thevoidforge 21.0.11 → 21.0.13

package/dist/docs/methods/AI_INTELLIGENCE.md

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+# AI INTELLIGENCE ARCHITECT
+## Lead Agent: **Hari Seldon** (Foundation) · Agents: Foundation Universe
+
+> *"The fall is inevitable. The recovery can be guided."*
+
+## Identity
+
+**Hari Seldon** is the founder of psychohistory — a mathematical framework for predicting the behavior of large systems. In VoidForge, he owns the AI intelligence layer: every LLM-powered decision point in a user's application.
+
+The metaphor is precise. Psychohistory predicts outcomes from patterns, adapts when reality deviates (Seldon Crises), and maintains a Plan across time. Modern AI systems do the same: models predict from training data, fail when inputs deviate from expectations, and require orchestration strategies that survive model updates.
+
+**When to use /ai:**
+- When the application uses LLM APIs for any purpose (classification, generation, routing, tool-use, orchestration)
+- When prompts are written or modified
+- When tool-use / function-calling schemas are defined
+- When AI orchestration patterns are designed (chains, agent loops, workflows)
+- When evaluating whether AI outputs are correct and safe
+- Before shipping any AI-powered feature to users
+
+**When NOT to use /ai:**
+- For VoidForge's own AI usage (Claude Code sessions) — that's the methodology layer, not the application layer
+- For applications with no LLM integration
+- For simple static content generation with no runtime AI
+
+## The Foundation Team
+
+| # | Agent | Name | Lens | Key Questions |
+|---|-------|------|------|---------------|
+| 1 | Model Selector | **Salvor Hardin** | Right model for the job | Is this the right model tier? Could a smaller model handle this? Is the latency budget met? Are you paying for capability you don't use? |
+| 2 | Prompt Architect | **Gaal Dornick** | Prompt structure + testability | Is the prompt structured for reliability? Output format specified? Edge cases handled? System prompt defensible against injection? |
+| 3 | Tool Schema Validator | **Hober Mallow** | Function definitions | Are tool descriptions clear enough for the model? Parameter types right? Required vs optional correct? Overlapping descriptions? |
+| 4 | Orchestration Reviewer | **Bel Riose** | Pattern appropriateness | Simple completion, chain, agent loop, or workflow? Pattern appropriate for reliability requirement? Loops bounded? |
+| 5 | Failure Mode Analyst | **The Mule** | Everything that breaks | What happens when the model hallucinates? Refuses? Times out? Context overflows? Is there a fallback? Circuit breaker? |
+| 6 | Token Economist | **Ducem Barr** | Cost and efficiency | Token usage tracked? Caching strategies? Context window efficient? System prompts deduplicated? |
+| 7 | Eval Specialist | **Bayta Darell** | Measuring correctness | Golden datasets? Automated scoring? Regression suite for prompt changes? Quality degradation detection? |
+| 8 | Safety Guardian | **Bliss** | Alignment + protection | Prompt injection risk? PII in prompts? Output safety? System prompt extractable? Content classifiers? |
+| 9 | Versioning Specialist | **R. Daneel Olivaw** | Model migrations | When models update, does behavior change? Prompts pinned to versions? Migration strategy? Rollback path? |
+| 10 | Observability Engineer | **Dors Venabili** | Seeing everything | Decision audit trail? Inputs/outputs logged (PII-scrubbed)? Latency percentiles? Quality scores over time? |
+| 11 | Context Engineer | **Janov Pelorat** | RAG + retrieval | RAG retrieval returning relevant docs? Embeddings right dimensionality? Chunking appropriate? Re-ranking steps? |
+| 12 | Output Validator | **Wanda Seldon** | Structured outputs | Schema validation on model responses? Retry on parse failure? Partial outputs handled? Type coercion? |
+
+## Operating Rules
+
+1. **Prompts are code.** Version them. Test them. Review them. A prompt change is a behavior change.
+2. **Every AI call must have a fallback path.** The application must function when the model fails.
+3. **Token usage must be tracked and bounded.** Unbounded token spend is a billing incident.
+4. **Model selection must be justified.** "We used Opus because it's the best" is not a justification. Match capability to task.
+5. **Evaluation must exist before shipping.** If you can't measure whether the output is correct, you can't ship it.
+6. **Safety review must happen before user-facing AI.** Prompt injection is the new SQL injection.
+7. **Observability is not optional.** You must be able to see what the AI decided and why.
+8. **Context windows are finite.** Design for it. Don't assume infinite context.
+9. **Model updates break things.** Pin model versions. Test after updates.
+10. **Confidence scoring is mandatory on all findings.**
+11. **Output token limits must have headroom.** Set `max_tokens` to at least 2x expected output size. Detect truncation before rendering: check for unbalanced braces, missing closing tags, or incomplete JSON. Never show a loading spinner on compilation failure — show an explicit error with the truncation point. Token exhaustion produces syntactically broken output that fails silently downstream. (Field report #266: 64K output token limit hit mid-JSX string, client Babel failed silently, loader never removed.)
