task-pipeline-skill 1.21.0 → 1.23.0

package/CHANGELOG.md

@@ -1,5 +1,59 @@
 # Changelog
 
+## v1.23.0
+
+### A step that consumes what a later step produces is a deadlock — `learned.md` rule 21
+
+The retrospective stage said **prune first, then stamp**. One of the prune's three retirement
+triggers is *it has not fired in the last five run stamps* — so the trigger read a counter the same
+stage wrote afterwards. On any list it had never run on real data, and it stays unreadable for
+exactly as long as nobody stamps.
+
+Measured on a real project: last entry five days old; stamps per day 33, 20, 26, **3, 0** — the zero
+on a day with 107 commits — and the list sitting at **10 of 10**. Every run arrived at a stage that
+opened with a full list, an unusable trigger and a mandatory deletion. It was not skipped out of
+laziness: its first step could not be performed, and the cheap step that would have made it
+performable was queued behind it.
+
+Two changes, and the second only works because of the first:
+
+- **Stamp first, then prune, then write.** The stamp is one line and costs nothing; it is also the
+  only thing that makes the cold trigger computable.
+- **Each trigger is a command, not a judgement.** All three are now runnable — grep for the rule's
+  words in anything that executes, resolve every path and tool it names, count its firings across
+  the last five stamps. A retirement condition nobody can run is one nobody applies, which is how a
+  list reaches ten and stops being read.
+
+`test/validate.py` guards all three: the new ordering, the absence of the old "runs BEFORE" wording,
+and the triggers being expressed as commands. Watched failing against two planted defects.
+
+## v1.22.0
+
+### When a thing exists twice, ask which one is used — `learned.md` rule 20
+
+A service had **two Dockerfiles**. One was added at the repository root by a run that checked for a
+Dockerfile by looking where it expected one; `docker/Dockerfile` had been there all along, and
+`.github/workflows/ci.yml` says `file: docker/Dockerfile`. They disagreed about the port — 8080 at
+the root, 8000 in `docker/` — and the disagreement surfaced two days later as a **deployed service
+that answered nothing**, while `docker ps` said `Up` and `systemctl` said `active`. The built one
+also ran as root and copied the whole context including `.git`; the hardened one was the one nobody
+built.
+
+Diffing the two files finds the difference and not the **direction**, and the direction is the whole
+finding. Only the consumer says which one ships, and it is one grep.
+
+Its second shape: **a rule written in two documents is two rules.** This skill's own autonomy sweep
+lives in `grill.md` (what the grill ASKS) and `templates/brief.md` (what the brief RECORDS), and in
+the two releases before this one a row was added to one and not the other — twice — each time caught
+by a validator that knew to look at both.
+
+- `references/learned.md` — rule 20 and incident 20.
+- `references/audit.md` — "Two copies, and which one wins", including why the copy that ships is
+  usually the one nobody hardened.
+- `references/grill.md` + `templates/brief.md` — sweep row `0 Duplicates`: the consumer line, quoted.
+- `test/validate.py` — a guard, watched failing against three planted defects, the third being the
+  sweep row present in one file and not the other.
+
 ## v1.21.0
 
 ### An empty measurement is a refused measurement — `learned.md` rule 19

package/SKILL-CARD.md

@@ -12,7 +12,7 @@ harmless.
 |---|---|
 | **Purpose** | Runs a substantial task through ten gated delivery stages — intake grill, docs study, brainstorm, spec, plan, subagent build, tests, lint/deploy, post-deploy, docs+registers, acceptance — refusing to advance until each gate passes |
 | **Owner** | ssheleg ([github.com/ssheleg/task-pipeline](https://github.com/ssheleg/task-pipeline)) |
-| **Version** | 1.21.0 |
+| **Version** | 1.23.0 |
 | **Surface** | Claude Code (filesystem skill + plugin) and the vercel `skills` CLI. **Not** uploaded to the Skills API; custom Skills do not sync across surfaces |
 | **Dependencies** | None required. Optional: `context7` (MCP), `figma` (MCP), super-ux, agent-sync, graphify, obsidian-wiki. Every stage's doctrine ships in-repo; the one conditional requirement is super-ux for the stage-3 UX track on a user-facing task |
 | **Evaluation status** | Suite authored (15 evals, 5 categories). **Never executed** — see [`evals/RESULTS.md`](evals/RESULTS.md) |

package/package.json

@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 {
   "name": "task-pipeline-skill",
-  "version": "1.21.0",
+  "version": "1.23.0",
   "description": "Full-cycle delivery pipeline for coding agents: a mandatory built-in intake grill, then 10 gated stages (docs, brainstorm+decompose, spec, plan, build, tests, lint/deploy, post-deploy, docs/wiki, acceptance). Every stage's doctrine ships inside the skill — no companion plugin required. This package is the installer CLI.",
   "bin": {
     "task-pipeline": "bin/task-pipeline.js"

