Code Forensics Stinger

code-forensics-stinger

What this Stinger is for

A client believes they have been defrauded, overcharged, or materially injured by a software vendor or digital agency. They have (or can obtain) a paper trail: invoices, email correspondence, a git repository, technical audit reports, marketing reports. Your job is to convert that paper trail into a litigation-ready evidence packet that supports breach of contract, fraud, and gross negligence claims.

This skill captures the methodology, scripts, and templates used to produce the original Example Booking Co. forensic packet (May 2026). It is parameterized for reuse on any sibling matter with minimal customization per case.

When to invoke

Read this paragraph carefully and proactively trigger if it matches:

• The user describes a software-engagement that ended badly with multi-vendor billing
• The user has invoices, emails, git history, or audit reports and wants to "build a case", "claw back fees", "investigate", or "document"
• The user references a specific defendant pair (ADA/DevPipe, or any sibling)
• The user describes the signature pattern: paid $100k+ for a half-working product, monthly maintenance retainer with zero or little git activity in some months, agency services billed without delivery

Do NOT trigger for:

• Routine technical audits unrelated to forensic-clawback context
• General code review or security audits without a damages claim
• Cases where the user wants legal advice (the Angel produces evidence for retained counsel; it does not practice law)

Deliverable inventory

Eleven deliverables go into a forensic-output/ folder. The full templates are in templates/. Use the docx-builder scripts in scripts/ to generate Word output, then convert to PDF via LibreOffice headless.

1. {ProjectName}_Forensic_Report.docx/.pdf — master 7-part technical and financial investigation (~40 pages)
2. {ProjectName}_Agency_Forensic_Report.docx/.pdf — agency-services-specific (hosting fraud, CVE timeline, marketing performance)
3. {ProjectName}_Attorney_Legal_Memo.docx/.pdf — privileged work product (causes of action, damages, strategy)
4. {ProjectName}_Plain_Language_Report.docx/.pdf — 8th-grade reading level for the client (with industry-appropriate analogies)
5. {ProjectName}_Invoice_Forensics.xlsx — 51-tab Excel: invoices, recurring, one-off, commit log, monthly effort rollup, billed-vs-delivered variance, idle months 6–11. pre-litigation-pack/ — six documents: cover & instructions, two findings notices, two demand letters, two termination notices

Rename {ProjectName}_ per case (e.g., OhioAMS_, AcmeInventory_).

Workflow — nine phases (read end-to-end)

The investigation runs through these phases in order. Each phase has a dedicated guide. Each phase produces evidence that strengthens the case independently; if a phase doesn't apply (e.g., no marketing site → skip Phase 5), document the absence in the master report rather than fabricating content.

Critical directives (the non-negotiables)

These are the Angel's guardrails. Surface them at the top of every deliverable and observe them at every step.

1. Never provide legal advice. Always frame findings as evidence for retained counsel to evaluate. Use "may constitute fraud under applicable law" rather than "this is fraud."
2. Always cite source for every claim. Every dollar amount, date, file, and finding must be traceable to a specific email (M-####), invoice number, git commit hash, audit-log row, or third-party report. A finding without coordinates is not actionable.
3. Never fabricate evidence. Document absences explicitly. If a phase doesn't apply, note it in the master report; do not invent data.
4. Preserve all source materials unmodified. Copy to forensic-output/ and work from copies. The original archive is evidence.
5. Apply the extrapolation rule conservatively. First-and-last-observed at the same price → fill the gap. Different prices → ask before extrapolating across the boundary. Single observation → do not extrapolate at all; flag as "single occurrence."
6. Use "intimidating through precision" in demand letters, not "intimidating through threats." Precise legal terminology, specific dollar amounts, explicit litigation-hold language, and reservation-of-rights footers — YES. Threats to publicize, threats of criminal prosecution, threats of extra-legal harm — NO. See guides/09-pre-litigation-pack.md for the tone rules.
7. Recommend retained counsel before any document is served. The pre-litigation pack is templated work product. The Angel drafts; counsel serves.
8. Treat the git log as the single most powerful artifact when available. Git commits are cryptographically chained and cannot be fabricated.

A standalone guides/00-principles.md carries these directives plus the underlying reasoning. Read it first on every case.

Parameterization (what changes per case)

The defendants, jurisdiction, and case-specific dollar figures change per case. The methodology does not.

Defendant profiles

Each case fills in a defendant-profile.md per defendant using templates/defendant-profile-template.md. The profile captures: corporate structure, principals, MO, known personnel, jurisdiction, billing patterns, and any prior litigation involving the defendant that creates leverage.

The Example Booking Co. case profiles for ADA/Robert Hartwell and DevPipe/Sameer Khan are preserved as reference examples in examples/example-case-a/defendant-profiles/. Do not reuse them for sibling matters — fill in fresh profiles from the new case's evidence.