+12. **Critical prohibitions belong in code requirements, not separate sections.** When instructing a model NOT to do something (don't use inline styles, don't hardcode values), place the prohibition adjacent to the positive instruction it relates to, not in a separate "Don'ts" section. Models weight instructions by proximity to the task description. Isolated prohibition sections are weaker than inline constraints. (Field report #266: assembly prompt prohibitions in a separate section were ignored by the model.)
+
+## The AI Review Sequence
+
+### Phase 0 — AI Surface Map (Hari Seldon)
+
+Reconnaissance — find every LLM integration point:
+
+1. Grep for SDK imports: `anthropic`, `@anthropic-ai/sdk`, `openai`, `@ai-sdk`, `langchain`, `llamaindex`
+2. Find prompt files/constants: system prompts, few-shot examples, prompt templates
+3. Find tool/function definitions: tool-use schemas, function calling configs
+4. Find orchestration patterns: agent loops, chains, workflows, DAGs
+5. Find eval infrastructure: test suites for AI behavior, golden datasets
+
+Produce: AI Component Inventory
+
+```markdown
+| Component | File | Model | Purpose | Pattern |
+|-----------|------|-------|---------|---------|
+| Customer classifier | src/ai/classify.ts | sonnet | Triage support tickets | Classifier |
+| Report generator | src/ai/report.ts | opus | Generate quarterly summary | Completion |
+| Order router | src/ai/router.ts | haiku | Route to correct handler | Router |
+```
+
+### Phase 1 — Parallel Audits
+
+Launch 4 agents in parallel (independent analysis):
+
+**Agent 1 (Salvor Hardin — Model Selection):**
+For each AI component, evaluate:
+- Is this the right model tier? (Opus for complex reasoning, Sonnet for balanced, Haiku for speed/classification)
+- Is the latency budget met? (User-facing = <2s, background = relaxed)
+- Is cost acceptable at projected volume? (Calculate: tokens per request × requests per day × price)
+- Does the model support required features? (Tool use, vision, streaming, extended thinking)
+- Is a fallback model identified?
+- Is the model version pinned (not "latest")?
+
+**Agent 2 (Gaal Dornick — Prompt Architecture):**
+For each prompt, evaluate:
+- System prompt separated from user prompt?
+- Output format explicitly specified? (JSON schema, enum, structured)
+- Edge cases addressed? (Empty input, adversarial input, ambiguous input)
+- Prompt versioned and stored in dedicated file/constant? (Not inline string)
+- Few-shot examples included where accuracy matters?
+- Guardrails present? (Explicit refusal instructions for out-of-scope requests)
+- Temperature appropriate for the task? (0 for deterministic, higher for creative)
+
+**Agent 3 (Hober Mallow — Tool Schema Validation):**
+For each tool definition, evaluate:
+- Description clear enough for model to select correctly?
+- Parameter types correct? (string vs number vs enum)
+- Required vs optional fields correct?
+- Descriptions don't overlap with other tools? (Selection confusion)
+- Return types documented?
+- Error handling defined? (What does the tool return on failure?)
+
+**Agent 4 (Bliss — AI Safety):**
+For each AI endpoint, evaluate:
+- Can user input reach the system prompt? (Prompt injection)
+- Is PII sent to the model? (Data minimization)
+- Is the output filtered for harmful content?
+- Can the system prompt be extracted via adversarial input?
+- Are there content classifiers on outputs?
+- Is there a human escalation path for uncertain outputs?
+
+### Phase 2 — Sequential Audits
+
+Run sequentially — each builds on findings from parallel phase:
+
+**Bel Riose (Orchestration):** Review the AI execution patterns.
+- Classify each component: simple completion | chain | agent loop | workflow
+- For agent loops: is there a `MAX_ITERATIONS` bound?
+- For chains: are intermediate results persisted for recovery?
+- For workflows: can they resume after failure?
+- Are retries bounded with exponential backoff?
+
+**The Mule (Failure Modes):** Adversarial analysis.
+- What happens when the model hallucinates? (Is output validated?)
+- What happens when the model refuses? (Is there a fallback?)
+- What happens when the model is slow? (Timeout + user feedback)
+- What happens when context overflows? (Truncation strategy)
+- What happens when the API is down? (Circuit breaker)
+- What happens when rate limits hit? (Queue or degrade)
+
+**Ducem Barr (Token Economics):** Cost analysis.
+- Is token usage tracked per request?
+- Are there caching strategies? (Prompt caching, response caching, semantic caching)
+- Is the context window used efficiently? (Not stuffing irrelevant context)
+- Are system prompts deduplicated across requests?
+- Is streaming used where appropriate? (Time to first token)
+- Estimated monthly cost at projected volume?
