Audit

Full-sweep audit of .claude/ config + all plugins/*/ files: agents, skills, rules, settings.json, hooks. Spawns foundry:curator per-file, aggregates system-wide for cross-file issues — infinite loops, inventory drift, missing permissions, interop breaks. Reports findings; fix level chosen from follow-up gate.

• $ARGUMENTS: optional — parse --flags first, then resolve remaining tokens as scope

  Flags (order independent, any combination with scope):

  • --local — audit source tree (plugins/*/) not user setup (.claude/ + installed cache); plugin-dev workflows where local edits not yet installed; sets LOCAL_MODE=true
  • --upgrade — fetch latest Claude Code docs, filter new features by genuine value, apply: config changes (apply + correctness check), capability changes (calibrate before → apply → calibrate after → accept if Δrecall ≥ 0 and ΔF1 ≥ 0). Skip to Mode: upgrade. Mutually exclusive with --adversarial and --efficiency — error if combined with either.
  • --adversarial (alias: --challenge) — adversarial review of all agents + skills in scope using foundry:challenger (Phase A) + Codex adversarial pass (Phase B); surfaces issues beyond standard per-file audit; see Mode: adversarial. Mutually exclusive with --upgrade only; combinable with --efficiency.
  • --efficiency — cost and efficiency sweep: model tier validation, token bloat detection, unbounded spawn patterns, cross-file boilerplate duplication, missing model declarations, bin/ extraction candidates (Check 33). Generates prioritized cost-reduction plan with estimated savings. Detection only — run /distill executables to act on extraction candidates. Skip to Mode: efficiency. Mutually exclusive with --upgrade only; combinable with --adversarial.
  • --skip-gate — suppress follow-up gate (for automation pipelines)
  • --fast — widen fan-out from MAX_BATCHES to MAX_BATCHES_FAST, trading tokens for wall-clock. Not free: each extra agent costs ~120,851 tok of fixed overhead regardless of how little work it does (see <constants>). Use when latency matters more than cost; omit by default. Combinable with every other flag.

  Legacy positional tokens (fix, upgrade, adversarial, challenge, ab, apply, fast, full) — hard error: print migration hint and stop. Example: "fix medium removed — run /audit and pick fix level from gate, or pass --upgrade / --adversarial as flags."

  Scope tokens (positional, space-separated — resolve each token before Step 2):

  • No scope: full sweep — sources per --local: without --local covers .claude/agents/, .claude/skills/, .claude/rules/, hooks, settings, ~/.claude/plugins/cache/ installed; with --local covers plugins/*/agents/, plugins/*/skills/ + .claude/ secondary
  • agents — restrict sweep to agent files only
  • skills — restrict sweep to skill files only
  • rules — restrict sweep to rule files only
  • communication — restrict sweep to communication governance files: rules/communication.md, rules/quality-gates.md, TEAM_PROTOCOL.md, skills/_shared/file-handoff-protocol.md
  • setup — restrict to system-config files: settings.json, permissions-guide.md, hooks, MEMORY.md, README.md, plugin integration, post-install user state (Checks 1–11, 30, I1, I2, I3); Step 3: setup SKILL.md only (one foundry:curator spawn); Checks I1–I3 read ~/.claude/ not .claude/
  • plugin — plugin integration only: codex plugin (Check 7), foundry plugin + init validation (Check 8, including 8g); Step 3: setup SKILL.md only (one foundry:curator spawn)
  • plugins — full audit of all plugins: per-file audit of every plugins/*/agents/*.md and plugins/*/skills/*/SKILL.md + integration checks (7, 8) per plugin
  • plugins <name> — same as plugins scoped to one plugin: plugins/<name>/agents/*.md + plugins/<name>/skills/*/SKILL.md + integration checks; <name> must match dir under plugins/ (e.g. plugins foundry, plugins oss, plugins research)
  • <plugin-name> — tier 2 shorthand: bare plugin dir name (e.g. oss, foundry, research, develop, codemap) auto-resolved when token matches dir under plugins/; equivalent to plugins <name>; no plugins prefix needed
  • <agent-name> — tier 3: name matches plugins/*/agents/<name>.md or .claude/agents/<name>.md; runs agent checks only (Checks 14a, 14b, 15, 19, 20, 17, 12, 13, 25, 22, 26, 29); one file in Step 3
  • <skill-name> — tier 3: name matches plugins/*/skills/<name>/SKILL.md or .claude/skills/<name>/SKILL.md; runs skill checks only (Checks 14a, 14b, 15, 17, 12, 23, 22, 13, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29); one file in Step 3
  • Multiple scope tokens — space-separated, any combo; scope = union of resolved file sets: agents skills, oss research, shepherd curator, review resolve; check list = union (de-duplicated)

