fix: reap only our own jobs, and say why a vale probe missed

batch_run ended with a bare wait, which blocks on every background job the
calling shell has, not the ones it started. Harmless for all three current
callers, but a future caller that backgrounds anything of its own would have
batch_run block on it or consume its status. It now records each $! and reaps
exactly those PIDs.

The `wait "$pid" || true` there is load-bearing: unlike a bare wait, wait <pid>
returns the job's status, so without it a single failing job would abort the
set -e caller at the call site -- before run-tests.sh or sync-plugin-content.sh
could read their .status files and print a summary. Status semantics stay in
those files, exactly as before.

check-vale-style-sync.sh's glob probe discarded vale's exit code and output and
decided purely on a grep, so a failed exec, an OOM-killed vale or a full TMPDIR
was indistinguishable from a real glob defect -- both printed "its glob sections
do not cover a path" with no evidence. A flake seen once in this probe could not
be diagnosed afterwards for that reason. The probe now attaches vale's rc and
output: a genuine glob defect reads "vale exited 0 ... in 0 files", a killed vale
reads "vale exited 137; output: <empty>".

That flake was investigated and not reproduced -- 1680 probes across three
contention setups including an offline namespace, all clean -- so nothing is
changed speculatively. The misattribution is worth recording: it was reported
against tests/test-vale-wrap.sh, which never invokes this script; the assertion
belongs to check-vale-style-sync.sh and reaches a log through a different suite.

Also drops the last stale field roster from agent-author's scaffolder. Its
next-steps hint enumerated "(name, description, model, body only)" -- omitting
disallowedTools, and never accurate anyway, since the template marks only
description and the body FILL IN. Its --help carried the inverted form, already
missing six forbidden fields. Both now state the shape rule and point at
field-inventory.md, and a bats case enforces all-or-nothing: name every
allowlisted field or name none, since a partial roster is the shape that goes
stale silently.

Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01X7GvKuJfy2WrdBmUttV4DT

plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/references/scripts.md

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ All scripts in this skill must follow these rules:
 - **Idempotent** — "create if not exists" per file. The scaffold script skips any file that already exists; agents may safely re-run it.
 - **Meaningful exit codes** — `0` success, `1` invalid arguments or precondition failure. Document in `--help`.
 - **Self-contained** — no external package installs at runtime. The script uses only bash builtins and POSIX tools (`sed`, `mkdir`, `cat`).
+- **No restated field rosters** — no script output, in `--help` or in next-steps guidance, enumerates permitted, forbidden, or required frontmatter fields. Point at the `apm-agent-allowlist` section of `agent-audit`'s `references/field-inventory.md`, which `agent-audit`'s `validate.sh` reads from there as data. A roster copied into script output goes stale one step further out than the list itself: the next-steps hint `(name, description, model, body only)` kept printing after ADR-0016's 2026-08-14 amendment added `disallowedTools` to the permitted set. `tests/new-agent.bats` enforces this for the plugin/APM branch — naming some allowlisted fields but not all is a failure.
 
 ## Template variables
 

plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/scripts/new-agent.sh

@@ -21,10 +21,12 @@ Arguments:
                                     without type: is a marketplace-only manifest
                                     and is skipped, the walk continues upward
                                → creates <package-root>/.apm/agents/<name>.agent.md
-                                 (single vendor-neutral file — no tools,
+                                 (single vendor-neutral file; apm compile copies
-                                 isolation, maxTurns, effort, memory, or
+                                 its frontmatter verbatim to every target with no
-                                 permissionMode; apm compile has no per-target
+                                 per-target field integrator, so the permitted
-                                 field integrator, see ADR-0016)
+                                 field set is narrow — see the apm-agent-allowlist
+                                 section of agent-audit's
+                                 references/field-inventory.md and ADR-0016)
                                → creates <package-root>/sources.md (if absent)
                 project scope    : no type:-bearing apm.yml found; root is a
                                     project directory
@@ -258,6 +260,19 @@ SOURCES
   fi
 fi
 
