# Work Log — feat/change-sizing-scope-prompt

| Field | Value |
|---|---|
| Branch | feat/change-sizing-scope-prompt |
| Classification | quick-win |
| Classified by | Claude (Opus 4.8) |
| Frozen | true |
| Created Date | 2026-06-15 |
| Owner | KbWen |
| Guardrails Mode | Quick |
| Current Phase | ship |
| Checkpoint SHA | de1878b (shipped, PR #241) |
| Recommended Skills | karpathy-principles (auto — behavioral baseline for governance/workflow edit), verification-before-completion (auto — quick-win ship evidence) |
| Primary Domain Snapshot | none |

## Session Info
- Agent: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context)
- Session: 2026-06-15
- Platform: Claude Code (Antigravity runtime)
- Guardrails loaded: skipped (quick-win) — AGENTS.md §Core Directives only
- Override: none
- Downstream-Capabilities: none
- Context Read Receipt:
  - current_state.md → read (Update Sequence 67, Last Verified 2026-06-14)
  - Work Log → created
  - Spec Scope → docs/specs/skill-research-integration.md (relevant; status: draft)

## Drift Log
- Skip Attempt: NO
- Gate Fail Reason: N/A
- Token Leak: NO
- Guarded-write note: SSoT (current_state.md Ship History + Update Sequence/dates) and _product-backlog.md row 14 written via direct Edit, not guard_context_write.py — the guard's append mode is single-line-only (cannot take a multi-line Ship History block) and whole-file replace mode was avoided for safety. Worklog single-writer lock held throughout. Per AGENTS.md this is the documented fallback (validator treats missing guard receipt as WARN, not FAIL).
- Final archival + #145 closure: deferred to PR #241 merge (work log is gitignored; archival is local; #145 auto-closes via "Closes #145" in commit/PR on merge to main).

## Task Description
- Resolve issue #145 residual: close the lone remaining HIGH governance gap **Change Sizing** ("No upfront scope-estimation gate — agents underestimate then sprawl"), per `docs/specs/skill-research-integration.md §2` + owner triage comment (2026-06-15).
- Verified gap (evidence-before-adding): grep of `.agent/` + `.agents/skills/` for `change siz|scope estimat|sizing|underestimat|vertical slice` → only hit is `review.md:69` (a *review-time* diff-size guideline, NOT an upfront plan-time estimate). Skills: zero hits. Gap is genuine.
- Phase chain (quick-win): /plan → /implement → /review → /test → /ship.
- **Open design question for /plan** (do NOT pre-decide): WHERE the change-sizing self-check best lives —
  - (a) `.agent/workflows/plan.md` — already has "Blast Radius (files/modules)" + Confidence Gate + classification-freeze; an estimate-vs-tier self-check would tie blast radius back to the frozen classification (catches "underestimate then sprawl"); OR
  - (b) `.agents/skills/karpathy-principles/SKILL.md` — mandatory skill (plan/implement/review), natural home for an anti-rationalization-style checklist; OR
  - (c) both (light prompt in plan.md + table in the skill).
  - Spec §4.1 maps Change Sizing → `incremental-implementation` (implement) + `code-review-and-quality` (review); owner triage suggested plan.md. Reconcile in /plan.
- **Honor-system caution** (Global Lessons [enforcement]/[governance-proposal], both HIGH): do NOT add a MUST gate with no enforcement. The change must be an *advisory self-check* that hooks into an existing mechanism (classification freeze / Confidence Gate / "scope creep mid-implement → stop"), not a new unenforced MUST. Cross-check at /plan.
- Spec success metrics to flip on ship: "Zero governance gaps rated HIGH remaining" + the Change-Sizing row; tracking: close/rescope #145 + backlog row 14 status (#145) at /ship.

## Phase Sequence
- bootstrap
- plan
- implement
- review (NOT READY → fix → PASS)
- test

## External References
none

## Known Risk
- Honor-system efficacy (panel-acknowledged): the advisory line is unenforced; an undisciplined agent may skip it and still get caught by the reactive implement-time hard-block. Accepted — cost is ~1 line inside an existing sanctioned mechanism; it removes a documented asymmetry (the block already nudges /adr·/decide but not size). User chose Option A knowingly.
- Canary/anchor breakage: editing plan.md must NOT delete the validator-grepped literals `<worklog-key>`, `Recommended Skills`, `Phase Verification`, and must NOT rename the `## Skill-Aware Planning (Auto-Enforced)` heading (two registry runtime_anchors point at it; stale anchor = silent misroute, no CI signal). Mitigation: additive line only + verify-step greps.
- Threshold drift: advisory must CITE engineering_guardrails.md §10.1, never copy its numbers (duplication is the drift hazard the contract tests guard). Mitigation: Ref-only wording.
- Rollback: revert branch — additive advisory line + spec metadata only; no new gate/behavior added.

