csharp-change-budget-router

name	csharp-change-budget-router
description	Budget-first routing contract for C# work: estimate production-file scope, choose small vs large path, enforce orchestration-first routing for larger changes, and use the VS Code extension command surface for promotion lifecycle steps when available.

C# Change Budget Router

Canonical guidance for deciding whether work should stay on the small path or escalate to the full C# orchestration workflow.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Intake starts from a natural-language C# request.
• An agent must decide the execution path before planning or implementation.
• A direct-mode route must reject over-budget requests and switch to orchestrated flow.

Canonical Routing Rules

1. Estimate rough change budget first based on likely production C# files touched.
2. Route:

• 1-3 production files (+ corresponding tests) → small path (csharp-typed-engineer direct mode).
• >3 production files or >3 test files → large path (orchestration workflow with promotion/research/spec/planning/execution/review).

Orchestrated Small-Path Requirements

When routed through csharp-orchestrator, small path still requires lifecycle scaffolding before implementation:

• invoke promotion/folder lifecycle steps through the drm-copilot MCP tools required by repo-automation-adapter. If the MCP server or required tool is unavailable, stop before promotion,
• promote potential item to GitHub issue with --work-mode minor-audit,
• create active feature folder with --work-mode minor-audit,
• delegate minimal-audit plan creation to atomic_planner with DIRECTIVE: MINIMAL-AUDIT PLAN REQUIRED,
• require atomic_executor preflight until PREFLIGHT: ALL CLEAR,
• execute Phase 0 only via atomic_executor before branching,
• run reduced small-audit after implementation and QC.

Direct invocation of csharp-typed-engineer remains implementation-focused and does not replace orchestrator lifecycle steps.

Direct-Mode Rejection Rule

If direct implementation is requested but estimated scope is >3 production files:

• Stop before implementation.
• Return explicit routing instruction to invoke csharp-orchestrator.

Invocation Mode

The csharp-typed-engineer worker supports two execution modes:

• Direct mode (default): no handoff directive present. Strict overall change-budget limits apply per the routing rules above.
• Orchestrator handoff mode: enabled only when the incoming request contains the exact line DIRECTIVE: ORCHESTRATOR HANDOFF MODE. Overall change-budget limits are lifted, but execution is allowed only when a complete context package is supplied.

Required context package in orchestrator handoff mode:

1. objective and expected outcome,
2. ${promotion-type} and ${issue-num} when available,
3. ${feature-folder} path,
4. issue doc path (${feature-folder}/issue.md),
5. spec doc path (${feature-folder}/spec.md),
6. user-story path (${feature-folder}/user-story.md) or explicit NONE,
7. research artifact path(s),
8. constraints, APIs, or invariants to preserve.

If any required item is missing in orchestrator handoff mode, stop and request the missing context package fields before Phase A proceeds.

Per-Batch Cap

In all modes, per-batch budget remains: at most 3 production files and 3 test files unless an explicit override is approved by the user. If no override is provided, the 3/3 per-batch limit applies. If a batch would exceed the cap, split it into smaller batches.

Orchestrator-Mode Delegation Chain

When csharp-typed-engineer runs in orchestrator handoff mode, it must execute the following delegation chain and must not bypass it with direct implementation:

1. Delegate to atomic_planner for an architecture plus testability plan only (no edits).
2. Require planner output to include final PREFLIGHT: ALL CLEAR from the preflight validation loop.
3. Delegate plan execution to atomic_executor.
4. Delegate the final QA gate to atomic_executor per csharp-qa-gate.
5. Delegate post-implementation review to feature-review per feature-review-workflow.

Execution-start constraint: in orchestrator handoff mode, csharp-typed-engineer is routing-and-planning-only until the planner preflight loop returns PREFLIGHT: ALL CLEAR. Before that signal, it must not run any state-changing implementation command and must not edit production or test files directly. All implementation and QA execution must occur via delegated handoffs.

Blocking rules in orchestrator mode:

• If the incoming request does not include the exact directive line, stop and request a corrected orchestrator handoff.
• If any delegation in the chain is skipped, treat the run as incomplete and do not report completion.
• Do not claim completion unless the final report includes all artifact paths from the feature review step.

Documentation Expectations

Record in response/logs:

• estimated production file count,
• chosen path (small/large),
• rationale summary (1-3 bullets).