# Spike > Bounded spike — fuse web research with local study to a verdict. - Skill: `dbc-oduffy/spike` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add dbc-oduffy/spike` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/dbc-oduffy/spike/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Research & Search - Author: dbc-oduffy (https://skillmd.com/u/dbc-oduffy) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/dbc-oduffy/spike --- # /spike — Mechanism-Derisking Investigation Prove — or disprove — that a specific mechanism is viable before a plan commits to it. Binary, same shape as `/dogfood`: converges to a viable/not-viable verdict, or switches gears — no open-ended "keep researching" path (that's `coordinator:research`). **One-line niche:** prove a mechanism is viable before a plan commits to it. Distinct from siblings: `coordinator:research` is broad, non-binary, and runs no code on this machine. `coordinator:systematic-debugging` is backward-looking (why did one known thing break). `coordinator:dogfood` is fix-through on a thing already built. `coordinator:shape` is problem-shaping (what to build), not mechanism-proving (can we build it this way). **Announce at start:** "Running `/spike ` — bounded derisking investigation. Binary outcome: viable or not-viable." ## Invoke Gating — Structural, Not Self-Classified One invocation surface, two entry paths — the gate is a structural signal, never a runtime self-classification: - **Research-heavy (default).** PM-gated, never EM-initiated, never invoked from a subagent — same gate as `/research`/`/staff-session`. A bare `/spike ` with no structural signal present is ALWAYS this variant, full stop. - **Plan-trampoline.** EM-reachable, no PM round-trip — only when `coordinator:plan` Branch B substrate verification carries an explicit `trampoline: true`-style signal on an unproven mechanism gate (`coordinator/skills/plan/SKILL.md`, the eighth verification dimension). Absence of that signal is dispositive — never infer the trampoline path from context. ## Both Halves Required 1. **External web research** — how others solve this, what official docs say, known pitfalls. Same lookup shape as `coordinator:research`, scoped narrowly to this mechanism. 2. **Local empirical study** — install the dependency, run the probe, measure. The half `coordinator:research` structurally cannot do. A web-only investigation is `/research` wearing a spike costume — dispatch research instead, or finish the empirical half before declaring a verdict. ## Probes Are Throwaway Probe scripts are derisking scaffolding, not durable test artifacts — discarded once the measurement is taken and the verdict recorded. Never commit them to the persistent test suite; that confuses throwaway scaffolding with a regression guard, which is the plan's own tests' job once drafted around a proven mechanism. ## Durable Output — the Verdict Record Write to `docs/research/spike-verdicts/YYYY-MM-DD-.md`, validated against `spike-result.schema.json`. No `state/handoffs/` lifecycle fields (no `status`, `deployment_state`, `pickup_ready`) — a verdict record is evidence, not a baton; evidence is read and cited, never picked up. Carries: research findings, empirical measurements, binary verdict (`viable`/`not-viable`), `gated_route` (the downstream plan/chunk/decision this verdict gates, when reached via the trampoline), `discharged_by` (required and non-null whenever `gated_route` is a non-empty string). **No live routing intent may leave the session unlanded.** If `gated_route` names a downstream target, write that intent onto the real target before the session ends — the plan the spike gates, an existing baton already carrying the work, or a PM-facing surface for a `coordinator:shape`-reached verdict — and name it in `discharged_by`. The schema rejects a non-empty `gated_route` paired with a null `discharged_by`; there is no such thing as a record that exits promising to be picked up later. Rationale and the corpus evidence behind this discipline: wiki. ## Exit Routing — the Verdict Routes It | Verdict | Route | |---|---| | **viable** | → `coordinator:plan` (fresh, authored around the now-proven mechanism), OR resume the trampolined plan — Branch B re-enters with the eighth dimension GREEN off the verdict record, not a full seven-dimension re-run | | **not-viable** | → `coordinator:shape` / PM — picking a different mechanism is a problem-shaping question, not a spike question | Not an EM judgment call once the verdict lands — the verdict is the router. This wiring is the **plan⇄spike back-edge**: `coordinator:plan` Branch B trampolines into a spike on an unproven mechanism gate, and this skill's viable-verdict exit resumes that trampolined plan. ## `coordinator:spike` vs. `scope_mode: spike` Complementary, not colliding. `scope_mode: spike` is a plan-header enum describing a *plan's own* discovery mode ("throwaway code allowed, findings + recommendation"). `coordinator:spike` is a distinct upstream *invocation* that runs before a plan exists and produces a verdict record gating whether/how one gets drafted. A `/spike` verdict typically precedes a plan carrying `scope_mode: feature`/`architecture`, since the spike already de-risked the mechanism; occasionally the follow-on plan still carries `scope_mode: spike` if it remains exploratory on a different axis than the one this spike resolved. ## Destructive-Action Prohibition `/spike` writes files (probes, the verdict record) and can run multi-pass autonomously. No exceptions, not proposed, not authorization-requested mid-run: `rm -rf`, `git reset --hard`, `git push --force`, `git rebase`, deleting outside the spike's own scratch/probe directory, `gh pr merge`, `--no-verify`/`--no-gpg-sign`, hibernate/shutdown/power-off, killing other processes. ## Out of Scope Retrofitting historical spikes (pre-dating this skill) into verdict records — they stay as-was, folded into wiki reference material, not retroactively migrated. Editing the `/research` or `/dogfood` skill bodies — this skill defines its boundary against them by citation, not by editing theirs. A generic pipeline-graph engine — the shape→spike→plan edges are wired point-to-point in the affected skills, not abstracted into a routing framework. A central PM-gated-skills registry file — the research-heavy gate is documented here and cross-referenced from discovery surfaces. A new `deployment_state` enum value for the trampoline path — that's a handoff body directive, not a new enum value. A new primary manifest docType beyond the verdict-record schema itself. ## Discovery-Surface Integration and Test Surface Registering `/spike` on `/workstream-start`, the PM-gated-skills registry, and pipeline-graph cross-refs is a separate concern from this authoring surface. No runtime test exists for this skill body — a skill body is prose-doctrine, and this repo has no invocation harness that runs a skill end-to-end as a unit test, same as `/dogfood`/`/shape`/`/plan`. Frontmatter validates via `yaml.safe_load` the same way sibling skills' does. The exit-routing table above (both verdict rows, and the `plan⇄spike back-edge` phrase) must stay grep-assertable from both this file and `plan/SKILL.md` — that cross-file assertion is the test surface for this section.