Repo State Diagnosis

Core Question

What is the current repository state, and which skill should own the next safe action?

When To Use

Use this skill when:

• the user asks what state the repo or branch is in
• another skill needs read-only orientation before mutation
• the repository may be dirty, conflicted, detached, diverged, missing upstream, or in an operation state
• the correct Git skill is unclear

When Not To Use

Do not use this skill when:

• executing branch sync, commit, recovery, or conflict resolution
• creating commits or tags
• running destructive cleanup
• publishing or pushing remote refs

Route to:

• commit planning routes to atomic-commits
• message-only work routes to conventional-commits
• branch update or upstream work routes to sync-branch or branch-workflow
• conflicts route to resolve-conflicts
• abort/recovery routes to undo-recover

Required Evidence

Before action, inspect or establish:

• git status --short --branch
• current branch and HEAD mode
• staged, unstaged, and untracked path groups
• upstream, ahead, and behind state
• operation state markers for merge, rebase, cherry-pick, and revert
• recent log or graph only when needed for state explanation

No-evidence rule:

• Do not make strong claims without observed evidence.
• State assumptions when proceeding under incomplete evidence.
• Stop when missing evidence affects safety, correctness, user work, remote state, or irreversible action.

Operating Contract

You MAY:

• inspect relevant repository state and project files.
• generate a plan, report, or local artifact within the declared risk scope.
• route to another skill when the requested action is outside this skill's owner boundary.

You MUST:

• inspect before acting.
• keep the task within the declared owner boundary.
• classify state and risk before any meaningful action.
• preserve unrelated user work.
• verify outcomes proportional to risk.
• report evidence, assumptions, actions, verification, and residual risk.

You MUST NOT:

• invent project policy.
• expose secrets or sensitive values.
• mutate unrelated files or refs.
• perform destructive, remote, shared, history-rewriting, or irreversible actions without explicit action-specific confirmation.
• continue after unexpected destructive output.

State / Risk Table

Workflow

1. Identify the user goal and current owner boundary.
2. Inspect required evidence.
3. Classify repository/task state.
4. Classify risk using the declared scope.
5. Choose the minimal sufficient action or route.
6. Execute only allowed actions, if any.
7. Verify outcome or self-check the artifact.
8. Report result, evidence, verification, assumptions, and residual risk.

Decision Rules

• Classify current state before interpreting broad user wording.
• Prefer current-state ownership over intent wording when the repository is in a special state.
• Do not infer permission to mutate from a diagnosis request.
• Report unknown evidence instead of guessing branch/upstream policy.

Tool Rules

• May run read-only Git inspection commands.
• Must not run commands that change refs, index, working tree, stashes, or remotes.
• Must not fetch unless the user explicitly asks for remote freshness; route remote refresh to sync-branch.

Verification

Minimum verification:

• Compare reported state against status, branch/upstream, and operation markers.
• Verify route recommendation names an existing skill.
• State any evidence not inspected.

Risk-based floor:

• R0-R1: evidence inspected and output self-checked.
• R2: inspect resulting diff or local state.
• R3: verify local state and report recovery limits.
• R4-R5: require explicit confirmation, preflight evidence, and post-action verification where this skill owns the action.

Output Contract

Final response must include:

## Result

- Decision, action, or artifact produced.

## Evidence

- Files, commands, diffs, refs, or assumptions used.

## Verification

- Checks performed and their result.

## Risks / Limitations

- Remaining uncertainty, blocked actions, or routed next steps.

Stop / Confirmation Rules

Stop when the repository state is dirty, conflicted, diverged, missing required evidence, or ambiguous in a way that could overwrite user work, invalidate the requested scope, or require a gated action.

Require explicit action-specific confirmation for:

• destructive local mutation.
• remote/shared mutation.
• history rewriting.
• security/secret/data impact.
• irreversible or hard-to-recover operation.

Broad approval such as "do whatever" is not enough for R4-R5 actions.

Lazy-load References

Load references/state-catalog.md when:

• the task needs the detailed guidance described by the file name.
• the state/risk table identifies an ambiguous or high-risk path.

Load references/routing-map.md when:

• the task needs the detailed guidance described by the file name.
• the state/risk table identifies an ambiguous or high-risk path.

Load references/graph-explain.md when:

• the task needs the detailed guidance described by the file name.
• the state/risk table identifies an ambiguous or high-risk path.