diff --git a/docs/notes/simplification-audit-2026-09.md b/docs/notes/simplification-audit-2026-09.md index 32728ed..b219adf 100644 --- a/docs/notes/simplification-audit-2026-09.md +++ b/docs/notes/simplification-audit-2026-09.md @@ -1,6 +1,6 @@ # Simplification audit -> **Status: complete (2026-09-16).** Every finding is closed at its own note except **22**, deferred with `bin`. See §7's status notes for the closing summary. This document is now a record; do not reopen it for new work — file an issue instead. +> **Frozen (2026-09-20) — a dated record, not a live document.** Status: complete; every finding is closed at its own note except **22**, deferred with `bin` (§7's status notes carry the closing summary). Every figure below is as measured at the commit it names, and none of them are maintained against HEAD; the document is frozen at `1ec3e8a`. Where a note dates itself "at HEAD", that means the branch tip on **that note's own date**, not the current tip — those figures were not re-derived for the freeze, and several are stale by construction because later commits moved what they measure. Do not re-measure it and do not reopen it for new work — file a Gitea issue instead. Date: 2026-09-10. Read-only analysis; nothing has been changed. Purpose: a hand-off for deciding what to remove, merge, and shrink. Findings are ranked by payoff within each area; effort is S/M/L. Claims were independently re-verified against the repo by a clean reviewer; corrections have been applied. @@ -23,7 +23,7 @@ Counting convention: line counts are hand-edited `.apm/` source unless marked "i > > > **Re-measured (2026-09-14, at `a6434e0`):** the right-hand column originally read 31,473 / 6,050 / 3,471 / 2,360 / 923 / 2,083 = 46,360 and was labelled "Today" against "the current working tree". It did not reconcile to its own commit's tree — at `061bb3d`, where it was written, the six plugins measured 31,435 / 6,048 / 3,474 / 2,358 / 926 / 2,087 = 46,328 — and "the current working tree" is a basis that goes stale silently. Re-counted at `a6434e0` and the column now names its SHA. The baseline column is confirmed exact against `9eb8bc7`. Commits after `061bb3d` (`c96ca9c`, which deleted the six plugin-root `.mcp.json` files) account for most of the remaining drift. -> **Re-derived (2026-09-16, at HEAD on `docs/simplification-audit`):** the 2026-09-15 notes recording finding 14's merge (~~`467bbd7`~~ → `620f20b`, ADR-0025) and the pipefail fix (~~`4059cb4`~~ → `ffcbed6`) were written without correcting the headlines they annotate, so this pass re-counted every figure those two commits could have moved and corrected each in place above and below. Everything re-measured here came from a command run at HEAD — `git ls-files`, `wc -l`, `grep -c`, and `bash tests/run-tests.sh --strict` — never from an earlier note. What moved: finding 2 (two surviving sync gates → one), the `.pre-commit-config.yaml` hook counts (27/9 → 26/8 → 27/9 → 26/8, the chain spelled out in §3's table note below; **26** `- id:` entries and **8** `stages: [pre-push]` at HEAD, `grep -c -- "- id:"` and `grep -c "stages: \[pre-push\]"`), the skill census (39 → 38 and everything derived from it), finding 11's validator and `sources.md` figures, finding 16's whole numeric basis, and the stale `skill-audit/`, `agent-audit/` and `formatting-and-scripts.md` paths in findings 18, 19 and 33. §1's three rows re-measured: ~~**469**~~ → **471** tracked files (~~465~~ → 467 regular plus the 4 submodule gitlinks) / ~~**74,594**~~ → **75,441** lines (pinned to `c07ca07`; see the note below); `plugins/` ~~**46,106** (62%)~~ → **46,127** (61%); the 38 `SKILL.md` bodies **2,409** (5.2% of plugin lines); enforcement ~~**20 `tests/test-*.sh` totalling 10,189 lines**~~ → ~~**21 `tests/test-*.sh` totalling 10,608 lines**~~ → **19 totalling 10,088** at `baa2f5d`, the two runners **502** (`run-tests.sh` 283 + `run-bats.sh` 219), and `scripts/` ~~**2,901**~~ → **3,139**; kyberforge's validator scripts and their bats tests ~~**5,861**~~ → **5,876** + **6,015** (the merge deduplicated scripts and left the test corpus larger, not smaller — `git ls-files 'plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/*/scripts/*.sh'` and `.../tests/*.bats`). `run-tests.sh --strict` reports ~~**20 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed**~~ → ~~**21 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed**~~ → **19 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed** at `baa2f5d` (`4de5b6b` deleted two suites). +> **Re-derived (2026-09-16, at HEAD on `docs/simplification-audit`):** the 2026-09-15 notes recording finding 14's merge (~~`467bbd7`~~ → `620f20b`, ADR-0025) and the pipefail fix (~~`4059cb4`~~ → `ffcbed6`) were written without correcting the headlines they annotate, so this pass re-counted every figure those two commits could have moved and corrected each in place above and below. Everything re-measured here came from a command run at HEAD — `git ls-files`, `wc -l`, `grep -c`, and `bash tests/run-tests.sh --strict` — never from an earlier note. What moved: finding 2 (two surviving sync gates → one), the `.pre-commit-config.yaml` hook counts (27/9 → 26/8 → 27/9 → 26/8, the chain spelled out in §3's table note