Judgment Day

When to Use

• User explicitly asks for "judgment day", "judgment-day", or equivalent trigger phrases
• After significant implementations before merging
• When high-confidence review of code, features, or architecture is needed
• When a single reviewer might miss edge cases or have blind spots
• When the cost of a production bug is higher than the cost of two review rounds

Critical Patterns

Pattern 0: Skill Resolution (BEFORE launching judges)

Follow the Skill Resolver Protocol (_shared/skill-resolver.md) before launching ANY sub-agent:

1. Obtain the skill registry (engram → .atl/skill-registry.md from the project root → skip if none)
2. Identify the target files/scope — what code will the judges review?
3. Match relevant skills from the registry's Compact Rules by:
   • Code context: file extensions/paths of the target (e.g., .tsx → react-19, typescript)
   • Task context: "review code" → framework/language skills; "create PR" → branch-pr skill
4. Build a ## Project Standards (auto-resolved) block with the matching compact rules
5. Inject this block into BOTH Judge prompts AND the Fix Agent prompt (identical for all)

This ensures judges review against project-specific standards, not just generic best practices.

If no registry exists: warn the user ("No skill registry found — judges will review without project-specific standards. Run skill-registry to fix this.") and proceed with generic review only.

Pattern 1: Parallel Blind Review

• Launch TWO sub-agents via delegate (async, parallel — never sequential)
• Each agent receives the same target but works independently
• Neither agent knows about the other — no cross-contamination
• Both use identical review criteria but may find different issues
• NEVER do the review yourself as the orchestrator — your job is coordination only

Pattern 2: Verdict Synthesis

The orchestrator (NOT a sub-agent) compares results after both delegation_read calls return:

Confirmed   → found by BOTH agents          → high confidence, fix immediately
Suspect A   → found ONLY by Judge A         → needs triage
Suspect B   → found ONLY by Judge B         → needs triage
Contradiction → agents DISAGREE on the same thing → flag for manual decision

Present findings as a structured verdict table (see Output Format).

Pattern 3: Fix and Re-judge

1. If confirmed issues exist → delegate a Fix Agent (separate delegation)
2. After Fix Agent completes → re-launch both judges in parallel (same blind protocol, fresh delegates)
3. Max 2 fix iterations. If still failing → JUDGMENT: ESCALATED — report to user with full history
4. If both judges return clean → JUDGMENT: APPROVED ✅

Decision Tree

User asks for "judgment day"
│
├── Target is specific files/feature/component?
│   ├── YES → continue
│   └── NO → ask user to specify scope before proceeding
│
▼
Resolve skills (Pattern 0): read registry → match by code + task context → build Project Standards block
▼
Launch Judge A + Judge B in parallel (delegate, async) — with Project Standards injected
▼
Wait for both to complete (delegation_read both)
▼
Synthesize verdict
│
├── No issues found?
│   └── JUDGMENT: APPROVED ✅ (stop here)
│
├── Issues found (confirmed, suspect, or contradictions)?
│   └── Delegate Fix Agent with confirmed issues list
│       ▼
│       Wait for Fix Agent to complete
│       ▼
│       Re-launch Judge A + Judge B in parallel (Round 2)
│       ▼
│       Synthesize verdict
│       │
│       ├── Clean → JUDGMENT: APPROVED ✅
│       │
│       └── Still issues → Delegate Fix Agent again (Round 3 / iteration 2)
│           ▼
│           Re-launch Judge A + Judge B in parallel (Round 3)
│           ▼
│           Synthesize verdict
│           │
│           ├── Clean → JUDGMENT: APPROVED ✅
│           └── Still issues → JUDGMENT: ESCALATED ⚠️ (report to user)

Sub-Agent Prompt Templates

Judge Prompt (use for BOTH Judge A and Judge B — identical)

You are an adversarial code reviewer. Your ONLY job is to find problems.

## Target
{describe target: files, feature, architecture, component}

{if compact rules were resolved in Pattern 0, inject the following block — otherwise OMIT this entire section}
## Project Standards (auto-resolved)
{paste matching compact rules blocks from the skill registry}

## Review Criteria
- Correctness: Does the code do what it claims? Are there logical errors?
- Edge cases: What inputs or states aren't handled?
- Error handling: Are errors caught, propagated, and logged properly?
- Performance: Any N+1 queries, inefficient loops, unnecessary allocations?
- Security: Any injection risks, exposed secrets, improper auth checks?
- Naming & conventions: Does it follow the project's established patterns AND the Project Standards above?
{if user provided custom criteria, add here}

## Return Format
Return a structured list of findings ONLY. No praise, no approval.

Each finding:
- Severity: CRITICAL | WARNING | SUGGESTION
- File: path/to/file.ext (line N if applicable)
- Description: What is wrong and why it matters
- Suggested fix: one-line description of the fix (not code, just intent)

Always include at the end: **Skill Resolution**: {injected|fallback-registry|fallback-path|none} — {details}

If you find NO issues, return:
VERDICT: CLEAN — No issues found.

