Cannon

Cannon

Take one clean shot at the target directly in front of you.

What This Skill Does

Use Cannon when the right move is a small, direct, single-target action with minimal setup and immediate verification. In this chip pack, Cannon is treated as a metaphorical battle-chip procedure with a shipping-now delivery profile. Canonical reference input: Cannon. Hermes shelf: Direct Fire and Breach.

When To Use

• A file, task, or system edge needs one direct intervention rather than a large plan.
• The target is clear and you can verify success quickly.
• You want the smallest meaningful change before escalating.

Prerequisites

• These procedures rely on the normal tools already present in the active Hermes runtime; this repo does not ship a separate integration layer.

Operator Inputs

• Name the one target to change, including file, command surface, or system edge.
• State the exact before/after condition you want from this single shot.
• List any hard scope limits or no-touch surfaces.
• Say how success will be checked immediately after the change.

Procedure

1. Restate the target, success condition, and no-touch boundaries before you spend the chip.
2. Collect the operator inputs below so the chip lands on the right panel.
3. Name the target and the exact state you want to change.
4. Choose one direct action with the narrowest blast radius.
5. Fire once, inspect the result, and decide whether to chain another chip.
6. Package the result with concrete evidence, what stayed untouched, and the next recommended chip only if follow-up is truly needed.

Deliverables

• A direct patch, command, or edit against one concrete target.
• A short verification note showing whether the shot landed.

Output Contract

• One direct action against one clearly named target.
• A short note on why this was the narrowest meaningful shot.
• Immediate verification tied to the stated success condition.
• A follow-up recommendation only if the first shot did not fully solve it.

Do Not Use For

• Broad refactors, multi-file rewrites, or strategy documents.
• Targets that are still ambiguous or not yet inspected.
• Problems that mainly require room control or repositioning first.

Pair With

• After Cannon, switch to Sword when the shot proves one local block should be cut out cleanly.
• After Cannon, switch to Air Shot when the better move is to interrupt momentum instead of firing again.
• After Cannon, switch to Panel Grab when one narrow ownership lane is what blocks the next shot.

Pitfalls / Guardrails

• Keep the metaphor anchored to a real operator move instead of drifting into lore.
• Do not widen scope mid-shot.
• If the line of fire is ambiguous, switch to a scouting chip first.
• Keep the chip metaphor anchored to a real operating move; do not let flavor substitute for procedure.

Verification

• Check that the response includes every promised deliverable and leaves an inspectable audit trail.
• Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and proposed follow-up are visibly separated.
• Confirm Hermes touched only the named target and did not widen scope mid-shot.
• Confirm the stated before/after condition changed the way the operator asked.
• Confirm the output includes concrete evidence, not just a claim that it worked.
• Check that the metaphor still maps cleanly to a real operator mechanism.

Example Invocation

Use Cannon on this failing test file: make the smallest direct fix that gets the targeted test green, then show the verification.
Use Cannon to update exactly one broken path in the deploy script and confirm the script now resolves it correctly.