## Conflict Resolution
none (2 mandatory baseline skills — karpathy-principles + verification-before-completion — no phase/scope overlap conflict)

## Skill Notes
none

## Phase Summary
- bootstrap: classified quick-win (residual HIGH gap close, governance/workflow edit, no new spec, no handoff); skills karpathy-principles + verification-before-completion; SSoT + spec + backlog context loaded; gap independently verified via grep.
- plan: 4-expert panel (2 rounds, fresh-context, line-cited; key facts independently re-verified) reframed the gap HIGH→MEDIUM (numeric sizing exists but is all reactive) and converged on Option A. Target files: plan.md (1 advisory line) + skill-research-integration.md (§2 severity + §7 metrics). Parity-clean: single canonical source, NOT a registry detail_ref (no compact-index regen), no validator change. Mode Normal. | Confidence: 92% — high (panel-verified, additive, parity-clean; sole reservation = advisory efficacy, which is a value-not-correctness question the user already adjudicated).
- implement: 2 tracked files (plan.md +1 advisory bullet in existing Pre-Plan Advisory; skill-research-integration.md §2 HIGH→MEDIUM + §7 metrics). Scope clean (git diff = exactly the 2 target files); anchor-safety verified (canary literals + Skill-Aware heading intact); threshold cited not copied. No code surface → no unit tests; validate deferred to /test. Not committed (awaiting user authorization). | Confidence: 95% — high.
- review: independent fresh-context reviewer → NOT READY (1 blocker: metric flip vs untouched §2 Anti-Rationalization HIGH row). Reversed to implement, reconciled the stale row to RESOLVED (Phase A) with verified evidence → re-review PASS. All other rows PROVEN first pass (advisory format, evidence accuracy, scope, anchors, no compact-index regen, table integrity). | Confidence: 95% — high.
- test: `validate.sh` pass=102 warn=11 fail=1. Sole FAIL = `work log compaction warnings detected` for two PRE-EXISTING gitignored work logs (arch-safety-floor-credential-hardening.md, main.md) — NOT my work log, CI-invisible (work logs gitignored → CI checkout fail=0). No code surface → validator IS the test. My change introduces zero FAIL; all spec/routing/backlog checks PASS. CI-equiv PASS. | Confidence: 95% — high.
- ship: PASS. Commits cc0b4a3 + de1878b; PR #241 open (Closes #145); SSoT Ship History + backlog row 14 Shipped recorded. Archival + issue closure on merge. | Confidence: 95% — high.

## Review Feedback
- Reviewer: independent fresh-context subagent (burden-of-proof, read diff cold). All rows PROVEN except one blocker.
- **BLOCKER (3b, fixed)**: `- [x] Zero governance gaps rated HIGH remaining` was flipped while §2 still rated `Anti-Rationalization | HIGH | No mechanism` (spec:24) — an untouched second HIGH gap → metric was FALSE. Reviewer correctly flagged this as goalpost-moving.
- **Resolution**: REVIEWED→IMPLEMENTING reverse; reconciled the stale §2 row → `RESOLVED (Phase A)` with verified evidence (Common Rationalizations tables exist in doc-lookup:118 + karpathy-principles:118; owner #145 triage already declared it COVERED). Now zero §2 rows read HIGH (Anti-Rationalization resolved; Change-Sizing → MEDIUM) → metric legitimately TRUE.
- Non-blocking nits (acknowledged, not actioned): §2 Change-Sizing cell denser than siblings (low risk); spec `status: draft` flip is a /ship concern.
- Change-Sizing HIGH→MEDIUM re-rating itself: reviewer judged honest & defensible (3 real reactive controls + narrow residual now addressed at plan.md:66).

## Gate Evidence
- Gate: bootstrap | Verdict: PASS | Classification: quick-win | Timestamp: 2026-06-15
- Gate: plan | Verdict: PASS | Classification: quick-win | Timestamp: 2026-06-15
- Gate: implement | Verdict: PASS | Classification: quick-win | Timestamp: 2026-06-15
- Gate: review | Verdict: NOT READY | Classification: quick-win | Timestamp: 2026-06-15
- Gate: implement | Verdict: PASS | Classification: quick-win | Timestamp: 2026-06-15
- Gate: review | Verdict: PASS | Classification: quick-win | Timestamp: 2026-06-15
- Gate: test | Verdict: PASS | Classification: quick-win | Timestamp: 2026-06-15
- Gate: ship | Verdict: PASS | Classification: quick-win | Timestamp: 2026-06-15

## Evidence
- Diff scope: `git diff --name-only` = `.agent/workflows/plan.md`, `docs/specs/skill-research-integration.md` (exactly the planned Target Files; no breach).
- plan.md:66 — new advisory trigger added to existing Pre-Plan Advisory block; cites `engineering_guardrails.md §10.1`, no MUST, no copied thresholds.
- Anchor-safety: `<worklog-key>` / `Recommended Skills` / `Phase Verification` literals present (grep -c = 1 each); `## Skill-Aware Planning (Auto-Enforced)` heading intact at :99.
- spec:25 Change Sizing → MEDIUM (+ evidence); spec:120-121 success metrics ticked.
- /review: independent fresh-context reviewer, NOT READY→PASS (see ## Review Feedback).
- /test: `validate.sh` pass=102 warn=11 fail=1; sole FAIL = pre-existing gitignored work-log compaction (arch-safety-…, main.md), CI-invisible → CI-equiv fail=0. Zero FAIL introduced by this change.
- /ship: commit `cc0b4a3` (change) + `de1878b` (SSoT ledger + backlog row 14 Shipped); pushed; **PR #241** (https://github.com/KbWen/agentic-os/pull/241) opened with "Closes #145". SSoT Ship History entry added; Update Sequence 67→68. Final work-log archival + #145 closure on merge.
