Steward

Steward

Use this skill as the umbrella router for the steward maintainer workflow. It is a Codex-native wrapper around the shared protocol in ../../shared/protocol.md.

Prefer the gate-specific Codex skills when the request clearly matches them:

• feasibility for first maintainer decisions using the Requirement Deletion Lens
• adversarial for challenge passes, especially debatable requirements and abstractions
• source-align for source-backed alignment checks
• merge-value for merge-worthiness decisions
• status for read-only status checks
• next for read-only next-step suggestions
• reply for paste-ready review replies
• sync for refreshing case state
• review as a high-level convenience entry for feasibility, adversarial, source-align, or merge-value review gates
• close only as a manual archive escape hatch

Use this umbrella skill for direct steward <gate> invocations or ambiguous routing.

Core Rule

Run exactly one gate per user request. Do not continue from one gate to the next unless the user explicitly asks for the next gate.

First Step

Read these files before acting:

• ../../shared/protocol.md

Treat the protocol as the source of truth for status values, discovery, state transitions, case file format, and output contract.

Supported Gates

• feasibility: decide whether the task should be fixed using the Requirement Deletion Lens and set positive cases to execute
• adversarial: challenge the current story using the Requirement Deletion Lens when requirements or abstractions are debatable, and append evidence without changing status
• source-align: compare the implementation with original source context, PR/issue discussion, and upstream state using the source-backed maintainer review lens
• merge-value: decide whether the change is worth merging using upstream-baseline evidence, owner/boundary fit, contract/security impact, best possible solution, and remaining risk
• status: read the current case file only
• next: read the current case file and suggest one next gate
• reply: draft a paste-ready review reply without reading or writing case state unless needed for context
• sync: refresh the case file without changing status
• close: manually archive the case by freezing the final verdict and setting status: closed

Invocation Mapping

Accept natural Codex requests and map them to one gate:

• steward status -> status
• steward next -> next
• steward feasibility ... -> feasibility
• steward adversarial ... -> adversarial
• steward source-align ... -> source-align
• steward merge-value ... -> merge-value
• steward reply ... -> reply
• steward sync ... -> sync
• steward close ... -> close

If the user asks for multiple gates in one message, run only the first gate and report the next explicit command to run.

Codex Behavior

• Follow the repository plan gate before mutating files unless the user explicitly invoked a mutating Steward command.
• status, next, and reply are read-only by default.
• feasibility, adversarial, source-align, merge-value, sync, and close may update the case file exactly as the protocol requires.
• Resolve the current case through the Git-local current pointer before globbing case files.
• If a stateful judgment gate is requested and no valid case file exists, auto-create a minimal case file first, write it to the current pointer, then continue the requested gate.
• Do not auto-create a case file for status, next, reply, or close.
• Keep the case file in the repository root using case-YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md.
• Use the same language as the user's latest message for case file content.
• Prefer rg, git, and gh for evidence gathering when relevant.
• Do not implement product or code changes while running a gate.

Output

For all gates except next, use the protocol output contract:

Verdict: <short sentence>
Why: <short paragraph>
Missing evidence: <short list or "None">
Next action: <one concrete next step>
Case file: <absolute path>

For next, output:

Current status: <status>
Suggested next: steward <gate> - <why>
Alternative: <if re-run warranted, or "None">

For reply, also include:

Reply: <paste-ready sentence or short paragraph>