@event4u/agent-config 16.1.0 → 16.2.0

package/src/scripts/lint_exit_codes.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,262 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env tsx
+/**
+ * A hook's exit code comes from the table, never from a numeral.
+ *
+ * road-to-a-kernel-that-guards-its-plumbing 4.1, the enforcing half.
+ * `hooks/exit_codes.ts` is the table; this is what keeps it the only one.
+ *
+ * WHAT THE NUMERALS COST. Thirty-three files under `src/scripts/hooks/` each
+ * declared their own `EXIT_ALLOW = 0` / `EXIT_BLOCK = 1` / `EXIT_WARN = 2`, two
+ * of them under a third name. The danger is not a typo: 1 and 2 mean the
+ * OPPOSITE things on Claude Code from what they mean in this tree's internal
+ * language, which is why `host_semantics.ts` exists to lower one onto the
+ * other. A bare `process.exit(1)` in a concern is a claim about which of the
+ * two dialects the writer had in mind, and the source does not record which.
+ *
+ * WHAT IT SCANS. `.ts` under `src/scripts/hooks/`, refusing a call whose
+ * argument is a bare numeric literal. An identifier is accepted whatever it is
+ * called — this gate does not verify that the identifier came from the table,
+ * because a gate that resolved imports would be a type-checker, and the thing
+ * it would catch (a local `const EXIT_BLOCK = 1` shadowing the import) is
+ * already visible in review as a duplicate declaration. Stated rather than left
+ * for a reader to assume the green covers it.
+ *
+ * WHY THE DISPATCHERS ARE OUT OF SCOPE. The `*-dispatcher.sh` trampolines carry
+ * `process.exit(0)` inside a `node -e` one-liner that reads a workspace root
+ * off stdin. They are shell, they cannot import, and their exit code is the
+ * one-liner's, never a verdict. The table's own header says so; this gate scans
+ * `.ts` only, which is the same boundary stated once more where it is enforced.
+ *
+ * THE TABLE FILE ITSELF is excluded, and that is the one exclusion: it is where
+ * the numerals are DEFINED, so a gate that refused them there would forbid the
+ * fix it exists to require.
+ *
+ * Exit codes: 0 clean · 1 a bare numeral reached `process.exit` · 2 the corpus
+ * could not be read.
+ */
+
+import fs from 'node:fs';
+import os from 'node:os';
+import path from 'node:path';
+import { fileURLToPath, pathToFileURL } from 'node:url';
+
+import { GateLedger } from './_lib/gate_ledger.js';
+import { runGateCli, runSelfTest } from './_lib/gate_self_test.js';
+import { reportScanned } from './_lib/scan_scope.js';
+
+const _HERE = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
+const ROOT = path.resolve(path.dirname(_HERE), '..', '..');
+
+export const GATE = 'lint_exit_codes';
+
+const HOOKS_REL = path.join('src', 'scripts', 'hooks');
+
+/** The file that DEFINES the numerals. Excluding it is not a carve-out. */
+const TABLE_BASENAME = 'exit_codes.ts';
+
+/**
+ * The fixture import line, ASSEMBLED rather than written out.
+ *
+ * `prepack-check.mjs` scans source text for relative imports and cannot tell a
+ * string literal from a real one, so a fixture containing the words
+ * `from './exit_codes.js'` reads as this file importing a sibling that does not
+ * exist beside it — the table lives under `hooks/`. It reported exactly that
+ * before this was assembled. Splitting the specifier is the smallest change
+ * that keeps the fixture honest about what a passing hook file looks like
+ * without asserting an import this file does not make.
+ */
+const FIXTURE_IMPORT = (name: string): string => `import { ${name} } from '.` + `/${TABLE_BASENAME.replace('.ts', '.js')}';\n`;
+
+/**
+ * `process.exit(<digits>)`, with optional whitespace.
+ *
+ * Deliberately anchored on `process.exit` rather than on any `exit(`: a
+ * concern's own helper named `exit` is not the process boundary, and widening
+ * the pattern to catch it would red on ordinary code.
+ */
+const BARE_EXIT = /process\s*\.\s*exit\s*\(\s*(-?\d+)\s*\)/g;
+
+export interface ExitFinding {
+    readonly file: string;
+    readonly line: number;
+    readonly code: string;
+}
+
+/** Findings in one file's text. Pure, so a test reads the decision. */
+export function findBareExits(rel: string, text: string): ExitFinding[] {
+    const out: ExitFinding[] = [];
+    const lines = text.split('\n');
+    for (let i = 0; i < lines.length; i++) {
+        const line = lines[i] as string;
+        // A commented example is prose about the rule, not an exit.
+        if (/^\s*(\*|\/\/)/.test(line)) continue;
+        BARE_EXIT.lastIndex = 0;
+        let m: RegExpExecArray | null;
+        while ((m = BARE_EXIT.exec(line)) !== null) {
+            out.push({ file: rel, line: i + 1, code: m[1] as string });
+        }
+    }
+    return out;
+}
+
+function hookFiles(root: string): string[] {
+    const dir = path.join(root, HOOKS_REL);
+    let entries: string[];
+    try {
+        entries = fs.readdirSync(dir);
+    } catch {
+        return [];
+    }
+    return entries
+        .filter((f) => f.endsWith('.ts') && f !== TABLE_BASENAME)
+        .map((f) => path.join(HOOKS_REL, f))
+        .sort();
+}
+
+export function main(argv: readonly string[] = process.argv.slice(2)): number {
+    if (argv.includes('--self-test')) return selfTest();
+    const i = argv.indexOf('--root');
+    if (i !== -1 && (argv[i + 1] === undefined || argv[i + 1]?.startsWith('-') === true)) {
+        process.stderr.write(`${GATE}: \`--root\` needs a directory.\n`);
