Outcome Translator

Outcome Translator Skill

Purpose: Non-technical founders speak in outcomes. Engineers speak in tasks. This skill bridges the gap — translating every outcome phrase into a provable engineering plan.

Locale: en-AU — colour, behaviour, optimisation, organised, licence (noun).

When to Invoke

Invoke this skill BEFORE any action when the user's message contains:

• Completion claims: "finished", "done", "complete", "ready"
• Launch instructions: "launch it", "ship it", "go live", "release it", "deploy"
• Goal statements: "make it work", "just fix it", "get it working"
• Readiness claims: "production ready", "ready for clients", "ready to sell"

Never assume the claim is true. Always translate and verify first.

Output Format

Always produce the full structured output below. Do not skip any section.

OUTCOME TRANSLATION
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Outcome:          [Exact phrase the user said]
Interpreted As:   [Engineering definition — be specific]

DEFINITION OF DONE
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
□ [Criterion 1 — measurable, specific]
□ [Criterion 2]
□ [Criterion N]

CURRENT STATE AUDIT
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Proven:
  ✓ [Confirmed working item — state the evidence]
  ✓ [Another confirmed item]

Unknown:
  ? [Item that cannot be verified without action — state what action is needed]
  ? [Another unknown]

Missing:
  ✗ [Item confirmed absent or broken — state what is missing]
  ✗ [Another missing item]

GATED PLAN
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Phase 1: [Phase Title]
  Priority: [CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM]
  Steps:
    1. [Specific action]
    2. [Specific action]
  Gate: [Command or artifact that proves this phase is complete]
  Rollback: [How to undo if this phase fails]

Phase 2: [Phase Title]
  Priority: [CRITICAL / HIGH / MEDIUM]
  Steps:
    1. [Specific action]
  Gate: [Proof of completion]
  Rollback: [Undo path]

[Repeat for all phases]

PROOF REQUIRED
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Before claiming completion, the following artifacts must exist:

□ [Artifact 1 — e.g. "curl -I output showing HTTP 200 for production URL"]
□ [Artifact 2 — e.g. "screenshot of successful login with production credentials"]
□ [Artifact 3 — e.g. "provider dashboard showing live transaction"]
□ [Artifact N]

COMPLETION GATE
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Status:   [NOT COMPLETE / COMPLETE]
Blocking: [List every criterion that is Unknown or Missing]

NEXT ACTION
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
[Single most important action to take RIGHT NOW]
[Exact command or step — no ambiguity]
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════

Outcome Definitions Reference

Use these definitions when interpreting outcome language. Adapt to the project's actual stack.

"Finished" / "Done" / "Complete"

Requires ALL of the following:

• Production URL live and returning HTTP 200
• Auth flows working (register, login, logout, protected routes)
• All linked assets loading without 404
• Backend health check passing
• No unhandled errors in production logs
• SSL valid
• Environment variables are production values (not dev defaults)

"Ready" / "Production Ready"

Same as "Finished" plus:

• CI/CD pipeline green
• Monitoring configured (error tracking, uptime)
• Rollback path documented
• Database backups configured

"Launch it" / "Ship it" / "Go live"

Same as "Production Ready" plus:

• Deployment executed to production environment
• DNS confirmed pointing to production
• First user journey end-to-end verified post-deploy

"Make it work" / "Just fix it"

Requires:

• Root cause identified (not just symptoms suppressed)
• Fix applied and tested
• Regression check: nothing else broken
• Evidence of working state (test output, screenshot, or log)

"Ready for clients" / "Ready to sell"

Same as "Production Ready" plus:

• At least one real user account created and verified
• Payment flow tested in live mode (if applicable)
• Support contact reachable
• Legal pages published (privacy policy, terms of service)
• Email delivery confirmed (not in spam)

Gap Analysis Rules

Proven = you have evidence. Name the evidence. Examples:

• "CI pipeline green — last run [date]"
• "Backend health check returns 200 — confirmed by curl output in session"
• "Database migrations applied — confirmed by Alembic history"

Unknown = you could verify it but haven't yet. State exactly what action would verify it. Examples:

• "Production URL response — requires: curl -I https://production-url.com"
• "Email delivery — requires: send test email to external Gmail address"
• "Payment webhook — requires: check provider dashboard for delivery"

Missing = confirmed absent. State what is missing. Examples:

• "Production JWT secret — still set to default value 'your-secret-key-change-in-production'"
• "Monitoring — no error tracking service configured"
• "SSL certificate — domain not pointing to production server yet"

Completion Prohibition

This skill enforces a hard prohibition on false completion claims.

Do NOT output any of these phrases unless ALL criteria are Proven:

• "Done!"
• "You're production ready."
• "Everything is working."
• "That's complete."
• "Looks good to go."

If ANY criterion is Unknown or Missing, output:

STATUS: NOT COMPLETE
[N] criteria require action before this can be claimed as complete.
Next required action: [specific step]

Integration Points

• Rule: .claude/rules/human-outcome-translation.md — always-on trigger
• CLI Control Plane: outcome translation triggers AUDIT mode
• Blueprint First: if a build plan is generated, invoke .skills/custom/blueprint-first/SKILL.md before code generation
• Verification: always invoke .skills/custom/verify/SKILL.md (or equivalent) after execution

Example Invocation

User: "We're production ready, launch it"

Skill invoked: outcome-translator

Output:

OUTCOME TRANSLATION
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════
Outcome:          "We're production ready, launch it"
Interpreted As:   Claim that all production criteria are met; instruction to deploy to production

DEFINITION OF DONE
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
□ Production URL responds HTTP 200
□ Auth flow verified (register → login → dashboard)
□ Backend health check passing
□ SSL certificate valid
□ No dev environment variables in production
□ CI/CD pipeline green
□ Monitoring active
□ Rollback path documented

CURRENT STATE AUDIT
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Proven:
  ✓ CI pipeline green — confirmed by last run log

Unknown:
  ? Production URL — requires: curl -I https://your-production-url.com
  ? Auth flow — requires: manual test with production credentials
  ? SSL certificate — requires: ssl-checker.io or browser inspection
  ? Monitoring — requires: confirm Sentry/equivalent is configured

Missing:
  ✗ Rollback plan — no documented rollback procedure found
  ✗ Production env vars — JWT_SECRET_KEY still at default value

GATED PLAN
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Phase 1: Resolve Missing Items [CRITICAL]
  Steps:
    1. Rotate JWT_SECRET_KEY in production environment
    2. Document rollback procedure in runbook
  Gate: grep JWT_SECRET_KEY .env.production confirms non-default value

Phase 2: Verify Unknown Items [CRITICAL]
  Steps:
    1. curl -I https://your-production-url.com
    2. Test auth flow manually
    3. Confirm SSL validity
    4. Confirm monitoring is receiving events
  Gate: All four return expected results

Phase 3: Deploy [HIGH]
  Steps:
    1. Trigger production deployment via CI/CD
    2. Verify post-deploy health check
  Gate: Health endpoint returns 200 post-deploy
  Rollback: git revert + re-deploy or platform rollback

PROOF REQUIRED
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
□ curl -I output showing HTTP 200
□ Screenshot of successful login on production
□ SSL validity confirmation
□ Monitoring dashboard showing active tracking

COMPLETION GATE
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Status:   NOT COMPLETE
Blocking: 2 Missing items, 4 Unknown items must be resolved

NEXT ACTION
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Rotate JWT_SECRET_KEY in production environment — this is a security blocker.
Command: Set JWT_SECRET_KEY to a new 64-character random string in your hosting platform's env config.
═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════