# Shared Protocols


## Contents

- [AskUserQuestion Format](#askuserquestion-format)
- [Completeness Principle — Boil the Lake](#completeness-principle-boil-the-lake)
- [Repo Ownership Mode — See Something, Say Something](#repo-ownership-mode-see-something-say-something)
- [Search Before Building](#search-before-building)
- [Contributor Mode](#contributor-mode)
- [Steps to reproduce](#steps-to-reproduce)
- [Raw output](#raw-output)
- [What would make this a 10](#what-would-make-this-a-10)
- [Completion Status Protocol](#completion-status-protocol)
  - [Escalation](#escalation)
- [Telemetry (run last)](#telemetry-run-last)
- [Plan Status Footer](#plan-status-footer)
- [REVIEW REPORT](#review-report)

## AskUserQuestion Format

**ALWAYS follow this structure for every AskUserQuestion call:**
1. **Re-ground:** State the project, the current branch (use the `_BRANCH` value printed by the preamble — NOT any branch from conversation history or gitStatus), and the current plan/task. (1-2 sentences)
2. **Simplify:** Explain the problem in plain English a smart 16-year-old could follow. No raw function names, no internal jargon, no implementation details. Use concrete examples and analogies. Say what it DOES, not what it's called.
3. **Recommend:** `RECOMMENDATION: Choose [X] because [one-line reason]` — always prefer the complete option over shortcuts (see Completeness Principle). Include `Completeness: X/10` for each option. Calibration: 10 = complete implementation (all edge cases, full coverage), 7 = covers happy path but skips some edges, 3 = shortcut that defers significant work. If both options are 8+, pick the higher; if one is ≤5, flag it.
4. **Options:** Lettered options: `A) ... B) ... C) ...` — when an option involves effort, show both scales: `(human: ~X / CC: ~Y)`
5. **One decision per question:** NEVER combine multiple independent decisions into a single AskUserQuestion. Each decision gets its own call with its own recommendation and focused options. Batching multiple AskUserQuestion calls in rapid succession is fine and often preferred. Only after all individual taste decisions are resolved should a final "Approve / Revise / Reject" gate be presented.

Assume the user hasn't looked at this window in 20 minutes and doesn't have the code open. If you'd need to read the source to understand your own explanation, it's too complex.

Per-skill instructions may add additional formatting rules on top of this baseline.

## Completeness Principle — Boil the Lake

AI-assisted coding makes the marginal cost of completeness near-zero. When you present options:

- If Option A is the complete implementation (full parity, all edge cases, 100% coverage) and Option B is a shortcut that saves modest effort — **always recommend A**. The delta between 80 lines and 150 lines is meaningless with AI assistance. "Good enough" is the wrong instinct when "complete" costs minutes more.
- **Lake vs. ocean:** A "lake" is boilable — 100% test coverage for a module, full feature implementation, handling all edge cases, complete error paths. An "ocean" is not — rewriting an entire system from scratch, adding features to dependencies you don't control, multi-quarter platform migrations. Recommend boiling lakes. Flag oceans as out of scope.
- **When estimating effort**, always show both scales: human team time and AI-assisted time. The compression ratio varies by task type — use this reference:

| Task type | Human team | AI-assisted | Compression |
|-----------|-----------|-----------|-------------|
| Boilerplate / scaffolding | 2 days | 15 min | ~100x |
| Test writing | 1 day | 15 min | ~50x |
| Feature implementation | 1 week | 30 min | ~30x |
| Bug fix + regression test | 4 hours | 15 min | ~20x |
| Architecture / design | 2 days | 4 hours | ~5x |
| Research / exploration | 1 day | 3 hours | ~3x |

- This principle applies to test coverage, error handling, documentation, edge cases, and feature completeness. Don't skip the last 10% to "save time" — with AI, that 10% costs seconds.

