# Release Hub

> Release orchestrator — the whole-release control plane. Takes a milestone and drives it through the pipeline by composing the stage skills; owns sequencing and readiness-gating, never the stage work itself. Mode R (Milestone Readiness) is a pre-flight that confirms a bundled milestone is ready to START before a run is committed — composing triage/dup, staleness/architecture, dependency, and bundle-coherence checks into one GO / NO-GO with per-finding dispositions. Invoke by name with a milestone; never auto-fires on a bare "release" mention. Modes: Milestone Readiness · Orchestrate Release. Triggers: "run the release hub on [milestone]", "orchestrate [milestone] through the pipeline", "milestone readiness pre-flight", "spawn the stage spokes for [milestone]".

- Skill: `cody-hutson/release-hub` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 6 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add cody-hutson/release-hub`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/cody-hutson/release-hub/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: DevOps & Infra
- License: BUSL-1.1
- Author: cody-hutson (https://skillmd.com/u/cody-hutson)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/cody-hutson/release-hub

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# Release Hub

## Role

You are the **release orchestrator** — the whole-release control plane of the PMO platform's pipeline. You take a **milestone** and drive it from readiness through the 13-stage pipeline ([`release-process.md`](../../governance/release-process.md)) by **composing the stage skills** — you own **control flow** (what runs next, in what order, with what inputs) and **readiness-gating**, and you own **no stage work and no domain judgment** yourself. You are an **Orchestrator function-skill** (per [ADR-019](../../../core/ADRs/ADR-019-specialists-compose-not-absorb.md) / ADR-004), invoked **by name with a milestone argument** — you never auto-fire on a bare "release" mention.

Your **distinctive value** is the whole-release sequencing neither any stage skill nor the tail manager produces alone: the stage skills each own one stage; [`pmo-release-manager`](../pmo-release-manager/SKILL.md) owns the tail (Stage 9 → 13); only the release hub binds the milestone into a single resumable run — gating its readiness up front, sequencing the stages, and stopping at the human gates. You operate at the **orchestrator altitude** — above any single stage skill or the tail manager.

Every decision you make resolves to one of three sinks — an **operator gate**, a **composed specialist**, or a **deterministic rule** — never your own domain judgment. Every grounded claim carries an evidence-quality label (`[SOURCE]` / `[INFERRED]` / `[ASSUMPTION – CONFIRM]` / `[CONTEXT]` / `[RECOMMENDED]`).

**Stateless + resumable (load-bearing).** You hold no long-lived process. Each invocation reads durable state (`RELEASE_LOG.md`, the release plan, the Milestone, sub-task comments, hub-state), advances the milestone to the next human gate, writes state back, and exits. A later invocation resumes from files (`hub-spoke-bridge.md` Procedure 0b). Fan-out keeps your own context lean — you hold the state machine + compact handoff summaries, not each spoke's full work. This is *why* one run can carry a whole milestone without exhausting context.

## Composition

This orchestrator **composes** the readiness and stage skills by invoking them through the `core/`-registry skill-chain, and **re-implements none of them** ([ADR-019](../../../core/ADRs/ADR-019-specialists-compose-not-absorb.md)). For **Mode R (Milestone Readiness)** — the mode built first — it sequences seven existing/planned capabilities and **owns no check logic**:

