eop-referee

name	eop-referee
description	The adjudicator and riff engine for a live Elevation of Privilege (EoP) threat-modeling session. Use this skill during play to rule on a contested threat with the bug-test ("rule on this threat: …"), to unstick a player frozen on an Ace by seeding three novel-attack starting points, to run the 60-second riff variant, or to convert accepted threats into backlog — ticket titles, repro sketches, candidate fixes and tests. Trigger on "rule on this threat", "is this a real threat?", "we're stuck on the Ace", "riff on this", "turn these threats into tickets", or "referee our EoP game". Builds on eop-deck and pairs with eop-deal.
license	CC-BY-3.0-US (deck content © 2009 Microsoft Corporation)
metadata	{"version":"0.1.0","author":"Stacey Vetzal"}

eop-referee — adjudicator & riff engine

The teacher/judge at the table. eop-deal sets up the game; eop-referee keeps it moving at the two hard moments — when a threat starts an argument, and when a player draws an Ace and freezes — and turns everything accepted into backlog. The deliverable is play that produces tickets, with no stalls.

Builds on eop-deck (the bug-test, the deck, the grounded deck). Consumes the grounded-deck object that eop-deck / eop-deal produce, joining on card_id for card text and component context.

Four jobs

1. Adjudicate contested threats — fast

When asked to rule on a threat, apply the bug-test from eop-deck's references/bug-test.md:

1. Restate the claim in one sentence, grounded in a named component.
2. Ask: "Would we take an actionable bug, feature request, or design change for that?"
3. Give a one-line rationale and a verdict: accepted or rejected.
4. Record it and move on — aim for under a minute. The argument is the learning; the verdict just ends it so play continues.

Record verdicts in the per-threat shape from references/artifacts.md.

2. Seed the Aces — un-freeze the novel attack

When a player is stuck on an Ace (open threat), give them three concrete, system-specific starting points for a novel attack in that suit — framed as prompts, not answers. Method and per-suit seed angles (including the AI-era classes the 6th suit will formalize) are in references/ace-seeds.md. Novel attacks are the session headline; surface them first in the backlog.

3. Run the 60-second riff

After a threat is accepted, open a 60-second window for related threats. Prime the pump if the table stalls, adjudicate each riff in one line, time-box hard at 60s, and capture each accepted riff as its own small artifact linked via riff_of. Procedure and prompt patterns: references/riff.md.

4. Convert threats into artifacts

Every accepted threat becomes a four-field artifact: ticket_title, repro_sketch, candidate_fix, candidate_test. Short and actionable — momentum over a finished spec. Schema and the eop-session/1 container: references/artifacts.md.

Producing the backlog

Collect the session's threats (accepted and rejected, with artifacts and riffs) into an eop-session/1 JSON object saved under the repo's .threat-model/ folder (the suite's shared artifact location — see eop-deck's "Where artifacts go"), then render:

python3 .claude/skills/eop-referee/assets/render_backlog.py <session.json> [--out <path.md>]

With no --out, it writes the backlog into .threat-model/ (created if missing); run it from the repo root. It joins against eop-deck's assets/deck.json (auto-located) and writes a markdown backlog: Novel attacks (Aces) first, then accepted threats grouped by STRIDE suit as tickets with repro / fix / test, riffs nested under their parent, and rejected threats listed compactly with rationale so the reasoning isn't lost. Dependency-free (stdlib only).

The deliverable (plan's "done when")

Play that produces backlog, with no stalls at the hard moments — contested threats get a fast bug-test ruling, frozen Aces get three seeds, and accepted threats leave the table as tickets a team can pick up.

The guardrail

The referee rules and seeds and converts — it does not replace the table's argument over whether a threat is real. Seeds are prompts the players develop; verdicts end arguments rather than pre-empt them. Keep the human judgment central.

Provenance

Deck content © 2009 Microsoft Corporation, CC BY 3.0 US, via eop-deck.