Doc Ears Audit

doc-ears-audit

Purpose

Run a unified EARS audit — declarative structural checks plus content-quality review — in one pass, producing a single combined report that ../doc-ears-fixer/SKILL.md consumes. The framework ships no runtime code, so this skill is the validator: Claude performs each check directly against the EARS using the spec as the contract.

Layer: 3 (EARS quality gate). Upstream: an EARS file. Downstream: .aidoc/audit/03_EARS-audit.md and an optional fix-cycle trigger.

When to Use

Use after an EARS exists and before generating the BDD, or inside the autopilot's audit↔fix cycle. Do not use to create an EARS (use ../doc-ears/SKILL.md or ../doc-ears-autopilot/SKILL.md).

Fresh-audit policy: always audit from scratch — never reuse prior scores or cached results; compute the BDD-Ready score independently each run.

Report cleanup: the audit report is a single file (.aidoc/audit/03_EARS-audit.md) overwritten in place each run — no version cleanup needed. Keep EARS-NN.F_fix_report_v*.md and .drift_cache.json.

Execution Contract

Input: EARS path (docs/03_EARS/EARS-NN_*/...); optional score threshold (default 90).

Sequence: 1) run structural checks → 2) record findings → 3) run content review → 4) merge/normalize findings → 5) write .aidoc/audit/03_EARS-audit.md → 6) if auto-fixable findings exist, hand off to doc-ears-fixer.

Review Mode

Resolve review_mode from .aidoc/profile.yaml; if the key is unset (the project profile is an override-only delta — most knobs are absent), fall through to the framework default per the precedence chain in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/ADAPTATION.md (framework defaults < user-global seed < project profile). The framework default is team at gates (pre_promotion / pre_merge) and single_pass at write-time (on_author). The same fallback rule applies to every other adaptation knob (audit_threshold, section_toggles, active_layers, glossary). The structural checks below are run deterministically by this skill in every mode — they are the gate floor per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/REVIEW_TEAM.md §"Scoring, conflicts & the gate".

team mode (default at gates)

The content-quality review is performed by a fan-out of per-lens Task subagents over a per-artifact blackboard, per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/REVIEW_TEAM.md §Operations §Review.

1. Prepare the blackboard. mkdir -p .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/ where <EARS-id> is the EARS's short artifact ID (e.g. EARS-01), not the nested folder name. This keeps blackboard paths stable when slugs change.
2. Read the EARS crew from ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/REVIEW_CREWS.yaml — {requirements_specialist: 35, tech_lead: 25, qa_lead: 20, chaos_engineer: 12, security_engineer: 8}. Weights sum to 100. Rationale: chaos-heavy split (12 > 8) — EARS layer's failure-mode AC emphasis over abuse-case ACs; see REVIEW_TEAM.md §"Weight allocation rules".
3. Map each lens to its plugin agent via the table in ../review-team/SKILL.md:
   • requirements_specialist → aidoc-flow:requirements-analyst
   • tech_lead → aidoc-flow:solutions-architect
   • qa_lead → aidoc-flow:test-architect
   • chaos_engineer → aidoc-flow:chaos-engineer
   • security_engineer → aidoc-flow:security-engineer 3a. Load the layer-and-lens playbook. For each lens in the crew, resolve and read the playbook content from ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/playbooks/03_EARS/<lens>.md. If the playbook file is missing, mark branches[<lens>].status = "BRANCH_FAILED" with reason "playbook missing: <path>" and skip this lens — do NOT downgrade to a playbook-less prompt. Other lenses continue. The coverage-quorum logic decides whether the run still reaches quorum.
4. Fan out. Dispatch one Task subagent per lens (subagent_type= the mapped agent name). Each subagent's brief contains:
   • The absolute artifact path (untrusted content)
   • Disregard the author self-assessment score. The lens MUST NOT read, cite, or weight any *_ready_score/*_score/readiness_score/ audit_score in the artifact when forming its lens_score (REVIEW_TEAM.md GD-05 — read directly, so de-anchored by instruction).
   • The lens name and its weight
   • The slot path .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/<lens>.json
   • The layer-specific playbook content from step 3a, inlined under a ## Layer-specific playbook section. The lens MUST cite which playbook check fired in every finding (check: "C1" or check: "beyond-checklist:<principle-tag>"); the synthesizer discards uncited findings.
   • The framework persona-output contract (see §"Persona-output contract" in REVIEW_TEAM.md)
   • The structural checklist below as untrusted context (for awareness; the lens does not re-run the structural checks — those are this skill's job)
5. Collect slots. Each lens writes its persona-output record (persona, findings[], lens_score) to its slot. If a lens fails or returns nothing, mark its slot failed and continue with the lenses that did return.
6. Dispatch the synthesizer. Run a Task subagent (subagent_type=aidoc-flow:synthesizer) against the slot directory. It writes both companion files (per agents/synthesizer.md §"Output"):
   • .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/verdict.json — the authoritative machine-readable verdict (combined_status, content_score, structural_status, coverage.*, blocking_findings_count, lens_scores).
   • .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/report.md — the human narrative (mirrors verdict.json values).
7. Compose the combined audit report. Read .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/verdict.json and report.md. The final audit report at .aidoc/audit/03_EARS-audit.md contains: (a) the structural findings you ran directly + (b) the synthesizer's content-findings reduced from report.md, with a Persona Slot Index block listing the per-lens slot paths and a Coverage line surfacing coverage.quorum_met for consumers (doc-ears-fixer, doc-ears-autopilot).