below; **26** `- id:` entries and **8** `stages: [pre-push]` at HEAD, `grep -c -- "- id:"` and `grep -c "stages: \[pre-push\]"`), the skill census (39 → 38 and everything derived from it), finding 11's validator and `sources.md` figures, finding 16's whole numeric basis, and the stale `skill-audit/`, `agent-audit/` and `formatting-and-scripts.md` paths in findings 18, 19 and 33. §1's three rows re-measured: ~~**469**~~ → **471** tracked files (~~465~~ → 467 regular plus the 4 submodule gitlinks) / ~~**74,594**~~ → **75,441** lines (pinned to `c07ca07`; see the note below); `plugins/` ~~**46,106** (62%)~~ → **46,127** (61%); the 38 `SKILL.md` bodies **2,409** (5.2% of plugin lines); enforcement ~~**20 `tests/test-*.sh` totalling 10,189 lines**~~ → ~~**21 `tests/test-*.sh` totalling 10,608 lines**~~ → **19 totalling 10,088** at `baa2f5d`, the two runners ~~**502** (`run-tests.sh` 283 + `run-bats.sh` 219)~~ → **514** (`run-tests.sh` 289 + `run-bats.sh` 225), and `scripts/` ~~**2,901**~~ → ~~**3,139**~~ → **1,926** (**corrected 2026-09-20**: the struck runner and `scripts/` figures are `c07ca07`'s, not `baa2f5d`'s, so this one clause carried two bases and contradicted §1's own row for the same commit; the replacements are `baa2f5d`'s and agree with that row); kyberforge's validator scripts and their bats tests ~~**5,861**~~ → **5,876** + **6,015** (the merge deduplicated scripts and left the test corpus larger, not smaller — `git ls-files 'plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/*/scripts/*.sh'` and `.../tests/*.bats`). `run-tests.sh --strict` reports ~~**20 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed**~~ → ~~**21 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed**~~ → **19 passed, 0 skipped, 0 failed** at `baa2f5d` (`4de5b6b` deleted two suites). > > > **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at `c07ca07`):** commit `8451169` added `check-skill-version-bump` — a pre-push hook, `scripts/check-skill-version-bump.sh` (238 lines) and `tests/test-skill-version-bump.sh` (410) — after the figures above were taken, so each was one short. `.pre-commit-config.yaml` now has **27** `- id:` entries and **9** `stages: [pre-push]` (`grep -c -- "- id:"`; `grep -c "stages: \[pre-push\]"`), all nine repo-authored. The struck figures are replaced from these commands. They were run against the working tree, and every figure reproduces exactly from the committed tree at `c07ca07`: `git ls-files | wc -l`; `cat` over every non-gitlink tracked path `| wc -l`; `git ls-files plugins | xargs cat | wc -l`; `git ls-files scripts | xargs wc -l` (no untracked files under `scripts/`); `ls tests/test-*.sh | wc -l` and `cat tests/test-*.sh | wc -l`; `bash tests/run-tests.sh --strict`. The earlier 469 / 74,594 / 46,106 did not reproduce exactly at `8451169^` either (469 / 74,638 / 46,121), so they were taken at an earlier commit than this note's "at HEAD" says. Re-checked and unchanged, so left alone: `docs/research/` inside plugins (19,030) and repo-level `docs/research/` + `docs/notes/` (4,488). Not re-measured, and still carrying their last stated basis: the preload-tax and commit-share rows, §2's timings, and the per-plugin table in the note above. > @@ -42,11 +42,11 @@ Counting convention: line counts are hand-edited `.apm/` source unless marked "i | Of which the ~~39~~ → 38 `SKILL.md` files a model actually loads | ~~about 2,600 lines (under 4% of plugin lines)~~ → ~~2,509 lines (5.4% of plugin lines)~~ → 2,409 lines (5.2% of plugin lines; unchanged at `baa2f5d`) | | Generated flat mirror files (byte copies of `.apm/`) | ~~263 files, ~22,000 lines~~ → 0 (deleted 2026-09-14, see below) | | `docs/research/` vendored inside plugins | ~19,000 lines, nothing executable reads it | -| Repo-level `docs/research/` + `docs/notes/` | 4,500 lines, 47% of all prose words, 6 of 11 research files linked only from each other | +| Repo-level `docs/research/` + `docs/notes/` | 4,500 lines, 47% of all prose words, 6 of 11 research files linked only from each other (invalidated by this document's own move into `docs/notes/`, which adds 665 lines to the row it measures) | | Enforcement: hook entries in `.pre-commit-config.yaml` / pre-push hooks | ~~33 / 14~~ → 26 / 8 (at `baa2f5d`; see the note below) | | Enforcement: `tests/*.sh` + runners + `scripts/` | ~~12,400 + 475 + 4,500 lines~~ → ~~9,123 + 490 + 3,308 lines~~ → ~~10,189 + 502 + 2,901~~ → ~~10,608 + 502 + 3,139~~ → ~~10,000 + 502 + 1,924 (at `4b17703`)~~ → 10,088 + 514 + 1,926 (at `baa2f5d`) | | Validator scripts inside kyberforge (+ their bats tests) | ~~6,800 + 5,300 lines~~ → ~~5,861 + 6,015~~ → ~~5,876 + 6,015~~ → 5,885 + 6,071 (at `baa2f5d`) | -| Preload tax (39 skill names + descriptions) | 10,987 chars, ~2,750 tokens per session | +| Preload tax (~~39~~ → 38 skill names + descriptions) | 10,987 chars, ~2,750 tokens per session (measured at 39 skills on 2026-09-10; never re-measured after ADR-0025's merge took the count to 38) | | Commits since 2026-05-10 / share touching hook, test, gate, vale, or sync | 447 / ~25% | > **Corrected then done (2026-09-14):** the mirror row's figure was wrong. The true mirror was **213 files / 20,061 lines**, not 263 / ~22,000 — the original count swept in files that were