+        return 2;
+    }
+    const root = i === -1 ? ROOT : (argv[i + 1] as string);
+
+    const files = hookFiles(root);
+    const findings: ExitFinding[] = [];
+    // A file the gate cannot READ is not a file it cleared. The first version
+    // of this loop skipped it and then counted it complete, which is a false
+    // green with a number behind it — the exact shape `assertScanned` exists to
+    // refuse one level up, reintroduced inside the loop. Reported by an
+    // independent review before this landed.
+    const unreadable: string[] = [];
+    for (const rel of files) {
+        let text: string;
+        try {
+            text = fs.readFileSync(path.join(root, rel), 'utf-8');
+        } catch {
+            unreadable.push(rel);
+            continue;
+        }
+        findings.push(...findBareExits(rel, text));
+    }
+    if (unreadable.length > 0) {
+        for (const rel of unreadable) {
+            process.stderr.write(`❌  ${GATE}: cannot read ${rel} — the corpus is incomplete.\n`);
+        }
+        return 2;
+    }
+
+    // Before the verdict: a corpus of zero is a gate that read nothing, and a
+    // green over it says the tree is clean when nobody looked.
+    try {
+        reportScanned({ gate: GATE, scanned: files.length, units: 'hook file(s)', roots: [HOOKS_REL] });
+    } catch (exc) {
+        process.stderr.write(`❌  ${String((exc as Error).message)}\n`);
+        return 2;
+    }
+
+    const ledger = new GateLedger(GATE);
+    ledger.plan(files);
+    const failed = new Set(findings.map((f) => f.file));
+    for (const f of findings) {
+        ledger.fail(f.file, `bare exit numeral ${f.code} at line ${String(f.line)}`);
+    }
+    for (const rel of files) if (!failed.has(rel)) ledger.complete(rel);
+    ledger.report();
+
+    if (findings.length > 0) {
+        for (const f of findings) {
+            process.stdout.write(
+                `❌  ${GATE}: ${f.file}:${String(f.line)} exits with the bare numeral ` +
+                    `\`${f.code}\`. Import the name from \`hooks/exit_codes.ts\` — the numbers ` +
+                    'mean opposite things in this tree and on the host, and a numeral records ' +
+                    'neither.\n',
+            );
+        }
+        return 1;
+    }
+    process.stdout.write(
+        `✅  ${GATE}: ${String(files.length)} hook file(s), no bare exit numeral.\n`,
+    );
+    return 0;
+}
+
+function selfTest(): number {
+    const plant = (name: string, body: string): string => {
+        const dir = fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), `exit-codes-${name}-`));
+        fs.mkdirSync(path.join(dir, HOOKS_REL), { recursive: true });
+        fs.writeFileSync(path.join(dir, HOOKS_REL, 'probe_hook.ts'), body, 'utf-8');
+        // The table itself, so the exclusion is exercised rather than assumed.
+        fs.writeFileSync(
+            path.join(dir, HOOKS_REL, TABLE_BASENAME),
+            'export const EXIT_ALLOW = 0;\nprocess.exit(0);\n',
+            'utf-8',
+        );
+        return dir;
+    };
+    const run = (root: string): number =>
+        runGateCli(ROOT, path.join('src', 'scripts', 'lint_exit_codes.ts'), ['--root', root], ROOT);
+
+    return runSelfTest({
+        gate: GATE,
+        minCases: 6,
+        minRejectCases: 4,
+        cases: [
+            {
+                name: 'an empty corpus is refused, not certified green',
+                expect: 'reject',
+                run: () => run(fs.mkdtempSync(path.join(os.tmpdir(), 'exit-codes-empty-'))),
+            },
+            {
+                name: 'a bare deny numeral fails',
+                expect: 'reject',
+                run: () => run(plant('block', 'process.exit(1);\n')),
+            },
+            {
+                name: 'a bare allow numeral fails too — 0 is the one people think is harmless',
+                expect: 'reject',
+                run: () => run(plant('allow', 'process.exit(0);\n')),
+            },
+            {
+                name: 'whitespace inside the call does not hide it',
+                expect: 'reject',
+                run: () => run(plant('spaced', 'process . exit ( 2 );\n')),
+            },
+            {
+                name: 'an imported name passes',
+                expect: 'accept',
+                run: () =>
+                    run(
+                        plant(
+                            'named',
+                            `${FIXTURE_IMPORT('EXIT_ALLOW')}process.exit(EXIT_ALLOW);\n`,
+                        ),
+                    ),
+            },
+            {
+                // The table defines the numerals; refusing them there would
+                // forbid the fix this gate exists to require. Exercised, not
+                // assumed — the plant writes a bare exit into it every time.
+                name: 'the table file is excluded even though it carries a numeral',
+                expect: 'accept',
+                run: () =>
+                    run(
+                        plant(
+                            'table',
+                            `${FIXTURE_IMPORT('EXIT_WARN')}process.exit(EXIT_WARN);\n`,
+                        ),
+                    ),
+            },
+        ],
+    });
+}
+
+function _isCliEntry(): boolean {
+    const entry = process.argv[1];
+    return entry !== undefined && import.meta.url === pathToFileURL(entry).href;
+}
+
+if (_isCliEntry()) {
+    process.exit(main());
+}

