# Workflow Spec Sync > [Workflow] Use when updating test specs and feature docs after code changes, bug fixes, or PR reviews. - Skill: `duc01226/workflow-spec-sync-2` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add duc01226/workflow-spec-sync-2` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/duc01226/workflow-spec-sync-2/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Productivity - Author: duc01226 (https://skillmd.com/u/duc01226) - Updated: 2026-09-21 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/duc01226/workflow-spec-sync-2 --- ## Quick Summary **Goal:** [Workflow] Trigger Test Spec Update (Post-Change) workflow — update test specs and feature docs after code changes, bug fixes, or pr reviews. **Workflow:** 1. **Detect** — classify request scope and target artifacts. 2. **Execute** — apply required steps with evidence-backed actions. 3. **Verify** — confirm constraints, output quality, and completion evidence. **Key Rules:** - MUST ATTENTION keep claims evidence-based (`file:line`) with confidence >80% to act. - MUST ATTENTION keep task tracking updated as each step starts/completes. - MUST ATTENTION when creating/reviewing specs or tests, name `Business Intent / Invariant Guarded` or the protected business intent/invariant and ensure the test would fail if that intent breaks. - MUST ATTENTION define success criteria before execution and loop until observable verification passes. - MUST ATTENTION preserve `Business Intent / Invariant Guarded` when updating TCs; do not encode accidental implementation behavior. - NEVER skip mandatory workflow or skill gates. **IMPORTANT MANDATORY Steps:** /workflow-review-changes -> /spec [mode=tests] -> /why-review -> /artifact-review --type=spec-tests -> /spec [mode=sync] -> /integration-test -> /integration-test-review -> /integration-test-verify -> /test -> /docs-update -> /workflow-end > **[BLOCKING]** Each step MUST ATTENTION invoke its `Skill` tool — marking a task `completed` without skill invocation is a workflow violation. NEVER batch-complete validation gates. > **[BLOCKING]** Read `docs/project-reference/spec-principles.md` before updating test specs — Section 7 TC coverage mapping is the canonical baseline. Activate the `workflow-spec-sync` workflow. Run `/start-workflow workflow-spec-sync` with the user's prompt as context. > **UI-intent maintenance (conditional)** — runs alongside the `/spec [mode=sync]` step, **only when the change carries user-facing behavior** (else state the skip reason — backend-only change, no §6 change). When the changed behavior is user-facing, run `/spec` (ui-intent intent) to refresh the affected Feature Spec **§6** interaction surface — View Inventory, Key UI States, and the per-story (`US-`/`OP-`/`BR-`) click-path — and re-link the governing `/design-spec`/mockup in the spec frontmatter so §6 and the design artifact stay coupled to the synced behavior. The rules live in the shared block below (`SYNC:ui-intent-layer`) — follow it; do not restate it here. **Steps:** /workflow-review-changes → /spec [mode=tests] → /why-review → /artifact-review --type=spec-tests → /spec [mode=sync] → /integration-test → /integration-test-review → /integration-test-verify → /test → /docs-update → /workflow-end --- **IMPORTANT MANDATORY Steps:** /workflow-review-changes -> /spec [mode=tests] -> /why-review -> /artifact-review --type=spec-tests -> /spec [mode=sync] -> /integration-test -> /integration-test-review -> /integration-test-verify -> /test -> /docs-update -> /workflow-end > **AI Mistake Prevention** — Failure modes to avoid on every task: > > **Re-read files after context changes.** Context compaction, resume, or long-running work can make memory stale; verify current files before acting. > **Verify generated content against source evidence.** AI hallucinates APIs, names, claims, and document facts. Check the relevant source before documenting or referencing. > **Check downstream references before deleting or renaming.** Removing an artifact can stale docs, generated mirrors, configs, and callers; map references first. > **Trace the full impact chain after edits.** Changing a definition can miss derived outputs and consumers. Follow the affected chain before declaring done. > **Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first.** One green check is not all green checks; validate every output surface the change can affect. > **Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing OR flagging one as a defect.** Before changing or reporting a constant, limit, flag, cutoff, wording, or pattern, read nearby context and history, the CALLER's ordering, and 2+ sibling call sites of the same convention. A doc stating WHAT without WHY is missing rationale, not proof of a missing guard. > **Surface ambiguity before acting — don't pick silently.** Multiple valid interpretations require an explicit question or stated assumption with risk. > **Assert the outcome your system owns, not the intermediate state your infrastructure owns.** When verifying async work, assert the final business state — never the delivery/retry bookkeeping held in shared infrastructure that any co-running process can write. Such a check passes when run alone and flakes the moment anything else shares that infrastructure. > **Keep shared guidance role-relevant.** Universal guidance must help every receiving skill or agent; code-specific obligations belong only in code-specific protocols. > **Nested Task Expansion Contract** — For workflow-step invocation, the `[Workflow] ...