  Scope token resolution (each remaining token after flag-strip, resolved before Step 2): (1) reserved keywords (agents, skills, rules, communication, setup, plugin, plugins) → use as-is; (2) matches dir under plugins/<token>/ → tier 2; (3) matches agent file in plugins/*/agents/<token>.md or .claude/agents/<token>.md → tier 3 agent; (4) matches skill dir plugins/*/skills/<token>/ or .claude/skills/<token>/ → tier 3 skill; (5) no match → error and stop

  Valid combinations: scope tokens + flags mix freely: foundry --local, foundry --adversarial, agents skills --local, oss research --adversarial, foundry --efficiency, plugins --efficiency, foundry --adversarial --efficiency, plugins --local --adversarial --efficiency. --upgrade mutually exclusive with --adversarial and --efficiency — error if combined with either. --local compatible with all. When --adversarial and --efficiency both present: run adversarial Phases A–C then efficiency Phases A–C sequentially; merge findings; single follow-up gate.

BATCH_SIZE_MIN=5       # minimum files per batch; ensures curator gets sufficient context per spawn
MAX_BATCHES=4          # total batch cap; EFFECTIVE_BATCH = max(BATCH_SIZE_MIN, ceil(total / MAX_BATCHES))
MAX_BATCHES_FAST=10    # only when --fast: trades ~120K tok/agent for wall-clock (see Fan-out cost model)
ADVERSARIAL_BATCH_SIZE=2  # adversarial phases (A, A-prime) use smaller batches for deeper per-file attention
AGENT_CALL_BUDGET=55   # target tool-calls per spawned agent; above ~60 agents stall mid-task without returning an envelope

• Key boundary 1: after Steps 3+4 fan-out (curator spawns + system-wide checks complete), before Step 5 aggregate.
• Key boundary 2: after Step 5 aggregate (aggregate.md + summary.jsonl written), before Step 7 report.
• Preserve at boundary 1: RUN_DIR, per-batch finding file paths, static-findings.jsonl path.
• Preserve at boundary 2: RUN_DIR, aggregate.md path, summary.jsonl path, finding counts.

Task hygiene: load and follow the protocol below.

# loads: compaction-contract.md
cat "$(python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_shared_path.py" foundry skills/_shared 2>/dev/null || echo "plugins/cc_foundry/skills/_shared")/task-hygiene.md"

Orchestration contract: orchestrator is thin coordinator — issues Glob/Grep for inventory, spawns agents, reads JSON envelopes, aggregates findings. Must NOT read agent/skill/rule file bodies directly. Inline read of non-template file = protocol violation; causes context overflow at scale.

Task tracking: TaskCreate for each major phase; mark status live:

• Phase 1: setup + collect (Pre-flight + Steps 1–2) → in_progress on start, completed when file list ready
• Phase 2: per-file audit (Step 3) → in_progress on agent launch, completed when all reports received
• Phase 3: system-wide checks (Step 4) → in_progress on start, completed when all checks done
• Phases 2 and 3 launch simultaneously — mark both in_progress same update; independent, must not serialize
• Phase 4: aggregate + fix (Steps 5–10) → in_progress, completed when fixes land; do NOT mark completed until EITHER: (a) follow-up gate fires (Step 7) AND fixes applied or user chose skip; OR (b) --skip-gate active — gate suppressed, complete after Step 5 aggregation; Step 5 aggregation alone does NOT complete Phase 4 in normal mode
• Phase 5: write final report (Step 11a) → in_progress, completed only once $RUN_DIR/report.md exists on disk — assembling the report in context does not complete this phase
• Phase 6: print report header (Step 11b) → blockedBy Phase 5; mark completed immediately BEFORE emitting the header block (task-lifecycle.md §TaskUpdate before long output), then print
• On loop retry or scope change → new task; do not reuse completed task

Surface progress at milestones: after system-wide checks ("✓ Checks 1-20 complete, N findings so far — spawning per-file audits"), after agent reports ("Agent reports received — N medium, N low findings"), before each fix batch ("Fixing N medium findings in parallel").

Pre-flight checks

Context budget: full audit (12+ agents, 14+ skills, 12 system checks) runs close to context limits. File-based handoff mandatory — every sub-agent writes full output to file, returns only compact JSON envelope. Sub-agent echoing findings to context = compaction before audit completes.

