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LexAI/_to_delete/replaced-20260806-fableflip/.claude/skills/gauntlet-loop/SKILL.md
john kevin asprec 444060c3eb Add new agents and skills for enhanced project orchestration and review processes
- Introduced `critic`, an independent adversarial reviewer for security and correctness.
- Added `fable-orchestrator` to manage task routing and verification.
- Implemented `gauntlet-critic` for fresh-context evaluation of gauntlet rounds.
- Created `planner` for generating executable implementation plans with dependencies.
- Developed `security-auditor` for application security reviews and audits.
- Established `system-steward` to improve agent prompts and skills based on verified failures.
- Added `dev-loop` skill for autonomous development loops over repositories.
- Implemented `gauntlet-loop` skill for iterative quality benchmarking against reference standards.
- Updated project settings to utilize the new orchestrator agent.
- Created documentation for `GAUNTLET.md`, `PROGRESS.md`, and `REFERENCE_BAR.md` to track project status and quality benchmarks.
- Added detailed prompting style guide to enhance understanding of prompt patterns and agentic loops.
2026-08-08 16:49:07 +08:00

4.2 KiB

name, description, allowed-tools
name description allowed-tools
gauntlet-loop Run reference-benchmarked improvement rounds on an outcome that must match or beat a concrete quality bar — decompose into independently judgeable parts, then loop builder → fresh-context gauntlet-critic on the single biggest gap until parity, diminishing returns, or budget. Use for quality-benchmarked deliverables, not routine maintenance (that is dev-loop). Read Grep Glob Bash Write Edit Skill Agent

Iterate work against a concrete reference until a fresh-eyes referee calls parity — the Gauntlet Loop (Matt Shumer's method behind "Claude of Duty"). Opus owns routing and acceptance; this skill is the loop discipline.

Preconditions — refuse to start until all three hold

  1. The bar is concrete. docs/REFERENCE_BAR.md names at least one inspectable reference artifact per part in scope (file, screenshot, URL, sample output, recording) and how to compare against it. An adjective is not a bar; "make it amazing" starts nothing. If the bar is missing, request it from the owner as a decision-ready item — that request never stalls other lanes.
  2. A budget exists. Max tokens/time per part and for the whole gauntlet, written into the orchestration record and the docs/GAUNTLET.md row.
  3. The bar is not gameable. The referee judges the artifact as a user would experience it; any single metric is supporting evidence, never the target.

Round protocol (per part)

  1. Decompose once. Opus splits the outcome into the smallest parts that can be improved and judged separately — coupled work stays one part. Each part gets a row in docs/GAUNTLET.md: part, bar reference, budget, status.
  2. Build. One builder owns the part and returns the artifact plus exact instructions to render/run/see it. The builder never assesses its own round against the bar.
  3. Referee. Spawn gauntlet-critic fresh. Its packet is the part contract, the bar, and artifact access — no builder narrative, no prior round reports (round history lives on the board as one-line entries, not in the referee's context). It returns verdict, single biggest gap, evidence, also-observed list, stop signal. Referee effort is high; raise to xhigh only for a final parity verdict at the high-risk gate.
  4. Log. Append one line to Round history in docs/GAUNTLET.md: part, round, verdict, gap, spend.
  5. Loop. The builder's next packet targets exactly the named gap (plus any P0 from the also-observed list). Never pre-commit to a round count — "do three rounds and stop" defeats the method.
  6. Parallelize across parts freely: different parts may sit in different rounds, with one builder and one referee per part per round.

Stop conditions (per part)

  • Parity or better — the referee's verdict says the output matches or beats the bar.
  • Diminishing returns — two consecutive rounds where the named gap is cosmetic or the improvement is negligible.
  • Budget exhausted — record the last verdict and open gap on the board; surface to the owner.
  • Recurring gap — the same gap survives two rounds with no new strategy: park it decision-ready (short options, recommended default) and move to the next part.
  • Boundary — a round would need a destructive, external, or permission-crossing action: stop and escalate; never proceed on referee authority.

Endgame

When every part has stopped: run one integration pass (integrator merges, verifier re-runs the full checks) so independently polished parts still work as a whole; apply the normal quality gates for the risk level; and if the per-part bars were partial views, run one final whole-artifact referee round against the bar. Record final verdicts on the board, then compress the outcome into HANDOFF.md and PROGRESS.md in owner language: what reached the bar, what stopped short and why.

Guardrails

  • Builders never self-grade; referees never see builder narrative; Opus never overrides a verdict without observable evidence.
  • Evidence is observable — rendered pixels, command output, test results, a cold read of the finished writing — never a summary of them.
  • Consequential actions (deploy, spend, delete, credentials) stay behind explicit owner authorization regardless of loop momentum.