# Rite Vet > Review a defined engineering plan before code. Use for plan vetting or lock-in; not for implementation review or final readiness sealing. - Skill: `viktorsbaikers/rite-vet-3` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 7 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add viktorsbaikers/rite-vet-3` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/viktorsbaikers/rite-vet-3/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: ViktorsBaikers (https://skillmd.com/u/viktorsbaikers) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/viktorsbaikers/rite-vet-3 --- # $rite-vet: review the plan before build Vet every plan before code for scope, architecture, quality, proof, performance, failure modes, and writer safety. Cite findings; fold accepted technical hardening into planning artifacts; design Build tests. Temper owns product scope, Vet owns implementation; current `$ARGUMENTS` (`--full`) feeds the depth triggers in `reference/depth.md`; profiles never remove the exact plan-reviewer gate ([orchestration-profiles.md](../devrites-lib/reference/orchestration-profiles.md)). ## Rules Read the active standard from: `principles.md`, `patterns.md`, `coding-style.md`, `testing.md`, `spec-grammar.md`, `performance.md`, `error-handling.md`, `development-workflow.md`, `afk-hitl.md`, `one-shot-actions.md`, `developer-experience.md`, `elicitation.md`, and `definition-of-done.md`. Load repository topology, data integrity, and integration reliability only when triggered. Before classifying any Reslice, read `.agents/skills/devrites-lib/reference/standards/acceptance-preserving-reslice.md`. When a plan declares a root-authored executable workflow file, read `workflow-artifacts.md`. - `FOLD` → fold technical topology; invalidate Vet/readiness; affected Vet before Build. - `GUARD_AND_REPAIR` → no planning writes; Spec Drift Guard → Clarify → Plan repair → affected Vet. - `BLOCKED_INPUT` → no planning writes; exact diagnostic; recover input; reclassify. ## Invariants - Review implementation, not ambition. Challenge creep, complexity, proof, and risk without changing accepted product scope. - Root alone asks, decides, folds, writes, and sets readiness. Reviewers judge; they add no route policy. Cite every finding and confidence; suppress unverified or confidence ≤4 findings under `review-axes.md`. Lens arrows in `eng-lenses.md` are heuristics; band findings only under the four `review-axes.md` names. - Auth, migration, public API, and data-model changes use maximum caution and the irreversible-risk stop. Project principles never become trade-offs. - **Governance-protected paths** (`.devrites/**`, pack skill/agent trees, `NOTICE.md` generator regions, CI/hook config named in repo docs) require explicit human approval before plan slices may edit them. A slice touching a protected path without approval → Vet **NEEDS CLARIFICATION**. **Failing case:** plan edits another feature's `state.md` without recorded approval → fail closed. - Use the lowest axis band; never average or round thin to ready. Search before asking and resolve reversible technical choices. Ask only human-owned choices. - Preserve a valid technical return cursor. Agent-owned `NEEDS REPLAN` returns internally to its caller, not to the human. - **Recovery recheck is bounded.** A valid cursor plus open fingerprint enters Recovery recheck; it does not start another Full Vet or repeat unaffected axes/reviewers. ## Workflow 0. **Orient.** Read core. Resolve active slug, require state, and read plan, tasks, spec, decision coverage, optional strategy/design brief, decisions, assumptions, and state. Require approved Plan and `Decision coverage: CLEAR`; otherwise stop for Define or Clarify. Use code intelligence for placement, blast radius, and reuse. 1. **Select depth.** Apply `reference/depth.md` exactly; never skip. Every initial pass records an engineering verdict and test-plan coverage. A valid Recovery recheck retains prior depth and enters 1b. 1a. **Independent initial pass.** Freeze candidate and dispatch exact fresh read-only plan reviewer. Add developer-experience reviewer for developer surfaces and current strategy reviewer after significant Temper. Missing required account blocks. 1b. **Recovery recheck.** Require valid return cursor, accepted prior finding, exact fingerprint/reproduction, repaired candidate identity, changed paths/criteria, and affected drift/evidence. Freeze that packet and dispatch each exact owning reviewer once, fresh/read-only, limited to it. Do not rerun broad inventory or unaffected reviewers. Close the prior fingerprint only with discriminating evidence. Otherwise record one no-progress outcome. A different Critical/Important invariant needs exact evidence and a new fingerprint; a Suggestion, Nit, or FYI cannot keep recovery open. Reconcile shared artifact/readiness gates and return to caller or next repair. 