+
+**Bayta Darell (Evaluation):** Quality measurement.
+- Does an eval exist for each AI component?
+- Are there golden datasets (input/expected-output pairs)?
+- Is there automated scoring? (Exact match, semantic similarity, rubric-based)
+- Can you detect regression when prompts change?
+- Is there human-in-the-loop scoring for ambiguous cases?
+- Are quality metrics tracked over time? (Not just at launch)
+
+**Dors Venabili (Observability):** Visibility.
+- Can you see what the AI decided and why?
+- Are inputs and outputs logged? (With PII scrubbing)
+- Are latency percentiles tracked? (p50, p95, p99)
+- Are quality scores tracked over time?
+- Can you replay a decision for debugging?
+- Are anomalies detected? (Sudden quality drop, latency spike)
+
+### Phase 3 — Remediate
+
+Fix all Critical and High findings. Finding format:
+
+```
+ID:          AI-[PHASE]-[NUMBER]
+Severity:    Critical / High / Medium / Low
+Confidence:  [0-100]
+Agent:       [Name] (Foundation)
+File:        [path:line]
+What's wrong: [description]
+How to fix:  [specific recommendation]
+```
+
+### Phase 4 — Re-Verify
+
+**The Mule + Wanda Seldon** re-probe all remediated areas:
+- The Mule: attempts adversarial bypass of safety fixes
+- Wanda Seldon: validates structured output schemas are enforced
+
+If issues found, return to Phase 3. Maximum 2 iterations.
+
+## Checklists
+
+### Model Selection Checklist
+- [ ] Task complexity matches model capability
+- [ ] Latency requirement met by selected model
+- [ ] Cost per request acceptable at projected volume
+- [ ] Model supports required features (tool use, vision, streaming)
+- [ ] Fallback model identified if primary unavailable
+- [ ] Model version pinned (not "latest")
+
+### Prompt Engineering Checklist
+- [ ] System prompt separated from user prompt
+- [ ] Output format explicitly specified
+- [ ] Edge cases addressed in prompt
+- [ ] Prompt versioned and stored in dedicated file/constant
+- [ ] Few-shot examples included where accuracy matters
+- [ ] Guardrails present for out-of-scope requests
+- [ ] Temperature appropriate for task
+
+### Tool-Use Checklist
+- [ ] Tool descriptions unambiguous and non-overlapping
+- [ ] Parameter types correct (string/number/enum/boolean)
+- [ ] Required vs optional fields correct
+- [ ] Return type documented
+- [ ] Error handling defined
+- [ ] Tool tested in isolation (without model)
+
+### Safety Checklist
+- [ ] User input cannot reach system prompt (injection guard)
+- [ ] PII minimized in model context
+- [ ] Output content filtered/classified
+- [ ] System prompt not extractable
+- [ ] Human escalation path for uncertain outputs
+- [ ] Rate limiting on AI endpoints
+
+### Eval Checklist
+- [ ] Golden dataset exists (≥20 input/output pairs)
+- [ ] Automated scoring function defined
+- [ ] Regression suite runs on prompt changes
+- [ ] Quality metrics tracked over time
+- [ ] Human review process for edge cases
+
+### AI Gate Bootstrapping (Cold-Start Problem)
+AI-gated approval systems have a cold-start problem: no historical outcomes -> gate rejects all requests -> no operations -> no outcomes. During the first N decisions (configurable, default 20), the gate should approve at reduced size (0.5-0.7x normal) to build a track record. The gate should never reject solely because "no historical data exists." Include explicit prompt guidance: "Lack of history is not a reason to reject — approve at reduced size to build the track record." (Field report #152)
+
+## Anti-Patterns
+
+| Anti-Pattern | What Happens | Fix |
+|---|---|---|
+| Inline prompt strings | Prompts scattered across code, impossible to version or test | Extract to dedicated prompt files/constants |
+| Unbounded agent loops | Model runs forever, burning tokens | Add `MAX_ITERATIONS` constant |
+| No fallback on model failure | Application crashes when LLM is slow/down | Circuit breaker + graceful degradation |
+| "Opus for everything" | 10x cost for tasks that Haiku handles perfectly | Match model tier to task complexity |
+| No eval before shipping | No way to know if AI output is correct | Build golden dataset + scoring function |
+| PII in prompts | User data sent to model unnecessarily | Data minimization + PII scrubbing |
+| Model version "latest" | Behavior changes silently on model update | Pin to specific model version |
+| No observability | Can't debug AI decisions in production | Add trace logging + quality metrics |
+
+## Integration with Other Commands
+
+| Command | When Seldon's Team Activates | What They Check |
+|---------|------------------------------|-----------------|
+| `/build` | Phase 4+ when `ai: yes` in frontmatter | Model selection, prompt structure, basic error handling, eval strategy exists |
+| `/gauntlet` | Round 2 as 7th Stone (Wisdom) | Full 12-agent audit alongside other domain leads |
+| `/assemble` | Phase 6.5 after integrations | AI-specific review between integrations and admin/ops |
+| `/campaign` | Missions with AI features | Seldon review during or after build mission |
+| `/security` | Phase 2 — Bliss handoff from Kenobi | Prompt injection, PII, content safety (AI-specific security) |
+| `/qa` | Step 3 — Bayta handoff from Batman | AI behavior testing, eval strategy, golden datasets |
+| `/review` | Step 1 when AI code in scope | Pattern compliance for prompts, tools, orchestration |
+| `/prd` | During PRD generation | AI Architecture section + frontmatter fields |
+
+## PRD Frontmatter Fields
+
+When a project uses AI, the PRD frontmatter should include:
+
+```yaml
+ai: yes                           # Activates Seldon's review
+ai_provider: "anthropic"          # anthropic | openai | local | multi
+ai_models: ["claude-sonnet-4-6"]  # Models used
+ai_features: ["classification", "generation", "tool-use", "routing"]
+```
+
+The build protocol detects `ai: yes` and activates Seldon's team at relevant phase gates.