package/src/scripts/lint_hook_manifest.ts

@@ -716,6 +716,61 @@ export function _check_host_lowering(
       }
     }
   }
+  _check_slot_answers(table, errors);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Every (host, slot) pair carries a date, and a citation to go with it.
+ *
+ * WHY AN ERROR AND NOT A WARNING. `block_exit: null` is the value the table
+ * carries on 29 of its 32 pairs, and until this check it meant two different
+ * things at once: "read the host's contract, it honours no refusal here" and
+ * "nobody has ever looked at this pair". Those are opposite epistemic states
+ * printed as the same byte, and the file's own header promises the first one
+ * ("`verified: null` means nobody established anything") without giving the
+ * per-slot layer any way to say it. `answered_at` is that way, and a soft
+ * warning would let the ambiguity back in one undated slot at a time — the
+ * exact drift the row-level `verified` gate was added to stop one level up.
+ *
+ * THE CITATION MAY BE INHERITED. A host publishes ONE hooks page, so requiring
+ * a per-slot `docs_url` would mean five copies of the same URL per host and
+ * five places for it to rot. The row's `verified.docs_url` is the citation
+ * unless the slot overrides it; what the check refuses is a dated answer with
+ * no reachable citation at all.
+ *
+ * A slot on a row with NO `verified` block is exempt from the citation half
+ * and not from the date: an undated row is already an error wherever it carries
+ * a blocking binding, and demanding a URL from a row that has none would report
+ * the same missing provenance twice in different words.
+ */
+export function _check_slot_answers(table: HostLowering, errors: string[]): void {
+  for (const [host, surfaces] of table) {
+    for (const [surface, row] of surfaces) {
+      for (const [slot, s] of row.slots) {
+        const where = `host_lowering ${host}/${surface}/${slot}`;
+        if (s.answered_at === null) {
+          errors.push(
+            `${where}: no \`answered_at\`. Every host-slot pair carries the date it was ` +
+              "last answered, so that a `block_exit: null` is a finding with a date on it " +
+              "rather than a slot nobody looked at.",
+          );
+          continue;
+        }
+        if (!/^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}$/.test(s.answered_at)) {
+          errors.push(`${where}: \`answered_at: ${s.answered_at}\` is not an ISO \`YYYY-MM-DD\` date.`);
+        }
+        // The row-level exemption the block comment above states: a row with no
+        // `verified` block already reports its missing provenance once, at row level.
+        if (row.verified !== null && s.docs_url === null && row.verified.docs_url === null) {
+          errors.push(
+            `${where}: dated \`${s.answered_at}\` with no citation — the slot carries no ` +
+              "`docs_url` and the row's `verified.docs_url` is absent. Cite the page the " +
+              "answer was read off, on the slot or on the row.",
+          );
+        }
+      }
+    }
+  }
 }
 
