Codex Document Flow

Codex Document Flow

Purpose

• Create and maintain PRD/ADR/Design/Plan documents without subagents.
• Keep explicit stop/approval tag pairs before phase transitions.

Execution Contract

This skill follows the non-entry execution contract standard. Required contract_extensions: mode, target_docs. See codex-execution-contract.md and non-entry-execution-contract-template.md for full rules.

input:
  objective: "Update design and plan docs for feature X"
  contract_extensions: { mode: "update", target_docs: ["docs/design/feature-x-design.md", "docs/plans/feature-x-plan.md"] }
output:
  status: "completed"
  quality_gate:
    gate_id: "document-alignment-check"
    gate_type: "document"
    trigger: "post-document review"
    criteria:
      - "Target documents are updated"
      - "Document set is internally consistent"
    result: "pass"
    evidence:
      - "Target docs aligned"
    blockers: []
    branching:
      on_pass: "handoff"
      on_fail: "revise"
      max_cycles: 2
  contract_extensions: { mode: "update", target_docs: ["docs/design/feature-x-design.md", "docs/plans/feature-x-plan.md"] }

Contract Compliance

• Emit structured output compliant with codex-execution-contract.md.
• Always include baseline output fields: status, summary, changed_files, tests, quality_gate, blockers, next_actions.
• Validate required input fields from ../workflow-entry/references/non-entry-execution-contract-template.md (objective, scope, constraints, acceptance_criteria, allowed_commands, sandbox_mode) before proceeding.
• Echo required skill extensions in contract_extensions: mode, target_docs.
• Treat missing required fields as contract violations and regenerate output before handoff.
• On contract violation (missing/invalid field, invalid status value, or missing extension keys): do not proceed; emit status: blocked with violation description in blockers.
• Reference: non-entry-execution-contract-template.md.

Modes

• create: new document generation.
• update: modify existing documents while preserving rationale and change history.
• reverse: generate documents from current codebase behavior.

Phase Rules

1. Requirements first: clarify goals, constraints, success criteria.
2. Decide scale and required documents.
3. Create documents using documentation-criteria templates.
4. Run quality and consistency review.
5. Emit [Stop: pre-design-approval] + [Approve: design-approval] before moving to the next phase.

Required Document Matrix

Reverse-Engineering Flow

1. Discover scope from existing code and modules.
2. Draft PRD from observable behavior.
3. Draft Design Doc from architecture and data flow.
4. Run consistency check between docs and code observations.
5. Present unresolved ambiguities as explicit questions.

Update-Doc Flow

1. Identify target docs and reasons for change.
2. Apply updates in smallest coherent unit.
3. Re-run consistency review across related docs.
4. Produce concise change summary and emit [Stop: pre-design-approval] + [Approve: design-approval].

Hard Stop Points

• Requirements are contradictory.
• Existing code behavior conflicts with requested spec and no decision is provided.
• Architecture-impacting changes are requested without ADR-level decision.

Quality Gate Evidence

• This executor owns quality_gate emission and branching using quality-gate-evidence-template.md.
• Emit canonical fields: gate_id, gate_type, trigger, criteria, result, evidence, blockers, branching.
• Use gate_type: document for document quality and completeness checks.
• Normalize local statuses into result: pass|fail|blocked before handoff.
• If result: blocked, emit [Stop: quality-gate-failed] and pause for escalation handling.

Stop/Approval Protocol

Use canonical markers: [Stop: <Gate Name>]. Classify every stop as approval_gate or escalation_gate. At each stop, emit a full gate record: gate_name, gate_type, trigger, ask_method, required_user_action, resume_if, fallback_if_rejected. Default ask_method is AskUserQuestion. Resume an approval_gate only with explicit user approved: true; resume an escalation_gate only after user direction or reroute. Respect batch boundary: document phases stay human-gated, and transitions into implementation require [Stop: pre-implementation-approval]. Enforce max_revision_cycles: 2; overflow requires human intervention. Agent-local document review approvals never replace user approvals.

Stop points for this skill:

• [Stop: pre-design-approval] (approval_gate)
• [Stop: pre-implementation-approval] (approval_gate)
• [Stop: high-risk-change] (approval_gate)
• [Stop: requirement-change-detected] (escalation_gate)
• [Stop: quality-gate-failed] (escalation_gate)
• [Stop: revision-limit-reached] (escalation_gate)

Full protocol and payload schema: ../workflow-entry/references/stop-approval-section-template.md.

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