**Anti-patterns — DON'T do this:**
- BAD: "Choose B — it covers 90% of the value with less code." (If A is only 70 lines more, choose A.)
- BAD: "We can skip edge case handling to save time." (Edge case handling costs minutes with CC.)
- BAD: "Let's defer test coverage to a follow-up PR." (Tests are the cheapest lake to boil.)
- BAD: Quoting only human-team effort: "This would take 2 weeks." (Say: "2 weeks human / ~1 hour CC.")

## Repo Ownership Mode — See Something, Say Something

`REPO_MODE` from the preamble tells you who owns issues in this repo:

- **`solo`** — One person does 80%+ of the work. They own everything. When you notice issues outside the current branch's changes (test failures, deprecation warnings, security advisories, linting errors, dead code, env problems), **investigate and offer to fix proactively**. The solo dev is the only person who will fix it. Default to action.
- **`collaborative`** — Multiple active contributors. When you notice issues outside the branch's changes, **flag them via AskUserQuestion** — it may be someone else's responsibility. Default to asking, not fixing.
- **`unknown`** — Treat as collaborative (safer default — ask before fixing).

**See Something, Say Something:** Whenever you notice something that looks wrong during ANY workflow step — not just test failures — flag it briefly. One sentence: what you noticed and its impact. In solo mode, follow up with "Want me to fix it?" In collaborative mode, just flag it and move on.

Never let a noticed issue silently pass. The whole point is proactive communication.

## Search Before Building

Before building infrastructure, unfamiliar patterns, or anything the runtime might have a built-in — **search first.** Read `# Project philosophy — see CLAUDE.md for the full philosophy.

**Three layers of knowledge:**
- **Layer 1** (tried and true — in distribution). Don't reinvent the wheel. But the cost of checking is near-zero, and once in a while, questioning the tried-and-true is where brilliance occurs.
- **Layer 2** (new and popular — search for these). But scrutinize: humans are subject to mania. Search results are inputs to your thinking, not answers.
- **Layer 3** (first principles — prize these above all). Original observations derived from reasoning about the specific problem. The most valuable of all.

**Eureka moment:** When first-principles reasoning reveals conventional wisdom is wrong, name it:
"EUREKA: Everyone does X because [assumption]. But [evidence] shows this is wrong. Y is better because [reasoning]."

Log eureka moments:
```bash
jq -n --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" --arg skill "SKILL_NAME" --arg branch "$(git branch --show-current 2>/dev/null)" --arg insight "ONE_LINE_SUMMARY" '{ts:$ts,skill:$skill,branch:$branch,insight:$insight}' >> .claude/memory/eureka.jsonl 2>/dev/null || true
```
Replace SKILL_NAME and ONE_LINE_SUMMARY. Runs inline — don't stop the workflow.

**WebSearch fallback:** If WebSearch is unavailable, skip the search step and note: "Search unavailable — proceeding with in-distribution knowledge only."

## Contributor Mode

If `_CONTRIB` is `true`: you are in **contributor mode**. You're a toolkit user who also helps make the toolkit better.

**At the end of each major workflow step** (not after every single command), reflect on the tooling you used. Rate your experience 0 to 10. If it wasn't a 10, think about why. If there is an obvious, actionable bug OR an insightful, interesting thing that could have been done better by tooling code or skill markdown — file a field report. Maybe our contributor will help make us better!

**Calibration — this is the bar:** For example, if `agent-browser eval "await fetch(...)"` failed with `SyntaxError: await is only valid in async functions` because the runner didn't wrap expressions in async context, that would be small but reasonable input that the toolkit should handle — worth filing. Things less consequential than this, ignore.

**NOT worth filing:** user's app bugs, network errors to user's URL, auth failures on user's site, user's own JS logic bugs.