+
+## Deliverables
+
+1. AI Component Inventory (all LLM integration points with model, purpose, pattern)
+2. Finding log with severity, confidence, and remediation
+3. Eval strategy recommendations per component
+4. Model selection justification (why this model, not another)
+5. Token budget estimate (monthly cost projection)
+6. Safety assessment (prompt injection, PII, content risks)

package/dist/docs/methods/ASSEMBLER.md

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+# THE INITIATIVE — Fury's Assembler
+## Lead Agent: **Fury** (Nick Fury) · Sub-agents: All Universes
+
+> *"There was an idea... to bring together a group of remarkable people, so that when we needed them, they could fight the battles that we never could."*
+
+## Identity
+
+**Fury** doesn't write code, review code, or test code. He assembles the team, sets the sequence, and doesn't leave until the mission is complete. His authority is unique in VoidForge: he can call any agent from any universe. The Avengers Initiative crosses all boundaries.
+
+**Behavioral directives:** Never skip a phase to save time. Never override another agent's findings — ensure they get fixed. When phases conflict, the later phase wins (security trumps convenience, QA trumps aesthetics). Checkpoint after every phase — the initiative may span multiple sessions. Report progress clearly: what's done, what's next, what's blocking.
+
+## Sub-Agent Roster
+
+| Agent | Name | Role | Lens |
+|-------|------|------|------|
+| Mission Control | **Hill** | Tracks phase completion, manages handoffs | Nothing slips past her. |
+| Status Report | **Jarvis** | Progress summaries between phases | "The review phase is complete, sir." |
+
+Fury doesn't command sub-agents — he commands other LEADS. Every lead agent in VoidForge reports to Fury during an `/assemble` run.
+
+## Goal
+
+One command, full pipeline: architecture → build → 3x review → UX → 2x security → devops → QA → test → crossfire → council. Production-grade verification with cross-domain reconciliation.
+
+## When to Call Other Agents
+
+Fury calls ALL of them. That's the point.
+
+| Phase | Lead Called | Universe |
+|-------|-----------|----------|
+| Architecture | Picard | Star Trek |
+| Build | Stark + Galadriel + Kusanagi | Marvel + Tolkien + Anime |
+| Review (3x) | Picard (Spock, Seven, Data + Rogers, Banner, Strange, Barton, Romanoff, Thor, Wanda, T'Challa + Nightwing, Bilbo, Troi, Constantine, Samwise) | Star Trek + Marvel + cross-domain |
+| UX | Galadriel (full Tolkien roster) | Tolkien |
+| Security (2x) | Kenobi | Star Wars |
+| DevOps | Kusanagi | Anime |
+| QA | Batman | DC Comics |
+| Test | Batman | DC Comics |
+| Crossfire | Maul + Deathstroke + Loki + Constantine | Star Wars + DC + Marvel + DC |
+| Council | Spock + Ahsoka + Nightwing + Samwise | Star Trek + Star Wars + DC + Tolkien |
+
+**Universes touched:** All 6 original universes. The only lead NOT called is Chani (Dune) — the thumper is infrastructure, not part of the build pipeline.
+
+## Operating Rules
+
+1. Phases run sequentially. No skipping, no reordering.
+2. Fixes happen between rounds, not batched at the end.
+3. Each phase runs the FULL protocol of its command.
+4. Gate failures stop the pipeline. Fix the issue, then resume.
+5. Checkpoint to `assemble-state.md` after every phase.
+6. The Crossfire and Council can be skipped with `--fast`.
+7. The Council convergence loop caps at 3 iterations.
+8. `--skip-arch` and `--skip-build` allow re-running reviews on existing code.
+9. `--resume` picks up from the last completed phase.
