prior-art git:20260723.6e5370bA

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---
name: prior-art
description: Inspect bounded local repository and Runx catalog evidence before a design, draft, or operator decision, then produce citation-bound findings and a reuse, amendment, new-work, or stop recommendation. Use when existing tools, skills, standards, or project patterns must constrain downstream work; use research or web-fetch first for external sources.
---

# Prior Art

Ground the next decision in sources that were actually inspected.

## Procedure

1. Supply a bounded `objective`, optional work-plan `decomposition`, and any repo-relative `source_paths` that matter.
2. Native `runx.skill.inspect` indexes the local Runx catalog and
   `fs.read_bundle` reads and hashes at most sixteen requested files under the
   workspace boundary. Missing files are recorded; escaping, duplicate, or
   oversized paths fail closed.
3. Read only the indexed sources needed for the objective. State each finding as `claim`, `source`, `relevance`, and `confidence` (`verified`, `likely`, or `unverified`).
4. Name adjacent catalog skills and the boundary each already owns. Recommend `reuse`, `amend`, `new_work`, or `stop`; do not create a duplicate primitive because an existing package is imperfect.
5. The domain validator checks every verified citation and adjacent skill
   against those native projections. Unsupported verified claims or missing
   requested sources force `needs_more_evidence`.

External URLs are not inspected by this runner. Fetch them through a governed source skill, persist the bounded evidence in the workspace, then pass its path here.

## Output

```yaml
decision: ready | needs_more_evidence
findings:
  - claim: string
    source: repo-relative path
    relevance: string
    confidence: verified | likely | unverified
catalog_fit:
  decision: reuse | amend | new_work | stop
  adjacent_skills: array
  rationale: string
recommended_flow: array
quality_bar: object
sources: array
risks: array
evidence: object
validation: object
```

Inputs are `objective`, optional `decomposition`, `graph_purpose`, `audience`, `artifact_contract`, and bounded `source_paths`.

## Agent task contracts

### `prior-art-research`

Use the deterministic evidence index to select and read only the bounded local sources needed
for the objective. Return prior_art_draft with decision, findings, catalog_fit, quality_bar,
recommended_flow, sources, and risks. Cite repo-relative paths exactly. Mark a finding verified
only when its source appears in inspected_sources or the catalog index. Prefer reuse or
amendment over duplicate primitives. Return needs_more_evidence when requested sources are
missing.