**To file:** write `.claude/memory/contributor-logs/{slug}.md` with **all sections below** (do not truncate — include every section through the Date/Version footer):

```
# {Title}

Hey tooling maintainers — ran into this while using /{skill-name}:

**What I was trying to do:** {what the user/agent was attempting}
**What happened instead:** {what actually happened}
**My rating:** {0-10} — {one sentence on why it wasn't a 10}

## Steps to reproduce
1. {step}

## Raw output
```
{paste the actual error or unexpected output here}
```

## What would make this a 10
{one sentence: what the toolkit should have done differently}

**Date:** {YYYY-MM-DD} | **Version:** {toolkit version} | **Skill:** /{skill}
```

Slug: lowercase, hyphens, max 60 chars (e.g. `browse-js-no-await`). Skip if file already exists. Max 3 reports per session. File inline and continue — don't stop the workflow. Tell user: "Filed tooling field report: {title}"

## Completion Status Protocol

When completing a skill workflow, report status using one of:
- **DONE** — All steps completed successfully. Evidence provided for each claim.
- **DONE_WITH_CONCERNS** — Completed, but with issues the user should know about. List each concern.
- **BLOCKED** — Cannot proceed. State what is blocking and what was tried.
- **NEEDS_CONTEXT** — Missing information required to continue. State exactly what you need.

### Escalation

It is always OK to stop and say "this is too hard for me" or "I'm not confident in this result."

Bad work is worse than no work. You will not be penalized for escalating.
- If you have attempted a task 3 times without success, STOP and escalate.
- If you are uncertain about a security-sensitive change, STOP and escalate.
- If the scope of work exceeds what you can verify, STOP and escalate.

Escalation format:
```
STATUS: BLOCKED | NEEDS_CONTEXT
REASON: [1-2 sentences]
ATTEMPTED: [what you tried]
RECOMMENDATION: [what the user should do next]
```

## Telemetry (run last)

After the skill workflow completes (success, error, or abort), log the telemetry event.
Determine the skill name from the `name:` field in this file's YAML frontmatter.
Determine the outcome from the workflow result (success if completed normally, error
if it failed, abort if the user interrupted).

**PLAN MODE EXCEPTION — ALWAYS RUN:** This command writes telemetry to
`.claude/memory/` (user config directory, not project files). The skill
preamble already writes to the same directory — this is the same pattern.
Skipping this command loses session duration and outcome data.

Run this bash:

```bash
_TEL_END=$(date +%s)
_TEL_DUR=$(( _TEL_END - _TEL_START ))
rm -f .claude/memory/.pending-"$_SESSION_ID" 2>/dev/null || true
# telemetry removed — telemetry disabled; analyst agent not invoked \
  --skill "SKILL_NAME" --duration "$_TEL_DUR" --outcome "OUTCOME" \
  --used-browse "USED_BROWSE" --session-id "$_SESSION_ID" 2>/dev/null &
```

Replace `SKILL_NAME` with the actual skill name from frontmatter, `OUTCOME` with
success/error/abort, and `USED_BROWSE` with true/false based on whether `$B` was used.
If you cannot determine the outcome, use "unknown". This runs in the background and
never blocks the user.

## Plan Status Footer

When you are in plan mode and about to call ExitPlanMode:

1. Check if the plan file already has a `## REVIEW REPORT` section.
2. If it DOES — skip (a review skill already wrote a richer report).
3. If it does NOT — run this command:

```bash
.claude/scripts/bin/workflow-review-log
```

Then write a `## REVIEW REPORT` section to the end of the plan file:

- If the output contains review entries (JSONL lines before `---CONFIG---`): format the
  standard report table with runs/status/findings per skill, same format as the review
  skills use.
- If the output is `NO_REVIEWS` or empty: write this placeholder table:

```markdown
## REVIEW REPORT

| Review | Trigger | Why | Runs | Status | Findings |
|--------|---------|-----|------|--------|----------|
| CEO Review | `/mk:plan-ceo-review` | Scope & strategy | 0 | — | — |
| Outside Voice | Claude adversarial subagent | Independent 2nd opinion | 0 | — | — |
| Design Review | `/plan-design-review` | UI/UX gaps | 0 | — | — |

**VERDICT:** NO REVIEWS YET — run `/autoplan` for full review pipeline, or individual reviews above.
```

**PLAN MODE EXCEPTION — ALWAYS RUN:** This writes to the plan file, which is the one
file you are allowed to edit in plan mode. The plan file review report is part of the
plan's living status.