 export function lint(

package/src/scripts/lint_roadmap_blockers.ts

@@ -3,7 +3,8 @@
  * Hard-gate linter for the roadmap `## Blockers` contract
  * (`templates/roadmaps.md` rule 20 / `roadmap-ci-steps-policy` siblings).
  *
- * Validates, for every active roadmap under `agents/roadmaps/*.md`:
+ * Validates, for every active roadmap and every parked idea one directory
+ * down in `stubs/`:
  *
  *   1. Every `### blocker: <id>` entry declares all five required fields
  *      (Status, Owner, Blocks, What to do, Resolved when).
@@ -22,11 +23,14 @@
  *      road-to-asked-not-parked exists to stop; without this field a marker
  *      cannot distinguish a declined decision from an unoffered one.
  *
- *      HARD, not ratcheted, and it can be: no active roadmap carries a real
- *      checkbox annotation today, so on the day it ships the rule fires on
- *      nothing — the same "no backlog to grandfather" argument the `Class:`
- *      contract above makes. `later/` and `archive/` are outside this gate's
- *      glob and are untouched by it.
+ *      HARD, not ratcheted, and it can be: no file in scope carries a real
+ *      checkbox annotation pointing at a blocker today, so on the day it ships
+ *      the rule fires on nothing — the same "no backlog to grandfather"
+ *      argument the `Class:` contract above makes. Re-measured when `stubs/`
+ *      entered scope on 2026-09-28: 7 stubs carry checkboxes and 0 of them
+ *      carry a `blocked-by:` marker, so the rule stays latent there too.
+ *      `later/`, `archive/` and `skipped/` are outside this gate's glob and
+ *      are untouched by it; `stubs/` is inside it — see § SCOPE.
  *
  *   5. An entry that declares `- **Ownership:**` declares one of the three
  *      OWNER-OWNED classes (`product-owned`, `business-owned`,
@@ -41,10 +45,49 @@
  *      field, so on the day it ships no entry in the tree declares one and the
  *      rule fires on nothing.
  *
+ * SCOPE — the active tree plus `stubs/`, and deliberately nothing else.
+ *
+ * Widened from the active tree alone by an owner ruling on 2026-09-28. Before
+ * it, a stub's hold was unreachable by every blocker gate: a parked idea is
+ * where a hold sits LONGEST, so excluding it exempted exactly the entries most
+ * likely to rot. The rejected alternative was to keep the scope and reword the
+ * acceptance criterion that named this gate — refused because a criterion
+ * edited to match what was achieved stops being an acceptance test.
+ *
+ * Measured on the tree the widening shipped against: 121 files under `stubs/`
+ * (120 stubs plus the directory README), of which 6 carry a `### blocker:`
+ * heading and 4 declare one open inside a `## Blockers` section. Zero hard
+ * violations, zero additions to the decidability ratchet, zero new
+ * active/archived overlaps. So it lands on nothing — the same "no backlog to
+ * grandfather" argument the `Class:` and `Ownership:` contracts make.
+ *
+ * REACH, stated honestly, because the obvious reading of the paragraph above
+ * is wrong: this does NOT hold every future stub blocker to the contract. Both
+ * scanners require the entry to sit under a `## Blockers` heading, and 2 of
+ * today's 6 put it under `## State` instead — so a third of the population is
+ * in the glob and still unread. Stub headings are free-form, unlike the
+ * template-driven roadmaps this gate was written for, so that is the likely
+ * shape rather than an edge case. Widening the glob fixes WHERE the gate looks
+ * and not WHAT it can parse; the second half is the sibling defect recorded in
+ * `stubs/road-to-blocker-parse-visibility.md`, and it is untouched here.
+ *
+ * `later/`, `archive/` and `skipped/` stay OUT, and the reason is not symmetry:
+ * those record decisions already taken (parked, closed, dropped), so a blocker
+ * left unresolved there is history rather than debt. A stub records a decision
+ * still to take. The polarity is pinned in both directions by
+ * `tests/scripts/lint_roadmap_blockers.test.ts` § the scanned scope, so
+ * widening further cannot happen by accident.
+ *
+ * One consequence worth naming rather than discovering: `_archiveOverlap`
+ * defaults its ACTIVE corpus to this glob, so a stub declaring a blocker open
+ * that an archived roadmap also declares open now fails. That is the same
+ * self-contradiction the assertion already caught one directory up, and it
+ * measured 0 on the widening tree.
+ *
  * Fenced code blocks are stripped before scanning so a roadmap that shows
  * the `## Blockers` shape as a documentation example is not flagged.
  *
- * Exit codes: 0 = clean / no active roadmaps, 1 = violations.
+ * Exit codes: 0 = clean / nothing in scope, 1 = violations.
  */
 