Jurisdiction

The skill defaults to Ohio law (research/jurisdiction-ohio.md) because the calibration anchor (Example Booking Co.) involves Ohio-registered defendants. For cases in other venues, add research/jurisdiction-{state}.md with statutory citations parallel to the Ohio file. The Attorney Legal Memo template substitutes jurisdiction citations from this file.

Industry analogy (Plain Language Report)

The Plain Language Report uses an extended analogy throughout. Default: "house construction" (you hired a contractor to build a house...). For clients in different industries, swap to a relatable analogy from templates/plain-language-analogies.md. Pick one and use it consistently throughout the report.

Dollar figures

Every dollar figure is parameterized via case-facts.json (schema at templates/case-facts-schema.json). The docx builders read this file to substitute placeholders. Update case-facts.json as each phase produces new findings.

File map

code-forensics-stinger/
├── SKILL.md                          (this file — main entry point)
├── README.md                         (one-page overview)
├── guides/
│   ├── 00-principles.md              (critical directives + rationale)
│   ├── 01-intake.md                  (Phase 0)
│   ├── 02-email-processing.md        (Phase 1)
│   ├── 03-invoice-extrapolation.md   (Phase 2)
│   ├── 04-git-log-forensics.md       (Phase 3)
│   ├── 05-cve-research.md            (Phase 4)
│   ├── 06-audit-log-analysis.md      (Phase 5)
│   ├── 07-marketing-analysis.md      (Phase 6)
│   ├── 08-deliverable-synthesis.md   (Phase 7)
│   └── 09-pre-litigation-pack.md     (Phase 8)
├── examples/
│   ├── example-case-a/          (the canonical worked example)
│   └── README.md                     (what each example demonstrates)
├── templates/
│   ├── defendant-profile-template.md
│   ├── case-facts-schema.json
│   ├── plain-language-analogies.md
│   ├── reports/                      (master, agency, attorney, plain-lang skeletons)
│   └── pre-litigation-pack/          (cover, findings, demand, termination)
├── scripts/
│   ├── parse_emails.py
│   ├── parse_invoices.py
│   ├── extrapolate_recurring.py
│   ├── build_invoice_xlsx.py
│   ├── parse_git_log.py
│   ├── build_master_report.js
│   ├── build_agency_report.js
│   ├── build_attorney_memo.js
│   ├── build_plain_language.js
│   ├── build_pre_litigation.js
│   ├── build_master_zip.py
│   ├── package.json
│   └── requirements.txt
├── reports/
│   └── master-report-shape.md        (template for the final master report)
└── research/
    ├── research-plan.md              (audit trail)
    ├── industry-pricing.md           (hosting / social / dev rate benchmarks)
    ├── cve-database-snapshot.md      (relevant CVEs by date)
    ├── jurisdiction-ohio.md          (default jurisdiction statutory authority)
    └── avada-changelog-archive.txt   (Avada theme changelog with SECURITY entries)

How to start an investigation (the 30-second version)

When the user says "let's investigate {Project Name}":

1. Ask for: project name, date range, email archive (.eml files), invoices, git repo zip, audit reports, WordPress audit log if applicable, original signed contracts.
2. Run scripts/parse_emails.py on every email source directory (it dedupes automatically).
3. Run scripts/parse_invoices.py on the parsed emails + any invoice PDFs.
4. Run scripts/extrapolate_recurring.py to fill UNK invoices.
5. Run scripts/parse_git_log.py on the repo (if available).
6. Run scripts/build_invoice_xlsx.py to produce the master spreadsheet.
7. Update case-facts.json with totals.
8. Run the four docx builders (build_master_report.js, build_agency_report.js, build_attorney_memo.js, build_plain_language.js).
9. Convert all to PDF via soffice --headless --convert-to pdf.
10. Run scripts/build_pre_litigation.js to produce the 7-document pre-litigation pack.
11. Run scripts/build_master_zip.py to bundle everything.

Each step's full detail is in the corresponding guide under guides/. The Example Booking Co. V2 and V3 runs (in examples/) show the full output of each step.

When something doesn't fit the template

Every case has quirks. The Example Booking Co. case had the Initial Build Vendor-then-Offshore Build pivot, the $6,000 → $4,000 Platinum Maintenance reduction, the examplebooking.example WordPress brochure site, and the August 2021 ACH Authorization that anchored the engagement before email archives existed. Future cases will have their own quirks.

Don't force the template — read the guides, understand the methodology, and adapt the language. Templates are starting points, not constraints.

That said: NEVER omit the nine phases. Each one produces evidence that strengthens the case independently. If a phase doesn't apply (e.g., no marketing site → skip Phase 5, no git repo → skip Phase 3), document why in the master report.