holocron/CONTEXT.md

---
name: AI Development Repo
description: Domain language and decisions for the global AI development config repository
---

# Context

## Principles

### CLAUDE.md index model
`AGENTS.md` is the source of always-on universal rules (provider-agnostic). `providers/claude-code/CLAUDE.md` is a thin adapter: it imports `~/.agents/AGENTS.md` via `@~/.agents/AGENTS.md` and appends Claude Code-specific additions (`@import` for governance.md, content index). Deployed to `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` via `install.sh`. Context size is kept minimal — only what is needed every session is loaded upfront; detailed content is pulled on demand. See ADR-0003.

### Instruction file format
`core/instructions/<topic>.md` files are plain markdown — no frontmatter, no schema. The agent decides when to read each file based on task context and the content index label in `providers/claude-code/CLAUDE.md`. Frontmatter is deferred until there is evidence that agents are loading the wrong files in practice.

### Repo/gitea as source of truth
All project state, decisions, context, and working conventions live in this repo or Gitea. External memory systems should not be used for this project — they create a split-brain risk where cached state diverges from the repo. At the start of every session, read `CLAUDE.md`, `CONTEXT.md`, and `docs/VISION.md`. Everything needed to orient is here.

Before answering any design or architecture question, check for existing decisions: `docs/adr/` (hard architectural decisions).

## Glossary

### Management Application
A separate product (separate repo) for browsing, editing, and configuring AI development configs through a proper product UI. Git is the persistence layer, invisible to the user. The app is repo-agnostic — it works with any git repo that follows these conventions. This repo is the canonical default content (the official starter). See `docs/VISION.md` for the phased roadmap.

### Skills
Reusable slash commands for AI coding tools, defined as `SKILL.md` files following the [Agent Skills open standard](https://agentskills.io). Deployed via plugin — `plugins/<plugin-name>/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md`, available after the plugin is installed (`claude plugin install <name>@<marketplace>`). Skills are self-contained — they cannot reference files outside the plugin directory after install-time caching.

### Plugin
The deployable unit in the plugin marketplace. A plugin bundles one or more skills, agents, hooks, prompts, MCP servers, and optionally a `bin/` directory into a single installable directory. Each plugin has two manifests: `.claude-plugin/plugin.json` (Claude Code) and `plugin.json` at the plugin root (Copilot CLI). Plugins are copied to a cache on install — they cannot reference files outside their own directory. In this repo, plugins live under `plugins/<name>/`. Install a plugin with `claude plugin install <name>@<marketplace>`.

### Plugin marketplace
A Git repository with a `marketplace.json` manifest listing installable plugins. No backend, registry, or SaaS required — the Git repo is the marketplace. This repo is the `holocron` marketplace. The manifest lives at `.claude-plugin/marketplace.json` (read by both Claude Code and Copilot CLI) and is mirrored to `.github/plugin/marketplace.json`.

### HITL (human-in-the-loop)
Agent pauses before a consequential action; human approves before execution. Required for irreversible or high-stakes actions (architecture changes, production deployments, security configuration). The agent drafts the change plan and waits — it does not proceed autonomously. Contrast with HOTL.

### HOTL (human-on-the-loop)
Agent acts; human monitors and can intervene after the fact. Acceptable for low-stakes, bounded, reversible actions where the cost of pausing for approval exceeds the blast radius of an error. The distinction between HITL and HOTL must be explicit and documented — defaulting to HOTL for convenience is not acceptable.

### Sycophancy
The failure mode where RLHF-trained models prioritise approval over accuracy. Treated as a first-class reliability risk: models change correct answers to wrong ones under user pressure in a majority of observed cases, then persist in the wrong answer. Designing against sycophancy is an explicit obligation, not a quality-of-life concern. Countermeasures: explicit pushback resistance instructions, prompting for dissent, cross-validating against independent sources. Never interpret AI agreement as AI accuracy.

### AGENTS.md
The provider-agnostic always-on instruction entry point. Two files:
- **Repo-level `AGENTS.md`** — instructions for agents working inside this repo (structure, key rules); imported by repo `CLAUDE.md` via `@AGENTS.md`.
- **Global `core/AGENTS.md`** — Communication and Behavior rules that apply across all projects; deployed to `~/.agents/AGENTS.md`; imported by `~/.claude/CLAUDE.md` via `@~/.agents/AGENTS.md`.

Contains always-on rules in plain markdown with no provider-specific syntax (no `@import`). Provider-specific files (`CLAUDE.md`) are thin adapters that import the relevant `AGENTS.md` and add only Claude Code-specific syntax. This pattern means a single source of truth can serve multiple providers without duplication. See ADR-0003.

### Skill composition
A skill calling another skill by name to delegate a sub-task. The calling skill focuses on the orchestration decision ("when to do X"); the called skill owns the mechanics ("how to do X"). Established compositions: `grill-me` calls `write-adr` when a decision crystallises; `implement-feature` calls `tdd` as its implementation methodology; `forge` calls `grill-with-docs` to refine intent, classifies the target artifact type (skill / agent / plugin / marketplace entry), then routes to the matching `*-author` skill — which owns its own create/improve logic and, where applicable, its own inline audit closeout (`skill-author` runs `/skill-audit`, `agent-author` runs `kyberforge:agent-audit`, both in the same context as the authoring work). `forge` additionally runs its own independent recheck after a skill/agent route finishes: a clean-context subagent (not forked, no inherited context) re-runs the same audit skill against the finished artifact, as a distinct verification layer from the author skill's inline audit — the two can share blind spots since the inline audit runs in the same context as the work it checks. If the clean audit surfaces any unresolved finding, `forge` loops — re-invoke the author skill to resolve it, re-run the clean audit — until the clean audit comes back with nothing unresolved; only then is the route done. `plugin-author` and `marketplace-author` have no audit counterpart and get no recheck; their terminal check is `claude plugin validate`.