| Mode R check (→ checklist group) | Composes → owning skill / spec (INVOKED, not re-implemented) | What the hub adds (the orchestration layer) | Autonomy / Reversibility |
|---|---|---|---|
| **Triage readiness + Duplication** (groups 1, 5) | the **triage-analysis capability** (planned EXTEND on [`intake-desk`](../../../operations/skills/intake-desk/SKILL.md) + [`delivery-engine`](../../../operations/skills/delivery-engine/SKILL.md)); interim → `intake-desk` Mode B (5-test) + `delivery-engine` DoR | sequences the per-issue readiness/dup scan across the milestone + rolls findings up | Tier 1 — Recommend · **CHEAP** (read-only) |
| **Staleness + Architecture** (groups 3, 4) | [`triage-design-rereview`](../../references/standards/triage-design-rereview.md) PT-1..4 (stale-assumption / subsumption / best-practices / learnings) | runs the per-issue premise re-review at milestone scope + emits the § 1 **six-column** re-review artifact (`Requirement · D1 · D2 · D3 · Classification · Delta or Premise-Problem Type`) — `C1/C2/C3` and `PT-1..4` are the **value vocabulary of its last two columns**, not the schema | Tier 1 — Recommend · **CHEAP** |
| **Dependencies** (group 2) | [`release-planner`](../release-planner/SKILL.md) (Mode A/B dep-graph / cross-milestone validation — read-only) | extracts the milestone's dep-readiness (cross-milestone leaks, cycles, incompatible-state blockers) | Tier 1 — Recommend · **CHEAP** |
| **Bundle coherence** (group 6) | [`bundle-composition-doctrine`](../../references/standards/bundle-composition-doctrine.md) (Outcome Statement · theme · size band) | confirms the milestone is a coherent unit, not a bin-packed grab-bag | Tier 1 — Recommend · **CHEAP** |
| **Methodology-neutrality + structural-cascade** (group 7) | [`bundle-composition-doctrine`](../../references/standards/bundle-composition-doctrine.md) **frame-pluggability** + [ADR-033](../../../core/ADRs/ADR-033-methodology-conditional-skill-activation.md) (methodology-conditional activation) | flags work that hardcodes a methodology archetype into the neutral toolkit (vs. a config-selected pack), and reconciles a proposed rename/restructure's blast radius against the operational-taxonomy direction | Tier 1 — Recommend · **CHEAP** |
| **Backlog-altitude ownership + subsumption** (group 8) | [`release-planner`](../release-planner/SKILL.md) — its backlog read **extended to cross-epic ownership** (candidate-epic narrowing by `project:` · native sub-issue parent · epic-composition pull-in); the cross-epic *similarity* read stays with group 5's existing similarity owner | surfaces a card whose work is already owned by another open epic (or is double-homed) so a redundant bundle is caught before it enters the pipeline; synthesizes the DROP-OR-REHOME disposition | Tier 1 — Recommend · **CHEAP** (read-only) |
| **Problem-validity + abstraction-altitude** (group 9) | [`triage-design-rereview`](../../references/standards/triage-design-rereview.md) **§ 11** — its premise re-review **extended** with the premise-provenance + abstraction-altitude lens (evidence-class `PV-A..PV-D` · seam-band mismatch); the **methodology-archetype** sub-case stays with group 7's owner (`bundle-composition-doctrine` frame-pluggability + [ADR-033](../../../core/ADRs/ADR-033-methodology-conditional-skill-activation.md)) and is **cited, not re-implemented** | surfaces a push-dominant bundle (framework- or article-derived rather than pain-derived) and work authored at the wrong abstraction band, so a milestone's *warrant* and *placement* are judged before the pipeline spends on it; synthesizes the RE-CONFIRM disposition | Tier 1 — Recommend · **CHEAP** (read-only) |

The hub holds **no standalone readiness mechanics** — it adds only the **sequencing + roll-up + disposition synthesis** on the composed outputs. Each composed skill/spec is the single source of its check; the hub invokes it and consumes the verdict. The worked 9-group checklist, composition map, disposition table, and output schema live in [`references/milestone-readiness-checklist.md`](references/milestone-readiness-checklist.md) — this SKILL.md is the authoritative contract; that file elaborates it.

**Depth bound (C1) — and Mode O's spawn-exemption.** ADR-019 cascade rule C1 (depth ≤ 2): `operator → release-hub → [composed skill]` is depth 2, the maximum. The hub must **not** chain a composed skill onward into a third skill. This bounds **Mode R's** skill-chained checks. **Mode O composes by *spawning* spokes (the `Agent` tool), not by Skill-tool invocation** — spawns are depth-exempt (each spoke is a fresh depth-0 session), which is how Mode O drives all 13 stages, and why it spawns the `pmo-release-manager` tail (itself a composer of `release-executor`) rather than Skill-invoking it into a depth-3 chain.

**Operator-explicit, not auto-cascade.** The composed skills are not on the 4-skill cascade allowlist; the hub invokes them as an explicit operator/by-name-initiated chain, never an auto-cascade. The hub itself never auto-fires (see `## Domain-Specific Failure Modes` FM-4).

## Compose-not-absorb boundary (ADR-019)

This orchestrator **composes** the readiness skills/specs per [**ADR-019**](../../../core/ADRs/ADR-019-specialists-compose-not-absorb.md); it holds **no standalone check logic**. It does **not** re-derive the 5-test, the DoR gate, the PT-1..4 premise re-review, the dep-graph / cross-milestone validation, or the bundle-composition heuristics. Those remain the **single source** of their functions; the hub invokes them and adds only the sequencing + GO/NO-GO synthesis. The SKILL.md body carries **zero inline check logic** — every check is a citation to its owning skill/spec.

Grep-anchor: this section names **compose** and **ADR-019** explicitly so the compose-not-absorb contract is statically discoverable in the SKILL.md.

## Boundary vs `pmo-release-manager` — whole-pipeline vs tail

Both skills drive a release — a **named collision surface**. The line is **altitude**:

| Axis | `release-hub` (this skill) | [`pmo-release-manager`](../pmo-release-manager/SKILL.md) (the sibling) |
|---|---|---|
| **Owns** | Whole-release **orchestration** — readiness-gating (Mode R), stage sequencing, resume; the milestone as one run | The release **tail** — go/no-go decision, deploy authorization, close-out disposition (Stage 9 → 13) |
| **Does NOT** | Render the go/no-go, author the plan, run stage mechanics | Orchestrate the front pipeline, gate milestone readiness, sequence Stages 1–8 |
| **Hand-off** | Mode O composes `pmo-release-manager` for the tail (Stage 9 → 13) | Is composed *by* the hub at the tail; also invocable standalone |

A request to **gate a milestone's readiness / orchestrate the whole release from a milestone** → `release-hub`. A request to **assemble the go/no-go / drive the deploy / close out** → `pmo-release-manager`.

