kkt-model

name	kkt-model
description	Deep constrained optimization modeling for coding and product-engineering decisions. Use when a coding agent should capture user meaning, discover repo constraints and validation paths, inspect the system, identify objectives, system state, decision variables, domains, hard and soft constraint contracts, selected-plan binding constraints, execution-contract implications, multiple feasible models or architectures, sensitivity analysis, and interactive user tradeoffs before any implementation.
license	Apache-2.0

KKT Model

Use this skill when the deliverable is a model, decision brief, or implementation-ready recommendation rather than code. It is for architecture choices, feature shaping, complex implementation options, scope negotiation, and high-impact tradeoffs.

Read references/kkt-kernel.md and references/feature-optimization-model.md before acting. Read references/layered-modeling-methods.md when choosing methods, which is normal for deep modeling. Read references/state-contract.md when durable model state is useful. Read references/plan-assimilation.md only when prior plan text exists. Read references/discovery-tooling.md during discovery. Read references/schemas.md only when writing or auditing full state, guardrail, or layer-output shapes.

Core Rule

Stay non-mutating by default. Intake before modeling. Discovery before asking for repo facts. Select the modeling method that fits the decision shape. Ask only for product, risk, scope, approval, or execution-mode choices that cannot be resolved from inspection or conservative reversible defaults.

CLI-First Workflow

Use the kkt CLI whenever durable model state is useful. The skill owns modeling judgment; the CLI owns workspace creation, state reads, artifact recording, validation, and completion.

kkt start model "<user request>"
kkt intent --method <goal_anti_goal|why_how|obstacle_questions|pairwise_questions> "<intent frame>"
kkt discovery --method <naive|traceability_matrix|coupling_map|dsm_lite> "<repo facts and constraints>"
kkt model --method <lexicographic|decision_tree|shortest_path|ordinal_mcda|pairwise_ahp|outranking> "<canonical Optimized Plan Contract>"
kkt guardrails set '<complete constraints and path bounds JSON>'
kkt done

If kkt is missing and durable model state is needed, stop and ask the user to install or upgrade KKT. Do not hand-write replacement state.

Workflow

1. Capture intent: user goal, desired behavior, user-visible success, scope boundary, examples, priority signals, and explicit user constraints.
2. If prior plan text exists, assimilate it as untrusted scaffold before modeling: extract signals, classify each claim, verify discoverable facts, and treat unverified claims as assumptions or candidates.
3. Run the interactive intent checkpoint before deep discovery: after any quick inspection needed to avoid asking repo-fact questions, ask 1-3 owner-decision questions when goal, success, scope, risk, or tradeoff preference is still ambiguous. For large, high-risk, or especially ambiguous work, run a short Socratic pass using WHY/HOW, obstacle, example/counterexample, or pairwise tradeoff prompts.
4. Inspect relevant code, docs, configs, schemas, routes, tests, UI, infra, issues, or logs before choosing a model. Use rg directly for broad text and file discovery, ast-grep directly for structural search when syntax matters, git for repository state, optional helpers and language-native commands when they provide stronger evidence.
5. Separate explicit requirements, prior-plan assumptions, discovered facts, inferred constraints, assumptions, unknowns, and owner decisions.
6. Build a discovery map when the decision crosses modules, workflows, contracts, or architecture boundaries.
7. Select one intent method, one discovery method, and one modeling method from the layered catalog; record each with the matching kkt ... --method command. When no specialized method fits, use the fallback set (goal_anti_goal, traceability_matrix, lexicographic) and record why the fallback is sufficient instead of forcing an advanced method.
8. Produce the canonical Optimized Plan Contract from feature-optimization-model.md at deep depth, using Analysis Extensions for method rationale, coupling, sensitivity, and unresolved owner decisions.
9. Produce 2-4 candidate models when meaningful alternatives exist; eliminate infeasible models before comparing feasible ones.
10. Compare feasible models by hard-constraint satisfaction, binding constraints, blast radius, maintainability, validation clarity, reversibility, and fit with user intent.
11. Ask the user only for unresolved owner decisions; otherwise select the best feasible model.
12. Translate the selected model into guardrail variables: constraints, allowed paths, blocked paths, validation evidence, and required commands.
13. Record durable output with kkt intent --method, kkt discovery --method, kkt model --method, kkt guardrails set, and kkt done. guardrails set and done enforce their own contract checks; use diagnostics only to repair a block.

End States

End with one of:

• Selected model: one feasible model is recommended and ready for implementation.
• Decision needed: the smallest user decisions required to select a model.
• No feasible model: the hard constraints that block feasibility and the relaxation that would restore it.

For each serious alternative, include the method used, objective fit, decision-variable assignments, hard-constraint status, binding constraints, tradeoffs, execution-contract implications, residual risks, and when to choose it.

Decision briefs must use the canonical Optimized Plan Contract from references/feature-optimization-model.md at deep depth.

Durable Output

For substantial modeling work, use project-root .kkt/model/<slug>/ through kkt commands. kkt.yaml is the state index; Markdown files carry rich intent, discovery, and modeling context. guardrails.json carries the modeled constraints and path bounds that $kkt-run or $kkt-loop will enforce before mutation. A completed model is the reusable handoff: use kkt run from-model [model-workspace] for bounded execution or kkt loop from-model [model-workspace] for durable iterative execution. Load references/schemas.md only when a full copyable shape is needed. Do not create execution files unless switching to $kkt-run or $kkt-loop.

Do Not

• Do not modify code unless the user explicitly switches from modeling to implementation.
• Do not invent numeric scores for subjective criteria.
• Do not collapse materially different architectures into one vague plan.
• Do not ask for user input before inspecting discoverable context.
• Do not choose a method because it sounds rigorous; choose it because the decision shape calls for it.
• Do not recommend a model without selected-plan binding constraints and execution implications.
• Do not finish a durable model without guardrail constraints and non-empty allowed paths.