 import * as fs from 'node:fs';
@@ -58,7 +101,14 @@ const _HERE = fileURLToPath(import.meta.url);
 const QUIET = process.argv.slice(2).includes('--quiet');
 
 const REPO_ROOT = path.resolve(path.dirname(_HERE), '..', '..');
-const ROADMAP_GLOB = 'agents/roadmaps/*.md';
+/**
+ * The scanned scope, for display. Two plain globs rather than one brace
+ * expression: nothing globs with this string, and a `{,stubs/}` empty
+ * alternative is bash-only syntax that would mislead anyone who tried.
+ */
+const ROADMAP_GLOB = 'agents/roadmaps/*.md + agents/roadmaps/stubs/*.md';
+/** The one subdirectory inside the glob. See § SCOPE for why only this one. */
+const SCANNED_SUBDIRS: readonly string[] = ['stubs'];
 
 const FENCED_CODE_RE = /^[ \t]*```[^\n]*\n[\s\S]*?^[ \t]*```[ \t]*$/gm;
 const BLOCKERS_SECTION_RE = /^##[ \t]+Blockers[ \t]*$/im;
@@ -370,13 +420,14 @@ function _scanBoth(rawText: string): ScanResult {
     return { hard: violations, decidability };
 }
 
-/** Sorted `agents/roadmaps/*.md` (non-recursive — active roadmaps only). */
-function _globRoadmaps(): string[] {
-    const dir = path.join(REPO_ROOT, 'agents', 'roadmaps');
+/** Sorted `*.md` directly inside `dir` — never recursive. */
+function _globFlat(dir: string): string[] {
     let entries: fs.Dirent[];
     try {
         entries = fs.readdirSync(dir, { withFileTypes: true });
     } catch {
+        // A missing directory is not an error: `stubs/` is optional, and the
+        // dead-scope assertion in `main` is what catches a MOVED root.
         return [];
     }
     const out: string[] = [];
@@ -388,6 +439,21 @@ function _globRoadmaps(): string[] {
     return out.sort();
 }
 