package/plugins/task-pipeline/.claude-plugin/plugin.json

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
   "name": "task-pipeline",
   "displayName": "Task Pipeline",
   "description": "Runs a substantial task through a mandatory built-in intake grill, then 10 gated stages (docs, brainstorm+decompose, spec, plan, subagent build, tests, lint/deploy, post-deploy, docs/wiki, acceptance). Every stage's doctrine is built into the skill — no companion plugin required — with typed auto/manual gates, a frozen requirement spine that must close with evidence, a loop guard that breaks churn, one provider-agnostic model confirmed up front, and an optional super-ux UX track for user-facing work.",
-  "version": "1.21.0",
+  "version": "1.23.0",
   "author": {
     "name": "ssheleg",
     "url": "https://x.com/sshlg93"

package/plugins/task-pipeline/skills/task-pipeline/references/audit.md

@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@ whose whole job is "audit X" runs nothing else.
 - Why "look again, more carefully" stops working
 - The ladder
 - How one audit pass runs
+- Two copies, and which one wins
 - Silence is not a reading
 - Exit criterion — the part usually skipped
 - The three rules that stop this becoming another loop
@@ -175,6 +176,27 @@ spine*). A finding that contradicts the spec goes back to stage 3; one that
 contradicts the plan goes back to stage 4. Auditing is not a licence to edit
 across layers in place.
 
+## Two copies, and which one wins
+
+`learned.md` rule 20. When something exists twice — two build files, a schema and its mirror, a
+vendored library, one rule written in two documents — the useful question is not *do they agree*.
+Diffing them finds the difference and not the **direction**, and the direction is the whole finding:
+one of them is what runs, and the other is what somebody reads and edits.
+
+The copies cannot answer it about themselves. The consumer can, and usually in one line:
+
+```bash
+grep -rn "Dockerfile\|schema.json\|VERSION" .github/workflows/ Makefile* package.json
+```
+
+Two consequences worth stating separately, because they fail differently:
+
+- **The copy that wins is often the one nobody hardened.** Attention goes to the copy people open,
+  and the build reads the other.
+- **A rule written in two documents is two rules.** One asks, one records; one describes, one
+  decides. Edit only the first and the second silently disagrees — which is why a check that knows
+  about both is worth more than a note asking people to remember.
+
 ## Silence is not a reading
 
 `learned.md` rule 19. The ladder's evidence is commands and their output, and a command that

package/plugins/task-pipeline/skills/task-pipeline/references/grill.md

@@ -142,6 +142,7 @@ explicit "stop and ask me here":
 | run-wide | the model decision ([`model-tiering.md`](model-tiering.md)); what to decide autonomously vs escalate |
 | run-wide Pacing | the **run mode** ([`continuity.md`](continuity.md)): does the run advance item-by-item with no check-in between items, and on what interval? Read `pipeline.json` → `run.loop` first — a recorded mode is the answer and is not re-asked. **Absent, it is off**: recommend it, take the answer, record it. It never collapses a `manual` gate or an outward act, so this row buys pacing, not authorization |
 | 0 Harvest | doc sources beyond this repo — other repos, hosted doc systems, the knowledge wiki, **the code graph** ([`knowledge-graph.md`](knowledge-graph.md): built / installed-not-built / absent) — and whether stage 9 may write to them (another repo is outward: propose + PR, never a direct push) |
+| 0 Duplicates | for every artifact the build reads — a Dockerfile, a schema, a lockfile, a spec — **which copy does the consumer actually name**. Quoted from the workflow or the Makefile, not inferred from the tree: the copy that ships is often not the copy people open (`learned.md` rule 20) | the consumer line, quoted |
 | 0 Fixtures | what **persists between runs** on this machine — a database, a volume, a cache, generated files — and the command that recreates it from nothing. A suite green against accumulated state carries a premise that is false on every runner (`learned.md` rule 18) | the recreate command, stated |
 | 0 Source | for a repository with an upstream — **is this checkout the one that ships**. `git rev-list --count HEAD..@{u}`, printed, before the first edit. Behind means stop and pull: an edit on a stale copy deletes newer work by fast-forward, and nothing complains (`learned.md` rule 17) | the count, stated |
 | 0 Work-list | which register holds task **state** — a roadmap, a board, a backlog, a tracker — and the **command that reads it**. Recorded once; the harvest and every loop iteration re-run it, and a closing report that names what is left cites it. No register → record the row empty, and the rule costs nothing ([`knowledge-sources.md`](knowledge-sources.md) → *Carried-in claims*) |

