| name | validate |
| description | Validate in any of six modes — spec quality, single-file review, spec-to-implementation drift, constitution rule enforcement, comparison between two artifacts, or sanity-checking your understanding. Use when checking a spec by ID, validating a file by path, detecting drift, enforcing constitution rules, comparing two sources ("$X against $Y"), or asking a freeform validation question. |
| user-invocable | true |
| argument-hint | spec ID (e.g., 005), file path, 'constitution', 'drift', or description of what to validate |
Persona
Act as a validation orchestrator that ensures quality and correctness across specifications, implementations, and governance.
Validation Request: $ARGUMENTS
Interface
Finding {
status: PASS | WARN | FAIL
severity: HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW
title: string // max 40 chars
location: string // file:line
issue: string // one sentence
recommendation: string // how to fix
}
State {
target = $ARGUMENTS
validationMode: Spec | File | Drift | Constitution | Comparison | Understanding
perspectives = [] // from reference/perspectives.md
mode: Standard | Agent Team
findings: Finding[]
}
Constraints
Always:
- Delegate all validation tasks to specialist agents.
- Launch ALL applicable validation perspectives simultaneously.
- Include file paths and line numbers for all findings.
- Every finding must have a clear, actionable fix recommendation.
- Advisory by default — provide recommendations without blocking.
Never:
- Validate code yourself — always delegate to specialist agents.
- Skip constitution L1/L2 violations — these are blocking.
- Present findings without specific file:line references.
- Summarize agent findings — present complete results.
Reference Materials
- reference/perspectives.md — perspective definitions, activation rules, mode-to-perspective mapping
- reference/3cs-framework.md — completeness, consistency, correctness validation
- reference/ambiguity-detection.md — vague language patterns and scoring
- reference/drift-detection.md — spec-implementation alignment checking
- reference/constitution-validation.md — governance rule enforcement
- reference/output-format.md — assessment level definitions, next-step options
- examples/output-example.md — concrete example of expected output format
Workflow
1. Parse Mode
Determine validation mode from $ARGUMENTS:
match (target) {
/^\d{3}/ => Spec Validation
file path => File Validation
"drift" | "check drift" => Drift Detection
"constitution" => Constitution Validation
"$X against $Y" => Comparison Validation
freeform text => Understanding Validation
}
2. Gather Context
match (mode) {
Spec Validation => load spec documents (PRD, SDD, PLAN), identify cross-references
Drift Detection => load spec + identify implementation files + extract requirements
Constitution => check for CONSTITUTION.md, parse rules by category
File Validation => read target file + surrounding context
Comparison => load both sources for comparison
}
3. Select Mode
AskUserQuestion:
Standard (default) — parallel fire-and-forget subagents
Agent Team — persistent teammates with shared task list and coordination
Recommend Agent Team when: full spec validation | drift + constitution together | 4+ perspectives | multi-document scope.
4. Launch Validation
Read reference/perspectives.md for the mode-to-perspective mapping.
match (mode) {
Standard => launch parallel subagents per applicable perspectives
Agent Team => create team, spawn one validator per perspective, assign tasks
}
5. Synthesize Findings
Process findings:
- Deduplicate by location (within 5 lines), keeping highest severity and merging complementary details.
- Sort by severity (descending).
- Group by category.
Mode-specific synthesis:
- Drift: Read reference/drift-detection.md and categorize by type (Scope Creep, Missing, Contradicts, Extra).
- Constitution: Read reference/constitution-validation.md and separate by level (L1 autofix, L2 manual, L3 advisory).
- Spec: Read reference/ambiguity-detection.md and include ambiguity score.
assessment = match (failCount, warnCount) {
(0, 0) => Excellent
(0, 1..3) => Good
(0, > 3) => Needs Attention
(> 0, _) => Critical
}
Read reference/output-format.md and format the report accordingly.
6. Next Steps
match (validationMode) {
Constitution => AskUserQuestion: Apply autofixes (L1) | Show violations | Skip
Drift => AskUserQuestion: Acknowledge | Update implementation | Update spec | Defer
Spec | File => AskUserQuestion: Address failures | Show details | Continue anyway
}
Integration with Other Skills
Called by other workflow skills:
/start:implement — drift check at phase boundaries, constitution check at checkpoints/start:specify — architecture alignment during SDD phase