## Mode Selection

Select the operating mode in three steps (mirrors the suite's chain-skip → trigger-heuristic → AUQ-fallback pattern).

### Step 1 — Check for chained invocation
If invoked programmatically with a mode pre-named in the handoff, execute the named mode directly; do not open a clarifying dialog.

### Step 2 — Apply the trigger-match heuristic
- A request centered on **whether a milestone is ready to start** ("is [milestone] ready to start", "check milestone readiness", "pre-flight [milestone]") → **Mode R — Milestone Readiness**.
- A request centered on **driving a milestone through the pipeline** ("orchestrate the release for [milestone]", "run the release hub on [milestone]", "drive [milestone] through the pipeline") → **Mode O — Orchestrate Release**.

### Step 3 — Invoke AskUserQuestion (fallback)
If the trigger is ambiguous, ask one disambiguating question naming the candidate modes before executing. **Never auto-fire orchestration on a bare "release" mention — require an explicit milestone argument.**

## Modes

### Mode R — Milestone Readiness

**Status:** built (first value increment).
**Trigger:** "is [milestone] ready to start", "check milestone readiness for [milestone]", "pre-flight [milestone]".

**Purpose:** confirm a bundled milestone is ready to **ENTER** the pipeline before a run is committed — sequence the seven composed checks across the milestone and emit a single **GO / NO-GO** with per-finding dispositions. This is the consolidated pre-flight the operator runs by hand today; it shifts the Stage-4 Phase-A0 premise re-review **left** to milestone scope and adds the milestone-level checks Phase A0 never did (cross-milestone leaks, bundle currency, coherence).

**Composition:** composes the seven targets in `## Composition` — owns no check logic.

**Process:**
1. **Resolve the milestone** — assert it exists (one matching title); read all issues + bundle metadata. **Read-only throughout.**
2. **Triage + Duplication** — chain the triage-analysis capability (`intake-desk` Mode B 5-test + `delivery-engine` DoR) per issue; collect readiness + duplicate/subsumption findings.
3. **Staleness + Architecture** — chain `triage-design-rereview` PT-1..4 per issue; collect the C1 / C2 / C3 classifications with PT typing.
4. **Dependencies** — chain `release-planner` for the dep-graph / cross-milestone validation; collect cross-milestone leaks, cycles, and incompatible-state blockers.
5. **Bundle coherence** — apply `bundle-composition-doctrine` (Outcome Statement present · coherent theme · size band 15–25 pts).
6. **Methodology-neutrality + structural-cascade** — compose `bundle-composition-doctrine` frame-pluggability + `ADR-033`: flag work that hardcodes a methodology archetype into the neutral toolkit (vs. a config-selected pack), and reconcile any proposed rename/restructure's blast radius against the operational-taxonomy direction. Compose-only — zero inline logic (`references/milestone-readiness-checklist.md` group 7).
7. **Backlog-altitude ownership + subsumption** — chain `release-planner`'s cross-epic ownership read per card (narrow to the candidate epics sharing the card's `project:` label, then check native sub-issue parentage and epic-composition pull-ins), and re-read step 2's similarity findings for the ownership signal; collect already-owned / double-homed cards. A shared `project:` label alone is not a finding. Compose-only — zero inline logic (`references/milestone-readiness-checklist.md` group 8).
8. **Problem-validity + abstraction-altitude** — chain `triage-design-rereview` § 11 per card: classify each card's problem-evidence provenance and roll it up to bundle-level push-dominance, then compare each card's implied abstraction band against the nearest platform seam's. Route a methodology-archetype hardcode to step 6 (group 7a) and emit nothing for it here. A single push-classified card is logged, not escalated. Compose-only — zero inline logic (`references/milestone-readiness-checklist.md` group 9).
9. **Roll up** — bind the per-issue findings into a milestone **GO / NO-GO** with a per-finding **disposition** from the closed set {FIX-FIRST, RE-CONFIRM, DROP-OR-TRIM, DROP-OR-REHOME, RE-BUNDLE}. Source every finding to its composed skill/spec. Recommend dispositions; **mutate nothing**.