package/plugins/task-pipeline/skills/task-pipeline/references/learned.md

@@ -44,6 +44,8 @@ to be enforced and is not is the same failure as a gate that prints `FAIL` and e
 | 17 | **The copy you are about to edit may not be the copy that ships** | any run editing a repository that has an upstream — a skill, a plugin, a vendored library, a fork | `git rev-list --count HEAD..@{u}` **before the first edit**; non-zero means stop and pull | the run states the count it measured, or it has not started |
 | 18 | **State that accumulates locally is created from nothing everywhere else** | any run whose tests, migrations or fixtures read a database, a cache or a checkout that persists between runs on this machine | run the suite once against a **freshly created** instance of it, not the one that has been here for weeks | the run names the fresh instance it used, or the green is a green from residue |
 | 19 | **An empty measurement is a refused measurement** | any command run to establish a fact — a count, a probe, a query, a suite | assert the output is **non-empty and shaped as expected** before reading meaning into it; a command that printed nothing did not answer | the run quotes the output it read, not the conclusion it drew from silence |
+| 20 | **When a thing exists twice, ask which one is used — not whether they agree** | any artifact with a second copy: two build files, a vendored library, a schema and its mirror, doctrine in two documents | find the **consumer** and read what it names; the copies cannot answer this about themselves | the run names the file the build/test/deploy actually reads, quoted from the consumer |
+| 21 | **A step that consumes what a later step produces is a deadlock, not an ordering** | any sequence where a check reads state another step writes — a prune reading stamps, a gate reading a ledger, a report reading counts | trace each input to the step that writes it; if that step is downstream, the check has never run on real data | every check names the step that produces its input, and that step is upstream of it |
 
 ---
 
@@ -133,6 +135,10 @@ run's belief about the work-list against the register; the claim only ever appea
 
 **19 · Silence read as assent.** Three failures in one session, all the same shape. A `docker run` without `-i` does not attach stdin, so a heredoc carrying `ALTER ROLE` stopped at the docker CLI; `psql` read an empty script, did nothing, and exited **0** — and the step printed "password set". A `grep` pattern written against the wrong output format matched nothing, so three consecutive planted-defect runs printed empty strings that read as passes. And a migration step printed no lines at all, which looked like a step that had not run and was in fact a step that had. In every case the instrument failed and the failure was **indistinguishable from success**, because both produce nothing. Rule 11 covers the exit code; this covers the other half, which is louder in practice: an exit code of 0 from a command that never ran is the most convincing lie a run can tell itself.
 
+**20 · The copy that wins.** A service had **two Dockerfiles**. One was added at the repository root by a run that checked whether a Dockerfile existed by looking where it expected one; `docker/Dockerfile` had been there all along, and `.github/workflows/ci.yml` says `file: docker/Dockerfile`. They disagreed about the port — 8080 at the root, 8000 in `docker/` — and the disagreement surfaced two days later as a **deployed service that answered nothing**, while `docker ps` said `Up` and `systemctl` said `active`. The built one also ran as root and copied the whole context, including `.git` and any `.env`; the hardened one was the one nobody built. Comparing the two files would have found the difference and not the direction. Only the workflow line says which one ships, and it is one grep. The same session hit this three more times: an autonomy sweep row added to the file that ASKS and not the file that RECORDS, twice, caught by a validator that knew to look at both.
+
+**21 · The prune that could not run.** A retrospective's standing-instruction list has a hard cap of ten and three retirement triggers, one of which is *it has not fired in the last five run stamps*. The stage's own instruction was **prune first, then stamp**. So the trigger read a counter the same stage wrote afterwards: on a fresh list it is unreadable, and it stays unreadable for as long as nobody stamps. Measured on a real project: the last retro entry was five days old, stamps per day ran 33, 20, 26, **3, 0** — the zero on a day with 107 commits — and the list sat at exactly **10 of 10**, so every run arrived at a stage that opened with a full list, an unusable trigger and a mandatory deletion. It was not skipped out of laziness. It was skipped because its first step could not be performed, and the cheap step that would have made it performable was queued behind it.
+
 The same class had already bitten that project twice from the other side, and its roadmap names the
 property exactly: seven rows read `blocked` on producers the dependency board recorded as delivered,
 and *"no gate can catch it because it breaks nothing — it only removes work from consideration"*;

package/plugins/task-pipeline/skills/task-pipeline/references/retrospective.md

@@ -26,7 +26,8 @@ file exists to stop.
 - Every lesson carries its commit
 - Rotation — the archive is how pruning stops losing things
 - Three grades of fix — take the highest one that can work
-- The prune — mandatory, and it runs BEFORE the new entry is written
+- Stamp first, then prune, then write
+- The prune — mandatory, and it runs after the stamp
 - The loop closes at stage 0
 - Where a lesson goes when it is not about this project
 - Rationalizations
@@ -100,10 +101,30 @@ Prefer grade 1 whenever a check can decide it. This is the same law as
 [`audit.md`](audit.md) → *A class that repeats twice becomes a gate, not a note*: a
 rule that could have been a check gets read twice and obeyed once.
 