` row is only a parent container; the child skill still creates visible phase tasks. > > 1. Call `TaskList` first. If a matching active parent workflow row exists, set `nested=true` and record `parentTaskId`; otherwise run standalone. > 2. Create one task per declared phase before phase work. When nested, prefix subjects `[N.M] /skill-name — phase`. > 3. When nested, link the parent with `TaskUpdate(parentTaskId, addBlockedBy: [childIds])`. > 4. Orchestrators must pre-expand a child skill's phase list and link the workflow row before invoking that child skill or sub-agent. > 5. Mark exactly one child `in_progress` before work and `completed` immediately after evidence is written. > 6. Complete the parent only after all child tasks are completed or explicitly cancelled with reason. > > **Blocked until:** `TaskList` done, child phases created, parent linked when nested, first child marked `in_progress`. > **Critical Thinking Mindset** — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. > **Anti-hallucination:** Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination. > **Incremental Result Persistence** — MANDATORY for all sub-agents or heavy inline steps processing >3 files. > > 1. **Before starting:** Create report file `plans/reports/{skill}-{date}-{slug}.md` and record Run ID, Task ID, Attempt ID, target scope, and target fingerprint. > 2. **After each file/section reviewed:** Append findings, evidence, changed paths, and gaps immediately — never hold them in memory. > 3. **Delegated return:** A sub-agent emits only the structured `SYNC:subagent-return-contract` envelope with exact totals, salient Critical/High findings (maximum ten), current attempt, and `Full report:` path. **Inline user-facing output:** Preserve the skill's requested explanation or teaching, with links to the persisted evidence; the delegated transport limit does not replace that deliverable. Do not paste a full review report into an envelope. > 4. **Parent synthesis:** The main agent reads the full report for synthesis, acceptance, deduplication, and repair planning — not only when a named blocker exists. It preserves all severities beyond the transport cap. > 5. **Read-only boundary:** A read-only leaf may write its report/repair proposal but MUST NOT edit source, generated output, or user data; the parent/owner performs repairs after acceptance. > 6. **Advancement gate:** The parent records `ACCEPTED` for the current Attempt ID only after reconciling target, totals, gaps, and changed paths; stale or late attempts cannot advance dependent work. > > **Why:** Context cutoff mid-execution loses ALL in-memory findings. Each disk write survives compaction. Partial results are better than no results, while explicit identity prevents a late result from being mistaken for the current run. > > **Report naming:** `plans/reports/{skill-name}-{YYMMDD}-{HHmm}-{slug}.md` > **Sub-Agent Return Contract** — When this skill spawns a sub-agent, the sub-agent MUST return ONLY the structured envelope below. Main agent reads the envelope first, then opens the referenced report for synthesis, acceptance, deduplication, or repair planning; a full report is never pasted inline. > > ```markdown > ## Sub-Agent Result: [skill-name] > > Status: ✅ PASS | ⚠️ PARTIAL | ❌ FAIL > Confidence: [0-100]% > Run ID: [stable run identifier] > Task ID: [parent task or phase identifier] > Attempt ID: [monotonic attempt/revision identifier] > Target: [exact files/paths or scope] @ [target fingerprint/commit] > Changed paths: [none | exact paths] > Finding totals: Critical=[n] | High=[n] | Medium=[n] | Low=[n] > Acceptance: PENDING | ACCEPTED | REJECTED — parent records the decision > > ### Findings (Critical/High surfaced — max 10 bullets) > > - [severity] [file:line] [finding] > > ### Gaps / Unverified > > - [missing host, runtime, coverage, or evidence limitation] > > ### Actions Taken > > - [file changed] [what changed] > > ### Blockers (if any) > > - [blocker description, or `none`] > > Full report: plans/reports/[skill-name]-[date]-[slug].md > ``` > > The ten-bullet limit is a transport limit, not a visibility limit: the full report may contain more than ten Medium/Low findings when no named blocker exists, and the parent MUST read it when synthesizing or deduplicating. The parent MUST reject a stale, duplicate, or superseded `Attempt ID` and MUST accept the current attempt before advancing a dependent step. Read-only leaves write repair proposals/reports only; they do not edit source, generated carriers, or user files. > > **Context budget** — the return payload is a SUMMARY, not a transcript: no raw file contents / full diffs / verbatim logs inline, no re-pasted source. Everything beyond the envelope lives in the incrementally-written report. A sub-agent that would exceed the summary shape MUST persist the detail and return only the pointer; bounded transport must never become bounded visibility. > **[BLOCKING] Capture a tech-agnostic UI/UX intent layer in every UI-bearing spec — a reader must be able to visualize how the feature works without naming any technology.