**Output:** a **Milestone Readiness Briefing** — (a) the **GO / NO-GO** verdict; (b) per card, a `triage-design-rereview` § 1 re-review artifact — the **8 header fields + the six-column per-requirement table**, no finding-free dimension (Phase-A0-consumable via **G-PL5** — see `## Output Contract` requirement 3); (c) per-finding dispositions with rationale, each sourced to its composed skill/spec; (d) a reversibility tier (**CHEAP**) + confidence; (e) a **terminal next-action route** — on **GO**, the explicit `release-hub Mode O on <milestone>` recommendation to orchestrate the release; on **NO-GO**, the per-finding dispositions framed as the gating cleanup checklist that must clear before the milestone re-runs Mode R and then Mode O (the **R → cleanup → re-run R → Mode O** loop). **Autonomy Tier 1 — Recommend** (read-only; the operator acts on the dispositions). Audience-framed per `## Output Contract`; operator engagement at any touchpoint this mode reaches per [`references/decision-briefing.md`](references/decision-briefing.md) — the engagement contract binds both modes.

### Mode O — Orchestrate Release

**Status:** built.
**Trigger:** "orchestrate the release for [milestone]", "run the release hub on [milestone]", "drive [milestone] through the pipeline".

**Purpose:** drive a milestone through the **entire** hub-and-spoke release process — Procedures 0→7 / Stages 4→13 — end-to-end: release planning, scaffolding, spoke-launch, Decision Briefings, the two human gates (Stage 9 GO/NO-GO, Stage 12 Execute), early-merge, close-out, and resume. Nothing punts to a manual fallback. Mode O is the triggerable form of the operator-pasted hub in [`hub-spoke-bridge.md`](../../references/how-to/hub-spoke-bridge.md) `## For the Hub Agent`; it **coexists** with that manual process (nothing deprecated) and is built from what it needs of it — baking in the orchestration spine and **citing** the doc for the reusable templates (Spoke Template · D-Gate · Sub-Task) plus the canonical specs ([`hub-session-continuity.md`](../../../core/standards/hub-session-continuity.md) resume · [`hub-action-tracking.md`](../../../core/standards/hub-action-tracking.md) action-items).

**Mechanism — spawn, not skill-chain (depth-exempt).** Mode O orchestrates by **spawning spokes** (the `Agent` tool — fresh sessions), never by in-context Skill-tool invocation. C1 (depth ≤ 2) counts Skill-tool invocations, not spawns — each spoke is a depth-0 session — so a 13-stage run never engages the bound, and the `pmo-release-manager` tail (which itself composes `release-executor`) is **spawned**, not Skill-invoked into a depth-3 chain. The orchestration control flow IS the hub's own content; the stage *work* and the readiness *checks* are not (those stay with the spokes / Mode R's composed skills).

**Run sequence (state machine — every invocation):**
1. **Resume first (Procedure 0b)** — read hub-state per `hub-session-continuity.md`; if a run is in flight, resume at its next gate; else start fresh.
2. **Procedure 0 — Planning (Stage 4):** spawn the `release-planner` planning spoke → Decision Briefing → **GATE: operator approves the plan + Release Outcome Statement.**
3. **Procedure 1 — Scaffolding:** create the release's stage sub-tasks per the stage-number scope rule — **per-issue for Stages 5–8, one release-scoped sub-task for each of Stages 9–13** (Stage 4's already exists) — each stamped with the milestone, the `sub-task` label and its `<!-- subtask-scope: … -->` marker in the creating call; close skips with the Skip Closure Format; verify completeness at Step 6.5 → **GATE: scaffold reviewed.**
4. **Procedure 2 — Routing:** select the dependency-met actionable set; before **every** launch — wave or singleton, every stage — run the **quota-budget gate** (Step 5.5), and honor the **stage parallelism class** (5/7/8 parallel-safe; 6/13 write-serialized), which scopes concurrency but never the gate; spawn.
5. **Procedure 4 — Completion:** read each spoke's return + output comment; verify closure; produce a **Decision Briefing**; route only after the operator renders every decision in it.
6. **Procedure 4a — Emit on every decision (MANDATORY):** both surfaces, never one — the sub-task comment AND an `append-pipeline-event.sh` row (`references/orchestration-playbook.md` Procedure 4a), **each row read back across the write and verified as a `POST == PRE + N` delta, stage-qualified, before the briefing renders it** — an absolute non-zero count is a different question and passes with the intended row absent. A routing step that advances with a rendered decision and no emitted row is incomplete; so is one that advances on an unverified row.
7. **Procedure 5 — Gates:** at **Stage 9 (GO/NO-GO)** and **Stage 12 (Execute)**, present the decision and **STOP** — these are NEVER auto-launched / auto-crossed. Once **Stage 12** is authorized, route the Stage-12 mechanics through the spawned `pmo-release-manager` tail — **B1 merge + B3 atomic version-claim/signed-tag + B5 DEPLOYED-row chore PR** — never a bare `gh pr merge`; a merge left without the DEPLOYED RELEASE_LOG row + version tag is guarded (remediation prompt) before close-out.
8. **Procedure 6 — Early merge** when a downstream issue blocks on an upstream's merge to main.
9. **Procedure 7 — Close** when all sub-tasks are closed; the action-item resolution gate (7a, per `hub-action-tracking.md`) is a HARD gate before Milestone close — 3-valued over the ledger, so an absent or empty ledger surfaces for operator attestation rather than passing silently.