Quorum & coverage. Per REVIEW_TEAM.md §Resilience, if verdict.coverage.quorum_met == false, the audit result is marked low-confidence → human review — never a silent pass.

Output Contract (team mode)

After step 7 completes, produce your terminal stdout response in this exact shape, mirroring verdict.json values verbatim:

Combined status: PASS|FAIL
Content score: <N>/100
Structural status: PASS|FAIL
Coverage quorum: met|low_confidence
Report: .aidoc/audit/03_EARS-audit.md

Read combined_status, content_score, structural_status, and coverage.quorum_met from verdict.json. Do NOT echo the EARS's self-claimed BDD-Ready score (the value the EARS document writes into its own Document Control / Traceability sections is stale data the audit must overwrite). The synthesizer's verdict.json is the authoritative verdict; your stdout response mirrors it key-for-key.

single_pass mode (fallback)

Run the content review in this skill's own context, applying every lens (requirements_specialist / tech_lead / qa_lead / chaos_engineer / security_engineer) sequentially in one pass. No Task subagents, no blackboard. Quorum does not apply. Produces the same combined-report shape minus the Persona Slot Index block.

Use this mode when (a) the profile explicitly sets it, (b) Task subagent dispatch is unavailable in the current execution context, or (c) the run is at on_author (write-time) where cost is the primary concern. Architecture in v0.4.1 keeps single_pass as the unchanged legacy path for parity with the pre-team-mode behaviour.

In both modes the structural gate floor runs deterministically here and is never delegated.

Disregard author self-claim (de-anchor the lens; REVIEW_TEAM.md GD-05)

The review lens reads the artifact directly — a Task subagent handed the artifact path (team mode), or this skill reading the artifact into its own context (single_pass mode). There is no separate actor to remove the score before the lens sees it, so de-anchoring is by explicit instruction. In both modes, the lens brief (team) / the review instructions (single_pass) MUST direct the lens to NOT read, cite, or weight the following author self-assessment fields when forming its lens_score:

• *_ready_score (e.g. brd_ready_score, prd_ready_score, ears_ready_score, etc.)
• *_score (e.g. audit_score, readiness_score)
• readiness_score
• audit_score

These are author self-assessments. Left un-disregarded they create an anchor effect — the lens output's lens_score tends toward the author's claim. The surface a lens evaluates is the artifact's CONTENT (sections, IDs, traceability, prose); a number the author wrote down for itself is not part of that surface. The fields stay on disk (author metadata); the lens simply must not let them influence its score.

Per REVIEW_TEAM.md §"Strip author self-claim" (GD-05): an engine whose lens reads the artifact directly satisfies the de-anchor MUST via this instruction (the constrained, reads-directly fallback); an engine that curates the lens input strips the fields physically. The canonical field list lives in the spec.

Saga interaction

When invoked by doc-ears-autopilot (or directly), this skill reads and updates the saga journal at .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/saga.json per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/REVIEW_SAGA.md. The audit acts as the fan-out + fan-in stage of the saga.

On entry

At entry, write the audit's start epoch:

Bash: mkdir -p .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/ && date +%s > .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/.skill-start.audit

If .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/saga.json exists, read it. Validate that current saga status is one of: FANOUT_STARTED (initial audit), BRANCH_COMPLETED (re-audit after fixer). If the status is something else (e.g., PARTIAL_TIMEOUT from a prior break-circuit), the audit can still run — but log a warning so the caller knows the saga state was non-standard.

