# Lint > This skill should be used when the user asks to "validate macstack.json", "lint macstack", "check the stack spec", "verify macstack.json integrity", "check the documents", "where are we", "what should I do next", "project status" — and after any skill of this plugin writes or edits macstack.json or a document under macstack/. Validates the spec against the JSON Schema and the referential-integrity rules, checks the document folder, and reports the same findings read-only as a status dashboard. - Skill: `agents-store/lint` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 11 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add agents-store/lint` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/agents-store/lint/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: agents-store (https://skillmd.com/u/agents-store) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/agents-store/lint --- # Check the spec, the folder, and where the project stands Three passes over the spec and the folder, and one read-only view of the result. A file that fails lint must not be scaffolded from. Resolve the path first: `macstack/macstack.json` (canonical) → `./macstack.json` (legacy fallback). Both present is a setup error — stop instead of picking one silently. **Prefer the reference linter** — it implements passes 1 and 2 and is maintained with the standard: ```bash MACSTACK_JSON="macstack/macstack.json"; [ -f "$MACSTACK_JSON" ] || MACSTACK_JSON="macstack.json" curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/macstacks/macstack/main/scripts/lint.py \ -o "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/lint.py" 2>/dev/null || true # cache; keep the old copy offline python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}/lint.py" "$MACSTACK_JSON" \ --schema https://raw.githubusercontent.com/macstacks/macstack/main/schema/macstack.schema.json \ --categories https://raw.githubusercontent.com/macstacks/registry/main/software-categories.json \ --coverage-areas https://raw.githubusercontent.com/macstacks/registry/main/coverage-areas.json ``` Pass 3 is this plugin's own and has no upstream equivalent — run it either way. Offline fallback: run all three passes manually with the bundled copies. ## Pass 1 — JSON Schema Fetch the live schema first (it may be newer than the bundled copy); cache it in `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_DATA}`; offline → bundled `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/lint/references/macstack.schema.json`. ```bash python3 - <<'PY' import json, jsonschema, urllib.request, os URL = "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/macstacks/macstack/main/schema/macstack.schema.json" try: schema = json.load(urllib.request.urlopen(URL, timeout=15)) except Exception: schema = json.load(open("/skills/lint/references/macstack.schema.json")) path = "macstack/macstack.json" if os.path.exists("macstack/macstack.json") else "macstack.json" jsonschema.validate(json.load(open(path)), schema) print("schema: VALID") PY ``` **Compare revisions before trusting a difference.** Both copies carry a `$comment` starting `rev `. If the fetched one is older than the bundled one, the bundled copy is ahead of the canon on purpose and must not be overwritten — and a `curl` against `raw.githubusercontent.com` immediately after a push serves the PREVIOUS revision from the CDN, which prints a full, entirely false diff. Use `gh api repos/macstacks/macstack/contents/?ref=main` when the answer matters. No `jsonschema` lib → fall back to structural checks (required: macstack, name, version, description; the known enums) — and tell the user that full validation was skipped. ## Pass 2 — Referential integrity (errors) 1. `results[].produced_by[*]` ∈ processes; `processes[].produces[*]` ∈ results — result-first: a process with no result is "coding for coding's sake". 2. `results[].goal` ∈ goals. 3. `tasks[].workflow`, `workflows[].software`, `entities[].stores[].software`, `interfaces[].software|related[*]`, `connections.mcp[].software` resolve (own ids, ids inherited from the prototype, or cross-stack). 4. `entities[].master` appears in stores exactly once with the master role. 5. **Triggers**: `workflows[].triggers[*]` ∈ triggers; `triggers[].software` ∈ software, `instance` ∈ its instances. 6. **Instances**: `stores[].instance`, `mcp[].instance` ∈ the instances of the matching software; `interfaces[].instances[*]` ∈ the instances of its software. 7. `software[]`: category ∈ the registry (`references/software-categories.json`), type filled, layers ⊆ {data, logic, interface, infrastructure} without duplicates, `agentic.rating` consistent (3×true=full, 2=good, 1=basic, only partial=partial, nothing=none). 8. **Cross-stack**: the `:` prefix is declared in `stacks.root.id` / `stacks.substacks[].id` / `stacks.links[].id`; `role: substack` → `root` present. 9. **Agents**: `stack_agents[].access[*]` ∈ mcp|software|interfaces; `delegates_to` only downward (control_plane → orchestrator → worker); `context_packs[*]` ∈ context.packs; `managed_agents[].tools.*` resolve; `invocations[*].interface|workflow|trigger` resolve. 10. **Env**: `resources.accesses[].env` holds NAMES, not values (a string that looks like a secret/token is an error); slugs are kebab-case; `prototype` has no cycles. 11. **Plugin coverage**: `context.plugins.*[].covers[*]` ∈ the coverage registry (`references/coverage-areas.json`); `scope[*]` resolves to a declared id in software / entities / workflows / triggers / interfaces / connections.mcp. ## Pass 3 — The `macstack/` folder (rule group 12) Active only when macstack.json has a `docs` section, or a `macstack/` folder exists on disk. Errors block scaffolding exactly like Pass 2; lint red on a document that reads fine usually means stripped anchors (see `troubleshoot`). **Run it — this pass is a program now:** ```bash python3 "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/lint/references/lint_folder.py" macstack \ [--rule 12.3 ...] [--warnings] [--json] ``` Exit 0 clean, 1 errors, 2 could not load. Rules live in `references/lint_folder.py` and the `references/rules_*.py` modules beside it, which register themselves on import. Until v3 this pass was prose and nothing executed it, which is why 12.21 demanded a fenced `yaml` block from documents that contain none and never once said so, and why 12.18 was unsatisfiable for `README.md` across three releases with no way to tell whether it was failing or simply not running. **A rule nobody can run is not a rule.