never mirror output. All 213 were deleted in commit `718c79a` on `docs/simplification-audit` (245 files changed, 298 insertions, 22,602 deletions across the whole change), so the row is now zero. The enforcement row is stale on **both** halves — it was correct at the 2026-09-10 baseline (`9eb8bc7`: 33 `- id:` entries, 14 repo-authored pre-push hooks), but `.pre-commit-config.yaml` today has ~~**27 entries and 9 `stages: [pre-push]`**~~ → ~~**26 entries and 8 `stages: [pre-push]`**~~ → ~~**27 entries and 9 `stages: [pre-push]`**~~ → **26 entries and 8 `stages: [pre-push]`** (~~`467bbd7`~~ → `620f20b` removed `check-vale-style-sync` with finding 14's merge; `8451169` then added `check-skill-version-bump`; `4de5b6b` then removed `check-release-needed`; re-measured 2026-09-16 at `4b17703` with `grep -c -- "- id:"` and `grep -c "stages: \[pre-push\]"` on `.pre-commit-config.yaml`). Like for like that is 14 → ~~9~~ → ~~8~~ → ~~9~~ → 8 repo-authored pre-push hooks. The stage *reports* ~~11~~ → ~~10~~ → ~~11~~ → 10, because the 2 pre-commit `meta` hooks also run there — a different counting basis; see the corrected §3 target, which states it the same way. @@ -165,7 +165,7 @@ This is the area you named as hardest to understand and slowest. Root cause: mos Pre-commit stays roughly as is minus `skill-frontmatter`, and minus `check-ast` once finding 9 removes the only `.py` files. ~~Tests 26 files to about 10 (12,400 to about 5,000 lines).~~ Keep bats and its three submodules; the 351 bats tests ship inside plugins and are the right tool there. ~~Do not port the bash suites to bats; delete them instead.~~ **Struck (2026-09-16, grill):** see finding 8's closing note — the suites are regression coverage (findings 3 and 5; finding 16 found the same of the validators they test). > **Re-measured (2026-09-14, at `a6434e0`):** the tests target was stated against the 2026-09-10 baseline and both its numbers are stale. `tests/` now holds **20 `test-*.sh` suites totalling 9,123 lines** (plus the two runners, 490). Six suites have gone since the baseline: `test-check-manifests.sh` (`e647f14`), `test-skill-frontmatter.sh` (`c8a7c9e`), `test-governance-layer.sh` and `test-instructions-and-docs.sh` (`5f9f2b3`), `test-sync-marketplace-mirror.sh` (`0dffff3`), `test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (`718c79a`). ~~Restated on the same basis the target is **20 files to about 10, 9,123 to about 5,000 lines**~~ — **struck (2026-09-16):** the target itself is withdrawn (see the struck sentence above); for the record, `tests/` holds **19** suites totalling **10,000** lines at `4b17703`, after `4de5b6b` deleted `test-check-release-needed.sh` and `test-vale-hooks-consumer.sh`. Finding 9's `check-ast` clause is moot anyway, since finding 9 is not proceeding. -> > **Corrected (2026-09-20, at `1614bce`) — the deletion tally is nine, not ~~six~~ → ~~eight~~.** The six named above plus the two the 2026-09-16 strike adds come to eight, and a ninth was never folded into the running tally: **`test-check-vale-style-sync.sh`**, removed by `620f20b` with the `factory-audit` merge (finding 14) — the same commit finding 2's bullet already credits for deleting that gate's hook and script. The full `main...HEAD` set is nine: `test-check-manifests.sh` (`e647f14`), `test-check-release-needed.sh` (`4de5b6b`), `test-check-vale-style-sync.sh` (`620f20b`), `test-governance-layer.sh` and `test-instructions-and-docs.sh` (`5f9f2b3`), `test-skill-frontmatter.sh` (`c8a7c9e`), `test-sync-marketplace-mirror.sh` (`0dffff3`), `test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (`718c79a`), `test-vale-hooks-consumer.sh` (`4de5b6b`). Method: `git diff --name-status main...HEAD -- tests/ | grep '^D'`. The pinned "19 suites at `4b17703`" is unaffected — `620f20b` precedes that commit, so the file count already reflected the deletion even though the tally did not. At `1614bce` `tests/` holds **19** `test-*.sh` suites totalling **10,897** lines. +> > **Corrected (2026-09-20, at `1614bce`) — the deletion tally is nine, not ~~six~~ → ~~eight~~.** The six named above plus the two the 2026-09-16 strike adds come to eight, and a ninth was never folded into the running tally: **`test-check-vale-style-sync.sh`**, removed by `620f20b` with the `factory-audit` merge (finding 14) — the same commit finding 2's bullet already credits for deleting that gate's hook and script. The full `main...HEAD` set is nine: `test-check-manifests.sh` (`e647f14`), `test-check-release-needed.sh` (`4de5b6b`), `test-check-vale-style-sync.sh` (`620f20b`), `test-governance-layer.sh` and `test-instructions-and-docs.sh` (`5f9f2b3`), `test-skill-frontmatter.sh` (`c8a7c9e`), `test-sync-marketplace-mirror.sh` (`0dffff3`), `test-sync-plugin-content.sh` (`718c79a`), `test-vale-hooks-consumer.sh` (`4de5b6b`). Method: `git diff --name-status main...HEAD -- tests/ | grep '^D'`. The pinned "19 suites at `4b17703`" is unaffected — `620f20b` precedes that commit, so the file count already reflected the deletion even though the tally did not. At `1614bce` `tests/` holds **19** `test-*.sh` suites totalling ~~**10,897**~~ → **10,588** lines. (**Corrected 2026-09-20:** the suite count was right and the line total was not — 10,897 is the value at `384756b`, the commit that added the hook-wiring tests, and at `1ec3e8a`; at `1614bce` the nineteen suites total 10,588.) ## 4. Plugins @@ -179,19 +179,19 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research 10. [x] ~~**Delete per-skill `README.md` and `references/README.md` (48 files, 1,574 lines).