Documentation Contract Plan Hardening

Documentation Contract Plan Hardening

Use when drafting a plan for a docs/standards/contract issue where the deliverable is a policy/contract/checklist rather than runtime code.

Why this exists

In issue #2460 (tier-1 indexing and code-placement contract), all three adversarial reviewers returned MAJOR because the plan looked reasonable at a high level but failed a stricter standard:

• issue-required surfaces were bundled into generic "section presence" tests
• code-placement requirements cited DATA_PLACEMENT.md but were not independently testable
• a legacy-reference ban was specified as a vague negative test with no concrete forbidden pattern
• daily freshness linkage existed in prose but not as a dedicated validation target
• the plan relied on a local report artifact that was not clearly canonical on the repo's main branch

Core rule

For documentation-contract plans, every correctness-critical scope item from the issue body must map to:

1. a named artifact section in the contract/checklist
2. an independent acceptance criterion
3. an independent test or validation check

If multiple issue-scope requirements are compressed into one generic test, adversarial reviewers will (correctly) call the plan under-specified.

Hardening checklist before review

1. Build a scope-to-test matrix

Create a table in your notes before finalizing the plan:

Do not proceed until each issue-scope bullet has its own row.

2. Treat cited baseline docs as obligations, not decoration

If the plan cites a baseline document such as:

• docs/standards/CONTROL_PLANE_CONTRACT.md
• docs/standards/FILE_STRUCTURE_TAXONOMY.md
• docs/standards/DATA_PLACEMENT.md

then the plan must say exactly what rule from that document becomes part of the new contract and how that rule will be tested.

Bad:

• "DATA_PLACEMENT.md must be incorporated"

Good:

• "The contract must restate the repo-vs-/mnt/ace/data decision rule and checklist rows must verify whether each tier-1 repo's routing guidance points large/generated outputs off-repo."
• plus a dedicated acceptance criterion and test.

3. Avoid vague negative tests for legacy references

If you need to retire a legacy pattern, do NOT write a test like:

• test_contract_avoids_legacy_pattern

unless the plan defines:

• the exact forbidden string(s) or regex
• the allowed migration/retirement wording
• which files the guard applies to

Better pattern:

• one test for required positive retirement language
• one test for forbidden legacy references

Example split:

• test_contract_declares_legacy_product_doc_conventions_retired
• test_contract_does_not_recommend_<exact_legacy_pattern>

4. Distinguish canonical repo evidence from local attestation

If a plan cites a local artifact that may not exist on the canonical branch yet (for example a newly generated report in a dirty working tree), say so explicitly.

Use one of these two patterns:

1. Canonical evidence pattern

• artifact exists on tracked branch / repo state expected by reviewers
• safe to cite as repo truth

2. Local attestation pattern

• artifact exists only locally right now
• use it as planning input, but acknowledge that implementation must either:
  • land the artifact canonically, or
  • remove dependence on it before approval

If you don't disambiguate this, reviewers may flag the plan as coupled to unpublished state.

5. For contract/checklist pairs, test both discoverability and linkage

When the deliverable includes both a contract doc and a checklist doc, include tests for:

• contract exists
• checklist exists
• contract links checklist
• checklist references contract or derived authority
• docs index links both from a trusted discovery surface

Otherwise the checklist can become an orphan artifact.

6. Name artifacts to match issue scope

If the issue title says "indexing and code-placement contract" but the planned file is named only INDEXING_CONTRACT, reviewers may treat that as scope loss.

Either:

• include the full scope in the filename, or
• state explicitly in the plan that the contract file covers both topics despite the shorter filename

Recommended validation pattern for docs-contract issues

Prefer many small assertions over one umbrella test.

Bad:

• test_contract_contains_required_sections

Better:

• test_contract_requires_agents_md
• test_contract_requires_readme
• test_contract_requires_docs_readme
• test_contract_requires_operator_map
• test_contract_requires_machine_readable_registry
• test_contract_requires_routing_table
• test_contract_encodes_data_placement_rule
• test_contract_declares_daily_freshness_rule
• test_contract_links_followup_issue_2465

When to use this skill

Use before sending any documentation/contract plan to Codex/Gemini/Claude for adversarial review, especially when:

• the issue is in cat:documentation or cat:harness
• the deliverable is a contract, policy, checklist, or governance doc
• the issue body has a bulleted scope that can be converted into testable requirements
• local reports or freshly generated artifacts are being cited as planning evidence

Outcome goal

A reviewer should be able to point at each issue-scope bullet and immediately see:

• where it lands in the deliverable
• which acceptance criterion covers it
• which dedicated validation proves it

If not, the plan is still too soft for adversarial review.