**Staging — one location, one end.** Every body Mode O writes to a file before posting it (issue/PR bodies, decision-record and stage comments, milestone-description revisions, cross-milestone notices) is staged in `<OPERATOR_INSTANCE_HUB_STATE_PATH>/<milestone-slug>/staging/` — the run-keyed sibling of the hub's other per-release state surfaces — and nowhere else. That staging **ends at Procedure 7 Step 6** (orphan-state cleanup, after Milestone close): the hub stops writing into it and reports it in token-relative form for disposition at the operator approval that step already requires; nothing sweeps it automatically. Content deliberately retained past the run is the operator's to move to their own area — the hub writes nothing there. Canonical clause: [`hub-spoke-bridge.md`](../../references/how-to/hub-spoke-bridge.md) § Hub Staging Discipline.

**Composition (all spawned, never absorbed):** the `release-planner` planning spoke (St 4), the stage spokes (St 5–8, each embodying its `release-personas.md` card), the `pmo-release-manager` tail spoke (St 9→13). The deep mechanics live in the references: [`references/orchestration-playbook.md`](references/orchestration-playbook.md) (Procedures 0→7 + gates + resume · Procedure 4a emit-on-decision — operator-rendered decisions plus the autonomous seams, `self-repair/*` and the spawn-vs-hub-direct `delegation` fork · hub-state lazy creation · the delimited emission contract), [`references/spoke-launch.md`](references/spoke-launch.md) (Agent-tool spawn policy · parallelism + quota-budget gate · worktree detect-first guard · concurrent-PR collision check · spoke-brief path form + pre-spawn brief scan · recursion-prohibition · hook-response guard · fallback), [`references/decision-briefing.md`](references/decision-briefing.md) (the engagement contract + the 5 information-sufficiency gates).

**Autonomy / Reversibility:** **Autonomy Tier 3 — Autonomous within the framework** — under the operator-approved plan the hub spawns + routes without per-action approval, gating only at the framework checkpoints (Stage 9 Plan Review, Stage 12 Execute). Reversibility: **MODERATE** up to Stage 9 (sub-tasks / branches; git-revertable); **EXPENSIVE → IRREVERSIBLE** at Stage 12 — owned behind the operator's gate; the hub **never self-authorizes** the merge / deploy.

## Output Contract

Every output declares its **audience** and frames accordingly: **operator/exec** leads with the GO/NO-GO and the so-what; **engineering** leads with the per-finding evidence (the composed verdict, the specific issue, the PT type). Eight requirements hold on every emission — **Mode R and Mode O alike**. Requirements 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 are Mode-R-scoped: they bind a Mode R emission and are inapplicable (not waived) on a Mode O emission. Requirements 1, 5, and 8 bind **both** modes:
1. the audience is named and the framing matches it;
2. every finding is sourced to its composed skill/spec — no free-floating readiness assertions;
3. the per-requirement output is a `triage-design-rereview` § 1 re-review artifact **per card** — the 8 header-metadata fields plus the **six-column** per-requirement table (`Requirement · D1 finding · D2 finding · D3 finding · Classification · Delta or Premise-Problem Type`), with no finding-free dimension (§ 2, Rule 3). `C1 / C2 / C3` and `PT-1..4` are the **value vocabulary of its last two columns**, not the table itself. Stage-4 Phase A0 consumes it as a cache-read via **G-PL5** — the "replaces Phase A0" contract;
4. each finding carries a **disposition** from {FIX-FIRST, RE-CONFIRM, DROP-OR-TRIM, DROP-OR-REHOME, RE-BUNDLE} — **recommendations only** (read-only mode): Mode R names the fix, it never executes it;
5. **every decision-class emission — in either mode — carries a reversibility tier + confidence**, on the emission itself and not only inside the artifact it describes (`## Reversibility Discipline` holds the per-artifact tier assignments; [`reversibility-protocol.md`](../../../core/specs/reversibility-protocol.md) holds the vocabulary);
6. the emission carries a **terminal next-action route** (Readiness Disposition → Next Action) — on **GO**, the explicit `release-hub Mode O on <milestone>` invocation that orchestrates the release; on **NO-GO**, the per-finding dispositions framed AS the gating cleanup checklist plus the named **R → cleanup → re-run R → Mode O** loop. An emission that ends at the bare verdict is incomplete.
7. the emission carries the **readiness map** — a self-contained, theme-aware SVG that *renders* the briefing: the GO/NO-GO verdict, one roll-up status per checklist group with its owning skill/spec, the per-issue C1/C2/C3 classification, cross-milestone dependency edges, and the bundle size-band gauge. The map is a **projection of the briefing, never a source**: no token may appear in it that is absent from the briefing, and where the two disagree the **briefing is authoritative and the map is dropped**. It introduces **no check and no judgment** — every glyph traces to a composed check ([ADR-019](../../../core/ADRs/ADR-019-specialists-compose-not-absorb.md)). Requirement 7 fires whenever the emission surface renders inline SVG and is **waived only on a named non-render condition**, stated in one line; the briefing is decision-complete without it. Structure, theme mechanism, legend derivation, and the self-containment predicate: [`references/readiness-map-template.md`](references/readiness-map-template.md).
8. **the emission opens with a one-line `Stage · gate · progress` anchor** — where the run stands, the gate it is heading to or holding at, and what just moved. This is **not waived on a short mid-stream turn**: an outage or degraded-tooling note, a retry, a tool-failure diagnostic, a post-write read-back or re-verify beat, a terse acknowledgment, and an intent-to-gather micro-turn each carry the anchor too. Those are exactly the turns that drop it — and a run that loses its position marker at the moment it goes off-script degrades into an ad-hoc approval stream, which is what the visible-gates discipline exists to prevent.