** They restate the SKILL.md in narrative form. The pre-commit config itself notes a skill README "is consumer-facing prose that no agent ever loads". Keep one plugin-level README with one line per skill. Requires dropping the README criterion in `skill-audit/references/file-structure.md` and the README step in `new-skill.sh`. Effort S.~~ > **Done (2026-09-12):** see commit `edcc57c` on `docs/simplification-audit`. Deleted the 48 per-skill/reference READMEs plus 2 scaffold templates; dropped the README criterion from `skill-audit`'s `file-structure.md` and `finding-criteria.md` and the README-generation step from `new-skill.sh`; updated `new-skill.bats` to match. Plugin-root READMEs were kept, not part of this finding. -11. [x] **Drop the provenance chain: `sources.md`, `source_keys` frontmatter, `validate-provenance.sh`.** 32 plugin and skill `sources.md` files (about 1,300 lines) plus 9 research indexes, 216 source files with `source_keys`, ~~two copies of the validator (1,198 and 632 lines)~~ → **one validator, 2,171 lines across four files**, with ten checks, and ~~125 bats tests~~ → **138 bats tests** exist to track which upstream informed which file. Git blame and a URL in the README do the same job. This is more code than the content it tracks. Effort M (touches ~~skill-audit, both validator copies~~ → **`factory-audit`, its one provenance validator**, two repo tests, and every skill's frontmatter). - > **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD):** ADR-0025 merged the two copies, so the "two copies" arithmetic throughout this finding and its note below no longer resolves. The provenance validator is now `factory-audit/scripts/` `validate-provenance.sh` (320) + `lib-provenance-skill.sh` (1,145) + `lib-provenance-agent.sh` (572) + `lib-contributing-files.sh` (134) = **2,171** lines (`wc -l` on the four), against **3,209** bats lines (`validate-provenance-skill.bats` 2,062 + `validate-provenance-agent.bats` 1,147) carrying **138** cases (`grep -c '^@test'`). Note this is *more* than the 1,198 + 632 = 1,830 the finding counted, not less: the merge deduplicated the resolver and the Contributing-files parser, not the per-mode provenance checks, and the shared entry script added the exit-tier and library guards described in `docs/spec/gates.md`. The `sources.md` census also moved: **45 files / 1,756 lines** — 27 skill `references/sources.md` (1,207), 13 research indexes (435), 4 plugin-root (100), 1 scaffold template (14). The note below's 46 / 1,752 swept in `docs/adr/0013-vale-harness-scope-and-rule-sources.md`, which matches `sources\.md$` and is not one. Imbalance at HEAD: **5,380 validator+bats lines against 1,756 of metadata, 3.1:1** — worse than the 2.6:1 below, on the same direction of argument. +11. [x] **Drop the provenance chain: `sources.md`, `source_keys` frontmatter, `validate-provenance.sh`.** 32 plugin and skill `sources.md` files (about 1,300 lines) plus 9 research indexes, 216 source files with `source_keys`, ~~two copies of the validator (1,198 and 632 lines)~~ → **one validator, ~~2,171~~ → 2,186 lines across four files**, with ten checks, and ~~125 bats tests~~ → **138 bats tests** exist to track which upstream informed which file. Git blame and a URL in the README do the same job. This is more code than the content it tracks. Effort M (touches ~~skill-audit, both validator copies~~ → **`factory-audit`, its one provenance validator**, two repo tests, and every skill's frontmatter). + > **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD):** ADR-0025 merged the two copies, so the "two copies" arithmetic throughout this finding and its note below no longer resolves. The provenance validator is now `factory-audit/scripts/` `validate-provenance.sh` (~~320~~ → **324**) + `lib-provenance-skill.sh` (~~1,145~~ → **1,152**) + `lib-provenance-agent.sh` (~~572~~ → **576**) + `lib-contributing-files.sh` (134) = ~~**2,171**~~ → **2,186** lines (`wc -l` on the four; **corrected 2026-09-20** — the four struck figures never reproduced at any commit, and `wc -l` gives 324 / 1,152 / 576 / 134 at `620f20b`, the commit that created the files, and at every commit since, `1ec3e8a` included), against **3,209** bats lines (`validate-provenance-skill.bats` 2,062 + `validate-provenance-agent.bats` 1,147) carrying **138** cases (`grep -c '^@test'`). Note this is *more* than the 1,198 + 632 = 1,830 the finding counted, not less: the merge deduplicated the resolver and the Contributing-files parser, not the per-mode provenance checks, and the shared entry script added the exit-tier and library guards described in `docs/spec/gates.md`. The `sources.md` census also moved: **45 files / 1,756 lines** — 27 skill `references/sources.md` (1,207), 13 research indexes (435), 4 plugin-root (100), 1 scaffold template (14). The note below's 46 / 1,752 swept in `docs/adr/0013-vale-harness-scope-and-rule-sources.md`, which matches `sources\.md$` and