-## The prune — mandatory, and it runs BEFORE the new entry is written
+## Stamp first, then prune, then write
 
-Prune first, then write. A lesson that lands in a cluttered file is a lesson nobody
-will reach.
+`learned.md` rule 21. This order used to be *prune first*, and that was a **deadlock**, not a
+preference: the cold trigger below reads *the last five run stamps*, and the stamp was written after
+the prune. The trigger read a counter the same stage produced later, so on any list it had never run
+on real data — and it stays unreadable for exactly as long as nobody stamps.
+
+Measured on a real project: last entry five days old; stamps per day 33, 20, 26, **3, 0** — the zero
+on a day with 107 commits — and the list sitting at **10 of 10**. Every run arrived at a stage that
+opened with a full list, an unusable trigger and a mandatory deletion. It was not skipped out of
+laziness; its first step could not be performed, and the cheap step that would have made it
+performable was queued behind it.
+
+**The stamp is one line and costs nothing.** It is also the only thing that makes the prune
+computable, which is why it goes first:
+
+```bash
+printf '%s · %s\n' "$(date +%F)" "$(git rev-parse --short HEAD)" >> docs/superpowers/retro.md
+```
+
+## The prune — mandatory, and it runs after the stamp
+
+A lesson that lands in a cluttered file is a lesson nobody will reach — so the prune still runs
+before the entry is written. It runs *after* the stamp, because it reads it.
 
 Every row carries its own trigger in a **`Retire when`** column, written at birth —
 a rule whose retirement condition is decided later is a rule the prune can only
@@ -115,6 +136,25 @@ argue about. Check **every** standing instruction against three triggers:
 | **Its surface is gone** | resolve every path, command, stage and tool it names; any that no longer exists | delete it — it now describes a system nobody is running |
 | **It went cold** | it has not fired in the last **five run stamps** | delete it — five runs without firing is the evidence that it was situational |
 
+**Each trigger is a command, not a judgement.** A retirement condition nobody can run is a
+condition nobody applies, which is how a list reaches ten and stops being read:
+
+```bash
+# became a check — the rule's own words appear in something that runs
+grep -rl "$RULE_KEYWORD" scripts/ test/ .github/workflows/ Makefile* 2>/dev/null
+
+# surface is gone — every path, command and tool it names, resolved
+grep -oE '`[^`]+`' <<<"$RULE_TEXT" | tr -d '`' | while read -r t; do
+  [ -e "$t" ] || command -v "$t" >/dev/null || echo "MISSING: $t"; done
+
+# went cold — fired in none of the last five stamps
+tail -n 200 docs/superpowers/retro.md | grep -c "$RULE_ID"
+```
+
+Anything the first two print is a deletion; a zero from the third across five stamps is a deletion.
+What survives all three stays, and the run states the three counts rather than the conclusion
+(`learned.md` rule 19 — an empty result and an unrun command look identical).
+
 Then the cap: **ten standing instructions, hard.** At eleven you do not get to keep
 them all — the oldest never-fired one goes. "But all of them matter" is precisely
 the state in which the list stopped being read, and the ninth stale rule is what

package/plugins/task-pipeline/skills/task-pipeline/templates/brief.md

@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ is not neutral — it is a scheduled interruption.
 | run-wide | Decide autonomously vs escalate to me | … |
 | run-wide Pacing | Run mode: item-by-item with no check-in between items, and on what interval? (the skill's `references/continuity.md`; read `pipeline.json` → `run.loop` first) | … (**absent ⇒ off**; it never collapses a manual gate or an outward act) |
 | 0 Harvest | Doc sources beyond this repo — other repos, hosted docs, the knowledge wiki, the code graph; and may stage 9 write to them? | … (another repo is outward: propose + PR, never a direct push; graph built / not built) |
+| 0 Duplicates | the line in the workflow/Makefile naming which copy the build reads, quoted (`learned.md` rule 20) | |
 | 0 Fixtures | the command that recreates local persistent state from nothing, and the run's statement that the suite was seen green against it (`learned.md` rule 18) | |
 | 0 Source | `git rev-list --count HEAD..@{u}` before the first edit, printed. Behind means stop and pull — an edit on a stale checkout deletes newer work by fast-forward and nothing complains (`learned.md` rule 17) | |
 | 0 Work-list | Which register holds task **state**, and the command that reads it — re-run at every harvest, at every loop iteration and at the close | … (e.g. `bash scripts/board.sh`; none → record empty) |