--- name: tech-spec version: 1.0.0 description: '[Documentation] Use when (re)generating the DERIVED technical spec view over code + tests, or reporting canonical §8 TC/test-code drift. A GENERATOR — it projects code + tests into a regenerable per-component view and NEVER authors business content. Modes generate|audit|sync. Per-mode procedure lives in references/{author,sync}.md.' triggers: 'tech spec, technical spec, regenerate tech specs, technical spec view, derived technical spec, component technical spec, use case inventory, TC to test map, test coverage map, sync test specs, sync tests, reconcile tests, reverse sync, full sync, harvest invariants, cross-service topology, event consumer inventory' --- > **[BLOCKING]** Execute skill steps in declared order. NEVER skip, reorder, or merge steps without explicit user approval. > **[BLOCKING]** Before each step or sub-skill call, update task tracking: set `in_progress` when step starts, set `completed` when step ends. > **[BLOCKING]** Every completed/skipped step MUST include brief evidence or explicit skip reason. > **[BLOCKING]** If Task tools are unavailable, create and maintain an equivalent step-by-step plan tracker with the same status transitions. ## Quick Summary > **Portability:** the technical root is read from `docs/project-config.json` → `specRoots.technical.path` (declared `authorship: "derived"`, `m1Policy: "exempt"`). NEVER hardcode a root. `{TechRoot}/{Service}/{Component}.md` is a **pattern** — `{Service}` and `{Component}` are placeholders resolved from the repo, never literal names. **[IMPORTANT] TaskCreate** — Break ALL work into small tasks BEFORE starting (one task per emitted artifact). **Goal:** Generate, on demand, a regenerable single-writer **technical view** — per-component derived specs (use-case inventory, TC↔test map, cross-service topology) — **projected FROM** code and test annotations (`TestSpec` for business TC joins, `TechnicalSpec` for technical-only joins when present), so an engineer can read a component's technical surface without ever forking a second, hand-maintained source of truth. **Code and tests are the source of truth; this skill only projects them.** **Summary:** - **Purpose:** a DERIVED-view **generator** ONLY — greps handlers/consumers/jobs/producers and test annotations to emit `{TechRoot}/{Service}/{Component}.md`; it **NEVER authors business content**. Code + tests stay the source of truth. - **Main steps (run in order):** **Step 0** Scope Gate — `AskUserQuestion` (service/component + mode), BLOCKING before any read; no source to derive from → STOP. **Step 1** Derive facts — grep the use-case inventory, the `TestSpec`/`TechnicalSpec` joins, the topology. **Step 2** Instantiate templates — `references/author.md`'s fixed sections in pinned order. **Step 3** Stamp & Write — DERIVED banner + regenerate date, write each artifact immediately (never accumulate in context). **Step 4** Verify — no retired artifacts, banner present, no business artifact types, no canonical claims, no secrets. - **Modes:** `generate` (default — regenerate the derived view) · `audit` (report which views are stale vs code/tests) · `sync` (report canonical §8 TC ↔ executing test-code drift — `references/sync.md`). - Hard prohibition is the load-bearing rule: never emit the retired A-E engineering tree, `M##` dirs, `00-module-registry.md`, `01-domain-erd.md`, or `06-reimplementation-guide.md` under the technical root — why: an A-E bundle becomes a second source of truth competing with the Feature Spec, and a generator able to recreate it resurrects the retired tree on its next run (this has occurred once already, via rebase). - Every generated file carries the `> DERIVED — regenerate with the tech-spec skill; do NOT hand-edit` banner + a regenerate date, anchors each fact back to its source, and makes **no canonical claim**. - **This skill is M1-EXEMPT** (`specRoots.technical.m1Policy: "exempt"`) — its prose MAY name technology. That exemption is the whole reason this tree exists; it is NOT a licence to carry business content (see **Hard Prohibitions**). > **[SCOPE]** This skill generates a **DERIVED** technical view over code + tests under `specRoots.technical.path`. It MUST NOT emit a per-module A-E engineering bundle (`A-domain-model`, `B-business-rules`, `C-api-contracts`, `D-events`, `E-user-journeys`), `M##` directories, `00-module-registry.md`, `01-domain-erd.md`, or `06-reimplementation-guide.md` — those are not part of the spec model. It MUST NOT author business content: the Feature Spec under `specRoots.business.path` owns §1–§8, and this skill neither writes nor amends it. Authority: [`docs/project-reference/spec-system-reference.md`](../../../docs/project-reference/spec-system-reference.md), [`.claude/skills/shared/sdd-artifact-contract.md`](../shared/sdd-artifact-contract.md). **Inputs:** the code tree (command/query handlers, event consumers, background jobs, producers, sagas, outbox) and the test tree (`TestSpec` and `TechnicalSpec` annotations when present). **Code is the technical source of truth** — this skill reads it to **project** a view, never to populate a parallel _canonical_ layer. **Modes:** | Mode | Trigger | Input | Output | | ---------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | `generate` | default — refresh the derived view | code + test annotations | `{TechRoot}/{Service}/{Component}.md`, all DERIVED (`references/author.md`) | | `audit` | explicit request — staleness check | code/test mtimes or git vs derived-view age | Stale-list report (which views lag their source). Never mutates | | `sync` | "sync tests" / "reconcile tests" / harvest | canonical §8 TCs + test code | §8/test drift report + route-only `CoveredBy:`/orphan reconciliation (`references/sync.md`) | **Tooling:** - `npm run tech-spec:generate` — regenerate the derived technical views from code/test annotations. Equivalent direct invocation, for projects that copy `.claude/` without a `package.json`: `node .claude/skills/tech-spec/scripts/generate-tech-specs.mjs` **Mode resolution (do this before any work):** 1. Parse the mode from the invocation: explicit `[mode=]` arg wins; else infer ("regenerate tech specs", "technical spec for {Component}" → `generate`; "stale", "audit" → `audit`; "sync tests", "reconcile tests", "reverse sync", "harvest" → `sync`). 2. If ambiguous, present the detected mode via `AskUserQuestion` before proceeding — NEVER auto-start a mutating mode. 3. **Read the matching `references/` body** — it is the single source of truth for that mode's procedure, gates, and output contract. Do not run a mode from memory. **Workflow:** `/scout` (locate the component) → `/tech-spec` (project the view) → `/changes-review` → `/watzup` --- ## The Generator Contract (NON-NEGOTIABLE) This skill is a **generator**, not an author. Every clause below is structural — none is a preference a future maintainer may relax for convenience. | # | Clause | Why | | ------ | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **C1** | **[BLOCKING]** Output is **DERIVED and regenerable** — every generated file carries a `> DERIVED — regenerate with the tech-spec skill; do NOT hand-edit` banner + a regenerate date. It is **NEVER a second source of truth**. | A derived view makes no truth claim, so it cannot compete for canonical status. A hand-editable tree makes one — and then "which is right, the doc or the code?" becomes askable. | | **C2** | **[BLOCKING]** **Never authors business content.** No user story, no acceptance criterion, no business rule, no §1–§7 prose, no §8 TC is written by this skill — in any mode. The Feature Spec stays the source of truth for all of it. | Carrying the Feature Spec's own artifact types is exactly how a rival tree competes on the Feature Spec's turf. | | **C3** | **[BLOCKING]** **Never claims to be a source of truth.** The generated files never assert canonical authority. When the view disagrees with code, **code is right by construction and the view is stale — regenerate it.** | A derived aid that asserts canonical authority corrupts the single-writer contract. | | **C4** | **[BLOCKING]** **Write each artifact immediately** after instantiating it; do NOT accumulate large outputs in context. | A `{Service}/{Component}` fan-out is exactly the case that exhausts context mid-run and loses every unwritten artifact. | | **C5** | **[BLOCKING]** **Single writer.** This skill is the **sole writer** under `specRoots.technical.path`. Nothing else writes there; it writes nowhere else. | Two writers is how a view becomes a sibling. | | **C6** | **[BLOCKING]** **Regeneration is idempotent** — regenerating over unchanged source produces an **empty diff**. | This is the tree's flagship oracle: it proves the artifact can be thrown away and rebuilt from its source. If it cannot, the tree holds content of its own — it claims truth, and it is a rival. | | **C7** | **[BLOCKING]** **A-E filenames are never emitted.** See **Hard Prohibitions**. | An A-E bundle becomes a second source of truth competing with the Feature Spec. | ### C8 — Mechanical detect + route · never judge · never write business content > **A generator MUST NEVER apply RIT — or any judgment test — at generation time.** Judgment produces data; generators consume data. > Canonical formulation: [`.claude/skills/shared/sdd-artifact-contract.md`](../shared/sdd-artifact-contract.md) (beside RIT). **Cited, not restated.** | | Who | When | Output | | -------------------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | ------------------------------------------------- | | **Judgment** (RIT, business-invariant verdicts, visibility classification) | a human, or an AI **outside** this generator | **once**, at authoring/classification time | a **persisted verdict — data** | | **Generation** | `/tech-spec` | every run | output **mechanically re-derived** from that data | **Idempotency holds because nothing is re-judged.** The generator reads a verdict it did not make and cannot revise. Same source + same verdicts ⇒ same output, every run. **A generator that judges is not idempotent — it fails C6 against its own tree, permanently, and the failure reports as `hand-edited`, which is the wrong cause and undiagnosable.