is not one. Imbalance at HEAD: ~~**5,380**~~ → **5,395 validator+bats lines against 1,756 of metadata, 3.1:1** (2,186 + 3,209; the ratio is unchanged at 3.07) — worse than the 2.6:1 below, on the same direction of argument. > **Verified (2026-09-14, at HEAD `062ca47`):** direction defensible, two scope figures wrong, and **blocked on a decision the finding never poses**. The `sources.md` census below is exact, and so are the finding's own validator and bats figures (1,198 / 632 lines, 125 bats tests); the scope errors are narrower than an earlier revision of this note claimed. > > Corrected figures: **46 `sources.md` files / 1,752 lines** in three distinct classes — 29 skill `references/sources.md` (1,217 lines), 13 research indexes (435), 4 plugin-root files (100, ADR-0010). The finding does **not** double-count: it states two disjoint classes additively ("32 plugin and skill `sources.md` files (about 1,300 lines) **plus** 9 research indexes"), and that plugin-and-skill subtotal is really **33 files / 1,317 lines**, matching its "about 1,300" exactly — had the 32 swept in the research indexes the figure would have been ~1,750. Its real errors there are an off-by-one (32 should be 33) and an omission: it missed the 4 vendored example indexes under `kyberforge/docs/research/examples/skill-write/`, so 9 should be 13. Carriers of `source_keys` in YAML frontmatter: **196** — 168 at column 0 and 28 nested two spaces under `metadata:` — so the finding's 216 is closer to the truth than it looks. (219 files merely *mention* the string. A naive `^[[:space:]]*source_keys:` grep returns 200, but 4 of those are heredoc or fixture text rather than frontmatter: both `validate-provenance.bats` copies, `scripts/check-scope-walkup-sync.sh`, and a fenced example in `plugins/bin/.apm/skills/research/references/file-format.md`.) Checks: **16 across the two copies** (skill-audit 0–9, agent-audit 0–5), not ten. Validator line counts (1,198 / 632) and 125 bats tests are exact. > - > **"Touches every skill's frontmatter" is roughly right.** ~~**28 of the 39 real skills carry `source_keys` in frontmatter**~~ → **27 of the 38** (re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD; the audit-pair merge took one carrier skill with it), nested under `metadata:` — see `plugins/git/.apm/skills/git-commits/SKILL.md:10-17`, where `metadata:` → `source_keys:` carries four slugs. (~~44~~ → **43** tracked files match `*SKILL.md`; subtract `skill-author/assets/templates/SKILL.md` and the 4 vendored under `kyberforge/docs/research/examples/skill-write/`, leaving ~~39~~ → **38** real skills.) The 11 without it are exactly the `plugins/bin/` skills. Check 2 in the skill-side validator (SKILL.md `source_keys` → slug in `sources.md`) is correspondingly **live**, not dead code: `parse_source_keys()` at `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/scripts/lib-provenance-skill.sh:277-305` handles both spellings explicitly — the metadata-nested branch at `:292`, the top-level branch at `:295`, and a docstring that says "handles metadata.source_keys and top-level" — check 2 at `:712` runs against all ~~28~~ → **27** carrier skills, every one of which has a `references/sources.md`, and bats pins it at `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/tests/validate-provenance-skill.bats:222` ("FAIL: source_keys slug in SKILL.md not present as H2 in sources.md") and ~~`:1337`~~ → `:1338` (a BOM must not silently disable check 2). (Paths and line numbers re-derived at HEAD: ADR-0025's merge moved this code out of `skill-audit/scripts/validate-provenance.sh` into the shared skill-side library, so the figures this note carried at `062ca47` — `:242-270`, `:257`, `:260`, `:766`, `:1313` — no longer resolve.) The imbalance the finding names is real and **worse** than claimed: ~~4,641 validator+bats lines against 1,752 of metadata, a 2.6:1 ratio~~ → **5,380 against 1,756, a 3.1:1 ratio** (re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD; see the note under the headline). + > **"Touches every skill's frontmatter" is roughly right.** ~~**28 of the 39 real skills carry `source_keys` in frontmatter**~~ → **27 of the 38** (re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD; the audit-pair merge took one carrier skill with it), nested under `metadata:` — see `plugins/git/.apm/skills/git-commits/SKILL.md:10-17`, where `metadata:` → `source_keys:` carries four slugs. (~~44~~ → **43** tracked files match `*SKILL.md`; subtract `skill-author/assets/templates/SKILL.md` and the 4 vendored under `kyberforge/docs/research/examples/skill-write/`, leaving ~~39~~ → **38** real skills.) The 11 without it are exactly the `plugins/bin/` skills. Check 2 in the skill-side validator (SKILL.md `source_keys` → slug in `sources.md`) is correspondingly **live**, not dead code: `parse_source_keys()` at `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/scripts/lib-provenance-skill.sh:`~~`277-305`~~ → `:284-312` handles both spellings explicitly — the metadata-nested branch at ~~`:292`~~ → `:299`, the top-level branch at ~~`:295`~~ → `:302`, and a docstring that says "handles metadata.source_keys and top-level" — check 2 at ~~`:712`~~ → `:719` runs against all ~~28~~ → **27** carrier skills, every