## Instructions
Be thorough and adversarial. Assume the code has bugs until proven otherwise.
Your job is to find problems, NOT to approve. Do not summarize. Do not praise.

Fix Agent Prompt

You are a surgical fix agent. You apply ONLY the confirmed issues listed below.

## Confirmed Issues to Fix
{paste the confirmed findings table from the verdict synthesis}

{if compact rules were resolved in Pattern 0, inject the following block — otherwise OMIT this entire section}
## Project Standards (auto-resolved)
{paste matching compact rules blocks from the skill registry}

## Context
- Original review criteria: {paste same criteria used for judges}
- Target: {same target description}

## Instructions
- Fix ONLY the confirmed issues listed above
- Do NOT refactor beyond what is strictly needed to fix each issue
- Do NOT change code that was not flagged
- After each fix, note: file changed, line changed, what was done

Return a summary:
## Fixes Applied
- [file:line] — {what was fixed}

**Skill Resolution**: {injected|fallback-registry|fallback-path|none} — {details}

Output Format

## Judgment Day — {target}

### Round {N} — Verdict

| Finding | Judge A | Judge B | Severity | Status |
|---------|---------|---------|----------|--------|
| Missing null check in auth.go:42 | ✅ | ✅ | CRITICAL | Confirmed |
| Race condition in worker.go:88 | ✅ | ❌ | WARNING | Suspect (A only) |
| Naming mismatch in handler.go:15 | ❌ | ✅ | SUGGESTION | Suspect (B only) |
| Error swallowed in db.go:201 | ✅ | ✅ | CRITICAL | Confirmed |

**Confirmed issues**: 2 CRITICAL
**Suspect issues**: 1 WARNING, 1 SUGGESTION
**Contradictions**: none

### Fixes Applied (Round {N})
- `auth.go:42` — Added nil check before dereferencing user pointer
- `db.go:201` — Propagated error instead of silently returning nil

### Round {N+1} — Re-judgment
- Judge A: PASS ✅ — No issues found
- Judge B: PASS ✅ — No issues found

---

### JUDGMENT: APPROVED ✅
Both judges pass clean. The target is cleared for merge.

Escalation Format (after 2 failed iterations)

## Judgment Day — {target}

### JUDGMENT: ESCALATED ⚠️

After 2 fix iterations, both judges still report issues.
Manual review required before proceeding.

### Remaining Issues
| Finding | Judge A | Judge B | Severity |
|---------|---------|---------|----------|
| {description} | ✅ | ✅ | CRITICAL |

### History
- Round 1: {N} confirmed issues found
- Fix 1: applied {list}
- Round 2: {N} issues remain
- Fix 2: applied {list}
- Round 3: {N} issues remain → escalated

Recommend: human review of the remaining issues above before re-running judgment day.

Language

• Spanish input → Rioplatense: "Juicio iniciado", "Los jueces están trabajando en paralelo...", "Los jueces coinciden", "Juicio terminado — Aprobado", "Escalado — necesita revisión humana"
• English input: "Judgment initiated", "Both judges are working in parallel...", "Both judges agree", "Judgment complete — Approved", "Escalated — requires human review"

Rules

• The orchestrator NEVER reviews code itself — it only launches judges, reads results, and synthesizes
• Judges MUST be launched as delegate (async) so they run in parallel
• The Fix Agent is a separate delegation — never use one of the judges as the fixer
• If user provides custom review criteria, include them in BOTH judge prompts (identical)
• If target scope is unclear, stop and ask before launching — partial reviews are useless
• Max 2 fix iterations — on the third failure, escalate with full report, do not loop forever
• Always wait for BOTH judges to complete before synthesizing — never accept a partial verdict
• Suspect findings (only one judge) are reported but NOT automatically fixed — triage and escalate to user if needed

Commands

# No CLI commands — this is a pure orchestration protocol.
# Execution happens via delegate() and delegation_read() tool calls.