+# Next-steps guidance names no frontmatter fields, by rule (see references/scripts.md).
+# A roster restated in terminal output goes stale one step further out than the list
+# itself: the old "(name, description, model, body only)" hint outlived ADR-0016's
+# 2026-08-14 amendment, which added disallowedTools to the permitted set. Point at the
+# scaffolded file's own comments for what to fill, and at agent-audit's validate.sh —
+# which reads the allowlist from field-inventory.md as data — for what is permitted.
+AUDIT_SCRIPTS="$(cd "$SKILL_ROOT/../agent-audit/scripts" 2>/dev/null && pwd || true)"
+if [[ -n "$AUDIT_SCRIPTS" && -f "$AUDIT_SCRIPTS/validate.sh" ]]; then
+  VALIDATE_HINT="$AUDIT_SCRIPTS/validate.sh"
+else
+  VALIDATE_HINT="agent-audit's scripts/validate.sh"
+fi
+
 if [[ "$created_any" == false ]]; then
   echo "All files already exist — nothing to do." >&2
 else
@@ -266,12 +281,17 @@ else
   echo "" >&2
   echo "Next steps:" >&2
   if [[ "$SCOPE" == "plugin" ]]; then
-    echo "  1. Fill in $APM_FILE — replace all FILL IN: placeholders (name, description, model, body only)" >&2
+    echo "  1. Fill in $APM_FILE — replace every FILL IN: placeholder. Optional fields are" >&2
+    echo "     scaffolded there as commented blocks; uncomment the ones that apply." >&2
     echo "  2. Populate $SOURCES_DIR/sources.md with research sources, or delete it" >&2
-    echo "  3. Validate: check required fields (name, description, system prompt) in the file" >&2
+    echo "  3. Validate: $VALIDATE_HINT $APM_FILE" >&2
+    echo "     It checks the frontmatter against the apm-agent-allowlist section of" >&2
+    echo "     agent-audit's references/field-inventory.md, the authoritative field list." >&2
   else
-    echo "  1. Fill in $CC_FILE — replace all FILL IN: placeholders" >&2
+    echo "  1. Fill in $CC_FILE — replace every FILL IN: placeholder. Optional fields are" >&2
-    echo "  2. Fill in $CP_FILE — replace all FILL IN: placeholders" >&2
+    echo "     scaffolded there as commented blocks; uncomment the ones that apply." >&2
-    echo "  3. Validate: check required fields (name, description, system prompt) in both files" >&2
+    echo "  2. Fill in $CP_FILE — same, and heed its closing comment: the Claude Code-only" >&2
+    echo "     fields it names must not cross over from the file above." >&2
+    echo "  3. Validate: run $VALIDATE_HINT on each file" >&2
   fi
 fi

plugins/kyberforge/.apm/skills/agent-author/tests/new-agent.bats

@@ -104,6 +104,40 @@ teardown() {
     done
 }
 
+# Same drift class as the assertion above, one step further out: the next-steps text
+# used to enumerate "(name, description, model, body only)" and went on printing that
+# after ADR-0016's amendment added disallowedTools. Rather than assert on wording, this
+# asserts the roster is all-or-nothing: if the guidance names any allowlisted field it
+# must name every one of them, so a partial restatement -- the only shape that can go
+# stale silently -- fails. Naming none, the current design, passes.
+@test "plugin/APM scope: next-steps guidance does not partially restate the allowlist" {
+    inventory="$BATS_TEST_DIRNAME/../../agent-audit/references/field-inventory.md"
+    [ -f "$inventory" ] || fail "field-inventory.md not found at $inventory"
+    allowlist="$(awk '
+        /^## apm-agent-allowlist$/ { insection = 1; next }
+        insection && /^##/ { exit }
+        insection && NF && $0 !~ /^#/ && $0 !~ /^---/ { print; exit }
+    ' "$inventory")"
+    [ -n "$allowlist" ] || fail "apm-agent-allowlist section is empty in $inventory"
+
+    printf 'name: my-package\ntype: skill\n' > "$ROOT/apm.yml"
+    steps="$(bash "$SCRIPT" my-agent "$ROOT" 2>&1 | sed -n '/^Next steps:/,$p')"
+    [ -n "$steps" ] || fail "scaffolder printed no next-steps block"
+
+    named=""
+    missing=""
+    for field in $allowlist; do
+        if grep -qw -- "$field" <<< "$steps"; then
+            named="$named $field"
+        else
+            missing="$missing $field"
+        fi
+    done
+    if [ -n "$named" ] && [ -n "$missing" ]; then
+        fail "next-steps names allowlisted field(s)$named but omits$missing -- a partial roster. Point at field-inventory.md instead of restating it."
+    fi
+}
+
 @test "plugin/APM scope: sources.md contributing-files template mentions the single-file path" {
     printf 'name: my-package\ntype: skill\n' > "$ROOT/apm.yml"
     bash "$SCRIPT" my-agent "$ROOT"