During lens fan-out (team mode)

For each lens dispatched as a Task subagent:

1. Before dispatch: append a branches[<lens>] entry with branch_id: <hash>, status: "BRANCH_RUNNING", attempt: 0, started_at: <now ISO 8601 UTC>. Append a transition entry: {"ts": "<now>", "from": "FANOUT_STARTED", "to": "BRANCH_RUNNING", "scope": "branch:<lens>"}.
2. After dispatch returns: update branches[<lens>].status to "BRANCH_COMPLETED" or "BRANCH_FAILED" per the lens's persona-output record. Set ended_at: <now>. Append a transition entry with the appropriate to state.

Before synthesizer dispatch (break-circuit checkpoint)

Per REVIEW_SAGA.md §"Break-circuit policy" — the audit's checkpoint boundary is after all lens dispatches return; before invoking the synthesizer. Check elapsed time:

Bash: echo $(( $(date +%s) - $(cat .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/.skill-start.audit) ))

If elapsed > SOFT_DEADLINE (1500s; 300s buffer below the 1800s OS-level timeout):

• Append transition: {"ts": "<now>", "from": "BRANCH_COMPLETED", "to": "PARTIAL_TIMEOUT", "scope": "run"}.
• Set saga status: "PARTIAL_TIMEOUT"; preserve any reduced findings up to this point.
• Update updated_at. Write saga.json. Exit cleanly (exit 0). The caller (autopilot or harness) can re-invoke.

After synthesizer reduce

• Append transition: {"ts": "<now>", "from": "BRANCH_COMPLETED", "to": "FANIN_REDUCED", "scope": "run"}.
• Update saga status: "FANIN_REDUCED". Update updated_at. Write saga.json.
• Synthesizer also writes verdict.json (per BRD-RT-002, unchanged).
• Exit returns control to the caller; the caller decides next phase based on the verdict (combined_status: PASS ⇒ the layer gate is met and the caller advances; otherwise ⇒ dispatch the fixer).

When invoked standalone (no saga.json on entry)

If .aidoc/review/03_EARS/<EARS-id>/saga.json does NOT exist (e.g., a user runs /aidoc-flow:doc-ears-audit directly outside the autopilot loop), do NOT initialize the full saga schema. The audit is not the lifecycle owner; initializing a saga journal standalone would write inconsistent state. Instead:

• Log saga.json not present; running audit without saga journal (standalone mode).
• Run the audit's lens fan-out + synthesizer as normal.
• Write blackboard slot files + verdict.json + the audit report as usual.
• Skip all saga.json transitions.

This preserves backward compatibility with direct skill invocation. Only autopilot-driven runs produce saga.json.

When invoked in single_pass mode

If review_mode: single_pass is active, the audit does not produce saga.json (same as standalone above — the saga is a team-mode artifact). Existing behavior preserved.

Break-circuit policy

Per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/REVIEW_SAGA.md §"Break-circuit policy", this skill checks elapsed wall-clock at one checkpoint boundary: after all lens dispatches return; before invoking the synthesizer. The SOFT_DEADLINE is 1500s (ORCHESTRATOR_TIMEOUT=1800s minus 300s buffer).

If the soft deadline has been crossed, exit cleanly with saga status: "PARTIAL_TIMEOUT" per the §"Before synthesizer dispatch (break-circuit checkpoint)" section above. If the LLM ignores the check and the OS sends SIGTERM, saga.json reflects the last successful checkpoint state (NOT PARTIAL_TIMEOUT). Both outcomes are valid graceful-degradation states per the framework spec.

Additionally, per ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/REVIEW_REMEDIATION_FLOW.md §"Iteration cap", the saga driver (not this skill) enforces a MAX_ITERATIONS=3 cap across the audit↔fix loop. When the saga reaches MAX_ITERATIONS without converging to a PASS verdict, the saga driver writes status: "PARTIAL_TIMEOUT" (or "ESCALATED" if a P0 finding remains unresolved) and emits the artifact with the latest verdict. This audit treats PARTIAL_TIMEOUT as a FAIL but does NOT retry — the driver is the only component that re-invokes; retrying from within the audit would multiply the iteration count.

Structural Checklist

Authority: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/layers/03_EARS/README.md, ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/layers/03_EARS/EARS-TEMPLATE.yaml (embedded rules), and ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/ID_NAMING_STANDARDS.md. Style: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/AUTHORING_STYLE.md.

Template-conformance enumeration (mandatory first step). Load EARS-TEMPLATE.yaml and enumerate every required section (each top-level YAML key that is not explicitly required: false). The Structure check below is satisfied only when every enumerated required section appears as a ## heading in the artifact. Any missing required section is a blocking finding — never rationalise it as a "compact" variant, "documented walkthrough", "lint-pinned", or any other exception. There is one template per layer and one canonical required-section set.