**What requirement 5 counts as decision-class (the emission-time test).** Before an operator-facing turn leaves, ask one question: *does this turn ask the operator to decide, approve, authorize, or act?* If yes, it is decision-class and carries the label. The hub's decision-class emissions are — in **Mode R**, the milestone GO/NO-GO verdict and each per-finding disposition; in **Mode O**, every Decision Briefing decision item (Procedure 4), every gate presentation at Stage 9 GO/NO-GO and Stage 12 Execute (Procedure 5), every scope-change or scope-lock recommendation (Collective Review; Procedure 6 early merge), every recovery or resume plan after a failed, blocked, or interrupted spoke, and every state-write or memory-eviction the operator is asked to ratify. **That list is the floor, not the ceiling** — an unlisted turn that asks the operator to decide, approve, authorize, or act is decision-class too. A turn that only *reports* is not: a status read, a recorded determination the framework computes by rule (`## Domain-Specific Failure Modes` — "Rendering a rule-determined call as an operator gate"), or a routing step the approved plan already authorizes carries no label, and labeling it is ceremony. Label format: `[TIER · confidence: LEVEL]` — tier from `CHEAP` / `MODERATE` / `EXPENSIVE` / `IRREVERSIBLE`, confidence from `HIGH` / `MEDIUM` / `LOW`. **Reasoning about reversibility in prose does not satisfy requirement 5; the explicit tier + confidence label does.**

**Recommend-only boundary (the read-only contract).** Mode R's dispositions are recommendations, not authorizations to act. The disposition labels (FIX-FIRST, RE-BUNDLE, …) name fix *types*, not commands Mode R executes — Mode R mutates no state: it creates no issue or milestone, rewrites no description, sizes nothing, files nothing, posts no comment. Any transition from *recommending* a disposition to *acting* on it requires, in order: (1) the CLAUDE.md **Skill-boundary-transparency** notice (name the mode/contract being exceeded + the authorization basis), (2) **explicit operator authorization** for the specific action, and (3) **descent to the base agent** — Mode R itself never crosses into execution. This is the contract the `## Domain-Specific Failure Modes` entry "Mode R mutates state despite its read-only contract" guards.

**Briefing-primary boundary (the degradation contract).** The text briefing is the deliverable; the readiness map is a projection of it. An emission carrying the briefing **without** the map is **complete** — the map's absence is never a contract violation. An emission carrying the map **without** the briefing is **incomplete** and is a hard rejection. The map is dropped, never the briefing, whenever the surface cannot render it, or the map would disagree with the briefing.

## Dependency Graph Node

- **Composes (Mode R — invokes via skill-chain, never absorbs):** the triage-analysis capability / `intake-desk` + `delivery-engine` (triage + dup); `triage-design-rereview` (staleness + architecture; and its § 11 lens for premise-provenance + abstraction-altitude); `release-planner` (dependencies **and** cross-epic backlog-altitude ownership); `bundle-composition-doctrine` (coherence + frame-pluggability for neutrality); `ADR-033` (methodology-neutrality + structural-cascade).
- **Spawns (Mode O — Agent-tool spokes, not skill-chain):** the `release-planner` planning spoke (St 4), the stage spokes (St 5–8), the `pmo-release-manager` tail spoke (St 9→13).
- **Coordinates with:** `pmo-release-manager` (the tail hand-off — the hub orchestrates the front pipeline and hands the tail to the manager).
- **Upstream invokers:** the operator directly (by name + milestone argument).
- **Documented dependencies NOT yet built:** the triage-analysis capability (Mode R's eventual delegate; interim the hub chains `intake-desk` + `delivery-engine` directly).
- **Mode R** composition edges are skill→skill (invocation), never role→role (absorption), depth ≤ 2 (C1); **Mode O** edges are `Agent`-tool spawns — depth-exempt (see `## Mode O` Mechanism).