scripts/check-vale-style-sync.sh

@@ -252,8 +252,16 @@ EOF_RE
 # carries a description with a token Kyberforge.VagueWording flags, so a config
 # whose glob matches but whose BasedOnStyles lost Kyberforge fails too: it would
 # lint the file and report nothing.
+# On a miss, the caller reports a glob defect -- but a miss is also what a failed
+# exec, an OOM-killed vale, or a full TMPDIR looks like, and discarding vale's rc
+# and output made those indistinguishable and evidence-free. A flake seen once in
+# this probe could not be diagnosed afterwards for exactly that reason. The rc and
+# output are now stashed for the caller to attach to its message; VALE_PROBE_DIAG
+# is set on every call, so a stale value from an earlier probe can never be
+# reported against a later one.
+VALE_PROBE_DIAG=""
 vale_flags_path() {
-  local cfg="$1" rel="$2" tmp out
+  local cfg="$1" rel="$2" tmp out rc=0
   tmp="$(mktemp -d)"
   mkdir -p "$tmp/$(dirname "$rel")"
   {
@@ -264,9 +272,16 @@ vale_flags_path() {
     echo ""
     echo "Body."
   } > "$tmp/$rel"
-  out="$(cd "$tmp" && vale --config "$cfg" "$rel" 2>&1)" || true
+  out="$(cd "$tmp" && vale --config "$cfg" "$rel" 2>&1)" || rc=$?
   rm -rf "$tmp"
-  printf '%s\n' "$out" | grep -qF "Kyberforge.VagueWording"
+  if printf '%s\n' "$out" | grep -qF "Kyberforge.VagueWording"; then
+    VALE_PROBE_DIAG=""
+    return 0
+  fi
+  # vale exits nonzero merely for *having* alerts, so rc alone proves nothing --
+  # it is evidence only alongside the absent alert.
+  VALE_PROBE_DIAG="vale exited $rc; output: ${out:-<empty>}"
+  return 1
 }
 
 # Missing vale is a HARD FAILURE, not a warning. Six of this script's assertions
@@ -328,7 +343,7 @@ while IFS='|' read -r skill rel scope; do
   fi
 
   if [[ "$VALE_AVAILABLE" == true ]] && ! vale_flags_path "$ini" "$rel"; then
-    err "$skill/assets/vale/.vale.ini raises no Kyberforge alert on $rel — its glob sections do not cover a path its own pre-commit hook is scoped to, so the hook passes that shape without linting it"
+    err "$skill/assets/vale/.vale.ini raises no Kyberforge alert on $rel — its glob sections do not cover a path its own pre-commit hook is scoped to, so the hook passes that shape without linting it [$VALE_PROBE_DIAG]"
   fi
 # `demo.md` (bare, no `.agent.md` suffix) is `hooks-only` rather than
 # `shared`: it exists only to exercise agent-audit's `[**/agents/*.md]` glob

scripts/lib/batch-run.sh

@@ -32,22 +32,60 @@ batch_jobs_limit() {
 # directly) -- both patterns are preserved as-is by callers, not standardized
 # here, so existing error-handling behavior (including how each pattern
 # interacts with `set -e` in the caller) is unchanged by this extraction.
+#
+# batch_run waits ONLY on the PIDs it started, never with a bare `wait`. A bare
+# `wait` blocks on every background job of the calling shell, so a caller that
+# backgrounds anything of its own would (a) have batch_run block until that
+# unrelated job finished and (b) have that job reaped here, with its exit status
+# consumed by the wrong `wait` -- leaving the caller's later `wait $pid` to fail
+# with "not a child of this shell". None of the three current callers backgrounds
+# anything else, so this was latent rather than live, but it was an undocumented
+# constraint on every future caller. Recording each `$!` and waiting on it by PID
+# removes the constraint instead of documenting it.
+
+# batch_wait_pids [<pid> ...]
+#   Reaps exactly the given PIDs and always returns 0.
+#
+#   The `|| true` is load-bearing, not defensive noise: unlike a bare `wait`
+#   (which is unconditionally 0), `wait <pid>` returns that job's exit status, so
+#   without it a single failing job would make batch_run return nonzero and abort
+#   its `set -e` caller at the call site -- before the caller could read the
+#   .status files and print its own summary. Status semantics stay entirely in
+#   the .status files, exactly as before.
+#
+#   `${@+"$@"}` rather than a bare `"$@"`, for the same reason every `${arr[@]}`
+#   in this repo carries the `${arr[@]+...}` guard. Bash 4.4 is what relaxed
+#   `set -u` for an all-empty `@`/`*` expansion (CHANGES, 4.4 "New Features in
+#   Bash" 3a); 3.2 predates that relaxation, and no bash on a modern machine can
+#   reproduce the abort, so the guarded spelling is asserted rather than tested.
+#   Zero args is a normal path here, not an edge case: the trailing call receives
+#   an empty list whenever the job count divides evenly into the concurrency cap.
+batch_wait_pids() {
+  local pid
+  for pid in ${@+"$@"}; do
+    wait "$pid" || true
+  done
+}
+
 batch_run() {
   local scratch_dir="$1"
   shift
-  local jobs_limit running key cmd
+  local jobs_limit running key cmd pids
   jobs_limit="$(batch_jobs_limit)"
   running=0
+  pids=()
 
   while [[ $# -gt 0 ]]; do
     key="$1" cmd="$2"
     shift 2
     (eval "$cmd") >"$scratch_dir/$key.log" 2>&1 &
+    pids+=("$!")
     running=$((running + 1))
     if [[ $running -ge $jobs_limit ]]; then
-      wait
+      batch_wait_pids ${pids[@]+"${pids[@]}"}
+      pids=()
       running=0
     fi
   done
-  wait
+  batch_wait_pids ${pids[@]+"${pids[@]}"}
 }