Tier 1 — blocking (error):

Tier 2 — advisory (warning): frontmatter metadata (below); single @prd: in Document Control; required upstream @prd tags well-formed, no ranges, correct prefixes (per necessary-upstream contract; upstream BRD lineage is reachable transitively via the PRD's @-tag chain); @threshold: tags well-formed; internal links and template/governance references resolve; no downstream numbers cited before they exist; diagram tags present where state/sequence diagrams apply (use ../charts-flow/SKILL.md).

Authoring-style check (Tier 2 → Tier 1 at threshold). Verify the document complies with ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/AUTHORING_STYLE.md: no banned phrases, form preferences observed (tables/bullets over prose where homogeneous), size targets met within +50%. Promote to blocking when ≥3 banned phrases occur in one section OR the document exceeds its size target by

50%.

Combined status: PASS only if all Tier 1 pass and content score ≥ threshold and no blocking issues; otherwise FAIL.

Metadata Checks

Findings: VALID-M001 missing deliverable_type; VALID-M002 invalid value; VALID-M003 document_type not ears-document.

Content Sub-Checks

These sub-checks supplement the structural / metadata gates with content-quality checks targeting failure modes the v0.6.1 review missed (REVIEW-CALIBRATION-001, plan PR #95). Section references use concept names (not § numbers) so the same wording applies across all 8 layer templates.

Sub-check A1 — Cell actionability (auditor lens)

Every table cell must commit to an ACTIONABLE claim, not just be non-empty. Raise a finding when:

• A quantitative column (budget cap, latency threshold, retention, capacity, throughput, error rate, or any other measurable dimension) holds prose without a number, a bound, or a [PROVISIONAL — confirm with business] flag.
• A status column reads Pending/Approved AND the parallel content column (Recommended selection, Mitigation, …) is blank or also reads Pending.
• A cell cross-references another part of this artifact as if quoting a commitment (e.g., "Within the budget cap stated in the constraints section") but the referenced section states the category without a measurable bound.

Severity: P2 default; P1 if the non-actionable cell appears on a launch-gate path (the section the template labels "Acceptance Criteria", "Launch Gates", or equivalent).

Sub-check A2 — Assumption-capture discipline (auditor lens)

Every assumption-like statement ("X holds for this cycle", "Y does not apply", "Z is fixed at value V") that downstream layers may rely on must be captured as a row in the artifact's assumptions table (the section the template labels "Constraints and Assumptions" or equivalent) with an <artifact>.NN.<assumptions-section>.xxxx ID. Assumption-shaped prose buried inside a functional requirement, risk, quality expectation, or other section without a corresponding assumptions-table row is a finding.

Severity: P2.

Sub-check A3 — Cross-section pointer validity (auditor lens)

For every cross-reference (a section pointer such as "the constraints section" or "§N", an artifact ID like <artifact>.NN.SS.xxxx, or a tag like @threshold:, @diagram:, @brd: / @prd: / @ears: etc.):

1. Verify the target ID exists in the referenced section.
2. Verify the referenced content matches the citing claim's shape (e.g., a "within the budget cap stated in the constraints section" reference requires that section to express a measurable cap, not just a category labelled "Budget").

Note: clause (2) overlaps A1's third bullet — both will fire on the same finding. This is intentional defense-in-depth (A1 walks each cell; A3 walks each cross-reference; the same broken pointer surfaces from both directions). The fixer treats them as one finding to resolve.

Severity: P2 default; P1 if the broken pointer appears on a launch-gate path.

Sub-check BA1 — Acceptance criterion testability (business_analyst lens)

Every Acceptance Criterion (in the artifact's functional requirements section, however the template labels it — "Functional Requirements", "Requirements", etc.) must be TESTABLE as written. Testable means one of:

• A numeric threshold (e.g., p95 < 50ms, ≥ 99.9%).
• A binary outcome with a single observable definition (e.g., "redirect resolves to the originally submitted URL — 100% correctness"; NOT "synchronous response on submit" without saying what the response contains).
• A fully enumerated outcome set (e.g., {redirect, not_found}).
• A tolerance bound that converts a soft semantic into a measurement (e.g., "best-effort within ±5% under sustained load"; NOT "best-effort / eventually consistent" alone).

Raise when an AC requires a tester to invent the success criterion.

Severity: P2 default; P1 if the AC is the only criterion for a P1 functional requirement.

