ln-643-api-contract-auditor

name	ln-643-api-contract-auditor
description	Checks layer leakage in method signatures, missing DTOs, entity leakage to API, inconsistent error contracts. Use when auditing API contracts.
allowed-tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, mcp__hex-graph__find_references, mcp__hex-graph__find_symbols, mcp__hex-line__read_file, mcp__hex-line__grep_search, mcp__hex-line__outline
license	MIT

Paths: File paths (references/, ../ln-*) are relative to this skill directory.

API Contract Auditor (L3 Worker)

Type: L3 Worker

Specialized worker auditing API contracts, method signatures at service boundaries, and DTO usage patterns.

Purpose & Scope

• Audit API contracts at architecture level (service boundaries, layer separation)
• Check layer leakage, DTO patterns, error contract consistency
• Return structured analysis with 4 scores (compliance, completeness, quality, implementation)

Out of Scope (owned by ln-623-code-principles-auditor):

• Code duplication (same DTO shape repeated, same mapping logic, same validation)
• Report only ARCHITECTURE BOUNDARY findings (wrong layer, missing contract)

Inputs

- pattern: "API Contracts"     # Pattern name
- locations: string[]          # Service/API directories
- adr_reference: string        # Path to related ADR
- bestPractices: object        # Best practices from MCP Ref/Context7
- output_dir: string           # e.g., ".hex-skills/runtime-artifacts/runs/{run_id}/audit-report"

# Domain-aware (optional, from coordinator)
- domain_mode: "global" | "domain-aware"   # Default: "global"
- current_domain: string                   # e.g., "users", "billing" (only if domain-aware)
- scan_path: string                        # e.g., "src/users/" (only if domain-aware)

Workflow

Phase 0: Load References

Load references/detection_patterns.md -- language-specific Grep patterns for all 5 rules. Detection policy: use two-layer detection (candidate scan, then context verification); load references/two_layer_detection.md only when the verification method is ambiguous. Tool policy: follow host AGENTS.md MCP preferences; load references/mcp_tool_preferences.md and references/mcp_integration_patterns.md only when host policy is absent or MCP behavior is unclear.

Use hex-graph first when symbol or reference analysis materially improves contract findings. Use hex-line first for local code reads when available. If MCP is unavailable, unsupported, or not indexed, continue with built-in Read/Grep/Glob/Bash and state the fallback in the report.

Phase 1: Discover Service Boundaries

scan_root = scan_path IF domain_mode == "domain-aware" ELSE codebase_root

1. Find API layer: Glob("**/api/**/*.py", "**/routes/**/*.ts", "**/controllers/**/*.ts", root=scan_root)
2. Find service layer: Glob("**/services/**/*.py", "**/services/**/*.ts", root=scan_root)
3. Find domain layer: Glob("**/domain/**/*.py", "**/models/**/*.py", root=scan_root)
4. Map: which services are called by which API endpoints

Phase 2: Analyze Contracts (5 Rules)

MANDATORY READ: Load plugins/codebase-audit-suite/skills/ln-643-api-contract-auditor/references/detection_patterns.md for language-specific Grep patterns per rule.

#	Rule	Severity	What to Check
1	Layer Leakage	HIGH/MEDIUM	Service/domain accepts HTTP types (Request, parsed_body, headers)
2	Missing DTO	MEDIUM/LOW	4+ params repeated in 2+ methods without grouping DTO
3	Entity Leakage	HIGH/MEDIUM	ORM entity returned from API without response DTO. Downgrade when: internal API with no external consumers -> LOW
4	Error Contracts	MEDIUM/LOW	Mixed error patterns (raise + return None) in same service
5	Redundant Overloads	LOW/MEDIUM	Method pairs with _with_/_and_ suffix differing by 1-2 params
6	Architectural Honesty	HIGH/MEDIUM	Read-named function (get_/find_/check_/validate_/is_/has_) body contains write side-effects. Exclusions per references/ai_ready_architecture.md

Scope boundary: SKIP DUPLICATION findings (owned by ln-623), REPORT only ARCHITECTURE BOUNDARY findings.

Phase 3: Calculate 4 Scores

Compliance Score (0-100):

Criterion	Points
No layer leakage (HTTP types in service)	+35
Consistent error handling pattern	+25
Follows project naming conventions	+10
No hidden side-effects in read-named functions	+10
No entity leakage to API	+20

Completeness Score (0-100):

Criterion	Points
All service methods have typed params	+30
All service methods have typed returns	+30
DTOs defined for complex data	+20
Error types documented/typed	+20

Quality Score (0-100):

Criterion	Points
No boolean flag params in service methods	+15
No opaque return types hiding write actions	+10
No methods with >5 params without DTO	+25
Consistent naming across module	+25
No redundant overloads	+25

Implementation Score (0-100):

Criterion	Points
DTOs/schemas exist and are used	+30
Type annotations present	+25
Validation at boundaries (Pydantic, Zod)	+25
API response DTOs separate from domain	+20

Phase 3.5: Calculate Score

MANDATORY READ: Load references/audit_worker_core_contract.md and references/audit_scoring.md.

Primary score uses penalty formula (same as all workers):

penalty = (critical x 2.0) + (high x 1.0) + (medium x 0.5) + (low x 0.2)
score = max(0, 10 - penalty)

Diagnostic sub-scores (0-100 each) are calculated separately and reported in AUDIT-META for diagnostic purposes only.

Phase 4: Write Report

MANDATORY READ: Load references/templates/audit_worker_report_template.md.

Write JSON summary per references/audit_summary_contract.md. In managed mode the caller passes both runId and summaryArtifactPath; in standalone mode the worker generates its own run-scoped artifact path per shared contract.

# Build markdown report in memory with:
# - AUDIT-META (extended: score [penalty-based] + diagnostic score_compliance/completeness/quality/implementation)
# - Checks table (layer_leakage, missing_dto, entity_leakage, error_contracts, redundant_overloads)
# - Findings table (issues sorted by severity)
# - DATA-EXTENDED: issues array with principle + domain fields (for cross-domain aggregation)

IF domain_mode == "domain-aware":
  Write to {output_dir}/643-api-contract-{current_domain}.md
ELSE:
  Write to {output_dir}/643-api-contract.md

Phase 5: Return Summary

Report written: .hex-skills/runtime-artifacts/runs/{run_id}/audit-report/643-api-contract-users.md
Score: 6.75/10 (C:65 K:70 Q:55 I:80) | Issues: 4 (H:2 M:1 L:1)

Critical Rules

Apply the already-loaded references/audit_worker_core_contract.md.

• Architecture-level only: Focus on service boundaries, not internal implementation
• Read before score: Never score without reading actual service code
• Scope boundary: SKIP duplication findings (owned by ln-623)
• Detection patterns: Use language-specific Grep from detection_patterns.md
• Domain-aware: When domain_mode="domain-aware", scan only scan_path, tag findings with domain

Definition of Done

Apply the already-loaded references/audit_worker_core_contract.md.

• Service boundaries discovered (API, service, domain layers)
• Method signatures extracted and analyzed
• All 5 rules checked using detection_patterns.md
• Scope boundary applied (no duplication with ln-623)
• 4 scores calculated with justification
• Issues identified with severity, location, suggestion, effort
• If domain-aware: findings tagged with domain field
• Report written to {output_dir}/643-api-contract[-{domain}].md (atomic single Write call)
• Summary written per contract

Reference Files

• Detection patterns: references/detection_patterns.md
• Scoring rules: references/audit_scoring.md

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Version: 2.0.0 Last Updated: 2026-02-08