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
KEEP_ITEMS=""
# grep+sed, not `[[ =~ ]]` — zsh leaves BASH_REMATCH empty on match, silently dropping the user's --keep list
KEEP_ITEMS=$(printf '%s' "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -o -- '--keep[[:space:]]"[^"]*"' | head -1 | sed 's/^--keep[[:space:]]"//; s/"$//')
ARGUMENTS=$(echo "$ARGUMENTS" | sed 's/--keep "[^"]*"//g')
rm -f .temp/state/skill-contract.md  # clear stale contract (compaction-contract.md §Lifecycle)  # timeout: 5000
LOCAL_MODE=false;       [[ " $ARGUMENTS " == *" --local "* ]]       && LOCAL_MODE=true
ADVERSARIAL_MODE=false; [[ " $ARGUMENTS " == *" --adversarial "* ]] && ADVERSARIAL_MODE=true; [[ " $ARGUMENTS " == *" --challenge "* ]] && ADVERSARIAL_MODE=true
EFFICIENCY_MODE=false;  [[ " $ARGUMENTS " == *" --efficiency "* ]]  && EFFICIENCY_MODE=true
UPGRADE_MODE=false;     [[ " $ARGUMENTS " == *" --upgrade "* ]]     && UPGRADE_MODE=true
SKIP_GATE=false;        [[ " $ARGUMENTS " == *" --skip-gate "* ]]   && SKIP_GATE=true
FAST_MODE=false;        [[ " $ARGUMENTS " == *" --fast "* ]]         && FAST_MODE=true
ARGUMENTS=" $ARGUMENTS "
ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS// --local / }"; ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS// --adversarial / }"
ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS// --efficiency / }"; ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS// --upgrade / }"
ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS// --skip-gate / }"; ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS// --challenge / }"
ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS// --fast / }"
ARGUMENTS=$(echo "$ARGUMENTS" | tr -s ' '); ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS# }"; ARGUMENTS="${ARGUMENTS% }"

if [ "$UPGRADE_MODE" = "true" ] && { [ "$ADVERSARIAL_MODE" = "true" ] || [ "$EFFICIENCY_MODE" = "true" ]; }; then
    printf "! --upgrade is mutually exclusive with --adversarial and --efficiency\n"
    exit 1
fi

# preflight helpers defined inline — fresh shell per Bash() call; sourced functions unavailable
preflight_ok()   { local f=".temp/state/preflight/$1.ok"; [ -f "$f" ] && [ $(($(date +%s) - $(cat "$f"))) -lt 14400 ]; }
preflight_pass() { mkdir -p .temp/state/preflight; date +%s >".temp/state/preflight/$1.ok"; }

if [ ! -d ".claude" ]; then
    printf "! BREAKING: .claude/ directory not found — nothing to audit\n"
    exit 1
fi

# jq — Check 4 depends on it
if preflight_ok jq; then
    JQ_AVAILABLE=true
elif command -v jq &>/dev/null; then # timeout: 5000
    preflight_pass jq
    JQ_AVAILABLE=true
else
    printf "⚠ MISSING: jq not found — Check 4 (permissions-guide drift) will be skipped\n"
    JQ_AVAILABLE=false
fi

if ! preflight_ok git && ! command -v git &>/dev/null; then # timeout: 5000
    printf "⚠ MISSING: git not found — path portability check may miss repo-root references\n"
else
    preflight_ok git || preflight_pass git
fi

# node — Check 10 (RTK prefix parsing) + upgrade hook syntax check depend on it
if preflight_ok node; then
    NODE_AVAILABLE=true
elif command -v node &>/dev/null; then # timeout: 5000
    preflight_pass node
    NODE_AVAILABLE=true
else
    printf "⚠ MISSING: node not found — Check 10 (RTK hook parsing) and upgrade hook syntax check will be skipped\n"
    NODE_AVAILABLE=false
fi

AUDIT_TPL=$(python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_skill_subdir.py" audit templates $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" )) || { printf "! BREAKING: audit/templates not found — run /foundry:setup first\n"; exit 1; }  # timeout: 5000

# Persist LOCAL_MODE + AUDIT_TPL — fresh-shell state loss
# Re-derive at each Step start — see ADV-M1
mkdir -p "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}"
echo "$LOCAL_MODE" > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode"
echo "$AUDIT_TPL"  > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/audit-tpl"
echo "$KEEP_ITEMS" > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/keep-items"

If .claude/ missing, abort immediately. Missing jq is warning — audit continues with Check 4 skipped.

State re-derivation across Bash blocks — Claude Code spawns a fresh shell per Bash() call; variables set in pre-flight are LOST in Steps 2–11. Every Bash block in subsequent steps that uses LOCAL_MODE or AUDIT_TPL must re-read them from the persisted state files:

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
AUDIT_TPL=$(cat "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/audit-tpl" 2>/dev/null || python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_skill_subdir.py" audit templates $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" ))

Place these three lines at the top of every Bash block in Steps 2–11 that references either variable.

