remediation iteration: Fix-pass <i>: <scope> — <action>.
Surface 6 — Phase D final (one line in chat; full report on disk)
Chat (one line):
Done. <M> files cleaned across <G> groups, <E> edits, <S> STUCK. Flag: <GRANTED|WITHHELD>. Report: <skills-output-dir>/<file>.md. <handoff line>
Disk report (<skills-output-dir>/YYYY-MM-DD-HH-MM-cleanup.md) keeps the longer per-group breakdown for audit. Format:
# Cleanup — YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM
Verdict: <STATE> · Industry-standard production-ready flag: <GRANTED|WITHHELD>
Scope: <scope> · Groups: <N> · Files: <M> · Edits: <E> · Iterations: G1=<n> G2=<n>
Snapshot: <stash@{N} or none>
## G1 <title> — <STATE>
Chains: 0=<tooling> · 1=<n edits> · 2=<n edits> · 3=<n edits> · 4=<n edits>
· 5=<a applied / g gated / s surfaced>
Rejected: <n> Notes: <list or none>
## Cross-cutting
<fix-pass summary or none>
## Chain 5 surfaced findings (production-readiness — not auto-applied)
Apply-class and Gate-class fixes are in the diff. Only "Surface" findings list here.
- [<INFO|BLOCK>] <reviewer>/<rule>: <one-line summary> (<file>:<line>)
Fix sketch: <one-line suggestion>