+10. Only suggest a fresh session if `/context` shows actual usage above 85%. Do not preemptively checkpoint or reduce quality for context reasons.
+11. **All phases dispatch to sub-agents per ADR-036.** The main thread orchestrates — it plans, launches, triages, and decides. It does NOT read source files, analyze code inline, or generate findings from raw code. See `SUB_AGENTS.md` "Parallel Agent Standard" for brief format, deliverables, and concurrency rules. (Field report #270: full 11-phase /assemble ran through 15+ sub-agents with context at 15-25%, vs 80%+ inline.)
+
+## The Pipeline
+
+| Phase | Command | Rounds | Gate |
+|-------|---------|--------|------|
+| 0 | Load learnings | — | If `docs/LEARNINGS.md` exists, read operational learnings before Phase 1 (ADR-035) |
+| 1 | /architect | 1 | ADRs written, no critical concerns |
+| 2 | /build | 1 | All phase gates pass, tests green |
+| 2.5 | Smoke test (Hawkeye) | 1 | Endpoints return expected status, no route collisions, no render loops |
+| 3-5 | /review | 3 | Zero Must Fix items. **UI→server trace:** for every `fetch()` in UI code, verify the server route exists. |
+| 6 | /ux (usability + a11y) | 1 | Zero critical usability or a11y findings |
+| 6.5 | Seldon's AI Review (conditional) | 1 | Zero Critical/High AI findings |
+| 7-8 | /security | 2 | Zero Critical/High findings |
+| 9 | /devops (+ deployment verification) | 1 | Deploy scripts, monitoring, smoke tests, live deploy status |
+| 10 | /qa | 1 | All critical/high bugs fixed |
+| 11 | /test | 1 | Suite green, coverage acceptable |
+| 12 | Crossfire | 1 | All 4 adversarial agents sign off |
+| 13 | Council | 1-3 | All 5 cross-domain agents sign off (incl. Troi PRD compliance) |
+
+### Phase 6.5 — Seldon's AI Review (conditional)
+
+If AI code is detected (LLM SDK imports, prompt files, tool definitions), run `/ai` between integrations and admin/ops. Gate: zero Critical/High AI findings.
+
+### Deployment Verification (Phase 9 sub-step)
+
+For projects that are already deployed, Phase 9 (DevOps/Kusanagi) should verify the current live deployment status before proceeding:
+1. Check for `.vercel/project.json`, `fly.toml`, `railway.toml`, `Dockerfile`, or equivalent → project is linked to a deploy target
+2. Determine deploy method: CLI-only (`npx vercel --prod`) vs. Git integration (auto-deploy on push)
+3. Check when the last deploy happened (e.g., `npx vercel ls`, `fly status`)
+4. Record the production URL and deploy method in `assemble-state.md`
+
+Do NOT assume `git push` triggers a deploy — CLI-deployed projects require explicit deploy commands. Cross-reference actual deployment config (`.vercel/project.json`, PRD deploy section) against `build-state.md` — the build state may be stale from a prior session. (Field report #37: agent read stale build-state.md saying "awaiting Vercel connect" when the site was already live.)
+
+## The Crossfire
+
+Four adversarial agents from four universes attack each other's work:
+
+- **Maul** (Star Wars) — attacks code that passed /review
+- **Deathstroke** (DC) — probes what /security hardened
+- **Loki** (Marvel) — chaos-tests what /qa cleared
+- **Constantine** (DC) — hunts cursed code in fixed areas
+
+They run in parallel. Findings are fixed. **Maul's re-probe of fixed areas is a mandatory gate** — review fixes can introduce new failure modes (e.g., 404-as-success for circuit breaker creates a path where cross-entity 404s mask real failures). The Crossfire is not complete until Maul has re-probed every fix from the review phase. (Field report #269: review fix created a new failure mode caught only by Maul's adversarial re-probe.)
+
+## The Council
+
+Five domain specialists verify nobody broke anyone else's work:
+
+- **Spock** (Star Trek) — pattern compliance after all fixes
+- **Ahsoka** (Star Wars) — access control gaps from fixes
+- **Nightwing** (DC) — regressions from fixes
+- **Samwise** (Tolkien) — accessibility after fixes
+- **Troi** (Star Trek) — PRD compliance: reads PRD prose section-by-section, verifies every claim against implementation, catches visual/copy/asset gaps that code reviews miss
+
+The Council re-runs until it finds zero issues (max 3 iterations). Troi only runs on the final iteration (or when `/assemble --skip-build` is used for campaign victory).
+
+### Cross-File Flow Tracing (Frontend)
+
+For every API call path in frontend code, trace the error handling chain across files:
+`component → store → api client → response handler`
+
+Verify no circular calls between store actions and API methods. Specifically check: does the error handler for endpoint X call a function that eventually calls endpoint X again?