Unsupported flag check — after extracting supported flags (--local, --upgrade, --adversarial, --efficiency, --skip-gate, --keep), scan $ARGUMENTS for remaining --<token> tokens. If found: print ! Unknown flag(s): `--<token>`. Supported: `--local`, `--upgrade`, `--adversarial`, `--efficiency`, `--skip-gate`, `--keep`. then invoke AskUserQuestion — (a) Abort (stop, re-invoke with correct flags) · (b) Continue ignoring (skip unknown flags, proceed). On Abort: stop.

Step 1: Run pre-commit (if configured)

preflight_ok()   { local f=".temp/state/preflight/$1.ok"; [ -f "$f" ] && [ $(($(date +%s) - $(cat "$f"))) -lt 14400 ]; }
preflight_pass() { mkdir -p .temp/state/preflight; date +%s >".temp/state/preflight/$1.ok"; }

if (preflight_ok pre-commit || { command -v pre-commit &>/dev/null && preflight_pass pre-commit; }) &&
[ -f .pre-commit-config.yaml ]; then
    timeout 600 pre-commit run --all-files # timeout: 600000
fi

Files auto-corrected by pre-commit hooks are clean before structural audit. Note modified files — include in audit scope even if not originally targeted.

If pre-commit not configured, skip silently.

Step 1b: Layer-1 deterministic static pass

Run the zero-LLM checker driver — the same deterministic checkers pre-commit enforces, aggregated into one reproducible findings file. These results are authoritative for their check classes: Steps 3–4 (LLM curator + judgment checks) must NOT re-derive them in prose — treat them as already-verified and spend model tokens only on judgment.

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
STATIC_SCOPE=$( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo plugins || echo .claude )
python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/audit_static.py" --scan-dir "$STATIC_SCOPE" \
    --jsonl "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/static-findings.jsonl"  # timeout: 120000

Covered deterministically by the driver (map to legacy check IDs — do NOT re-run these as prose): 14a tag symmetry · 14b fence symmetry · 14c README drift · 14d mode-dispatch integrity · 14e cross-plugin shared-file drift · 43 bash-variable persistence · 42 spawn-prompt $VAR (checks-skills.md) · 32d orphaned bin/ scripts · cli-flag-drift SKILL.md flags vs argparse (check_cli_flag_drift.py, checks-index 42) · R3 bin/computed-path reference integrity. The whole-repo checks (orphaned-bin, routing-links, shared-drift) always scope to plugins/ regardless of STATIC_SCOPE; the driver is most complete in --local mode. Step 5 merges static-findings.jsonl into the aggregate.

Layer-1 recall is benchmarked — tests/test_audit_static.py plants a known defect per scope-aware class and asserts the driver catches every one (100% mechanical recall), so this pass is trusted, not assumed.

Step 1c: Layer-3 recurrence signal (attention weighting)

Read a compact git-churn signal so audit attention follows measured churn — the files and change-classes that keep being re-fixed are where the next defect most likely hides. Report the dominant recurring-fix class, not only point findings.

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/audit_churn.py" --limit 300 --path plugins \
    > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/churn-signal.json" 2>/dev/null  # timeout: 20000

Use churn-signal.json (commit_types, top_churn, recurring_hint) to: (1) prioritize per-file audits toward the most-churned files first in Step 3 batching; (2) add a Recurring fix class line to the Step 7 report naming the dominant theme (e.g. "version-bump churn — candidate for automation"). Zero-LLM, best-effort; skip silently if git is unavailable.

Step 2: Collect all config files

Enumerate everything in scope with built-in tools. Run all Glob calls in parallel.

Plugin layout resolution (--local/plugins scope — multi-plugin source tree, mandatory before the fixed-pattern Globs below): don't assume every plugin uses skills/+agents/ — a plugin can override the convention in its own manifest (e.g. plugins/codemap-py/.claude-plugin/plugin.json declares "skills": "./claude-skills/", not ./skills/; a fixed */skills/*/SKILL.md glob silently never matches it). Resolve each plugin's real dir names first:

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
if [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = "true" ]; then
  for pj in plugins/*/.claude-plugin/plugin.json; do
    [ -f "$pj" ] || continue
    plugin_name=$(basename "$(dirname "$(dirname "$pj")")")
    python3 -c "
import json
d = json.load(open('$pj'))
skills = (d.get('skills') or './skills/').strip('./')
agents = (d.get('agents') or './agents/').strip('./')
print(f'PLUGIN_LAYOUT: $plugin_name | skills={skills} | agents={agents}')
" 2>/dev/null || echo "PLUGIN_LAYOUT: $plugin_name | skills=skills | agents=agents"
  done
fi