one of which has a `references/sources.md`, and bats pins it at `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/tests/validate-provenance-skill.bats:222` ("FAIL: source_keys slug in SKILL.md not present as H2 in sources.md") and ~~`:1337`~~ → `:1338` (a BOM must not silently disable check 2). (Paths and line numbers re-derived at HEAD: ADR-0025's merge moved this code out of `skill-audit/scripts/validate-provenance.sh` into the shared skill-side library, so the figures this note carried at `062ca47` — `:242-270`, `:257`, `:260`, `:766`, `:1313` — no longer resolve.) **Corrected (2026-09-20):** the four "re-derived at HEAD" citations into `lib-provenance-skill.sh` were themselves uniformly 7 lines low and never resolved at any commit; they are repointed above. The two `validate-provenance-skill.bats` citations (`:222`, `:1338`) do resolve and are left alone. The imbalance the finding names is real and **worse** than claimed: ~~4,641 validator+bats lines against 1,752 of metadata, a 2.6:1 ratio~~ → ~~**5,380**~~ → **5,395 against 1,756, a 3.1:1 ratio** (re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD; see the note under the headline). > > **Omitted entirely: the chain has a producer.** `plugins/bin/.apm/skills/research/` *specifies* the `sources.md` + `source_keys:` output format, and `plugins/bin/evals/research/research/eval.yaml` carries three criteria asserting it. **This is the blocking decision: does `research` keep emitting `sources.md`?** If yes, the chain is not dropped — only unenforced, and the finding collapses to "delete the validators." If no, the research skill's output contract and its evals need redesigning. > > Also breaks: `check-scope-walkup-sync` loses one of four walk-up ports (the hook exists because three scripts drifted); `tests/test-adr0020-contract.sh` loses its parser byte-identity assertion; `tests/test-check-scope-walkup-sync.sh` must re-base its fixture; ADR-0010 is superseded outright and ADR-0009/0016 need amending (`field-inventory.md`'s allowlist data line carries `source_keys`). `LESSONS.md:73` records this validator as the **only** thing that catches a skill authored outside `skill-author` — a failure that "recurred twice in one session" — so "git blame + a README URL do the same job" is false for the one thing the chain demonstrably catches. Side effect: 55 reference files have frontmatter containing *only* `source_keys:`, leaving empty `---\n---` blocks to delete. > - > **Effort L, not M** (about ~~6,393~~ → **7,136** lines deleted across 242 files: the ~~4,641~~ → **5,380** validator and bats lines plus the ~~1,752~~ → **1,756** of `sources.md` measured above, across 196 `source_keys` carriers and ~~46~~ → **45** `sources.md` files. An earlier revision of this note said ~4,600 lines across ~230 files, which was internally inconsistent — 4,600 is validator-plus-bats only and silently drops the `sources.md` this same note measures, and ~230 inherited a carrier count of 172 that missed every `metadata:`-nested file.) Smaller alternative worth considering: scope the drop to the skill half only (~~1,217 lines, 1,198-line validator, 82 tests~~ → **1,207 lines of skill `sources.md`, the 1,145-line `lib-provenance-skill.sh`, 87 tests**, re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD) and leave the ADR-0010 plugin-root half alone — no ADR supersession needed. + > **Effort L, not M** (about ~~6,393~~ → ~~**7,136**~~ → **7,151** lines deleted across ~~242~~ → **241** files: the ~~4,641~~ → ~~**5,380**~~ → **5,395** validator and bats lines plus the ~~1,752~~ → **1,756** of `sources.md` measured above, across 196 `source_keys` carriers and ~~46~~ → **45** `sources.md` files — 196 + 45 = 241, and the struck 242 was consistent only with the struck 46. An earlier revision of this note said ~4,600 lines across ~230 files, which was internally inconsistent — 4,600 is validator-plus-bats only and silently drops the `sources.md` this same note measures, and ~230 inherited a carrier count of 172 that missed every `metadata:`-nested file.) Smaller alternative worth considering: scope the drop to the skill half only (~~1,217 lines, 1,198-line validator, 82 tests~~ → **1,207 lines of skill `sources.md`, the ~~1,145~~ → 1,152-line `lib-provenance-skill.sh`, 87 tests**, re-measured 2026-09-16 at HEAD) and leave the ADR-0010 plugin-root half alone — no ADR supersession needed. > > **Decision (2026-09-16):** Not proceeding — the human declined this finding. The provenance chain (`sources.md`, `source_keys:`, `validate-provenance.sh`) stays, and `research` keeps producing it. This also answers §8's provenance question. @@ -229,7 +229,7 @@ The shared pattern: per-skill `README.md` files no model reads, a `docs/research > > **Re-measured (2026-09-16, at HEAD) — the basis of every figure below changed when ADR-0025 landed; the refutation is unaffected.