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--- name: spec-walkthrough description: > Render a spec bundle (or a chosen slice) into a plain-language, didactic comprehension artifact a human reads and judges for themselves: an unaided cold read before kickoff, re-orientation mid-execution, or onboarding to a finished or abandoned spec. Standalone and strictly read-only: it renders any status, never edits, signs off, mutates the pipeline, or delivers a verdict of its own. The independent complement to /spec-kickoff's guided dialogue. argument-hint: "[--scope <selector>] [--reveal] <spec-path>" --- # /spec-walkthrough A standalone, read-only command that renders an existing spec bundle, or a selected part of it, into a visual, plain-English artifact a human reads and **judges for themselves** (REQ-A1.1, D-1). It lowers the cost of absorbing a dense bundle so a reader can independently evaluate it at any lifecycle stage, and it stands apart from `/spec-kickoff` precisely so that read stays independent: the moment the authoring agent performs the comprehension, independent review collapses into "the agent reviewed its own spec." On a successful load the command assembles the bundle into a single self-contained HTML file and writes it to the gitignored `.claude/walkthroughs/<spec>/` location (REQ-E1.1), naming the path in the load report. The artifact carries the one-pager, the decision map, the drawn dependency graph, and the teach-back; a partial `--scope` selector renders only the sections in its scope (a single file, a requirement group, the decision set, the task graph, or one decision plus its blast radius), and the framing adapts to the bundle's auto-detected status (REQ-B1.2, REQ-B1.3). ## Doctrine Resolve and read these rule docs at run start via the rule-doc resolution convention (`scripts/resolve-rule-doc.sh <doc-name>`, or the documented `PLANWRIGHT_ROOT`/`CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT` chain): `spec-format` (the bundle this command reads conforms to the meta-spec — its file set, headers, and identifier discipline govern what the scaffold loads and validates) and `security-posture` (the identifier-charset and path-containment rules the scaffold enforces before any read, and the data-hygiene rule for anything it later writes). Their definitions govern wherever this skill names a concept. If one does not resolve, halt with a clear message naming the missing doc and the chain consulted (REQ-K1.7: a clear message is the graceful arm; proceeding without doctrine is the opaque failure). Doctrine manifest (the reading model above in machine-parseable form, per `doctrine/instruction-hygiene.md`; `run-start` loads before work begins): Doctrine: run-start spec-format Doctrine: run-start security-posture ## Invocation Run from the repository root (the scaffold resolves `specs/` relative to the working directory, the same contract as the validator): ```sh scripts/spec-walkthrough.sh [--scope <selector>] [--reveal] <spec-path> ``` - **`<spec-path>`** — `specs/<spec>` or the bare `<spec>` (the two sanctioned forms). The `<spec>` segment is charset-validated against `^[a-z0-9][a-z0-9-]*$` (max 64) and the resolved path is containment-checked **before any read** (REQ-A1.6). A hostile or malformed identifier or a path that escapes `specs/` is a clean refusal that never becomes a path and never echoes the candidate back. - **`--scope <selector>`** — which part to render (REQ-A1.2, REQ-B1.2). Default is the whole bundle. Selectors: `whole`; `file:<name>` (one of `requirements`, `design`, `tasks`, `test-spec`); `reqs:<GROUP>` (one requirement group, e.g. `reqs:A`); `decisions` (the decision set); `tasks` (the task graph); `decision:<id>` (a single decision plus its blast radius, e.g. `decision:1` or `decision:D-1`). - **`--reveal`** — expose the underlying identifiers. Off by default (REQ-D1.3): the default view is plain and audience-neutral. **Exit codes.** `0` the bundle loaded (full or partial); `1` graceful degradation with nothing to load (the bundle directory is absent, holds none of the four files, or the requested scope resolves to no part of it) — a clear message names what is absent or the available scopes, never an opaque halt (REQ-A1.5); `2` a clean refusal (a malformed invocation, or a hostile/malformed identifier or escaping path). **Artifact.** On a successful load the command assembles the bundle into a single self-contained HTML file (via `scripts/spec-assemble.sh`) and writes it to the gitignored `.claude/walkthroughs/<spec>/<spec>.html` (REQ-E1.1); the load report names the path. The file opens offline in any browser with nothing installed (REQ-E1.2): the read (the one-pager) first, the teach-back prompt after it, all bundle content HTML/SVG-escaped so markup in the spec displays as literal text and never executes (REQ-E1.7), identifiers behind an off-by-default reveal toggle (REQ-D1.3), original styling inlined that draws on MIT-licensed design primitives (REQ-E1.6), and a bundle + commit provenance stamp so a reader can tell whether it is stale (REQ-E1.5). Open it directly: `open .claude/walkthroughs/<spec>/<spec>.html`. **Optional Graphviz enhancement.