For every PLUGIN_LAYOUT: line, use its skills=/agents= value (not the hardcoded skills/agents names) when Globbing that plugin below — e.g. codemap-py prints skills=claude-skills, so Glob claude-skills/*/SKILL.md under plugins/codemap-py/, not skills/*/SKILL.md. Plugins with no manifest override resolve to the same skills/agents names the fixed patterns below already assume — no behavior change for them. codex-skills/-style dirs for non-Claude-Code runtimes are intentionally excluded — only the manifest-declared path is authoritative, since a heuristic *skill* name match would also sweep in skill dirs meant for a different agent runtime and produce false-positive findings against Claude Code's frontmatter schema.

Source selection by LOCAL_MODE:

• LOCAL_MODE=false (default — user setup): .claude/ primary; plugins/ skipped. Installed/active config only.
• LOCAL_MODE=true (--local — project source): plugins/ primary; .claude/ secondary for rules/hooks/settings only.

Without --local (LOCAL_MODE=false):

• Agents: Glob tool, pattern agents/*.md, path .claude/
• Skills: Glob tool, pattern skills/*/SKILL.md, path .claude/
• Rules: Glob tool, pattern rules/*.md, path .claude/
• Communication: Read tool on rules/communication.md, rules/quality-gates.md, TEAM_PROTOCOL.md, skills/_shared/file-handoff-protocol.md
• Settings: Read tool on .claude/settings.json
• Hooks: Glob tool, pattern hooks/*, path .claude/

With --local (LOCAL_MODE=true):

• Agents (source — primary): for each PLUGIN_LAYOUT: line above, Glob tool pattern <agents-dir>/*.md, path plugins/<plugin_name>/
• Skills (source — primary): for each PLUGIN_LAYOUT: line above, Glob tool pattern <skills-dir>/*/SKILL.md, path plugins/<plugin_name>/
• Agents (project-local — secondary): Glob tool, pattern agents/*.md, path .claude/
• Skills (project-local — secondary): Glob tool, pattern skills/*/SKILL.md, path .claude/
• Rules / Settings / Hooks: same as without --local (.claude/)

Merge into single flat inventory. When LOCAL_MODE=true and same logical name in both plugins/ and .claude/, prefer plugin source — skip .claude/ duplicate. Record full paths — Step 3 cross-reference checks depend on current inventory. If MEMORY.md not updated since last agent/skill added/removed, run live disk scan, not cached roster. Stale inventory = primary cause of false-negative cross-reference findings.

Coverage reconciliation (--local/plugins scope only — mandatory, not optional): a plugin contributing zero files to the inventory is invisible to every downstream check and must never pass as a silent clean sweep — same failure shape as a check that always no-ops: absence of findings misread as absence of problems. The base set for this comparison is every directory under plugins/, not just the ones that produced a PLUGIN_LAYOUT: line above — a plugin with a missing or malformed plugin.json contributes no PLUGIN_LAYOUT: line either, and comparing against that subset would make it invisible all over again:

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
mkdir -p "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}"
find plugins -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d ! -name ".*" 2>/dev/null | sed 's|plugins/||' | sort > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/all-plugins"

After inventory is built (model-context comparison — inventory already in context, not re-read from disk): compare every name in all-plugins against plugin names actually present in the inventory. For each plugin with zero inventory entries, print and persist in the same bash call (re-export CSID here too — a later call starts a fresh shell and an unexported $CSID silently writes to the wrong sentinel path):

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
: > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/unscanned-plugins"
# for each zero-contribution plugin found above:
printf "⚠ UNSCANNED: %s — no files matched scope globs\n" "<plugin>" | tee -a "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/unscanned-plugins"

Step 11 reads this sentinel and surfaces it as a top-level report section — a zero-coverage plugin must never produce a green summary.