+/**
+ * The files this gate judges: active roadmaps, plus `stubs/`. See § SCOPE.
+ *
+ * Takes its root so the scope can be driven from a fixture tree. Asserting the
+ * rule against the real tree would only restate today's file list; the test
+ * pins which DIRECTORIES are in and which are out, in both directions.
+ */
+function _globRoadmaps(roadmapRoot: string = path.join(REPO_ROOT, 'agents', 'roadmaps')): string[] {
+    const out = _globFlat(roadmapRoot);
+    for (const sub of SCANNED_SUBDIRS) {
+        out.push(..._globFlat(path.join(roadmapRoot, sub)));
+    }
+    return out;
+}
+
 function _relPosix(target: string, root: string): string {
     return path.relative(root, target).split(path.sep).join('/');
 }
@@ -561,7 +627,7 @@ function main(): number {
     const roadmaps = _globRoadmaps();
     if (roadmaps.length === 0) {
         if (!QUIET) {
-            process.stdout.write(`✅  no active roadmaps under ${ROADMAP_GLOB}\n`);
+            process.stdout.write(`✅  nothing in scope under ${ROADMAP_GLOB}\n`);
         }
         return 0;
     }

package/src/scripts/lint_skill_descriptions.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S node --import tsx
+#!/usr/bin/env tsx
 /**
  * lint_skill_descriptions — description-quality gate (ecosystem-harvest
  * skill-quality-gates, Phase 1).

package/src/scripts/lint_skill_scripts_readonly.ts

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-#!/usr/bin/env -S node --import tsx
+#!/usr/bin/env tsx
 /**
  * lint_skill_scripts_readonly — read-only-by-default script convention
  * (ecosystem-harvest skill-quality-gates, Phase 3).

package/src/scripts/mcp_server/prompts.ts

@@ -69,6 +69,22 @@ export interface SkillPrompt {
     readonly kind: PromptKind;
     readonly recommended_for_user_types: readonly string[];
     readonly user_type_match: UserTypeMatch;
+    /**
+     * Declared parameters, from the frontmatter `inputs:` block.
+     *
+     * Empty for every artifact that declares none, which is the whole corpus
+     * today — so `arguments: []` on the wire stays the behaviour for an
+     * undeclared prompt rather than becoming a special case
+     * (road-to-an-invocation-contract-that-reaches-the-wire 3.2).
+     */
+    readonly inputs: readonly PromptInput[];
+}
+
+/** One declared parameter, reduced to what the MCP `arguments` shape carries. */
+export interface PromptInput {
+    readonly name: string;
+    readonly description: string;
+    readonly required: boolean;
 }
 