** There are no longer three validators or two `vale-wrap.sh` copies. The headline's "ported twice" is void, and its `1,677` and `526` no longer name anything. At HEAD: `scripts/skill-size-check.sh` is **1,522** (the note below's 1,517 was correct at `a6434e0`); `factory-audit`'s validator is **2,663** lines across four files (`validate.sh` 255 + `lib-checks-skill.sh` 621 + `lib-checks-agent.sh` 683 + `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` 1,104); `vale-wrap.sh` is **535**, one copy. Validator total **4,185**, of which the resolver is **2,165** (the 1,061-line block still embedded in `skill-size-check.sh`, plus `lib-boundary-resolver.sh`'s 1,104 — the same 1,061 block wrapped in 43 lines of library preamble, which is why the byte-identity test compares the block and not the files). So the resolver is now **52%** of validator lines, not 65%, and **2,020** lines remain once it is excised, not 1,749. Tests: the six repo suites over `skill-size-check.sh` are **3,907** (was 3,619) and the two in-skill validator bats files **2,248** (`validate-skill.bats` 1,029 + `validate-agent.bats` 1,219), for **6,155**, not 5,506. The 200-line target is off by the same order of magnitude it was. (All figures `wc -l`; the resolver block by `awk '/BEGIN ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER/,/END .../'`.) > - > > **Superseded by `ef27c97` (re-measured 2026-09-19, at HEAD).** The paragraph above is a dated snapshot and its two load-bearing claims no longer hold. `scripts/skill-size-check.sh` is **509** lines, not 1,522 — it shrank by 1,013 — and the resolver is **no longer embedded in it**: `ef27c97` excised the 1,061-line block and the hook now sources `factory-audit`'s `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` by path (`RESOLVER_LIB` at `:483`, `. "$RESOLVER_LIB"` at `:492`), failing closed if the library is missing or defines no resolver. The single remaining `BEGIN ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER` string in the hook is that fail-closed guard, not a copy. `factory-audit`'s four validator files now total **2,671** (`validate.sh` 255 + `lib-checks-skill.sh` 627 + `lib-checks-agent.sh` 685 + `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` 1,104) and `vale-wrap.sh` is **536**. So there is **one** resolver copy repo-wide, not two, and the "resolver is 52% of validator lines" arithmetic above is void along with its inputs. Only the refutation of finding 16 survives all of this unchanged. + > > **Superseded by `ef27c97` (re-measured 2026-09-19, at HEAD).** The paragraph above is a dated snapshot and its two load-bearing claims no longer hold. `scripts/skill-size-check.sh` is **509** lines, not ~~1,522~~ → **1,524** — it shrank by ~~1,013~~ → **1,015** — and the resolver is **no longer embedded in it**: `ef27c97` excised the 1,061-line block and the hook now sources `factory-audit`'s `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` by path (`RESOLVER_LIB` at `:483`, `. "$RESOLVER_LIB"` at `:492`), failing closed if the library is missing or defines no resolver. The single remaining `BEGIN ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER` string in the hook is that fail-closed guard, not a copy. `factory-audit`'s four validator files now total **2,671** (`validate.sh` 255 + `lib-checks-skill.sh` 627 + `lib-checks-agent.sh` 685 + `lib-boundary-resolver.sh` 1,104) and `vale-wrap.sh` is **536**. So there is **one** resolver copy repo-wide, not two, and the "resolver is 52% of validator lines" arithmetic above is void along with its inputs. Only the refutation of finding 16 survives all of this unchanged. (**Corrected 2026-09-20:** this note originally read "not 1,522 — it shrank by 1,013", which contradicted the "−1,015" the closing note below states for the same commit. 1,522 was a stale pre-`ef27c97` reading: `git show ef27c97^:scripts/skill-size-check.sh | wc -l` is **1,524** and `ef27c97` is **509**, so the delta is **−1,015** in both places.) > > The three validators are **not three implementations**. They contain **one block, 1,061 lines, byte-identical in all three**, delimited by `# ===== BEGIN/END ADR-0020 SHARED BOUNDARY RESOLVER =====` and hashed by `tests/test-adr0020-contract.sh`. So 3,183 of 4,932 validator lines (65%) are that block × 3, and **what is left once the resolver is excised is 1,749 lines across all three** — 1,580 non-blank, 992 with comments and blanks both stripped. The duplication is forced by the self-containment constraint, which is why *merging* is the lever and *shrinking* is not. > @@ -421,9 +421,9 @@ Not covered by the area audits above; found on a final sweep of the root config > Corrected headline: ~~**two** hand-maintained per-plugin locations (**three** for kyberforge)~~ → **one** hand-maintained per-plugin version location, `plugins//apm.yml` (**two** for kyberforge, adding the `executables.allow` key), not four. `2def060` deleted the root `packages[].version` lines (corrected 2026-09-16, review round). The root `packages[].description:` duplicates dropped in the same round are a separate duplication, not a version location, so they do not change this count — the audit's own "already done" note records the `plugin.json` deletion but never fixed the headline. Gitea skills drift across **six** values (`0.1.2, 0.1.3, 0.1.4, 0.1.5, 0.1.6, 1.0.1`), not five — ~~still six at HEAD on 2026-09-16~~ → **five** again at HEAD (`b426460`) on 2026-09-16 (`0.1.2, 0.1.4, 0.1.5, 0.1.6, 1.0.1`), because `8451169` bumped `gitea-branches` 0.1.3 → 0.1.4 under the new version-bump gate and it was the only skill at 0.1.3; re-derived by parsing `metadata.version` out of each `plugins/gitea/.apm/skills/*/SKILL.md` with PyYAML. ~~39 `SKILL.md` files ✓~~ → **38** carry it, and all 38 do (re-measured 2026-09-16; ADR-0025's merge took one). The `0.4.6` duplication between root `version:` and `marketplace.version:` is **forced by apm, not a repo choice** — deleting `marketplace.version` makes `--check-clean` go dirty. > > **"Nothing consumes `metadata.version`" is false twice over.