Scope filtering for Step 2 (applies on top of LOCAL_MODE):

• agents scope — collect agents from active source (.claude/agents/ or plugins/*/agents/ per LOCAL_MODE); skip skills, rules, hooks
• skills scope — collect skills from active source; skip agents, rules, hooks
• plugins scope — always reads plugins/*/agents/*.md + plugins/*/skills/*/SKILL.md regardless of LOCAL_MODE; forces LOCAL_MODE=true
• plugins <name> or <plugin-name> (tier 2) scope — collect plugins/<name>/agents/*.md + plugins/<name>/skills/*/SKILL.md only; forces LOCAL_MODE=true; also force LOCAL_MODE=true when any scope token matches plugins keyword or matches a plugins/<name>/ directory even without explicit --local flag
• <agent-name> (tier 3) scope — single matching agent file; LOCAL_MODE=false: .claude/agents/<name>.md; LOCAL_MODE=true: plugins/*/agents/<name>.md first, then .claude/agents/<name>.md
• <skill-name> (tier 3) scope — single matching skill file; same LOCAL_MODE resolution as agent above
• Multiple scope tokens — union of all resolved file sets
• setup/plugin (bare) scope — no agent/skill collection from plugins; see setup/plugin notes below
• Full sweep (no scope) — collect per LOCAL_MODE source selection above

Setup scope: when $SCOPE is setup, also collect ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/skills/setup/SKILL.md for Step 3 foundry:curator spawn — only per-file spawn in setup scope. Checks I1–I3 (from checks-install.md) run in Step 4 against ~/.claude/ to validate post-install user state.

plugins <name> scope: verify plugins/<name>/ exists — abort ! BREAKING: plugins/<name>/ not found if absent. Collect plugins/<name>/skills/setup/SKILL.md for Step 3 plus all agents/skills in that plugin. plugins (no name): iterate every subdir under plugins/ — do not filter by literal agents//skills/ dir presence; PLUGIN_LAYOUT resolution above already covers plugins declaring a non-standard skills/agents path via their own manifest.

Step 3: Per-file audit via foundry:curator

Context management — 12+ agents and 14+ skills: accumulating full foundry:curator responses in context causes overflow before aggregation. Use file-based findings to keep main context lean.

Hard rule — no pre-reading: Never call Read on agent/skill file before spawning foundry:curator. Spawned agent does the reading. Orchestrator reads only returned JSON envelope. Pre-reading 41 KB files into main context = defeats delegation + causes context overflow at scale.

Batching rule: Always apply the grouping algorithm. Compute EFFECTIVE_BATCH = max(BATCH_SIZE_MIN, ceil(total_files / MAX_BATCHES)) before grouping — caps total batches at MAX_BATCHES while guaranteeing BATCH_SIZE_MIN files per batch for adequate curator context. Group files into batches of up to EFFECTIVE_BATCH. Never spawn one agent per file. Total files ≤ EFFECTIVE_BATCH → one batch containing all files. Use MAX_BATCHES_FAST in place of MAX_BATCHES only when --fast was passed.

Spawn-count gate — apply before spawning anything: every agent costs ~120,851 tok just to exist, i.e. ~73 tool-calls' worth of work (see <constants>). So spawn the fewest agents that keep each one near AGENT_CALL_BUDGET, not the most the cap allows. Two consequences, both mandatory:

• Gate on Layer-1 signal. Step 1b already ran ~10 deterministic checkers at zero LLM cost, and its results are authoritative for their classes. A file with no Layer-1 finding and no judgment-bearing content (no Agent() dispatch, no cross-file contract, no model/tool declaration) does not need a curator. Audit it by the static pass alone and say so in the report. Spawning a curator to re-confirm a clean mechanical result is the single most common waste in this skill.
• State the trade in the report. Record agents spawned and the reason for that count. If --fast widened the fan-out, say that it bought wall-clock at roughly 120K tok per extra agent — never present the fast path as free.

Budget line — include verbatim in every spawn prompt: If you approach your budget, stop cleanly and return the envelope with "partial": true and an accurate account of what you finished. Measured: agents at ≤57 calls returned a clean envelope 5/5; agents at 87–142 calls stalled mid-task 3/5 and returned a progress fragment instead, forcing the orchestrator to reconstruct their state from disk.

Grouping algorithm: (1) sort by plugin origin (plugins/<name>/ prefix); (2) assign each plugin's files to batches, fill to EFFECTIVE_BATCH before next — keeps same-plugin files together; (3) remaining files (.claude/ and mixed) fill open slots. Grouping plugin-first, not strictly ordered — unconnected files assigned randomly to reach EFFECTIVE_BATCH.

Layer-2 — judgment by domain, not by file (plugin scope): when the scope is plugins, plugins <name>, or a tier-2 plugin name, override the batch cap and group all of a plugin's files into ONE holistic batch (one foundry:curator per plugin), even if that exceeds EFFECTIVE_BATCH. Whole-plugin context is what lets the curator catch cross-file breaks that per-file batching structurally misses — tool-grant mismatches (agent frontmatter vs skill dispatch), inter-skill contract splits (a constant clamped differently in two files), dead dispatch paths, and version/description drift within the plugin. The curator prompt for a holistic batch must say: "You have this plugin's ENTIRE file set — review it as one system: check that every Agent(subagent_type=...) dispatch targets an agent whose frontmatter grants the needed tools, that shared constants/contracts agree across files, and that no skill references a removed mode/file." The mechanical checks are already done in Step 1b — spend this holistic pass on cross-file judgment only. (Very large plugins may still split, but keep agents+their dispatching skills in the same batch.)

