codex-loop

Dispatches scoped-write explorer subagents in parallel for general research and exploration of any codebase, topic, or domain. The operator passes --path (output directory), --agents (parallel count), and --prompt (research question). The parent scouts the territory first to divide work, dispatches N explorer subagents that each write one analysis file at <path>/analysis/NN_analysis_<slug>.md following a seven-section schema, then synthesizes <path>/analysis/summary.md. The skill self-contains the explorer subagent definition and prompts the operator to install it at .claude/agents/explorer.md when absent. Use when running parallel multi-area research that must produce written artifacts. Do not use for competitor-only research already covered by cy-research-competitors, single-file lookups answerable by Explore, or edits to existing code.

Deep architectural audit focused on finding dead code, duplicated functionality, architectural anti-patterns, type confusion, and code smells. Use when user asks for architectural analysis, find dead code, identify duplication, or assess codebase health. Don't use for style/formatting issues, performance profiling, security audits, or feature-level code review.

Enforce root-cause fixes over workarounds, hacks, and symptom patches in all software engineering tasks. Use when debugging issues, fixing bugs, resolving test failures, planning solutions, making architectural decisions, or reviewing code changes. Activates gate functions that detect and reject common workaround patterns such as type assertions, lint suppressions, error swallowing, timing hacks, and monkey patches. Don't use for trivial formatting changes or documentation-only edits.

Executes real-user QA sessions through public interfaces using personas, journeys, exploratory charters, test tours, edge-case probes, CFR checks, and browser evidence. Reads qa-report artifacts from <qa-output-path>/qa/ when present, captures issues/screenshots/reports under the same output tree, and classifies bugs by user impact. Use when validating a release candidate, migration, refactor, or user-facing change against production-like behavior. Do not use for AI implementation audits, task-status reconciliation, CI gate runs, integration/security/performance templates, or flaky-test triage; use agent-output-audit for those.

Plans real-user QA deliverables: personas, journey maps, exploratory charters, persona/journey/tour/CFR test cases, regression suites, Figma validation checks, automation intent, and user-impact bug reports. Writes artifacts under <qa-output-path>/qa/ for qa-execution to consume. Use when planning QA before execution, documenting journey-driven test strategy, marking flows that need E2E follow-up, or filing structured bug reports. Do not use for live execution, AI implementation audits, CI gate ownership, or technical integration/security/performance suites; use qa-execution or agent-output-audit instead.

Analyzes codebases to identify refactoring opportunities based on Martin Fowler's catalog of code smells and refactoring techniques. Detects duplicated code, high coupling, complex conditionals, primitive obsession, long functions, and other structural issues. Produces a structured refactoring report with prioritized findings saved to docs/_refacs/. Use when auditing code quality, preparing for a refactoring sprint, or reviewing architectural health. Don't use for style/formatting issues, performance optimization, or security audits.

Comprehensive testing doctrine for software and AI systems — covers positive patterns, anti-patterns, gates for coding agents writing tests, CI discipline, and an LLM/agent evaluation primer. Use when authoring or reviewing tests, adding mocks, deciding test placement, generating tests via agents, debugging flaky CI, designing eval suites for LLM features, or rebuilding a brittle test suite. Contains 12 positive patterns (selector hierarchy, table-driven, builders, real-system gates), 25 anti-patterns across Brittleness, Flakiness, Mock-misuse, Process, and AI-specific families, 7 mandatory gates for agents writing tests, flaky-test taxonomy with quarantine workflow, contract / property / mutation testing patterns, and an oracle-ladder primer for LLM-as-judge and agent eval. Language-agnostic — pseudo-code only. Don't use for general code review, library-specific debugging unrelated to tests, non-testing CI pipeline design, or production observability.

Guides Codex Loop setup and long-running tracked execution by installing or refreshing the runtime, explaining activation headers, bootstrapping durable tracking artifacts, decomposing broad requests into tasks, and maintaining per-iteration memory and state. Use for Codex Loop installation, status, activation, or tracked restart-safe implementation, QA, review, and remediation loops. Do not use for one-off coding tasks that do not need Codex Loop or persistent tracking.