Zireael Spec Guardian

When to use

Use this skill first for any task in this repo, especially when:

• adding/modifying ABI, formats, or platform code
• changing ownership/memory behavior
• changing Unicode, rendering, diff output, or tests

After guardian checks, run zireael-code-style for any code edit/review.

Source of truth

• README.md — GitHub-facing overview
• docs/00_INDEX.md — internal reading path
• docs/CODE_STANDARDS.md — code style and comments

Key locked docs:

• docs/SAFETY_RULESET.md
• docs/LIBC_POLICY.md
• docs/ERROR_CODES_CATALOG.md
• docs/VERSION_PINS.md
• docs/GOLDEN_FIXTURE_FORMAT.md

Hard constraints (must not violate)

• Engine-only repo: no TypeScript, Node tooling, or monorepo
• Platform boundary:
  • src/core, src/unicode, src/util MUST NOT include OS headers
  • OS code only in src/platform/win32/ and src/platform/posix/
  • #ifdef _WIN32 only in platform backends
• Ownership (locked):
  • engine owns all its allocations
  • caller never frees engine memory
  • engine doesn't return heap pointers requiring caller free
• Error model: 0 = OK, negative ZR_ERR_* codes
• UB avoidance: no type-punning; safe unaligned reads; validate all bounds
• Hot paths: no per-frame heap churn; single flush per present

Pre-flight checklist

1. Identify affected docs (docs/00_INDEX.md)
2. Verify dependency direction: util → unicode → core → platform
3. Check version pins (docs/VERSION_PINS.md)
4. Decide caps/limits impacted (zr_limits_t)
5. Decide test impact (unit/golden/fuzz/integration)

Review checklist

• No OS headers in core/unicode/util
• No #ifdef leaked into core/unicode/util
• No API returns pointers requiring caller free
• Error returns match docs/ERROR_CODES_CATALOG.md
• Parsers have bounds checks and fuzz consideration
• Golden outputs updated if behavior changed
• Docs updated if behavior/ABI/formats changed
• Readability gate met (named constants, rationale comments, no dense opaque expressions)

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