Scope-restricted runs: fewer than EFFECTIVE_BATCH files → one batch containing ALL files in scope (single foundry:curator spawn). Read only relevant template file(s) for active scope, not all 4.

Set up the run directory once before spawning any agents:

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
AUDIT_TPL=$(cat "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/audit-tpl" 2>/dev/null || python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_skill_subdir.py" audit templates $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" ))

RUN_DIR=$(python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/make_run_dir.py" .reports/audit)  # timeout: 5000
[ -z "$RUN_DIR" ] && { printf "! BREAKING: make_run_dir.py returned empty path — check Python availability and write permission on .reports/\n"; exit 1; }
echo "Run dir: $RUN_DIR"
echo "$RUN_DIR" > "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/run-dir"
cat "$AUDIT_TPL/curator-prompt.md"

Spawn foundry:curator agents in batches of up to EFFECTIVE_BATCH (grouping algorithm above) — or one batch if scope ≤ EFFECTIVE_BATCH. Each spawn prompt must:

1. Include the curator-prompt.md content loaded above
2. Include the disk inventory from Step 2 (agent/skill list for cross-reference validation)
3. End with:

"Write your FULL findings (all severity levels) to <RUN_DIR>/<file-slug>.md using the Write tool — where <file-slug> is a unique identifier combining plugin prefix and filename (e.g. foundry-shepherd.md, oss-analyse-SKILL.md, develop-fix-SKILL.md) to avoid collisions between cross-plugin files sharing the same basename. End your full findings file with a ## Confidence block per quality-gates.md format (Score, Gaps, Refinements). Then return to the caller ONLY a compact JSON envelope on your final line — nothing else after it: {\"status\":\"done\",\"file\":\"<RUN_DIR>/<file-slug>.md\",\"findings\":N,\"severity\":{\"security\":N,\"critical\":N,\"high\":N,\"medium\":N,\"low\":N},\"confidence\":0.N,\"summary\":\"<filename>: N critical, N high, N medium, N low\"}"

Replace <RUN_DIR> with actual path, <file-slug> with plugin-prefixed unique slug (e.g. foundry-shepherd, oss-analyse-SKILL, develop-fix-SKILL). Slug chars: [a-zA-Z0-9-] only — no slashes, spaces, or dots.

Critical context discipline: response body = JSON envelope on final line only. No other text, output summaries, or findings. All content to file.

Template file = canonical per-file audit criteria. Disk inventory and RUN_DIR path = runtime values injected per spawn.

After spawns complete: short summaries in context; use to identify files with findings. Full content in run directory files.

Health monitoring (CLAUDE.md §6): apply the honest protocol in $_FS/agent-spawn-protocol.md — these curator batches return on completion; after each returns, read its $RUN_DIR output file. On empty/missing output: mark timed_out, surface with ⏱ in final report. Never omit timed-out agents.

Steps 4–5b: System-wide checks, aggregate, low-confidence remediation

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
AUDIT_MODES=$(python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_skill_subdir.py" audit modes $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" )) || { printf "! BREAKING: audit/modes not found — run /foundry:setup first\n"; exit 1; }  # timeout: 5000
cat "$AUDIT_MODES/steps-4-5-7.md"

loads: modes/steps-4-5-7.md (§Step 4–5b and §Step 7)

Execute §Step 4–5b loaded above — system-wide checks (scope-dispatched), aggregate + classify findings, low-confidence remediation (conditional, skipped when no file scored <0.80). State on disk in summary.jsonl, $RUN_DIR, $AUDIT_TPL. Returns here to Step 6.

Step 6: Cross-validate critical findings

_SHARED=$(python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_shared_path.py" foundry skills/_shared 2>/dev/null || echo "plugins/cc_foundry/skills/_shared")  # timeout: 5000
SKIP_CROSS_VAL=false
[ -f "$_SHARED/cross-validation-protocol.md" ] || { printf "⚠ WARNING: cross-validation-protocol.md not found at $_SHARED — skipping cross-validation\n"; SKIP_CROSS_VAL=true; }
[ "$SKIP_CROSS_VAL" = false ] && cat "$_SHARED/cross-validation-protocol.md"

If $SKIP_CROSS_VAL = false: follow the cross-validation protocol loaded above.