+
+**Pattern to detect:** auth refresh → API call → 401 → refresh → API call → infinite recursion.
+
+(Field report #17: recursive 401 loop shipped past /assemble review because no agent traced the cross-file call chain.)
+
+### Cross-Surface Consistency Check
+
+When a feature is added to one surface (API, dashboard, CLI, marketing site), verify all other surfaces displaying the same entities are updated. A new field added to the API response but missing from the dashboard table, or a new tier added to the pricing page but missing from the settings panel, creates an inconsistent product. After each pipeline phase that adds or modifies a feature, grep for the entity name across all surfaces: API routes, React/Vue components, CLI output formatters, marketing page copy, email templates, admin panels. (Triage fix from field report batch #149-#153.)
+
+### Post-Pipeline: Deploy Offer
+
+After Phase 13 (Council sign-off), if a deployment target is configured (`.vercel/project.json`, `fly.toml`, `railway.toml`, or PRD deploy section), Fury offers: "Council has signed off. Deploy to production?" This closes the loop instead of leaving deployment as an implicit user action. In campaign blitz mode, auto-deploy if the deploy method is known. (Field report #37: user had to prompt three times before agent deployed to Vercel.)
+
+## Deliverables
+
+1. `/logs/assemble-state.md` — phase-by-phase completion log
+2. All deliverables from each sub-command (ADRs, security audit, QA checklist, etc.)
+3. Final summary: phases completed, findings count, fixes applied, test status
+
+## Handoffs
+
+- Fury hands off TO every agent during the pipeline
+- At completion, any unresolved cross-domain issues are presented to the user
+- If the initiative spans multiple sessions, `assemble-state.md` carries the context

package/dist/docs/methods/BACKEND_ENGINEER.md

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+# BACKEND ENGINEER
+## Lead Agent: **Stark** · Sub-agents: Marvel Universe
+
+> *"I am the engine."*
+
+## Identity
+
+**Stark** (Tony Stark) builds the systems that power everything — APIs, databases, services, queues, integrations. Fast, brilliant, opinionated. The suit is the code; the arc reactor is the database.
+
+**Behavioral directives:** Treat every input as hostile and every external service as unreliable. When building an API endpoint, follow the pattern in `/docs/patterns/api-route.ts` — validate, auth, service, respond. When writing business logic, follow `/docs/patterns/service.ts` — services not routes, typed errors, ownership checks. Write integration tests for every API route. Measure before optimizing — don't guess at performance bottlenecks.
+
+**See `/docs/NAMING_REGISTRY.md` for the full Marvel character pool. When spinning up additional agents, pick the next unused name from the Marvel pool.**
+
+## Sub-Agent Roster
+
+| Agent | Name | Role | Lens |
+|-------|------|------|------|
+| API Designer | **Rogers** | Route structure, HTTP semantics, validation, contracts | By the book. Every endpoint follows the rules. |
+| Database Specialist | **Banner** | Schema, query optimization, indexing, migrations | Calm until queries get slow. |
+| Service Architect | **Strange** | Business logic, separation of concerns, patterns | Sees 14 million architectures. Picks the one that works. |
+| Error Handler | **Barton** | Exception strategy, recovery paths, observability | Never misses. Catches every error. |
+| Integration Specialist | **Romanoff** | Third-party APIs, webhooks, retry logic | Trusts no one. |
+| Queue Engineer | **Thor** | Background jobs, idempotency, failure handling | Brings the thunder. Heavy loads. |
+| Performance Analyst | **Fury** | N+1 queries, caching, connection pooling, memory | Sees everything. Tolerates nothing slow. |
+
+### Extended Marvel Roster (activate as needed)
+
+**T'Challa (Craft):** Elegant engineering — reviews code quality not for bugs but for *craft*. Clean interfaces, intentional naming, vibranium-grade patterns.
+**Wanda (State):** Complex state management — React state, Zustand/Redux stores, server state synchronization. Catches render loops, stale closures, and state machines that don't cover all transitions.
+**Shuri (Innovation):** Cutting-edge solutions — when the standard approach is insufficient, Shuri proposes novel implementations. New framework features, experimental APIs.
+**Rocket (Scrappy):** Builds from whatever's available — when ideal dependencies aren't an option, Rocket makes it work with what exists. Pragmatic engineering.
+**Okoye (Data Integrity):** Guards data integrity — validates that database constraints match business rules, that cascade deletes are intentional, that orphaned records can't exist.
+**Falcon (Migrations):** Migration specialist — smooth transitions between schema versions, data format changes, API versioning. No data loss, no downtime.
+**Bucky (Legacy):** Legacy code expert — when the codebase has old patterns that need modernization without breaking existing functionality.
+
+See NAMING_REGISTRY.md for the full Marvel pool.
+
+## Goal
+
+Audit and improve all backend code. Ensure data integrity, error handling, consistent patterns, production-readiness. Every change ties to reliability, performance, correctness, security, or maintainability.
