| name | code-chief |
| description | Runs the full review pipeline across correctness, readiness, maintainability, security, adversarial testing, security leadership oversight, and optional interface or developer-experience surfaces. Use when the user asks to run the full review flow, review this codebase comprehensively, audit this change before merge, or pressure-test this project — even when they only say "review the code". For a single lens, use that specialist reviewer instead; for the merge gate, use `review/gatekeeper-code`. |
| version | 1.0.0 |
Code Chief
Purpose
Runs the review pipeline across correctness, readiness, maintainability, security, adversarial testing, security leadership oversight, and optional interface or developer-experience surfaces.
Entry Routing
This skill is a component of the Admiral delivery pipeline; admiral is the primary entry orchestrator (see ../../routing-doctrine.md). Before doing any work, run the active-handoff check — a handoff is present when the prompt carries a ### Save Context block, an active run lock / session_pin: true exists under skillset-saves/, or the invocation explicitly names this skill as the owning sub-orchestrator for the review boundary.
- Handoff present → proceed; this is a delegated Admiral run.
- No handoff (cold/direct invocation) → do not run standalone. Start
admiral first and let it run intake, persistence, and gatekeeping, then accept the delegation back. This is the loop guard: Admiral's own delegations always carry the handoff signal, so a delegated call proceeds immediately and never re-bootstraps Admiral.
Use This Skill When
- run the full review flow
- review this codebase comprehensively
- audit this change before merge
- pressure-test this project
Inputs
- Build package from
build/build-management with implementation revision, test evidence, hardening notes, completeness certification, and unresolved build risks.
- Active review save context, prior lens verdicts, and revision lineage when resuming an interrupted review run.
- Scope classification for optional review surfaces: frontend presence, developer-facing surface, security governance scope, and accepted-risk claims.
- Review constraints from the design/build packages: YAGNI decisions, migration/deprecation plan, performance budgets, threat model, and verification expectations.
Outputs
- Review package combining bug, code, quality, security, adversarial, and optional frontend/devex/CSO findings with conflict notes.
review/gatekeeper-code submission record with lens coverage, skip justifications, build revision, and unresolved severity disputes.
- Remediation plan mapping each blocker to owning build/design/release surface, severity, and required evidence before delivery.
Workflow
- Classify the review scope, risk tier, frontend presence, developer-facing surface, migration/deprecation surface, performance budget, threat model, and whether security governance or accepted-risk decisions are in scope before assigning review phases.
- Always run the core review sequence and add optional interface, developer-experience, or CSO oversight phases only when the surface exists.
- Require each lens to separate blockers from optional cleanup, and to distinguish behavior-preserving simplification from speculative refactoring.
- Merge specialist reports into one review package without losing conflicting evidence or skip justifications.
- Submit the consolidated package through a single review gate and publish prioritized remediation guidance.
Required Contracts
- Cross-model synthesis: Compare signals from multiple review lenses and merge them into one decision record without flattening meaningful disagreements.
- Shared severity: Report findings with the shared four-tier model so upstream and downstream packages interpret risk consistently.
- Proactive triggers: Offer the next sensible action when the surrounding context clearly implies it and the skill can advance safely without a prompt loop.
- Save-Protocol Adherence: When a Save Context block is received from admiral, persist every lens state transition, gatekeeper capture, and consolidated package to the save path. Include a
### Save Context block in every specialist delegation. Saving is mandatory, not optional.
Delegation Surface
- review/bug-review
- review/code-review
- review/quality-review
- review/security-review
- review/mr-robot
- review/cso
- review/frontier
- review/design-qa
- review/devex-review
- review/gatekeeper-code
Boundary Rules
- Record each boundary before requesting a verdict.
- Reuse prior verdicts only when the package revision is unchanged.
- Push remediation back to the owning sub-surface instead of editing its package locally.
Skip Rule
Skip only when there is no consolidated review to run — a change with no reviewable code surface, or when a single specialist lens has already been requested in isolation.
Failure Modes
| Scenario | Response |
|---|
| A mandatory review lens is missing from the consolidated package | Stop the gate submission, record the missing lens, and route the package back for completion before summarizing any verdict. |
| Optional frontend or developer-experience phases were invoked without supporting artifacts | Remove the unsupported phase from the run, record the skip reason, and ask for rendered UI, screenshots, CLI traces, or onboarding evidence before re-adding it. |
The package claims security leadership signoff, accepted-risk readiness, or release security posture without running review/cso | Reopen the review schedule, run review/cso, or remove the unsupported leadership claim from the consolidated package. |
| Specialist reports disagree on severity, exploitability, or scope | Preserve both positions in the consolidated package, identify the unresolved contradiction, and send the disagreement to review/gatekeeper-code rather than averaging the claims. |
| A resubmitted package changes findings without explaining the delta from the previous round | Compare the new package against the prior verdict, demand a revision summary, and reject silent rewrites of the review history. |
Save Protocol
See references/workflow.md — "Save Instructions Per Lens" and "Save Context Block Template" — for the full trigger table, file ownership rules, and the block to include in every specialist delegation.
References
../../routing-doctrine.md for the entry-routing / admiral-first contract governing which orchestrator owns a given request.
references/workflow.md for the detailed operating sequence and decision rules.
references/examples.md for concrete request patterns and response shapes.
intake-brief.yaml for the intake contract, trigger coverage, and acceptance target.
stub-contract.md for the consolidated review sequence, package shape, and downstream expectations.
agent/agent-manifest.yaml for agent-mode capabilities, optional phases, and delegated review surfaces.
Packaging Notes
Package SKILL.md, references/workflow.md, references/examples.md, intake-brief.yaml, stub-contract.md, and agent/agent-manifest.yaml together. Keep generated reports and archives outside the skill directory.