Skill-specific: the verifier agent is always foundry:curator.

Step 7: Report findings

Execute §Step 7 of steps-4-5-7.md (loaded above in Steps 4–5b) — emits report, fires follow-up gate; on fix pick continues to Steps 8–10 (modes/fix.md); otherwise skip to Step 11.

Steps 8–10: Fix dispatch, codex cross-file check, re-audit (mode: fix)

Runs only when the user picked a fix option (a–c) from the Step 7 follow-up gate. Resolve the modes dir, load fix.md, then execute it inline — it carries Step 8 (delegate fixes to subagents), Step 9 (codex cross-file check), and Step 10 (re-audit + convergence loop), then returns here to Step 11:

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/load_mode.py" audit modes fix.md $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" )  # timeout: 5000

loads: modes/fix.md Execute Steps 8–10 loaded above inline (state on disk in summary.jsonl, $RUN_DIR, $AUDIT_TPL). On convergence (clean or 5-pass limit), continue to Step 11 below. If no fix option was picked, skip directly to Step 11.

Step 11: Final report

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
AUDIT_TPL=$(cat "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/audit-tpl" 2>/dev/null || python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_skill_subdir.py" audit templates $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" ))
IFS= read -r RUN_DIR < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/run-dir" 2>/dev/null || RUN_DIR=""
cat "$AUDIT_TPL/report-template.md"

Step 11a — assemble and persist — assemble the complete audit report following the template and instructions loaded above, then Write it to $RUN_DIR/report.md using the Write tool. Set the template's Path: field to that same real path. This Write is mandatory, not optional: the terminal step below reads the header back from this file, and the report is the run's only durable artifact once the session ends. Skipping it leaves Path: pointing at a file that was never created.

Unscanned-plugin surfacing (--local/plugins scope only): before assembling, read ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/unscanned-plugins (sentinel from Step 2 coverage reconciliation). Non-empty → include an ### Unscanned Plugins section in the report immediately after ### Files Audited, listing every ⚠ UNSCANNED: <plugin> line verbatim; this makes zero-coverage plugins visible in the durable artifact, not just the transient terminal output. Empty or missing → omit the section.

Step 11b — terminal output — per quality-gates.md universal rule: read the --- header block from the top of $RUN_DIR/report.md (all fields from opening --- up to and including closing ---) and render as a two-column Markdown table (Field | Value, one row per key, file order) as the FIRST content of the reply — never print the raw ----delimited block. Then print → $RUN_DIR/report.md. Then executive summary. Omit the ╔═╗ Re:Anchor box (communication.md exempts quality-gates --- report headers — the table IS the reply header).

Completion marker — on successful completion, write $RUN_DIR/result.jsonl with one JSONL line summarising the run (severity totals, scope, pass count). On any abort/error path before completion, leave result.jsonl absent — the TTL cleanup hook (artifact-lifecycle.md) intentionally skips run directories without result.jsonl, preserving incomplete runs for post-mortem debugging. To force cleanup of a known-bad incomplete run, write {"status":"incomplete","reason":"<one-line>"} to result.jsonl so TTL can age it out.

rm -f .temp/state/skill-contract.md  # clear contract — skill complete (compaction-contract.md §Lifecycle)  # timeout: 5000

Mode: upgrade

Trigger: /audit --upgrade

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
AUDIT_TPL=$(cat "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/audit-tpl" 2>/dev/null || python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_skill_subdir.py" audit templates $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" ))
cat "$AUDIT_TPL/../modes/upgrade.md"

Execute the mode loaded above.

Mode: adversarial (alias: --challenge)

Trigger: /audit [<scope>...] --adversarial

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
AUDIT_TPL=$(cat "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/audit-tpl" 2>/dev/null || python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_skill_subdir.py" audit templates $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" ))
cat "$AUDIT_TPL/../modes/adversarial.md"

Execute the mode loaded above.

Mode: efficiency

Trigger: /audit [<scope>...] --efficiency

export CSID="${CLAUDE_CODE_SESSION_ID:-$PPID}"
IFS= read -r LOCAL_MODE < "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/local-mode" 2>/dev/null || LOCAL_MODE="false"
AUDIT_TPL=$(cat "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/audit-state-${CSID}/audit-tpl" 2>/dev/null || python "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-plugins/cc_foundry}/bin/resolve_skill_subdir.py" audit templates $( [ "$LOCAL_MODE" = true ] && echo "--local" ))
cat "$AUDIT_TPL/../modes/efficiency.md"

Execute the mode loaded above.

Combined-run

…(truncated)