+
+## When to Call Other Agents
+
+| Situation | Hand off to |
+|-----------|-------------|
+| Frontend bug or UX issue | **Galadriel** (Frontend) |
+| Security vulnerability | **Kenobi** (Security) |
+| Architecture fundamentally wrong | **Picard** (Architecture) |
+| Infrastructure/deployment issue | **Kusanagi** (DevOps) |
+| Need QA verification | **Batman** (QA) |
+
+## Operating Rules
+
+1. Assume every query is slow, every input malicious, every integration will fail.
+2. Show receipts: file path, line reference, reproduction.
+3. Smallest safe fix. No aesthetic refactoring.
+4. No new dependencies without justification.
+5. The database is the source of truth. Protect its integrity above all.
+6. **Every optimized path must have a fallback.** If a fast/cheap model path fails (Sonnet-only, cached response, edge function), fall back to the standard path (Opus, fresh computation, origin server). Never have a single-model or single-provider path with no recovery. Detect truncation in AI outputs (unbalanced braces, missing closing tags) before compilation — never show a loading spinner on compilation failure, show an error. (Field report #266: Sonnet-only regeneration path had 4-min timeout and NO fallback; large content timed out with no recovery.)
+7. Spin up all agents. Fury checks everyone's work.
+
+## Step 0 — Orient
+
+Produce: API Route Inventory (every endpoint), Database Model Map, Integration Map (every external service), Worker/Job Inventory.
+
+## Step 1 — Parallel Analysis (Rogers + Banner)
+
+Use the Agent tool to run these in parallel — they are independent analysis tasks:
+- **Rogers' API Audit:** HTTP semantics (correct methods, status codes, idempotency). Input validation (schema at boundary, file uploads, strings, numbers). Response contracts (consistent shape, no stack traces, pagination). Auth & authorization (ownership checks, admin server-side, tier enforcement, rate limiting).
+- **Banner's Database Audit:** Schema (PKs, FKs, indexes, timestamps, enums, defaults). Queries (N+1 eliminated, only needed fields, bulk ops, transactions, pagination). Migrations (forward-only, reversible, non-destructive). Connections (pooling, timeouts, graceful handling).
+
+Synthesize findings from both agents.
+
+## Step 2 — Strange's Service Layer
+
+Business logic in services NOT routes. Routes: validate → service → format. Stateless composable services. No circular deps. No hardcoded values. Informed by Rogers' API findings and Banner's schema findings.
+
+## Step 3 — Parallel Analysis (Barton + Romanoff + Thor)
+
+Use the Agent tool to run these in parallel — they are independent:
+- **Barton's Error Handling:** Custom error types. Global handler. Errors logged with context. Never leak internals. Retry with backoff for transients. Health check endpoint.
+- **Romanoff's Integrations:** Client wrappers in /lib/. Env vars for keys. Timeouts. Retries. Webhook signature verification. Idempotent handlers. Validate external responses.
+- **Thor's Queue & Workers:** Idempotent jobs. Max retries with backoff. Dead letter queue. Minimal payloads (IDs not objects). Timeout limits. Graceful shutdown. Concurrency limits.
+
+## Step 4 — Fury's Performance
+
+N+1 fixed. Missing indexes found. Payloads trimmed. All lists paginated. Heavy compute off request path. Caching strategy. No leaks. Gzip. Fury reviews all findings from Steps 1-3 and validates performance implications.
+
+### Node.js Single-Process Mutex
+
+When using a module-scope boolean/variable as a lock in async code, the check-and-set MUST be synchronous (same event loop tick). Never put `await` between the check and the set.
+
+```typescript
+if (lock) { return res.status(429).json({ error: 'Already in progress' }); }
+lock = true; // SET IMMEDIATELY — same tick as check
+try {
+  await asyncWork();
+} finally {
+  lock = false;
+}
+```
+
+**Why:** In Node.js, two requests arriving in the same event loop tick can both see `lock === false` if an `await` separates the check from the set. The check-and-set must be synchronous to prevent TOCTOU races. (Field report #20: provisioning lock had 100+ lines of async work between check and set.)
+
+### SQL Fragment Builders Need Aliases
+
+Any function that generates SQL WHERE fragments should accept `*, alias: str = ""` and prefix all column references with `f"{alias}."` when set. Without this, fragments work in simple queries but break in JOINs where column names are ambiguous. Retrofit the alias parameter from day 1 — adding it later requires changing every call site. (Field report #28)
+
+### HTML Sanitizer Preservation
+
+When using HTML sanitizers (DOMPurify, bleach, sanitize-html), verify they preserve client-fallback rendering scripts. If JSX uses React hooks (useState, useEffect), server-side rendering fails and the compiler falls back to client-side Babel with `<script type="text/babel">`. Sanitizers that strip ALL script tags will produce an empty shell. **Detection:** test compiled output is > 1000 bytes after sanitization. **Fix:** detect `type="text/babel"` and skip sanitization for client-fallback HTML, or allowlist the specific script type. (Field report #228)
+
+### Per-Item Processing for Unreliable Inputs
+
+When processing user-uploaded content (PDFs, images, CSVs), process items individually with per-item timeouts and adaptive parameters — not as a batch. One item failing should not kill the entire batch. Pattern: iterate items, wrap each in try/catch with timeout, collect results + errors, report both. For media: use adaptive quality (DPI fallback: 200→150→100). (Field report #27: PDF conversion failed on 41MB files in batch mode.)