** **Two resolutions that are FORBIDDEN, because both look like fixes:** | Rejected | Why it fails | | ----------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | **Scope idempotency to only the mechanical sections** | Reintroduces a **per-section carve-out** — an exemption at a new address. A carve-out is this framework's characteristic failure; do not re-mint one inside the oracle. | | **Cache judgments inside the generator** | The generator then owns a **staleness problem**: a cached verdict that outlives the code it judged, invisible to review and to `git`. **Persisted verdicts belong in the artifact, not in generator state.** | ### C9 — The harvest detector REPORTS; it never gates > **A structural proxy for a semantic property REPORTS; it never blocks.** > Canonical formulation: [`.claude/skills/shared/sdd-artifact-contract.md`](../shared/sdd-artifact-contract.md) (beside RIT). **Cited, not restated.** Harvest **detection** is a structural signal — _an invariant enforced at ≥2 points with no business rule citing it_ (the countable property `references/sync.md` step 2 already asks for). It is **mechanical**, so this skill may perform it. Its output is a **candidate list** for human or `/spec [mode=update]` adjudication. - **NEVER an `error`. NEVER a build gate. NEVER a precondition on regeneration. NEVER a fixture that fails CI.** - The detector is a **structural proxy**: it infers a semantic property from a correlate, and the rule-citation link it reads is **prose, not a key**. It has false positives (a covered invariant can present as uncovered) **and** false negatives (an invariant enforced at one chokepoint is invisible to a ≥2-point counter). - **Why it may not gate:** a false positive that blocks a build gets suppressed — **and a suppressed detector is a dead detector.** A `report` cannot be suppressed, because it never blocked anything worth suppressing it for. - **A detection changes the report, never the tree** — so it cannot break C6. **The boundary — C9 does NOT license softening anything else:** | Rule | Operationally defined? | Severity | Why | | --------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------- | ------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | **C1** — DERIVED banner | **Yes** — a literal string test | **`error`** | The banner check **is** the rule | | **C6** — regeneration-idempotency | **Yes** — regenerate, diff empty | **`error`** | **An ORACLE, not a proxy — it re-runs the transform and compares. It does not infer.** | | **C7** — no A-E resurrection | **Yes** — a **closed** filename set | **`error`** | The filename list **is** the rule | | **C2** — no `US-`/`AC-`/`BR-` in the technical tree | **Yes** — a static prefix denylist | **`error`** | The prefix list **is** the rule | | **M1 / tech-token bans on the business tree** | **Yes** — a token denylist | **`error`** | Operationally defined; the spine stands | | **Harvest detector** | **No** — measures a correlate and **infers** | **REPORT — never gates** | The proxy rule | > **Do not misread C6 as a proxy.** C6's rule is _"regeneration over unchanged source produces an empty diff"_ — **and the empty diff IS the rule.** It executes the property rather than reasoning toward it. Demoting C6 would destroy the only real oracle here. **C6 gates at `error`, and nothing stands behind it to be a proxy for.** --- ## Step 0 — Scope Gate (MANDATORY FIRST) Before reading anything, use `AskUserQuestion`. Confirm: | Dimension | Question | Auto-Default | | ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------- | | **Scope** ★ | Which `{Service}` / `{Component}` — one component, one service, or the whole technical root? | — must confirm | | **Mode** ★ | `generate` (regenerate the view) OR `audit` (staleness report) OR `sync` (reconcile §8 ↔ tests)? | `generate` | | **Sections** | Full view, or a subset (use-case inventory / TC↔test map / topology)? | Full view | > **[BLOCKING]** Resolve `specRoots.technical.path` from `docs/project-config.json` FIRST. If it is absent, STOP — the technical root is not configured and this skill has no destination. NEVER hardcode a root. > **[BLOCKING]** If the target `{Service}`/`{Component}` has **no** derivable source (no handlers, consumers, jobs, or annotated tests), STOP — there is nothing to derive from. **NEVER fabricate a component to document.** --- ## Step 1 — Derive the Facts (grep, never recall) Read `references/author.md` and execute its derivation greps. Extract ONLY mechanically-derivable facts: 1. **Use Case Inventory** — write ops (N), read ops (M), event-driven (K), background jobs (J), and actor roles, per `references/author.md`. 2. **TC↔test map** — the join over existing test annotations (`TestSpec` for business TC coverage, `TechnicalSpec` for technical-only coverage when present), generated from the annotations that already exist in code. **NEVER hand-move this data.** 3. **Cross-service topology** — producers, consumers, sagas, shared contracts, data ownership (the `SYNC:cross-service-check` scan below is the procedure). 4. **Anchors** — every fact carries an abstract `[Source: {namespace}/{service}/{id}]` anchor. > **Scale note:** for a service with many components, you MAY spawn parallel reader sub-agents (one per component) that each return the extracted fields above. This is an optimization, not a gate. > **[BLOCKING]** Do NOT interpret, rank, assess business relevance, or judge any derived fact (**C8**). Count it, anchor it, emit