Cook

/cook

Contract

cook(spec_ref, correction = false) -> handoff(next = press | age | mold).

Cook returns next: mold only for a specification failure.

A red-required gate disposition identifies behavior work. Run the inner RED → GREEN TDD loop against the approved spec before you change production code. A closed not-applicable disposition identifies non-behavior work. Use its implementation and verification path for the requested documentation, refactor, test, or appearance change. N/A does not remove requested work. Use correction = true only for the active Press correction loop. Do not weaken an existing test.

Inputs

Accept a pasted spec or issue, focused acceptance criteria, or an unambiguous task. Read explicit spec paths verbatim. Resolve a bare slug with SPEC=$(python3 skills/cook/scripts/cook.pyz artifact-path specs <slug>). Use python3 skills/cook/scripts/cook.pyz accept <pointer> for a Mold handoff pointer. This command verifies the route and referenced artifacts before execution.

Flags:

• --auto chains /press → /age → /cure.
• --hard propagates through /plate.
• --open-pr lets terminal /plate publish. Auto mode never adds this flag.
• --resume <slug> resumes a typed fan handoff and its referenced artifacts.

Optional context payload:

• handoff_context.wiki_hits carries {page, line, why} entries from the repository wiki corpus. The key is optional, and its default is absent. Reject an entry that omits page, line, or why. Show every accepted hit in the Contract step, so the user can challenge a stale decision. Prefer these decisions over an invented approach. ../cheese/references/handoff-gate.md defines the payload.

Read references/auto-mode.md, references/fan-pathway.md, and ../cheese/references/formatting.md for these policies.

Standalone fast-path

/cook bypasses /mold only when the inputs, outputs, scope, and verification are clear. The task must name a bug or call site in one or two files. The task must also have a failing test or an expected-output check. No leverage trigger may fire; see ../cheese/references/routing-policy.md § Leverage triggers. Derive a slug. Then restate the Contract. Route the task to /mold if an ambiguity check fails.

Flow

1. Contract — Confirm behavior, non-goals, scope, gates, and applicability. Print the shape-check block from ../mold/references/shape-check.md inside the Contract, or the line shape check skipped: single-module change per shape-check.md § When to skip. No block, no code. If .cheese/glossary/<slug>.md exists, use its canonical terms.
2. Implement — Use inner RED → GREEN for behavior changes. Use the requested non-behavior path for closed N/A work. Change only the applicable surface.
3. Validate — Run the relevant quality gates again. Read the complete gate output. For closed N/A, verify the requested non-behavior path.
4. Taste-test — Use a fresh-context review for multi-file or public-surface diffs. Otherwise, use an inline review. Limit the review to two rounds. Read references/tdd-loop.md for details.
5. Hand off — Write the package report and slug. Route behavior work through /press → /age → /cure. A closed N/A change has no adversarial contract for Press. Route it directly through /age → /cure.

Fan pathway

/cook routes a spec through one of three shapes. The available typed planner result selects the shape. Read references/fan-pathway.md for the complete topology.

Fast path. Use the ordinary single-coder path when the curd-count hint is 1 with low or medium blast radius.

Curded. Load the typed PlannerResult or CurdPlan. Run validate_curd_plan. Treat the validated plan as the semantic authority. Run behavior curds through cook(CurdPlan) → reviewer(age) → cure(CurdPlan, binding) → reviewer(final age) without Press. After you wire the curds, run one global /press → /age → /cure chain. Closed N/A bypasses Press.

Use python3 skills/cook/scripts/cook.pyz worktree teardown for worktree cleanup. The fan-pathway reference defines its arguments and lifecycle.

Un-curded. Keep small work in the single-coder path. For big work, ask "12 ACs -> 5 curds, 2 waves, up to 25 agent dispatches. Go?" unless --auto. Keep waves at a maximum of four. Legacy decomposition is only a lossless projection. It is never live workflow state. Follow decomposer.md for sizing and decomposition.

Before orchestration, read references/fan-pathway.md. It defines sizing, topology, phase execution, recovery, resume, Milknado integration, worktree teardown, and resolution provenance. Propagate --auto through each dispatched phase when it is active.

Baseline capture

Fan mode records its quality-debt comparison before any curd cooks. Bare mode records it on the pre-change tree. references/quality-gates.md defines exact capture, classification, intentional-RED exclusion, and baseline-artifact rules.

For source changes, follow code-intelligence-routing.md and ../cheese/references/harness-portability.md. slash commands are host renderings, not the control model; invoke the equivalent installed capability.

Quality gates

Run only existing project commands. Run the most relevant tests for the changed area. Also run lint, type, and build commands when the project defines them. Do not remove, skip, or weaken unrelated tests to make the change pass.

Use the baseline for gate failures. references/quality-gates.md defines the policy, the classification terms, and the baseline artifact. Each downstream phase links to this reference instead of repeating it.

references/writer-views.md generates schemas for writer-view payloads inline. The normalize and validate CLIs apply these schemas before agent-authored JSON reaches host-owned identifiers.

Output

Use the house style in ../cheese/references/formatting.md. Use references/package-report.md to report files, reasons, checks, risks, and the next skill.