 /** Walk up from this file to the repo root (parent of `scripts/`). */
@@ -92,6 +108,124 @@ export function _project_root(): string {
  * Avoids a YAML dependency for Phase 1; the frontmatter shape is
  * enforced by `task lint-skills` upstream.
  */
+/** The raw frontmatter block of a document, or `''` when it has none. */
+export function _frontmatter_text(text: string): string {
+    if (!text.startsWith('---\n')) return '';
+    const parts = _splitMax(text, '---\n', 2);
+    return parts.length < 3 ? '' : (parts[1] as string);
+}
+
+/**
+ * Parse the frontmatter `inputs:` block out of raw frontmatter text.
+ *
+ * WHY THIS EXISTS RATHER THAN A YAML CALL. `_strip_frontmatter` is a flat
+ * `key: value` line scanner and cannot represent a nested list — `inputs:`
+ * would land as an empty string and its `- name: x` lines as stray keys. The
+ * MCP server is deliberately stdlib-only and is bundled for the wire, so
+ * pulling a YAML parser in to read one optional block would pay a dependency
+ * on every install for a block almost nothing declares yet.
+ *
+ * IT READS ONE SHAPE AND REFUSES THE REST. Accepted:
+ *
+ *     inputs:
+ *       - name: target
+ *         type: string
+ *         required: true
+ *         description: What to act on.
+ *
+ * Refused, by yielding NOTHING for the whole block: the flow form
+ * (`inputs: [{name: a}]`), a block scalar (`description: >`), and any nested
+ * mapping under an item key. Refusing is not silent — `check_inputs_parity`
+ * compares this reader against a real YAML parse for every declaring artifact
+ * and FAILS the build on any difference, so an unsupported form is a red gate
+ * with a named remedy rather than a wrong argument on the wire.
+ *
+ * That gate is the answer to the defect an independent review found here: the
+ * key scan used to run at any depth, so a `default:` MAPPING whose first child
+ * was `name:` overwrote the parameter's own name and the server offered a host
+ * an argument that did not exist. The header promised "no guessed input" while
+ * the code guessed. Depth is now tracked, and where this reader cannot be sure
+ * it declines and the parity gate makes the decline visible.
+ */
+export function _parse_inputs(fm: string): PromptInput[] {
+    const lines = fm.split('\n');
+    let i = lines.findIndex((l) => /^inputs:/.test(l));
+    if (i === -1) return [];
+    // The flow form carries its payload on the `inputs:` line itself. This
+    // reader does not parse it; the parity gate turns that into a failure.
+    if (!/^inputs:\s*$/.test(lines[i] as string)) return [];
+
+    const out: PromptInput[] = [];
+    let current: { name?: string; description?: string; required?: boolean } | null = null;
+    /** Indent of the key lines belonging to the item being read. */
+    let keyIndent: number | null = null;
+    let refused = false;
+
+    const flush = (): void => {
+        if (current?.name !== undefined) {
+            out.push({
+                name: current.name,
+                description: current.description ?? '',
+                required: current.required === true,
+            });
+        }
+        current = null;
+    };
+
+    const clean = (raw: string): string => {
+        const v = raw.trim();
+        // An unquoted trailing comment is not part of the value — the same strip
+        // `_strip_frontmatter` applies, kept consistent deliberately.
+        const hashed = /^(?!["'])([^#]*?)\s+#.*$/.exec(v);
+        return _stripQuotes((hashed === null ? v : (hashed[1] ?? '')).trim());
+    };
+
+    for (i += 1; i < lines.length && !refused; i += 1) {
+        const line = lines[i] as string;
+        if (line.trim() === '') continue;
+        // A comment at any column is not block content and does not end the block.
+        if (/^\s*#/.test(line)) continue;
+        // A non-indented line ends the block.
+        if (!/^\s/.test(line)) break;
+
+        const indent = (/^(\s*)/.exec(line) as RegExpExecArray)[1]!.replace(/\t/g, '    ').length;
+
+        const item = /^\s*-\s+([A-Za-z_]\w*):\s*(.*)$/.exec(line);
+        if (item !== null) {
+            flush();
+            current = {};
+            keyIndent = line.indexOf('-') + 2;
+            if (item[1] === 'name') current.name = clean(item[2] ?? '');
+            continue;
+        }
+
+        const kv = /^\s+([A-Za-z_]\w*):\s*(.*)$/.exec(line);
+        if (kv === null || current === null || keyIndent === null) continue;
+        // Deeper than the item's own keys: a nested mapping or sequence this
+        // reader does not model. Decline the whole block rather than absorb it.
+        if (indent > keyIndent) {
+            refused = true;
+            break;
+        }
+        const key = kv[1] as string;
+        const rawValue = (kv[2] ?? '').trim();
+        // A block scalar or an empty value means the real content is on the
+        // following lines, which this reader does not join.
+        if (rawValue === '' || rawValue === '>' || rawValue === '|') {
+            refused = true;
+            break;
+        }
+        const value = clean(rawValue);
+        if (key === 'name') current.name = value;
+        else if (key === 'description') current.description = value;
+        else if (key === 'required') current.required = value.toLowerCase() === 'true';
+    }
+
+    if (refused) return [];
+    flush();
+    return out;
+}
+
 export function _strip_frontmatter(text: string): [Record<string, string>, string] {
     if (!text.startsWith('---\n')) {
         return [{}, text];
@@ -365,6 +499,7 @@ function _load_file(p: string, kind: PromptKind, fallback_name: string): SkillPr
         kind,
         recommended_for_user_types: _parse_inline_array(meta.recommended_for_user_types ?? ''),
         user_type_match: '',
+        inputs: _parse_inputs(_frontmatter_text(text)),
     };
 }
 
@@ -548,7 +683,13 @@ export function to_mcp_prompt_meta(prompt: SkillPrompt): Record<string, unknown>
         name: wire,
         title: prompt.name,
         description: prompt.description,
-        arguments: [],
+        // Derived from the declaration, never invented. An artifact that
+        // declares nothing still serves `[]` — see `_parse_inputs`.
+        arguments: prompt.inputs.map((i) => ({
+            name: i.name,
+            description: i.description,
+            required: i.required,
+        })),
         _meta: meta,
     };
 }