git:20261008.6840a9c to git:20261017.f9a7386

---

name: dinostack

description: >

Apply when the user mentions any software development work: implementing features, fixing bugs,

reviewing or refactoring code, debugging, testing, deploying, working with agents or subagents,

making architecture decisions, setting up projects, managing dependencies, writing scripts, or

any task that involves reading, writing, or reasoning about code and systems.

---

> **IMPORTANT - READ THIS FIRST:** If `skill_auto_load: true` is set in `~/.claude/agentic-engineering.json`, this skill is configured to auto-load. Read this entire SKILL.md before taking any action on software development tasks. Do not start implementing until you have read the Rules section below.

The Agentic Engineering system defines how to plan, delegate, review, and ship software using a

structured multi-agent workflow. It covers risk classification, adversarial review, task

decomposition, and quality gates so that changes are correct, safe, and reviewable. Read the rules

files on every session and the reference docs on the triggers described in METHODOLOGY.md §Protocol Details (read on trigger).

**Early relaxed-advice routing gate.** This gate applies only after activation resolves

`profile=relaxed` and all four canonical predicates pass. If profile is `default` or `strict`, this

gate does not apply and the motivating advisory retains its existing Elevated routing. After the

relaxed-only guard passes, apply risk classification before the first project-content read. Relaxed

ephemeral chat advice remains direct only when the answer can be produced from context already held;

otherwise classify Elevated before reading. Within that relaxed-only override, breadth alone is not

an investigation request. For the exact prompt `How would you recommend changing DinoStack?` in

that relaxed-only override, give bounded high-level advice from the methodology and context loaded

during mandatory skill activation, state specificity or evidence limitations when useful, and do

not explore the project merely to improve specificity. An explicit user request for unfamiliar,

repository-specific, multi-file or multi-read evidence is Elevated and delegated before any

project-content read. That explicit-request qualifier narrows only whether advisory wording

constitutes an investigation request; it does not narrow risk classification. After the four

predicates and carrier exceptions, every other canonical Elevated signal still wins, including

security-sensitive, high-stakes, state-changing, and protocol or infrastructure signals. If the

required named-agent route cannot start, report the blocker or offer only bounded context-only

advice that does not perform the requested investigation; never fall back to conductor multi-file

or project exploration.

State-changing implementation requests (implement, change, fix, or build) never qualify for this

advice exception: establish the named Engineer/Worker route before any non-mandatory project read

or command. Until that route starts, do not inspect or verify candidate work; a failed route ends

in a blocker. Canonical candidate-branch and fail-closed details:

`content/sections/04-risk-classification.md` §Relaxed ephemeral chat-advice override.

**Conductor default: act, don't ask.** The conductor's job is to complete the goal, not to approve every step. Stop and ask only for destructive/irreversible actions, missing information only the user has, materially ambiguous acceptance criteria, or scope-completion decisions. Repeated stops within one task are a planning signal, not a virtue. See `Proactive autonomy` in METHODOLOGY.md §Delegation for the full rule, anti-patterns, and stop-frequency thresholds.

## Rules (read these files)

- **METHODOLOGY.md** - the assembled kernel: delegation, risk classification, activation preflight, planning gate,

task decomposition, and worktree lifecycle; the core rules for when to act directly vs. spawn Workers and Skeptics.

- **rules/code-standards.md** - the engineering contract for documentation evidence, tool

selection, manifests, reuse, quality gates, and dependencies; detailed procedures load on trigger.

- **rules/conventions.md** - writing style including length discipline (write for the permanent

audience), project structure, session context and memory handling, and git workflow including

protected branches and worktree-per-feature conventions.

## Commands (invoke by name)

- `/ds-help` - static, zero-token command reference; lists every slash command with a one-line description.

- `/ds-status` - read-only resolver dump; shows the resolved mode, profile, and marker with provenance plus a plain-English explainer of what they do and how to change them.

- `/ds-brief` - interactive planning dialogue; produces the Brief artifact before architect and engineer are spawned. Invoke when operator implies planning intent at session start, or use `/ds-brief --from <path>` to extract a Brief from an existing PRD.

- `/ds-update` - update an existing dinostack/DinoStack install (or fresh-install if none exists); invoke when the user says "pull and install DinoStack", "update DinoStack", "install the latest DinoStack", "reinstall dinostack", or "update my AE install".

Run `/ds-help` for the full command inventory.

## Reference Docs (read on trigger - see Protocol Details in METHODOLOGY.md)

- **references/skeptic-protocol.md** - Skeptic loop orchestration, findings classification

(Critical/Major/Minor), sign-off format, adversarial briefs, and the Elevated + Cleanup path.

- **references/subagent-protocol.md** - parallel spawning rules, worktree isolation, check-in

behavior, phase breadcrumbs, and task decomposition rules for multi-Worker plans.

- **references/agent-team.md** - named agent roles (engineer, architect, investigator, debugger,

security-auditor, orchestration-planner), composed flows, decision rules, and spawn requirements.

- **references/design-goals.md** - design principles and goals of the Agentic Engineering system;

read when evaluating whether a proposed change aligns with the system's intent.

- **references/regression-test-obligation.md** - per-finding regression-test obligation: every

Critical or Major behavior-defect finding fixed during a task must come with a regression test

that would have caught it; read when fixing a Skeptic finding to confirm what counts as a valid

regression test.

- **references/doc-sync-obligation.md** - per-change doc-sync obligation: a reality-asserting

change (alters a count/list/path/convention/behavior an intent-layer doc states) must update

the affected docs in the same change; read when a change touches a documented surface.