Handoff slug

Write a minimum-shape handoff slug at the top of .cheese/cook/<slug>.md. Use the same file for the report. Do not create a second file. This slug lets downstream phases resume or chain without reading the full report again. The fan pathway also uses this slug during wave orchestration. Use this schema:

status: <canonical status field>
next: mold | cook | press | age | done
artifact: <path to the upstream artifact this run consumed, or empty>
taste_test: inline-pass | dispatched-pass | revised | deferred-to-orchestrator
durable_flags: none | <one line per flag: what durable knowledge changed -> target wiki page>
baseline: none | <path to the baseline artifact — shape in references/quality-gates.md § Baseline block shape>
<one-line orientation: what cook changed>

The handback contract defines the canonical status: grammar, including ok and halt. Only next: and the additional keyed lines are specific to a phase.

artifact: names the upstream artifact that this run consumed. For a Mold route, use the approved specification pointer. Leave artifact: empty when this run consumed no upstream artifact. Do not point artifact: at this Cook report. /cheese forwards the same pointer to the next phase.

Use the canonical boundary writer when you emit this handoff for the typed fan result. Carry the result schema explicitly:

python3 skills/cook/scripts/cook.pyz write-handoff-artifact \
  --slug <slug> --status <status> --phase cook --next age \
  --artifact <artifact-path> --orientation "<one-line orientation>" \
  --payload-schema https://schemas.easy-cheese.dev/curd-result \
  --body-file <path to the package report body>

The writer replaces the target file. Pass --body-file to keep the package report in the same file. Without that flag, the writer emits the preamble alone and removes the report.

For a replan or a specification failure, use --next mold with the https://schemas.easy-cheese.dev/planner-request payload. references/fan-pathway.md defines the request kind for each failure class. These phase and next values route only the legacy handoff file. The validated CurdPlan and normalized CurdResult remain the live fan state.

In a fan run, read each phase's handoff slug file from disk. Do not infer the handoff from stdout.

Set next: to the next runnable phase. Use press after red-required behavior work. Use age after closed N/A. Use cook after a blocker. Use mold after a spec failure. Use done only at true completion. Do not send contractless N/A to Press. Omit taste_test: when its cost gate does not apply.

Set durable_flags: to none by default. Record only durable changes to architecture, protocols, conventions, or rationale. Record the target wiki page for each change. Set baseline: to the path of Cook's optional comparison artifact. That artifact holds baseline-identical debt and new or changed failures from the current broad gates. Use the shape in references/quality-gates.md. The preamble accepts one physical line for each key, so never inline the mapping.

Handoff

Pipeline: culture → mold → cook → press → age → cure → plate

After you write the report and slug, use the shared handoff gate. Read its Standard forward-step menu in ../cheese/references/handoff-gate.md. For behavior work, start each option with the verb. Use these options:

• Harden tests before review (recommended) — /press <slug>.
• Plate it — /press <slug> --auto --open-pr: run the remaining review chain, then /plate resolves topology and publishes.

Press does not apply to closed N/A. Set next: age. Replace the options with Review the change (recommended) — /age <slug>. Also offer Plate it — /age <slug> --auto --open-pr.

Both menus retain Checkpoint & stop — /wheypoint and Stop — dispatch none. Do not dispatch before selection. Run the selected command immediately. When the user invokes --auto, skip this gate. Take the route for the applicable disposition directly.

Auto mode

--auto does not bypass applicable validation. Run behavior work through /press --auto → /age --auto → /cure --auto --stake medium+. Closed N/A skips Press. Run it through /age --auto → /cure --auto --stake medium+. Limit Cure to two passes on both routes. In the linear chain, Cook does not invoke /plate. Terminal Cure then owns publication. In the fan pathway, the Cook orchestrator owns its own terminal /plate dispatch. references/fan-pathway.md defines that dispatch.

Auto mode stops early in these conditions:

• A quality gate reports a new or changed failure, and the fix rounds end.
• The no-progress check stops the run.
• The fix requires a design change.
• /press returns blocked.
• A Cure pass cannot apply a finding.
• Two Cure passes complete the success path.

For each early stop, show the failing skill report. State which limit or blocker stopped the run. Do not silently downgrade the result.

Read references/auto-mode.md before you run or dispatch auto mode. It defines the complete phase chain and the limit controls. It also defines fan-path isolation and Cure failure handling.

No-chain isolation directive

A spawned phase agent does not chain forward by itself. The orchestrator controls the chain.

A terminal Age is publishable only with next: done. next: cure or a missing next halts the chain. The reference also contains the final report template.

Rules

• Keep changes scoped to the accepted contract.
• Prefer existing dependencies and patterns.
• Build for the reviewer on the first pass: references/tdd-loop.md § Reviewable by construction.
• Keep import direction and crust integrity per ../cheese/references/sliced-bread.md.
• Stop before a new crust export, a cross-slice import of an internal, or a schema or contract change the spec does not name. Ask the user.
• Do not invent architecture that the spec already rejected.
• Stop when implementation reveals a design decision that the spec does not answer.
• Ask the user that decision before you continue.
• Stop if the spec or fast-path request uses a false premise.
• Show the false premise before you write code.
• Do not use an incorrect approach to satisfy the request literally.
• Apply the shared voice kernel in ../age/references/voice.md.
• Start the report with the answer.
• Name loaded assumptions in the contract.
• Mark residual risk as certain | speculating | don't know.
• Verification before status: ok: Identify the gate command.
• Run the gate command during the current turn.
• Read the complete output before you make the claim.
• Do not use should, probably, or I think.
• State what the gate output shows.

Discipline

Iron Law, Red Flags, and the TDD Rationalization table are in references/cook-discipline.md.

Agent resolution

Resolve through agent-resolution.md. Implementation uses a coder. Taste-test uses a reviewer. Harvest and plate stay parent-owned.

The handoff carries the agent_resolution block. Publish a terminal Age only when it contains next: done. Stop when it contains next: cure or does not contain next.

Generated bundle command inventory: references/commands.md.