** Machine enforcers: ~~`scripts/skill-size-check.sh:1365-1374`~~ → ~~`scripts/skill-size-check.sh:1370-1379`~~ → `scripts/skill-size-check.sh:323-335` and ~~`skill-audit/scripts/validate.sh:1292-1332`~~ → `plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/factory-audit/scripts/lib-checks-skill.sh:235-283`, both FAIL tier, the latter citing ADR-0022 by name, with four dedicated bats cases and ~10 fixture generators baking the field in. - > Instruction-level consumers: `skill-author/SKILL.md:60` (bump minor on create, patch on improve), `create.md:89,101`, `improve.md:82`, and `forge/SKILL.md:54` + `references/version-bump.md`. apm parses it for Chatmode/Instruction/Context primitives but not for Skills, and never emits it. Precise statement: the value is written, shape-validated, and never read *downstream* — it is an agent-visible revision counter, and the drift table shows the counter is not being maintained. + > Instruction-level consumers: `skill-author/SKILL.md:60` (bump minor on create, patch on improve), `create.md:89,101`, ~~`improve.md:82`~~ → `improve.md:105`, and `forge/SKILL.md:54` + `references/version-bump.md`. apm parses it for Chatmode/Instruction/Context primitives but not for Skills, and never emits it. Precise statement: the value is written, shape-validated, and never read *downstream* — it is an agent-visible revision counter, and the drift table shows the counter is not being maintained. > - > > **Repointed (2026-09-16, at HEAD; re-verified and corrected 2026-09-19):** `skill-audit/scripts/validate.sh` no longer exists — ADR-0025's merge moved the ADR-0022 check into `factory-audit`'s skill-side check library, where it is the `SEMVER_RE` block: comment header at `:235`, `SEMVER_RE` itself at `:254`, `fail()` calls at ~~`:261` and `:275`~~ → `:265` and `:280`, the block running `:235-283` (the next section header, `# SKILL.md size ceilings`, is at `:285`). That library is **627** lines, not 621. In `skill-size-check.sh` the check is at `:323-335`; the earlier note said the file "grew by 5 lines above the block", which is the wrong direction by two orders of magnitude — `ef27c97` excised the embedded resolver and the file **shrank** from 1,522 to **509** lines, which is why the range moved from the 1,300s to the 320s. All five instruction-level citations still resolve at HEAD, verified with `sed -n`. + > > **Repointed (2026-09-16, at HEAD; re-verified and corrected 2026-09-19):** `skill-audit/scripts/validate.sh` no longer exists — ADR-0025's merge moved the ADR-0022 check into `factory-audit`'s skill-side check library, where it is the `SEMVER_RE` block: comment header at `:235`, `SEMVER_RE` itself at `:254`, `fail()` calls at ~~`:261` and `:275`~~ → `:265` and `:280`, the block running `:235-283` (the next section header, `# SKILL.md size ceilings`, is at `:285`). That library is **627** lines, not 621. In `skill-size-check.sh` the check is at `:323-335`; the earlier note said the file "grew by 5 lines above the block", which is the wrong direction by two orders of magnitude — `ef27c97` excised the embedded resolver and the file **shrank** from 1,522 to **509** lines, which is why the range moved from the 1,300s to the 320s. ~~All five instruction-level citations still resolve at HEAD, verified with `sed -n`.~~ → **Corrected (2026-09-20): four of the five resolve, not five.** `improve.md:82` stopped carrying the `metadata.version` content at `baa2f5d`, three days before the 2026-09-19 verification claim was written, so that claim was false when made; the content is at ~~`improve.md:82`~~ → `improve.md:105` ("A skill carrying no `metadata.version` is seeded at `"1.0.0"`, not bumped"). The other four — `skill-author/SKILL.md:60`, `create.md:89`, `create.md:101`, `forge/SKILL.md:54` — do resolve at `1ec3e8a`. > > **ADR-0022 already considered and rejected dropping the field**, on the grounds that `skill-author` depends on it to decide whether a pass owes a bump — a rationale still live today. Superseding costs: rewrite skill-author's bump rule, delete `forge`'s version-bump route premise, strip two scripts, delete four bats cases, fix ~10 fixture generators, edit the scaffold template, update ~~`gates.md:97`~~ → ~~`gates.md:145`~~ → `gates.md:146` — and re-open the "is this field present here?" question issue #127 closed, just from the other side. *(Repointed 2026-09-16, at HEAD `b426460`: the `metadata.version` frontmatter sentence formerly at `gates.md:97` was at `:143-146`, the field itself on `:145`, and is at `:143-147` / `:146` at `4b17703`; verified with `grep -n "metadata.version" docs/spec/gates.md`.)* **Recommendation: keep it and fix the actual defect, which is that nobody bumps it.** Either enforce the bump in the skill-author workflow or declare the values advisory in the ADR. >