### Provider-agnostic issue tracker
Skills and workflows reference "linked issue" generically rather than a specific provider. Gitea is the canonical issue tracker for this repo (see ADR-0017). "Issue" is the cross-provider term (GitHub, GitLab, Gitea all use it).

### Provenance chain
The three-stage traceability record linking a skill back to its research inputs: (1) `/research` produces topic docs and a `sources.md` in `plugins/<plugin>/docs/research/docs/<topic>/`; (2) `/skill-author` reads those docs and records which sources informed which skill files in `references/sources.md` (including a `Research doc:` back-pointer to the upstream research file) and `source_keys` frontmatter on `SKILL.md` and `references/*.md`; (3) `skill-audit` validates the chain is complete and internally consistent via `validate-provenance.sh`. A skill with research input but no `references/sources.md`, or with `source_keys` that don't match `references/sources.md` slugs, has a broken provenance chain.

### Bidirectional reference principle
Files that reference other files should declare those references explicitly. The referencing file carries the forward reference (e.g. content index in `CLAUDE.md`, `references:` in frontmatter). The referenced file carries a `when:` field describing when it is loaded. Both sides should agree — divergence signals staleness. The reverse map ("what files reference this file?") is derived by a reference scanner script, not maintained manually. This principle applies to instruction files, skills, and workflow documents.

### agentsmd-author / agentsmd-audit
A skill pair in the `core` plugin for writing, updating, and reviewing a target repo's `AGENTS.md` file(s) (the generic open-standard file — see the `AGENTS.md` entry above — not this repo's own). `agentsmd-author` creates/updates AGENTS.md content, supports nested monorepo placement (per the standard's nearest-file-wins precedence), and closes out by invoking `agentsmd-audit` inline. `agentsmd-audit` runs a single combined pass checking three mandatory baselines: secrets/credentials (governance.md hard prohibition — AGENTS.md is committed content), structural completeness (common-sections checklist from the agents.md spec), and accuracy/drift (do referenced commands and paths actually resolve against the repo). `agentsmd-audit` never inspects provider adapter files (see `provider-adapter-author`) — its scope is AGENTS.md content only. Chosen over folding this into `kyberforge` because kyberforge's scope is meta-tooling for the holocron marketplace itself, not generic target-repo documentation; `core` is the intended home for cross-cutting, repo-agnostic utility skills.

### provider-adapter-author
A companion skill (`core` plugin) that detects a target repo's provider-specific instruction file (`CLAUDE.md`, `.cursor/rules/*.mdc`, `copilot-instructions.md`, etc.) and, where it duplicates content AGENTS.md should own, converts it into a thin adapter that imports AGENTS.md — mirroring this repo's own ADR-0002/ADR-0003 two-tier adapter pattern. Self-validates via its own bundled deterministic script (`scripts/validate-adapter.sh`: checks for an import reference, no duplicated headings, size threshold) rather than a separate paired audit skill — the check is mechanical, so a script suffices per governance.md's "prefer deterministic code for repeatable tasks." `agentsmd-author` calls this skill via skill composition when it detects an existing provider file with overlapping content.

### lint plugin
A standalone, repo-agnostic plugin (`plugins/lint/`) for configuring and running linters — not scoped to kyberforge's own meta-tooling. First linter is Vale (prose style linting), split into two skills per the git/gitea per-concern pattern: `vale-config` (setup — `.vale.ini`, `StylesPath`, styles) and `vale-run` (invoke Vale, interpret/report findings). A `lint-runner` agent composes these for isolated-context lint sweeps; it is report-only (no `Edit` tool) — it flags findings, it does not rewrite prose. Vale's research docs (`docs/research/docs/vale/`) moved from `plugins/kyberforge/` to `plugins/lint/` to keep the provenance chain same-plugin.

### Vale audit prefilter (skill-audit / agent-audit)
Wiring Vale as a deterministic prefilter for `skill-audit`/`agent-audit`'s Description dimension (ADR motivation: issue #84) is repo-specific, not part of the generic `lint` plugin, so its config lives at the repo root rather than inside `plugins/lint/`: `.vale.ini` plus a custom `Kyberforge` style (`styles/Kyberforge/`) covering description-opener banning ("This skill/agent..."), vague-capability wording ("helps with", "utilize", ...), and generic "see references/ for details" padding — and a `KyberforgeCopilot` style (`styles/KyberforgeCopilot/`) scoped only to `.agent.md` files for the Copilot-only "Use proactively has no effect" check. Both skills' Step 1 run `vale --config .vale.ini <target>` against the specific file(s) being audited (never a repo-wide sweep) — Vale's glob matching crosses directory boundaries (`plugins/*/agents/*.md` matches nested `docs/research/examples/**/agents/*.md` too), so scoping every invocation to a known target file/dir is what keeps research-example files out of the audit's lint pass rather than the glob pattern itself. `error` alerts map to FAIL, `warning`/`suggestion` map to SUGGESTION. Vale only replaces the specific pattern-matchable sub-checks named in issue #84 (imperative opener, vague filler, `Use proactively`, generic reference-pointer padding) — body discipline, near-miss exclusion strength, and control calibration stay LLM judgment per the issue's explicit non-goals.

### LESSONS.md
Long-loop feedback log for patterns observed across sessions. Three or more entries on the same pattern graduate to the relevant standing file (e.g. a coding convention, a governance rule). Updated by the session-handoff skill or directly by the human. Lives at the repo root.