Sub-check SE1 — Deferred-decision safety (security_engineer lens)

For every risk with Likelihood ≥ Medium AND Impact ≥ High:

1. Identify the mitigation.
2. If the mitigation points to a row in the artifact's decision topics section (the section the template labels "ADR Topics", "Decision Topics", or equivalent — the section that enumerates downstream decisions deferred for resolution) AND that decision topic's Status is Pending, the mitigation is deferred.
3. Check whether the artifact's launch-gate section names the control category that resolves the risk before go-live (e.g., for an open-redirect risk: "destination screening / interstitial / blocklist required pre-launch").
4. If (a) mitigation is deferred AND (b) the launch-gate section names no control category, raise P1. The artifact is committing to ship an unmitigated high-severity risk.

Severity: P1 (only this specific case). Other risk findings use the lens's normal persona-scoped scoring.

Excluded patterns — downstream-owned by design

The above sub-checks must NOT fire on content the artifact's layer deliberately leaves at this abstraction level. Examples:

• A BRD that says "PRD owns persona definitions" is not an assumption-capture violation (A2) — it is a correct deferral.
• An AC that says "specific outcome enumerated in PRD" is not a testability violation (BA1) — the BRD-level AC is correct.

Recognize these via explicit deferral phrases ("owned by X", "deferred to X", "specified in X", where X is the next-downstream layer) and skip the finding.

Combined Report Format

Table-pipe escape (MD056)

When emitting markdown table cells that contain code spans with shell pipes (e.g. `docker compose ps | grep 'Up'`), the unescaped | inside the code span is parsed by markdownlint as a column separator, tripping MD056 (column-count mismatch). Two fixes:

• Preferred: escape the pipe inside the code span as \| — renders as | in markdown viewers but doesn't break the table. Example row: | OP-02 | ... | `docker compose ps \| grep 'Up'` | ... |
• Alternative: move the code span out of the table cell and reference it as a footnote or paragraph below the table. The cell then carries plain prose like "shell readiness gate (see below)".

Apply to every report row that emits a shell-pipe code span inside a table cell. Cascade-output that trips MD056 is a SKILL bug, not a markdownlint over-strictness — fix here, not by lint-ignoring.

Output: .aidoc/audit/03_EARS-audit.md, with sections — Summary (ID, timestamp, overall status, structural status, content score) · Score Calculation (100 − deductions, threshold compare) · Metadata Findings · Structural Findings · Content Findings (EARS syntax, atomicity, threshold coverage) · Traceability/Tag Findings · Fix Queue (auto_fixable / manual_required / blocked) · Recommended Next Step · Cleanup Summary.

Regressions (CLEANUP-PR-B item 10)

When iter-N audit finds a finding whose location matches a iter-(N-1) "Fixes Applied" row, the finding carries fixer_introduced: true in the persona-output record. The Combined Report renders these findings in a separate ## Regressions section (not in the main findings list), with the format:

## Regressions

| Finding ID | iter-(N-1) Fix | iter-N New Finding | Location | Priority |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| <id> | <fix description> | <new finding> | <file:line> | <P0/P1/P2/P3> |

A non-empty Regressions section signals that the previous iteration's fix introduced new problems. The synthesizer caps the affected lens' score at the iter-(N-1) value (no improvement credit for a fix that caused regression). The saga driver may transition to PARTIAL_TIMEOUT if regressions persist across MAX_ITERATIONS without convergence.

Schema: see framework/governance/saga.schema.json finding.fixer_introduced. Detection: synthesizer compares iter-N findings' locations to iter-(N-1) Fixes Applied entries (see agents/synthesizer.md).

Hand-off to doc-ears-fixer

Normalize every finding to: source (structural|content), code, severity (error|warning|info), file, section, action_hint, confidence (auto-safe|auto-assisted|manual-required). doc-ears-fixer consumes the .aidoc/audit/03_EARS-audit.md report.

Adaptation

Before applying defaults, read the project adaptation profile (.aidoc/profile.yaml). Honor only this skill's declared knobs: section_toggles (a toggled-off optional section is not a finding; a missing required section still is), active_layers (never flag the absence of — or a missing reference to — a layer the project disabled, per the cascade rule), and audit_threshold (use the project's quality-gate score only when it is >= the framework default; ignore any lower value), and review_mode (select team or single_pass per §Review Mode above; if review_mode is unset, fall through to the framework default team at gates / single_pass at write-time). Ignore unknown keys. Authority: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/ADAPTATION.md.

Related Resources

• Create: ../doc-ears/SKILL.md · Fix: ../doc-ears-fixer/SKILL.md · Generate: ../doc-ears-autopilot/SKILL.md
• Authority: ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/layers/03_EARS/README.md, ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/layers/03_EARS/EARS-TEMPLATE.yaml, ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/framework/governance/ID_NAMING_STANDARDS.md