aoa-session-self-diagnose

Intent

Use this skill to turn a reviewed session into a DIAGNOSIS_PACKET.

It should answer: what drifted, what hurt, what boundary blurred, what proof is missing, what is only a hypothesis, and what repair shape is most plausible.

Trigger boundary

Use this skill when:

• a reviewed session contains repeated friction, contradiction, or drift
• the next honest move is diagnosis before repair
• boundary confusion or missing proof may be more important than immediate output production
• blocked automation readiness may need root-cause classification before any automation claim becomes honest
• the same class of problem may be appearing across sessions
• checkpoint, closeout, generated, or earlier-session hints suggest a problem but must be reread against reviewed evidence before becoming diagnosis

Do not use this skill when:

• the session is still live
• the issue is already fully diagnosed and only needs repair execution
• the material is a celebration recap with no meaningful friction
• the route is actually a single quest-promotion decision
• the only input is an unreviewed checkpoint note, live frustration, generated summary, or stale neighboring-session hint

Inputs

• reviewed session artifact or harvest packet
• observed frictions, failures, or contradictions
• relevant owner layers and touched repos
• previous related session evidence if available
• checkpoint, closeout, generated, or earlier-session hints clearly marked as hints, not diagnosis evidence
• known stale, contested, or missing evidence refs

Outputs

• DIAGNOSIS_PACKET with drift types, symptoms, probable causes, repair shapes, and owner hints
• evidence posture for each meaningful symptom and probable cause, such as reviewed symptom, reviewed inference, provisional hint, contested evidence, stale evidence, or unknown
• severity or urgency notes when evidence supports them
• explicit unknowns when diagnosis remains incomplete
• optional blocked-automation findings such as unstable inputs, hidden approval,

rollback gaps, or secret coupling

• optional handoff to aoa-session-self-repair
• one DIAGNOSIS_PACKET_RECEIPT using

references/stats-event-envelope.md and references/diagnosis-packet-receipt-schema.yaml

• one CORE_SKILL_APPLICATION_RECEIPT using

references/core-skill-application-receipt-schema.yaml

Procedure

1. gather reviewed symptoms and evidence refs, separating confirmed session evidence from checkpoint hints, closeout cues, generated summaries, stale evidence, or neighboring-session echoes
2. separate symptom from probable cause and assign an evidence posture before naming any cause as likely
3. classify drift types such as boundary drift, proof debt, role leakage, memory contamination, route collapse, compaction damage, or repeated blocker patterns
4. pair each probable cause with either supporting refs, disconfirming refs, or an explicit unknown; when evidence is thin, keep the cause as a provisional hypothesis
5. call out blocked automation causes when the route looks repetitive but still fails readiness because of unstable inputs, hidden authority, weak rollback posture, or secret coupling
6. map each diagnosis toward the likely owner layer without turning owner hints into final authority
7. suggest a repair shape without silently performing it
8. preserve unknowns where evidence does not justify stronger claims
9. emit one bounded DIAGNOSIS_PACKET_RECEIPT when the diagnosis packet

closes, keeping the payload smaller than the diagnosis itself

1. when the finish path closes, emit one CORE_SKILL_APPLICATION_RECEIPT

that points back to the bounded detail receipt and records one finished kernel-skill application

Contracts

• diagnosis is read-only
• one odd anecdote is not enough for structural certainty
• probable cause must remain probabilistic when evidence is thin
• evidence posture must stay visible when a claim comes from a hint, stale source, generated summary, or contested evidence
• owner hints must not override owner-layer law
• no hidden mutation or silent patching
• diagnosis does not grant automation readiness by itself
• the receipt remains descriptive and cannot become proof or repair authority
• the generic core receipt remains subordinate to the diagnosis receipt and

cannot become diagnosis, proof, or repair authority

• receipt corrections use supersedes rather than silent overwrite

Risks and anti-patterns

• mistaking symptom for cause
• using vague vibes as diagnosis
• smuggling repair work into diagnosis
• turning every inconvenience into a system flaw
• blaming one owner layer for a cross-layer issue
• treating automation frustration as if it automatically proved readiness
• treating a checkpoint hint, stale note, or generated summary as reviewed diagnosis evidence
• presenting probable cause as settled root cause without enough evidence posture
• letting a diagnosis receipt read like a final blame or repair verdict

Verification

• confirm each diagnosis cites evidence refs
• confirm symptoms and causes are separated
• confirm each meaningful probable cause carries an evidence posture and does not outrun its evidence
• confirm a likely owner layer is named
• confirm unknowns are preserved where needed
• confirm no mutation happened
• confirm any emitted receipt stays evidence-linked and smaller than the diagnosis packet
• confirm any emitted CORE_SKILL_APPLICATION_RECEIPT points to the detail

diagnosis receipt and stays finish-only

Technique traceability

Manifest-backed techniques:

• AOA-T-0080 from 8Dionysus/aoa-techniques at 3b1d5d623569aa4920b87280d0db0e911d2e29d5 using path techniques/recovery/diagnosis-repair/session-drift-taxonomy/TECHNIQUE.md and sections: Intent, Outputs, Risks, Validation
• AOA-T-0081 from 8Dionysus/aoa-techniques at 3b1d5d623569aa4920b87280d0db0e911d2e29d5 using path techniques/recovery/diagnosis-repair/diagnosis-from-reviewed-evidence/TECHNIQUE.md and sections: Intent, Inputs, Outputs, Core procedure, Contracts, Validation

Adaptation points

Project overlays may add:

• local drift taxonomies
• repo-specific failure classes
• severity bands