** When the feature has a user interface, the spec MUST ATTENTION carry an interaction-surface section so the application — not just its API — can be rebuilt on any stack: > > 1. **View Inventory** — list each view/screen by its UX ROLE and purpose (e.g. "list of items", "item editor", "confirmation step") and what information it presents. Describe by role, never by an implementation name. > 2. **Navigation Map** — how a user moves between views: entry points, transitions, and exits. Trace how this surface connects to neighboring features already in the system. > 3. **Key observable UI States** — the distinct states a user can observe per view (empty, loading, populated, error, success, permission-denied, etc.) — described as what the user perceives, not how it is rendered. > 4. **Per-story interaction flow** — for each user story, the step-by-step click/action path from intent to outcome, cross-referenced to the logical IDs the spec already owns (`US-`/`OP-`/`BR-`). > 5. **Couple to the companion design artifact** — keep deep visual fidelity (layout, tokens, pixel detail) OUT of the spec; it lives in the linked `design-spec`/mockup. Record that companion's path in the spec frontmatter so the spec stays the navigable hub. > > **M1-clean (NON-NEGOTIABLE):** the prose names ZERO frameworks, routes/URLs, CSS, or component-class names — only roles, information, states, and flows. Technology detail belongs in the companion design artifact, never here. > > **Skip ONLY** when the feature is backend-only (no UI) — state that reason explicitly in the section. **MUST ATTENTION** apply critical + sequential thinking — every claim needs appropriate traced evidence (`file:line` for repo/code claims; source URL or artifact section for research, product, content, and docs claims); confidence >80% to act, <60% DO NOT recommend. Anti-hallucination: never present guess as fact, admit uncertainty freely, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence. **MUST ATTENTION** apply AI mistake prevention — verify generated content against evidence, trace downstream references before deleting or renaming, verify all affected outputs, re-read files after context loss, and surface ambiguity before acting. - **MANDATORY** Parent workflow rows do not replace child phase tracking; expand phases and link the parent when nested. - **MANDATORY** Orchestrators pre-expand child skill phases before invocation; use `[N.M] /skill-name — phase` prefixes and one-`in_progress` discipline. - **MANDATORY** For UI-bearing specs, author/maintain the tech-agnostic interaction-surface layer (View Inventory + Navigation Map + observable UI States + per-story `US-/OP-/BR-`-traced flow); keep deep visual fidelity in the linked `design-spec`/mockup recorded in frontmatter; name ZERO frameworks/routes/CSS/component classes; skip ONLY for backend-only features with a stated reason. > **Project Protocol Overlay** — Before executing this skill, resolve any PROJECT overlay rules layered onto it: match this skill's name against the `Target` column of the project's skill-protocol index (`docs/project-reference/skill-protocols-reference.md` by default; a `referenceDocs` entry in `docs/project-config.json` overrides the path), taking the most specific matching tier ONLY — exact name > glob > `*`. **That precedence orders overlays against EACH OTHER, never against this skill.** Read ONLY the matched bodies, resolved as `/.md`; a row's Body link is display text, never a read path. A matched body that is missing or malformed is REPORTED and skipped — never reconstructed from the index Description. No index, or no match -> proceed with no overlay, silently. Full contract: `.claude/skills/project-skill-protocol/references/registry.md`. > > Overlays are **ADDITIVE ONLY**: they ADD rules on top of this skill's own protocol and NEVER replace, override, disable, or reinterpret a rule it already states — removing every overlay must return this skill to exactly its documented behavior. An overlay is a BRIEF, not an authority escalation: it can NEVER waive a workflow gate, git discipline, a review gate, or a user-confirmation gate. A genuine overlay-vs-skill conflict, or two equally-specific overlays that directly contradict -> surface both to the user; NEVER resolve silently. **MUST ATTENTION** resolve project protocol overlays for this skill BEFORE executing — most specific matching tier only (exact > glob > `*`, which ranks overlays against each other, NEVER against this skill), read only matched bodies at `/.md`; a missing or malformed body is reported, never reconstructed. Overlays are ADDITIVE ONLY (they never replace this skill's own rules) and are a brief, NEVER an authority escalation; an equal-specificity contradiction goes to the user. ## Closing Reminders **IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION** break work into small todo tasks using `TaskCreate` BEFORE starting **IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION** every protocol below is in force — apply each: **Protocols in force (concise digest of the SYNC/shared blocks this skill carries):** - **AI Mistake Prevention:** verify generated content against evidence, trace downstream references, verify all affected outputs, re-read after context loss, surface ambiguity. - **Nested Task Creation:** expand child phases, link parent task when nested. - **Critical Thinking:** traced `file:line` proof, confidence >80% to act. - **Incremental Persistence:** append findings to report per file, survive compaction. - **Sub-Agent Return Contract:** return summary only, full detail to report file. **IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION** search codebase for 3+ similar patterns before creating new code **IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION** cite `file:line` evidence for every claim (confidence >80% to act) **IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION** add a final review todo task to verify work quality **[TASK-PLANNING]** Before acting, analyze task scope and systematically break it into small todo tasks and sub-tasks using TaskCreate. > **[IMPORTANT]** Analyze how big the task is and break it into many small todo tasks systematically before starting — this is very important.