Skill Trigger Linter

skill-trigger-linter (O_Ψ Verification Layer)

Purpose

Check every skill’s “use when” and “do not use when” clauses for collisions, missing negatives, and vague verbs like “help,” “assist,” or “improve.”

Use When

1. Validating the frontmatter descriptions and target boundaries of any skill.
2. Trigger drift is observed (e.g. wrangler is activated for generic coding, or cloudflare conflicts with durable-objects).
3. Preparing to optimize a skill's description using the run_loop.py evaluator.
4. Integrating or linting a newly forged skill prior to production staging.

Do Not Use When

1. Performing programmatic runtime execution benchmark testing (use arifos-evals instead).
2. Auditing broad system dependency health or links status (use arifos-recursive-audit instead).
3. The task requires structural design changes to a skill's workflow.

Inputs

• SKILL.md Text: The raw contents of the skill markdown contract.
• Active Trigger Registry: A mapping of all currently registered skill frontmatter descriptions.

Lint Level Classification

The trigger linter categorizes violations into three distinct urgency thresholds:

• L1: Stylistic (Wording Clarity):
  • Occurs when descriptions are slightly wordy or triggers are phrased passively.
  • Result: Warning issued; suggestion provided. Simple correction path.
• L2: Behavioral Risk (Missing Negatives):
  • Occurs when a skill lacks a robust, distinct "Do not use when" block containing at least 3 exclusion boundaries.
  • Result: Block validation; requires prompt adjustments before merging.
• L3: Safety Risk (Constitutional Breaches):
  • Occurs when a skill performs irreversible state writes, manages sensitive secrets/credentials, or coordinates destructive VPS operations without explicitly declaring an integration path to arifos-governance and 888_HOLD gates.
  • Result: HARD BLOCK. The skill cannot be packaged or committed to the active repository. Requires arifos-governance human release (888 HOLD) to override and authorize deployment.

Procedure

1. Strict Trigger Parsing: Extract the Use When and Do Not Use When blocks from the target skill's body.
2. Vague Verb Scanning: Scan files for banned words including "help", "assist", "improve", "manage", "optimize", and "support". Require explicit action verbs.
3. Trigger Count Validation: Check that Use when contains between 3 to 7 concrete triggers, and Do not use when contains at least 3 distinct exclusion rules.
4. Lint Level Classification tagging: Assess the parsed contract for L1, L2, or L3 violations.
5. 888 HOLD Enforcement: If an unresolved L3 violation is found, automatically lock the build pipeline, generate an ERR_LINT_L3_VIOLATION ticket, and escalate to the operator console.
6. Lint Status Output: Output lint failures, warnings, and recommended prompt revisions with exact line references.

Postconditions

1. All target skill descriptions are checked for L1-L3 compliance.
2. Trigger and exclusion boundaries meet the numeric target requirements.
3. No L3 violation is allowed to pass to packaging without a verified governance key bypass.

Failure Modes & Escalation

• Missing Exclusion Block: The skill completely lacks a "Do Not Use When" section. Action: Flag L2 violation, suggest 3 templates, and block merging.
• Verbal Overload: Triggers are written in vague prose instead of list items. Action: Automatically format the triggers into short, bulleted imperative clauses.

Telemetry per Run

{
  "skill_name": "skill-trigger-linter",
  "version": "1.1.0",
  "trigger_phrase": "{{trigger_phrase}}",
  "selected_reason": "{{selected_reason}}",
  "latency_ms": 0,
  "token_in": 0,
  "token_out": 0,
  "commands_run": 0,
  "artifacts_written": 0,
  "postcondition_pass": false,
  "human_approval_required": false,
  "hold_code": "{{hold_code}}"
}

Recursive Scorecard

• Activation Precision: [0.0 - 1.0] (Target: >0.98)
• Task Completion Rate: [0.0 - 1.0] (Target: >0.95)
• Rollback Safety: [0.0 - 1.0] (Target: 1.00)
• Context Efficiency: [0.0 - 1.0] (Target: >0.98)
• Doc Freshness: [0.0 - 1.0] (Target: 1.00)
• Cross-Skill Collision Rate: [0.0 - 1.0] (Target: 0.00)
• Human Trust Score: [0.0 - 1.0] (Target: >0.98)