** The dependency graph is always drawn as inline SVG (never ASCII), self-contained and offline. When the Graphviz `dot` binary is present it is used for a richer node layout (read-only, for coordinates only); when it is absent, exits non-zero, times out, or emits an unparseable layout, the view degrades identically to a built-in layout and records a one-line in-artifact note saying which path was taken (REQ-E1.3, D-5). `dot` is never on a path that can fail the render, so the artifact is fully self-contained and offline either way; only the layout differs. No installation is required: Graphviz is an enhancement, not a dependency. Two environment variables tune the probe: `SPEC_WALKTHROUGH_DOT` overrides the binary name (default `dot`; point it at a name that does not exist to force the built-in layout), and `SPEC_WALKTHROUGH_DOT_TIMEOUT` sets the watchdog in whole seconds (default 5; any value that is not a plain non-negative integer, such as `0.5`, is coerced back to 5) before a slow `dot` run is killed and the layout degrades. ## Teach-back The teach-back is the comprehension check: the reader restates the spec's own assertions, section by section, and judges each for themselves (D-3, D-9; REQ-C1.5). The claim set is extracted once by `scripts/spec-teachback.sh` over the plain-language translation stream — every live requirement and every decision becomes one claim, grouped into sections (one per requirement group, then the decisions) — and **both** delivery paths render from that single source, so they always cover the same claims: - **In-artifact** (assembled by the HTML task): a self-paced agree / disagree / unsure checklist, one neutral choice per claim. It records the reader's marks; it has no comparison engine and supplies no answer. - **In-session walk** (optional, this skill): present each claim section by section, ask the reader to restate it in their own words, and record the response. Where a restatement diverges from the source, **surface the divergence** — show the verbatim source for the reader to compare — and let the reader adjudicate (REQ-D1.4). Never say who is right, never score, never supply the "right" answer: the independence firewall (REQ-D1.1) means the tool presents and structures, the human judges. Run the full read first; only then offer the teach-back. The agent voices no verdict, score, or assessment of the spec at any point. ## Invariants These hold at every stage of the rendering pipeline: - **Strictly read-only** (REQ-A1.3). The command never edits a bundle file, commits, pushes, changes a status, or writes the kickoff brief. Its only sanctioned write is the generated artifact to the gitignored `.claude/walkthroughs/<spec>/` location; it modifies no tracked content (the optional Graphviz probe's only writes are ephemeral, auto-cleaned `$TMPDIR` temp files). - **Status-agnostic** (REQ-A1.4, REQ-B1.4). Every status renders — Draft, Ready, Active, Done, Retired, Superseded — in deliberate contrast with the execution skills' non-Active refusal. Rendering is read-only, so that refusal's safety rationale does not apply, and terminal bundles stay valuable for archaeology. There is no Active gate. - **Presents and structures; the human judges** (REQ-D1.1, the independence firewall). The command never delivers a verdict, score, or quality assessment of its own. It renders the bundle and records the reader's own responses; it never supplies the "right" answer. - **Degrades, never halts opaquely** (REQ-A1.5). A missing, malformed, or partial bundle, or an unresolvable scope, yields a clear message that names what is present and what is absent. ## Maintenance After each run, compare these instructions against the doctrine and spec they implement: the `spec-format` and `security-posture` doctrine docs (the bundle file set and identifier discipline this command reads, and the data-hygiene rule for the artifact it writes) and REQ-F1.4 (the completion-time drift-observation contract). If a concept this skill names (the bundle file set, the identifier charset, the path-containment gate, or the artifact data-hygiene rule) has changed meaning, gained or lost a step, or moved between docs, record a one-line drift observation through the shared helper (`scripts/obs-record.sh --slug skill-drift --scope <repo> --text 'skill-drift(spec-walkthrough): <what>'` — the entry text keeps the `skill-drift(...)` prefix) and commit the fragment as its own chore commit, per REQ-B3.2 / D-42; surface a non-zero helper exit rather than silently dropping the observation. In repositories without `specs/`, surface the drift to the user instead of recording it. Do not edit this skill or the doctrine docs to resolve the drift; the accumulator's canonical reader (`/spec-draft`) owns folding drift into spec amendments.