## Evidence Quality Protocol

Every grounded claim carries an evidence-quality label (`[SOURCE]` / `[INFERRED]` / `[ASSUMPTION – CONFIRM]` / `[CONTEXT]` / `[RECOMMENDED]`). This skill honors the suite-wide behavioral rules: push-to-resolve (render the GO/NO-GO with its dispositions; do not dump a status recap), no status theater (a milestone-state read with no readiness verdict is not a deliverable), `[ASSUMPTION – CONFIRM]` items propose the expected answer rather than pose an open question, max 5 clarifying questions per invocation. **Portability note:** before reading any optional governance/pipeline reference, validate it exists; if a referenced surface is absent in the deployed workspace, degrade gracefully (state the absence and proceed on what is present) rather than erroring.

## Reversibility Discipline

This skill produces **decision-class outputs in both modes** — the Mode R readiness verdict and its per-finding dispositions, and Mode O's Decision Briefing items, gate presentations, scope-change recommendations, and recovery plans (the `## Output Contract` requirement 5 enumeration). Per [`reversibility-protocol.md`](../../../core/specs/reversibility-protocol.md):
- **Mode R verdict + dispositions:** **CHEAP** · confidence per-call. The briefing mutates no state; the operator acts on the dispositions. State the tier, proceed.
- **Mode O:** up to Stage 9, **MODERATE** (sub-tasks/branches; git-revertable); Stage 12 deploy, **EXPENSIVE → IRREVERSIBLE** — owned by the spawned `pmo-release-manager` tail behind the operator's Stage-9/12 gate; the hub **never self-authorizes** the merge/deploy.

Enforcement: pmo-qa-auditor **G4** FAILs any decision-class output lacking a reversibility tier label.

## Guardrails (Platform)

Hard rejections — the suite-wide standard plus the role's own:
- **Status theater** — a milestone-state read with no readiness verdict. Every output resolves to a GO/NO-GO with per-finding dispositions.
- **Invention** — no fabricated readiness verdicts, PT classifications, dep reads, or duplicate findings presented as measured. Every finding sources to its composed skill/spec.
- **Absorption** — re-implementing any composed check (the 5-test, DoR, PT-1..4, dep-graph/CPM, bundle-composition) inside this skill. Compose by invocation only (ADR-019); the SKILL.md body carries zero inline check logic.
- **Auto-firing** — surfacing/executing orchestration on a bare "release" mention. Invoke by name + explicit milestone only (FM-4).
- **Self-authorized deploy / close-out** — Mode O never bypasses the human gate; the deploy/close-out tail is `pmo-release-manager`'s behind the operator's Stage-9/12 gate.
- **Mode R state mutation** — Mode R is read-only and mutates nothing; creating or editing an issue / milestone / comment / size (or any state) from within a Mode R run is a hard rejection. Dispositions are recommend-only; the recommend→act transition requires the Skill-boundary-transparency notice + explicit operator authorization + descent to base agent (`## Output Contract`; FM "Mode R mutates state despite its read-only contract").
- **Question flooding** — more than 5 clarifying questions. Use `[ASSUMPTION – CONFIRM]`.
- **Unmarked recommended dates** — any agent-recommended date carries `[RECOMMENDED]`; day-of-week labels validated.
- **Missing reversibility tier on decision-class items** — every decision-class emission in either mode carries a reversibility tier + confidence, per `## Output Contract` requirement 5. Outputs missing tiers fail pmo-qa-auditor G4.

## What This Skill Does NOT Do

- **No check logic** — it composes the readiness skills/specs (ADR-019); it does not implement the 5-test, DoR, PT-1..4, dep-graph, or bundle-composition heuristics.
- **No domain judgment** — every decision resolves to an operator gate, a composed specialist, or a deterministic rule.
- **No auto-fire** — invoke by name + milestone argument only.
- **No go/no-go ratification, deploy, or close-out** — that is `pmo-release-manager`'s tail behind the operator gate.
- **No stage mechanics** — those belong to the stage skills the hub sequences.

## Domain-Specific Failure Modes

These domain-specific anti-patterns coexist with `## Guardrails` (platform-wide) and `## Reversibility Discipline`. Each uses the 5-field conditional template per [`failure-mode-standard.md`](../../../core/standards/failure-mode-standard.md) and carries one category tag (TRIG / INPUT / PROC / OUT / HAND). pmo-qa-auditor gate G7 enforces structural conformance and content quality.

### Re-implementing a composed check instead of chaining it — TRIG

- **Signature (observable signal):** the SKILL.md (or a running Mode R output) restates the 5-test, the DoR criteria, the PT-1..4 classification rules, or the dep-graph algorithm inline rather than citing the composed skill/spec.
- **Conditional:** do NOT inline a readiness check's logic in the hub when an owning skill/spec already defines it, because duplicating it forks the single source and is the ADR-019 absorb anti-pattern — and a milestone-readiness gate that disagrees with its own composed skills is worse than no gate.
- **Root cause:** the authoring pull to make the orchestrator "self-contained" overrides the compose discipline; the check logic is visible in the composed skills and tempting to copy under build pressure.
- **Mitigation:** cite the composed skill/spec for every check; carry only the sequencing + roll-up + disposition synthesis; verify zero copied check logic before review.
- **Principal response vs. junior response:** Principal writes a dispatcher that names the owner — "per `triage-design-rereview` PT-2, issue X is subsumed [SOURCE]". Junior pastes the PT taxonomy into the hub "for completeness" and creates drift debt.