2. **Challenge scope.** Apply review-axes §0 and search accepted decisions. Harden to the smallest contract-complete plan, using marked topology action. Then verify bidirectional ID-and-meaning traceability across spec/plan/ tasks/test-plan/traceability, acceptance, terms, principles, anti-slop, and conventions; every slice and test-plan row maps to a live requirement and vice versa. Critical gaps and unexcepted principle breaches block; record the challenge result in `eng-review.md` §2 (Scope challenge) after recheck. 3. **Preflight Build entry.** Under `reference/artifacts.md`, verify exact command/cwd/tool/version/prerequisite; output filters must preserve upstream failure. Verify dependencies from authoritative source plus nearest manifest. Run parser-sensitive syntax only in isolated fixtures. Remeasure mutable facts; live evidence wins, conflict marks stale, and unmeasurable conflict is a gap. Record complete SHA-256 provenance. Every behavioral mapping names a positive discriminating assertion and decisive signal, never only exit zero. For each consumptive action, bind every `reference/artifacts.md` Consumptive action gates column; every fingerprint identifies one actionable seam; aliasing multiple emit sites is a gap. Preflight observes but need not make future behavior pass. 4. **Audit readiness.** Goal-backward map every requirement, criterion, NFR, interaction, edge/prohibition, and decision row to one slice and executable proof. Verify UX/spec/architecture alignment, contracts, dependency order, slice independence/wiring, prerequisites, failure/observability/rollback, and ownership. The plan's `Shared contract proof` names one reused boundary artifact plus two consuming tests for every changed API/event/schema/provider- consumer seam, or an explicit no-impact statement. Missing, one-sided, duplicated-contract, vague, or non-consuming proof fails closed. Technical gaps are `NEEDS REPLAN` and Plan repair. Product/risk gaps are `NEEDS CLARIFICATION` and Clarify. Neither becomes a Build qid. 5. **Review axes.** Apply `review-axes.md` through `eng-lenses.md`. Fold verified behavior-preserving technical findings; walk only human-owned decisions. Profile gate ceiling and Reslice marked action remain authoritative. 6. **Write outputs.** Produce every artifact in `reference/artifacts.md`. After editing intent/decision/assumption/question owners, re-scan affected coverage, assumptions, uncertainty, and gates. Keep state non-READY. Every scenario and criterion needs positive, discriminating proof; every slice must be one-pass implementable; developer plans need a predicted scorecard. Durable commands are portable repository commands, not host wrappers. 7. **Narrow recheck after edits.** Dispatch exact plan reviewer once per correction/fingerprint (`per correction/fingerprint`) with accepted findings, changed paths/criteria, and new identity. Within one correction, no broad third loop. If it changes plan, fold again. A closed input plus a distinct Critical/Important invariant returns that new fingerprint as progress. Then close matrix and rerun ID/meaning audit. 8. **Build readback and readiness.** Add a cited five-line readback to `eng-review.md` (artifacts.md §7 rows 1–5): outcome/ACs; IN/OUT/must-NOT; UI direction and architecture/ critical flow; slice order/first slice; decisive proof/action-time gates. A fresh implementer must need no product, architecture, or proof invention. Contradiction, ownerlessness, or material ambiguity blocks via Clarify or Plan. Write exactly one `Implementation readiness: READY`, `NEEDS CLARIFICATION`, or `NEEDS REPLAN`. Root alone sets READY after every account, checklist, preflight, and sweep is green. Write phase/next step and emit one `Readiness inputs SHA-256` with `devrites-engine check readiness --emit-binding `; normal readiness check must pass. Technical failure records reproduction, not qid. Human gap awaits Clarify. Optional cross-model follows `reference/cross-model.md`. With READY, no pending remediation, and a valid technical return cursor, restore and consume the return cursor instead of defaulting to Build. Preserve it through admitted remediation. Only a real stop reaches the human. 9. **Stop at the Vet boundary.** Show Build readback, scope verdict, lowest axis, closed gaps, preflight, action checkpoints, and critical failures. Recommend Build only when READY. > Do not replace interactive review with artifacts, change acceptance through > hardening, score without source evidence, or ignore unexplained complexity. ## Phase exit (observable) **Complete when:** `eng-review.md` records exactly one readiness verdict, readiness binding SHA-256 passes, and every required reviewer account is admitted. **Failing case:** READY written while a required reviewer returned `Outcome: gap` → not complete; restore NEEDS REPLAN or dispatch missing reviewer.