Audit Trace

Audit Trace

The vertical traceability check. It answers with evidence: do requirement IDs agree across the spec triad (and optional architecture docs), and does the capability catalog stay free of duplicate CODEs, OBS-<6hex> in Code cells, and broken shard refs?

It is not a judgment call. Every input is gathered with grep and reads — deterministic passes — and every finding follows a fixed rule. Two agents running this on the same repo reach the same finding set.

Docs-only: this check never greps application source, test files, or commit messages for requirement IDs. Coverage of behavior by tests is enforced by execute-family Spec review, test-first, and prove-claim verify commands — not by embedding CODE-N.M in code.

What it produces

A finding set, each item an ERROR or a WARNING:

E4/E5/W3 come from the invariant passes, which only run when a spine exists. E6–E10 come from system-ID passes; skip when the defining docs are absent or non-authoritative. E11–E13 and W4 run only when docs/specs/INDEX.md exists. W5 is grouped with those catalog passes and also skips when INDEX is absent, even if active/ exists. Do not warn merely because a live system ID has no feature citation. Do not judge semantic conformance. Same docs-only rule.

Retired: E2 (code-side ID presence for Implemented/Shipped) is not emitted. Do not reintroduce a finding that greps the codebase for IDs.

Errors mean the audit-trace is broken. Warnings mean the audit-trace is incomplete but not wrong. prove-claim/cut-release treat any error as a failing gate; warnings are reported, not fatal, unless the caller says otherwise.

Inputs

• Specs live under docs/specs/ (or the specsDir named in docs/agents/project.md). Definitions come from files ending requirements.md or fixes.md; task citations from files ending tasks.md.
• Architecture (optional): when docs/architecture/ exists, invariant passes read that tree and Respects: lines in feature design.md files.
• Decision records (optional): when .skills/decisions/ exists, run the shipped validator (see below).
• Skip node_modules .git dist build target coverage .next .skills vendor and any dotfile/dot-dir when walking trees other than the intentional decision-record path and the catalog OBS uniqueness pass (.skills/reverse-features/active/ only).

Do not search application or test trees for requirement-ID coverage. Legacy /// REQ: or test-title tags in a consumer repo are ignored by this check.

The passes

Run these against the repo root and read the full output of each — under the whole-tree rule in the NON-NEGOTIABLE section below.

1. Definitions — bold IDs in requirements/fixes files, minus retired ones.

# every bold **CODE-N.M** in a requirements/fixes file, retired (~~struck~~) ones deleted first
grep -rnE '\*\*[A-Z][A-Z0-9]{1,11}-[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\*\*' docs/specs \
  --include='*requirements.md' --include='fixes.md' \
  | sed -E 's/~~[^~]*~~//g' \
  | grep -E '\*\*[A-Z][A-Z0-9]{1,11}-[0-9]+\.[0-9]+\*\*'

Each surviving line is path:line:text; every bold ID left on it is a definition, owned by path. The sed deletes ~~ … ~~ spans, so a retired ID cannot reach the result. A plain (non-bold) ID in a requirements file is prose, not a definition.

2. Statuses and feature codes — per requirements file.

grep -rnE '^(Status:|Feature code:)' docs/specs --include='*requirements.md'

Status: is one of Draft | Approved | In-progress | Implemented | Shipped (first match wins).

3. Task citations — IDs on _Requirements: lines.

grep -roE '_Requirements:.*' docs/specs --include='*tasks.md' \
  | grep -oE '^[^:]+:|[A-Z][A-Z0-9]{1,11}-[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)+' \
  | grep -E '^[^:]+:$|^[A-Z][A-Z0-9]{1,11}-[0-9]+\.[0-9]+$'

Only IDs on a line containing the literal _Requirements: are task citations. The output alternates a path: line and the IDs cited in it — each ID belongs to the path: above it. The trailing grep keeps only whole two-level tokens, so a three-level CODE-1.2.3 can never be read as a citation of CODE-1.2.

Invariant passes — only when docs/architecture/ exists

If the repo has no docs/architecture/ directory, skip passes 4–5 entirely; the finding set is passes 1–3, unchanged. WHEN the spine exists, read invariant-passes.md beside this file and follow it exactly.

System-ID passes — security and reliability (optional docs)

Skip entirely when the relevant canonical file is missing. WHEN docs/security/threat-model.md, docs/security/compliance.md, or docs/ops/reliability.md exists, read system-id-passes.md beside this file and follow it exactly. Do not treat these IDs as task-footer citations, and do not warn solely because a live system ID is uncited by any design.

Catalog integrity passes — only when docs/specs/INDEX.md exists

If docs/specs/INDEX.md is missing, skip this section (the "nothing to check" stop already applies when the whole specs tree is absent). WHEN INDEX exists, read catalog-passes.md beside this file and follow it exactly. Do not judge whether a Recognized card should have a triad (Spec — is allowed), and do not promote OBS into CODEs here.

The rules

Apply the opening finding table to the sets each pass built. Status obligations for W1:

Status: Implemented / Shipped evidence is process (tasks checked, verify green, Spec review) — not a greppable ID in a test file.

Task citation integrity is textual — do not judge it

An ID is task-cited when its string appears on a _Requirements: line. Full stop. Do not read the task steps to decide whether the task "really" implements the requirement. That judgment is Spec review / prove-claim, not this check.

Gather every matching requirements and tasks file under the specs tree. Missing one requirements file invents a false E1; missing one tasks file invents a false W1. Grep the specs tree; do not sample.

The same rule binds the invariant passes: E4/E5/W3 check only that a Respects: ARCH-N citation names a live invariant — existence and liveness. Never judge whether the design actually respects the invariant; that semantic call is inspect-invariants / inspect-change, not audit-trace.

Decision-record passes — only when .skills/decisions/ exists

If the repo has no .skills/decisions/ directory, skip this section entirely; the finding set from every pass that ran remains unchanged. WHEN it exists, read decision-record-pass.md beside this file and follow it exactly.

Output

Report the counts, then the findings:

trace: 24 requirements · 24 task-cited
  ERROR E1 task cites unknown requirement SHELL-9.9 (docs/specs/…/tasks.md)
  warn  W1 NOTES-2.1 (…/requirements.md, Approved) is not cited by any task

Exact wording and ordering are not contractual — the finding set is. If docs/specs/ does not exist, say there is nothing to check and stop. Gate: zero errors. Catalog errors (E11–E13) count when INDEX exists; warnings W4–W5 stay non-fatal unless the caller says otherwise.