### Rendering a domain judgment the hub should route — PROC

- **Signature (observable signal):** the hub itself decides a finding is "real", or renders a GO/NO-GO from its own reasoning, rather than dispatching the judgment to a composed specialist or rolling up the composed verdicts.
- **Conditional:** do NOT have the orchestrator adjudicate a domain decision when it should dispatch to a composed specialist or roll up their verdicts, because an orchestrator that reasons its way to a check result becomes a fat orchestrator (ADR-019) and the judgment becomes unowned and unauditable.
- **Root cause:** the hub holds the milestone context, so deciding inline feels efficient; the route-vs-decide distinction is structurally invisible under flow pressure.
- **Mitigation:** every Mode R finding is a composed-skill verdict; the GO/NO-GO is a deterministic roll-up of those verdicts + dispositions, not a fresh judgment. If a decision cannot be sourced to a composed verdict or a deterministic rule, it is a gap — surface it, do not decide it.
- **Principal response vs. junior response:** Principal rolls up — "3 C3/PT-1 findings [SOURCE: triage-design-rereview] → NO-GO, RE-CONFIRM". Junior eyeballs the milestone and declares it "looks ready".

### Double-running the readiness check and Stage-4 Phase A0 — PROC

- **Signature (observable signal):** both Mode R and Stage-4 Phase A0 run the PT-1..4 premise re-review on the same milestone, producing two (possibly divergent) verdicts.
- **Conditional:** do NOT let Stage-4 Phase A0 re-run the premise re-review when Mode R has already produced it for the milestone, because re-running duplicates the most expensive check and risks a divergent verdict — Mode R's output is contracted to the `triage-design-rereview` § 1 **six-column** re-review artifact (Output-Contract requirement 3) precisely so Phase A0 reads it as a cache.
- **Root cause:** the "replaces Phase A0" contract is satisfied only when three things hold together — the emitted artifact is the six-column re-review schema Phase A0 consumes, a durable briefing exists at an address Phase A0 reads, and its currency is verifiable there. A briefing emitted only to chat satisfies none of the last two, so the two checks run independently.
- **Mitigation:** emit the `triage-design-rereview` § 1 re-review artifact Phase A0 expects — the 8 header fields plus the six-column per-requirement table — and let the hub relay the briefing into the Stage-4 sub-task at `hub-spoke-bridge.md` Procedure 0 Step 5, so Stage-4 Phase A0's **G-PL5** cache-read adopts Mode R's findings instead of re-running PT-1..4. Mode R itself persists nothing: the relay is the hub's, and the read-only contract is unchanged. A briefing that is absent, or whose recorded currency operands no longer match the milestone, is a cache MISS and Phase A0 re-runs — correct behavior, not a failure.
- **Principal response vs. junior response:** Principal contracts the output to the Phase-A0 schema and notes the cache-read as the integration. Junior runs both and hopes the verdicts agree.

### Auto-firing orchestration on an ambiguous "release" mention — TRIG

- **Signature (observable signal):** the skill surfaces or starts a release run when the operator merely mentioned "release" without naming a milestone or invoking the hub by name.
- **Conditional:** do NOT execute (or offer to execute) orchestration when no explicit milestone argument is present, because a named, always-available orchestrator that auto-fires removes the deliberate-start gate the pasted-prompt workflow had implicitly — and a release run is a high-consequence action to start by accident.
- **Root cause:** over-eager trigger matching; the description's release vocabulary over-fires on adjacent conversation.
- **Mitigation:** require an explicit milestone argument before any orchestration; Mode-Selection Step 3 routes ambiguity to a single disambiguating question; Mode R (read-only) may run on an explicit milestone, but Mode O never starts without one.
- **Principal response vs. junior response:** Principal asks "which milestone?" before doing anything. Junior starts pre-flighting the most-recently-discussed milestone unprompted.

### Spawning stage spokes without the worktree guard or the quota-budget gate (Mode O) — HAND

- **Signature (observable signal):** Mode O launches a spoke — **wave or singleton** — with no quota-budget verdict rendered for that launch (Procedure 2 Step 5.5), or with a verdict rendered against only one of the gate's two axes (the remaining usage window, or the host-API pools), or spawns a git-writing spoke without the worktree detect-first guard.
- **Conditional:** do NOT spawn ANY spoke without the quota-budget gate, and do NOT spawn a git-writing spoke without the worktree guard, because spa

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