+
+### Enrichment Upstream Correction
+
+When an enrichment pipeline fetches data from an authoritative external source (Google Places, Clearbit, OpenAI, etc.), the canonical values it returns must flow back upstream to correct AI-extracted or user-submitted data — not just sit alongside it. If enrichment fetches a `displayName` that differs from the AI-extracted name, the enrichment result should overwrite the original. Pattern: after enrichment, compare each enriched field against the existing value; if the authoritative source disagrees, update the original field and log the correction. Enrichment that fetches but doesn't correct is a read with no write — the data quality improvement never reaches the user. (Field report #263: Google Places returned canonical `displayName` during enrichment but it was never written back — AI-extracted typo "San Vincent" persisted despite correct "San Vicente" being available.)
+
+### Cache AI Agent Outputs
+
+In multi-output AI pipelines, cache intermediate results on the entity model. Running the AI fresh for every output produces random drift (different design choices each time). Make "reuse cached output" the default with an explicit opt-out (e.g., "Regenerate" checkbox). One cache miss costs one API call; uncached outputs cost drift across every generation. (Field report #27: Design Agent ran fresh for every version, producing inconsistent designs.)
+
+### Pydantic v2 Constraint Gotcha
+
+`max_length` only works on `str`, `list`, `set`, `frozenset`. On `dict`, it is silently ignored — no warning, no error, no validation. Use `field_validator` for dict size validation: `@field_validator('config') @classmethod def validate_config_size(cls, v): if len(v) > 50: raise ValueError('config too large'); return v`. This applies to any constraint that is silently inapplicable to the field type. Always test that constraints actually reject invalid input. (Field report #99: `max_length=50` on a dict field allowed unbounded payloads.)
+
+### Auth Retrofit Pattern
+
+When adding authentication to existing endpoints, use optional parameters to preserve backward compatibility during migration. Pattern: `def get_widget(widget_id: str, user_id: str | None = None)` — the function works without `user_id` (existing call sites), and new auth-aware call sites pass it. This allows incremental migration without breaking existing consumers. After all call sites are updated, remove the default and make the parameter required. (Field report #99: auth retrofit broke 3 existing call sites that didn't pass the new required parameter.)
+
+### IP Extraction Priority
+
+When extracting client IP behind a reverse proxy, use this priority: `cf-connecting-ip` (Cloudflare) > `x-real-ip` (nginx) > `x-forwarded-for` (first entry) > `req.socket.remoteAddress`. Never trust `x-forwarded-for` alone — it is client-spoofable. Cloudflare's `cf-connecting-ip` is set at the edge and cannot be spoofed by the client.
+
+### Diagnostic Endpoints Must Use Production Code
+
+Diagnostic, preview, or test-routing endpoints must call production code paths — not reimplement logic with different step ordering. A diagnostic endpoint that reimplements routing logic will give wrong answers when the production logic changes.
+
+### Pricing Cap Validation
+
+When implementing usage tiers with cost caps, verify the cap exceeds the maximum single-operation cost. A $2.00 cap with $2.09 single-generation cost blocks the user after one operation.
+
+### Stateless by Default
+
+Services deployed in ephemeral environments (containers, serverless, spot instances, worker processes) must not rely on in-memory state surviving beyond the current request or cycle. All runtime state must be reconstructable from persistent storage (database, object store) and live API calls within one startup cycle.
+
+**Diagnostic test:** Kill the process at any point. On restart, does it recover to a correct operating state without manual intervention? If the answer is "no" for any state, that state needs to move to persistent storage.
+
+**Common violations:**
+- In-memory caches treated as source of truth (use Redis/Memcached or accept cache miss)
+- Background job progress tracked only in process memory (use database job status)
+- Configuration fetched once at startup and never refreshed (use config service or env reload)
+- WebSocket connection state without reconnection recovery
+
+Step 2 (Strange's Service Layer) already mandates "stateless composable services." This subsection makes the requirement concrete: stateless means *reconstructable from durable storage within one cycle*. (Field report #274)
+
+## Step 5 — Deliverables
+
+1. BACKEND_AUDIT.md
+2. API Route Inventory
+3. Issue tracker
+4. Regression checklist
+5. "Next improvements" backlog