** If you add one here, add it there in the same change. Read the shape from `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/documents/references/doc-contracts.json` — every rule below is checked against that file, never against memory. ### The forty-one rules The full catalogue — what each rule checks, what it costs to ignore, and the measurement that bought it — is in `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/lint/references/rules-group-12.md`. Read it when adding a rule, when a finding needs explaining to somebody, or when deciding whether a red rule is worth the fix. The runner needs none of it: it prints the rule number, the file, the line and a verbatim excerpt, because "this table is too wide" is not actionable and "cell 4 of row 12 is 876 characters" is. ## Warnings (non-blocking) - A goal with no result ("a goal with no path to it"); a result with no goal when goals are non-empty. - A trigger referenced by no workflow and no agent. - `TEST-CASES.md` derived from an older version of a source document than the current one (name both versions) — the coverage count is stale by definition. - A `Z-` prohibition whose tests assert the refusal but not that the refusal explains itself. - An `X-` cross-cutting case whose tests name no roles to run as. - A case with no `experience` section (outside the `Z-` space) — the UX bar for that case was never stated, so `UX-UI.md` has nothing to answer. - A screen in `UX-UI.md` that no case names in its `screens` key. - Software without an agentic passport; a required key missing from `.env`. - **Coverage gap**: a non-empty tooling-backed section — software, entities, workflows, triggers, interfaces, connections — that no plugin `covers`. Say which. Do NOT gap-check goals, results, processes, roles or integrations: those are authored by the architect, not taught by a plugin, and demanding a plugin for them only produces fake entries. - **Plugin without `covers`** (including the legacy bare-slug form): an agent cannot route to it, so it will be either ignored or loaded blindly. - **Ambiguous coverage**: an area claimed by 2+ plugins where none narrows it with `scope`. - **Unprocessed source**: a file in `inbox/` with no `merge` entry naming it. - `lifecycle.updated` older than the newest `history/ledger.jsonl` row (name the date). - **The project has gone quiet**: a task sitting in `doing` while the ledger has had no `work` entry for 14 days. The older staleness check compares `lifecycle.updated` against the newest log entry, and with no client input both freeze in agreement — a project can run for months with a perfectly green lint and no record of the work. This is the rule that notices. - An §A open item past its age budget (warn 14 days, error 45), or with no `asked_on` date — a question nobody has actually put to the client is not blocked, it is forgotten. - An §A item that one or more tasks name in `blocked_by` — say how many. That count is the argument for chasing the client today rather than next month. - A task with no `spec` pointer, or whose `acceptance` names no test. Without `spec`, `update` cannot tell which documents a finished task touched. - A `BL-` promoted to a task without the original being struck with a pointer. - Legacy free-text entries in `lifecycle.next_steps`. - A `roles[]` entry with no `cases`; a `sees`/`can` longer than one sentence. - A `-conformance.md` review with no `-business.md` twin of the same date and slug. - A delta aged 14–30 days with no applied banner. - `docs.language` absent while the documents are visibly not English. - An `inbox/` file heavier than 5 MB. ## Judgment checks (documents) | Check | What it flags | |---|---| | Duplicate content | The same fact stated in both `OVERVIEW.md` and `USER-CASES.md` | | Superseded documents | A document contradicted by a newer source with no note pointing to it | | Cross-role contradictions | Two role sections disagreeing on the same behaviour | | Coverage gaps | An entity or workflow in the spec that no case touches | | Prose that wants a section | A YAML value carrying a sentence where a section exists for it | ## Output `ERRORS` as a list (the file is not scaffold-ready) → `WARNINGS` → one `OK: schema + N integrity rules` line. With a prototype set — resolve and merge first, lint the merged document. When rule group 12 is active, append a documents block: ``` Documents: 🟢 OK | 🟡 N warnings | 🔴 N errors 1. 2. ``` 🔴 on any 12.x error, 🟡 on a documents warning with zero errors, 🟢 otherwise. Number the next steps in the same order as ERRORS/WARNINGS above (fix errors first). ## Status mode — the same findings, read-only `/macstack-dev:check` with no argument runs everything above and then renders one screen. **It writes nothing.** Status is not a second engine with its own predicates: v1 had `status` re-implement seven checks that rule group 12 already made, in a second place that could disagree with the first. There is one engine now, and two ways of printing it. ``` · · spec v Spec 🟢 schema + 11 rules Documents 🟡 3 warnings (12.17 ×2 · 12.11 ×1) Milestone M11 · doing ▶ · 6/9 tasks · 3 of 5 done_when recorded Client 2 open §A · oldest 21 days · 1 blocking M11-T9 Quiet for 4 days since the last `work` entry Next 1. Chase A5 — M11-T9 is blocked on it and it was asked 21 days ago 2. UX-UI.md was last checked against the code 41 days ago — /macstack-dev:check --code 3. 4 acceptance bullets have no test — /macstack-dev:update ``` Order the attention list by cost of ignoring it, not by rule number. A blocked task with a client dependency outranks a stale `reviewed` date, which outranks a formatting warning. `--docs` limits the run to pass 3 and the judgment checks. `--code` hands over to `conformance`, which is the only mode that reads the source tree.