Gate Signoff

Gate Sign-off

Capture a fresh, auditable human approval at the end of a phase — without forcing a context-switch into the editor, but without letting approval degrade into a rubber-stamped "yes" either.

When this skill runs

• Invoked by phase commands — /plan, /analyze, /design, /build, /test, /support — after the phase artifact has been written and shown to the human.
• Does NOT run for /deploy or /fix-fast. Deploy has blast radius; fix-fast bundles three phases into one mini-gate. Both require the human to physically open and sign the gate file.
• Does NOT run for /docs. Docs is cross-cutting and has no dedicated gate file.

The sign-off dialogue

After the phase artifact is written, surface it and ask:

Phase artifact: .claude/sdlc/<folder>/<task-slug>.md — please review.

To sign off, paste the URL of the REQ / ticket / CR you're approving against. If no ticket system is configured (degraded mode), type no ticket followed by the REQ ID(s) from the requirements artifact — e.g. no ticket REQ-12, REQ-13.

Wait for the user's raw input. Do not proceed on a bare "yes", "ok", "lgtm", or emoji — those are not acknowledgments, they're rubber stamps. If the response is one of those, re-ask with the prompt above.

Validation

Before writing the gate file, validate the input:

1. URL form. If the input looks like a URL, confirm it parses (scheme + host + path).
2. Host match. Read config/tools.json → ticket_system.host. If present, warn (not block) when the URL's host differs — the human may be pointing at a secondary system on purpose.
3. Degraded form. If the input starts with no ticket, require at least one REQ-<n> token and confirm each REQ ID appears in the requirements artifact for this task.
4. Task-slug echo. The skill independently computes the expected gate path; the written file lands there. Do not let the user's pasted text redirect the output path.

If any check fails, explain the failure and re-ask once. After a second failure, pause and ask the human what to do — do not guess.

Approval packet compilation

Before writing the gate file, check whether the gate template will include a ## Required sign-offs block (i.e., approvals.roles is non-empty or the human has added sign-off roles during this phase). If so, compile an approval packet at .claude/sdlc/approval-packets/<phase>-<task-slug>.md using templates/approval-packet.md.

Inputs to compile from (read in order; skip gracefully with a "Source unavailable" note if absent):

1. plans/<task-slug>.md — scope, out-of-scope, risk level, plan version
2. plans/<task-slug>.v<N-1>.md — prior signed version for the delta section (omit if plan is v1)
3. scope.md — overall project scope context
4. requirements/<task-slug>.md — REQ IDs and summaries for the traceability table
5. gates/build-<task-slug>.md — test status per REQ (if the build gate is signed)
6. architecture/platform.md — mitigation and rollback context (if exists)

Length check: if the compiled packet exceeds 100 lines, warn:

Approval packet is <N> lines — reviewers will read more than two screens. Consider tightening the scope or delta sections before sending to reviewers.

This is a warn, not a block. The human decides whether to revise.

Show the packet path in the sign-off prompt so reviewers know where to find it:

Approval packet compiled at .claude/sdlc/approval-packets/<phase>-<task-slug>.md. Share this path with reviewers — they can use it as the evidence: value in their sign-off file.

If approvals.roles is empty and the gate template has no ## Required sign-offs block, skip packet compilation entirely — single-signer gates do not need a packet.

Writing the gate file

Write to .claude/sdlc/gates/<phase>-<task-slug>.md using the gate.md template. Fill:

• Signed by — the active user's identity (email if available from the session, otherwise ask)
• Signed at — ISO-8601 UTC timestamp, captured at write time (not from user input)
• Work-item reference — the URL or no ticket / REQ-<n>, … string, verbatim
• Acknowledgment — the user's raw message, verbatim, quoted

Verbatim capture matters: an auditor reading the gate later should be able to see exactly what the human said, not a paraphrase.

What this skill does NOT do

• Does not infer approval from prior conversation. A human has to type a fresh acknowledgment in response to the sign-off prompt.
• Does not auto-advance to the next phase. Phase commands are run by the human; this skill just produces the gate file the next command checks for.
• Does not write waivers or scope changes. Those go through /plan (for scope) or a new change-request artifact.
• Does not apply to /deploy or /fix-fast. For those, show the gate file path and stop — the human opens the file and edits it directly.

Graceful degradation

• No config/tools.json or no ticket_system key → skip host validation; accept any well-formed URL or no ticket REQ-… form.
• User identity unknown → ask for a name or email at sign-off time; record whatever they provide verbatim.
• Writing the gate file fails (permissions, disk) → surface the error; do not retry silently. The human decides whether to fix the environment or record the sign-off elsewhere.

Related

• templates/gate.md — the artifact shape this skill produces
• templates/approval-packet.md — the compiled reviewer summary this skill produces for multi-team sign-offs
• hooks/phase-gate.sh — the downstream hook that checks the signed gate exists before the next phase command runs
• hooks/work-item-validation.sh — complementary hook that validates the work-item reference independently at build time