- **references/role-models.md** - Pi / oh-my-pi per-role model routing and antagonist

reviewer model diversity; read when resolving `role-models.yml` or spawning reviewers on Pi/omp.

- **references/model-discovery.md** - Pi/oh-my-pi model selection paths (ask-user

wizard, harness-native, pin-by-hand) and the per-role ranking heuristics in

`bin/ds-models`; read when seeding `role-models.yml`.

- **references/evidence-on-disk.md** - spill/sketch/rehydrate protocol for large

tool output; when to spill, the three-step loop, teardown, and ephemerality.

- **references/cross-harness-teams.md** - `ds-team` CLI and `team.yml` schema for

orchestrating parallel agent teams across multiple AI harnesses; read when using

`ds-team` or configuring cross-harness dispatch with `team.yml`.

- **references/digest-return-pattern.md** - digest-return discipline: when a background

loop-running spawn (multi-iteration Skeptic/QA, long investigation) returns, the conductor

reads the structured digest and acts - it does not re-read the internal transcript; read

when running a multi-unit plan with parallel background loops.

- **references/learnings-capture-instruction.md** - the standing "watch for learnings"

instruction: what counts as a learning, the in-flight `ds-learning-shard append` path for

the four roles it belongs to (`engineer`, `adr-generator`, `product-discovery`,

`release-orchestrator`), the `learnings_candidate[]` path for the three roles whose return

contract declares that field, and its canonical definition; read when acting as any

subagent role.

- **references/command-authoring.md** - authoring discipline for commands, skills, and

agent definitions: trigger-keyword descriptions (always injected into context even when

unused, so enumerate when to fire, not behavior) and bad/good example-pair seeding to

encode taste; read when authoring or editing a command file, skill definition, or agent

definition.

- **references/memory-shard-convention.md** - git-tracked per-fact shard directory

(`.agentic/memory-shards/`) a project's root MEMORY.md compiles from, the frontmatter

every shard carries, and the split/regenerate round-trip's entry-loss and reordering

refusal guards; read when working on `bin/ds-memory-shard`, `bin/ds-memory-capture`, `hooks/lib/memory-shard.js`,

or any writer that captures a fact into a shard.

## Rules (read on trigger)

read when creating or substantially modifying a file that exports a public symbol, exceeds ~50

LOC, or implements a side-effecting operation.

## oh-my-pi (omp) usage

oh-my-pi discovers this skill from `.omp/skills/dinostack/` for project-local use and from `~/.omp/agent/skills/dinostack/` after global install.

**Auto-trigger:** The skill loads automatically when you describe software development work. Ask the agent to "use the dinostack skill" for an explicit load.

**IMPORTANT:** oh-my-pi does NOT support custom markdown slash commands like `/ds-init-project`, `/ds-wrap`, `/ds-brief`, or any other command referenced in the "Commands (invoke by name)" section above. That section describes Claude Code slash-command conventions - in oh-my-pi, invoke the same commands via natural language (e.g. "run ds-init-project", "do a ds-wrap") or by reading the corresponding `commands/<name>.md` file directly and following its instructions.

Read `METHODOLOGY.md` at skill load before applying the workflow. Read command details from `commands/<name>.md` when a workflow step asks you to run a command. Read references from `references/` and rules from `rules/` on their documented triggers.

## oh-my-pi subagent mapping

oh-my-pi provides built-in subagent types. Map dinostack roles to them as follows:

- **`task`** (default) - general implementation work (maps to `engineer`, `debugger`, `qa-engineer`, `perf-analyst`). The standard Worker for Elevated-risk tasks.

- **`explore`** - fast read-only codebase exploration (maps to `investigator`, `dependency-auditor`, `adr-drift-detector`).

- **`plan`** - implementation planning and architecture design (maps to `architect`, `orchestration-planner`, `adr-generator`).

- **`designer`** - UI/UX design work (maps to designer roles).

- **`reviewer`** - adversarial code review (maps to `skeptic`, `security-auditor`).

- **`quick_task`** - lightweight, low-risk tasks that don't need full Worker + Skeptic review.

oh-my-pi also provides native commands that map to methodology workflows:

- `/plan` - maps to `orchestration-planner` or `architect` workflows

- `/review` - maps to `skeptic` adversarial review

When spawning a subagent, read the corresponding detailed agent file from `agents/<name>.md` and include its full instructions in the spawn prompt. The agent files contain role-specific constraints, reporting formats, and workflow rules that `references/agent-team.md` does not cover in detail.

| Agentic role | File to read | oh-my-pi subagent type |

|---|---|---|

| `engineer` | `agents/engineer.md` | `task` |

| `debugger` | `agents/debugger.md` | `task` |

| `qa-engineer` | `agents/qa-engineer.md` | `task` |

| `perf-analyst` | `agents/perf-analyst.md` | `task` |

| `investigator` | `agents/investigator.md` | `explore` |

| `dependency-auditor` | `agents/dependency-auditor.md` | `explore` |

| `adr-drift-detector` | `agents/adr-drift-detector.md` | `explore` |

| `architect` | `agents/architect.md` | `plan` |

| `orchestration-planner` | `agents/orchestration-planner.md` | `plan` |

| `adr-generator` | `agents/adr-generator.md` | `plan` |

| `security-auditor` | `agents/security-auditor.md` | `reviewer` or `task` |

| `release-orchestrator` | `agents/release-orchestrator.md` | `task` |

For the **Skeptic** role, spawn a `reviewer` subagent or use oh-my-pi's native `/review` command, prepending the skeptic instructions from `agents/skeptic.md` (or `references/skeptic-protocol.md` for the protocol overview) and restricting its task to read-only review.