How do I install the Backfill skill?

Run npx skillmds@latest add ronniepinnell/backfill in your terminal (requires Node.js), paste this page's agent-chat prompt into Claude, Cursor, or any MCP-connected agent, or download the SKILL.md file and copy it into your agent's skills directory.

Is Backfill safe to use?

This skill has not completed SkillMD's automated safety review yet. SkillMD never runs a skill's scripts for you; review the SKILL.md before installing.

Which AI agents work with Backfill?

This skill is tagged as working with Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex. SKILL.md is an open format, so most agents that read a skills directory can load it too.

Is Backfill free to use?

Yes. Installing skills from SkillMD is free, and the skill stays under its author's original license.

Who published Backfill?

ronniepinnell (@ronniepinnell) published this skill. Their other Agent Skills are listed on their SkillMD profile.

Backfill by ronniepinnell — Agent Skill

Name: Backfill
Author: ronniepinnell

Backfill

Retroactively grade merged PRs against the claim-evidence discipline — which done-claims shipped with evidence, which shipped unproven. Zero-LLM (gh CLI); optionally seeds the verdicts ledger with UNVERIFIED BACKFILL rows. Use when adopting the toolkit on a repo with history, before trusting old "done"s, or to measure how the discipline is trending.

File contents

/backfill — Grade the Dones You Already Shipped

The gates protect the next hundred PRs; history is where the false-dones you can already feel came from. This runs the claim-evidence check retroactively: every merged PR is graded EVIDENCED / UNEVIDENCED / NO-CLAIM, mechanically.

Invocation

/backfill                                  # last 100 merged PRs, current repo
/backfill --since 2026-01-01 --ledger .claude/verdicts.log   # window, not the whole history
/backfill --limit 300                                            # hard cap either way

Procedure

Run python3 <toolkit>/scripts/backfill.py [--repo …] [--since DATE] [--limit N] — on a repo with thousands of PRs, ALWAYS pass --since (server-side filter); grade a window and widen only if the baseline needs it. (same claim words and evidence paths as the claim-evidence hook: an Evidence: line in the body, or test files in the diff).
Read the UNEVIDENCED list — those are the PRs whose "done" was asserted, never proven. Spot-check the worst 3 against reality (the layer rule: observe the deployed behavior, not the diff).
With --ledger, the summary + each UNEVIDENCED PR land as append-only BACKFILL | UNVERIFIED rows — history can be graded, not re-run, so retro rows are never CONFIRMED/REFUTED.

The score is the baseline: re-run monthly; the trend is the report.

BACKFILL: <repo> | <n> merged PRs | <c> done-claims | <e> evidenced (p%) | <u> shipped unproven

Rules

Report, never a gate — exit 0 always. The gate is the claim-evidence hook you install so the next PRs grade better.
Retro rows are UNVERIFIED by construction; upgrading one requires actually re-verifying the claim today (that's a /refute, logged separately).

Composes with

claim-evidence hook — the forward-looking half of the same check.
/refute — how an UNEVIDENCED PR's claim gets actually tested today.
/calibrate — the monthly trend of the backfill score.
/verdict — the ledger the --ledger flag writes to.

---name: backfilldescription: Retroactively grade merged PRs against the claim-evidence discipline — which done-claims shipped with evidence, which shipped unproven. Zero-LLM (gh CLI); optionally seeds the verdicts ledger with UNVERIFIED BACKFILL rows. Use when adopting the toolkit on a repo with history, before trusting old "done"s, or to measure how the discipline is trending.---# /backfill — Grade the Dones You Already ShippedThe gates protect the next hundred PRs; history is where the false-dones youcan already feel came from. This runs the claim-evidence check retroactively:every merged PR is graded EVIDENCED / UNEVIDENCED / NO-CLAIM, mechanically.## Invocation```/backfill # last 100 merged PRs, current repo/backfill --since 2026-01-01 --ledger .claude/verdicts.log # window, not the whole history/backfill --limit 300 # hard cap either way```## Procedure1. Run `python3 <toolkit>/scripts/backfill.py [--repo …] [--since DATE] [--limit N]` — on a repo with thousands of PRs, ALWAYS pass `--since` (server-side filter); grade a window and widen only if the baseline needs it. (same claim words and evidence paths as the claim-evidence hook: an `Evidence:` line in the body, or test files in the diff).2. Read the UNEVIDENCED list — those are the PRs whose "done" was asserted, never proven. Spot-check the worst 3 against reality (the layer rule: observe the deployed behavior, not the diff).3. With `--ledger`, the summary + each UNEVIDENCED PR land as append-only `BACKFILL | UNVERIFIED` rows — history can be graded, not re-run, so retro rows are never CONFIRMED/REFUTED.4. The score is the baseline: re-run monthly; the trend is the report. ``` BACKFILL: <repo> | <n> merged PRs | <c> done-claims | <e> evidenced (p%) | <u> shipped unproven ```## Rules- Report, never a gate — exit 0 always. The gate is the claim-evidence hook you install so the next PRs grade better.- Retro rows are UNVERIFIED by construction; upgrading one requires actually re-verifying the claim today (that's a /refute, logged separately).## Composes with- claim-evidence hook — the forward-looking half of the same check.- `/refute` — how an UNEVIDENCED PR's claim gets actually tested today.- `/calibrate` — the monthly trend of the backfill score.- `/verdict` — the ledger the `--ledger` flag writes to.

Frequently asked questions