Cxc Dev

Dev

User/host safety and tool contracts prevail. Diagnosis/review permits investigation only; changes stay in authorized scope. Prose is not runtime enforcement.

§0.0 Work Classifier (C0-C5)

DEV-CLASS-01 (DEFAULT): classify before depth; reclassify growth. Decide discovery ownership before broad reads, even read-only.

Tie-break: higher class wins (DEFAULT); route→service→storage remains C2. DEV-ESCALATE-01 (STRICT): security, deletion/migration, destruction, public contracts, release, permissions, new dependencies/frameworks promote the affected part to C4. Split it out; promotion alone requires no question.

§0.1 Patch Fast-Path (C0/C1)

C0/C1 skip convention/owner search and references unless explicitly routed; keep §3/4/5/static checks and visible conventions. Five lines is illustrative. Security/data-loss/new abstractions exclude this path; text-only edits do not escalate by location. C0 needs no numbered unit; C1 records change/reason/proof in existing units only. Never create units just for C0/C1; unit residence owns UNIT-RESIDENCE-01.

§0.2 Rule Classes

Safety/correctness/permissions/truthful proof are mandatory. Size/naming/layout/style are DEFAULT/STYLE_SAMPLE despite old MUST/HIGH labels unless a cited project/user contract binds them. Requested workflows keep phase/evidence; other unclassified rules are DEFAULT.

• STRICT: violation blocks completion.
• DEFAULT: follow unless a stated, documented reason warrants deviation.
• HEURISTIC: judgment guide; deviation needs no rationale.
• DEV-STYLE-SAMPLE-01 (STYLE_SAMPLE): illustration, never universal.
• ESCALATE: stop and ask the user.

§0.4 Workflow Modes

Mode: chat, PABCD, goal, scoped subagent, read-only (no writes), docs-only (consistency checks). Read pabcd/cxc-loop for mechanics; classify each work-phase. Docs-first: cxc-loop (LOOP-DOCS-FIRST-01). Production: deployed to real users beyond the author; excludes prototypes/spikes/internal demos.

Companion Skills

DEV-ROUTE-01 (STRICT): before writing, read every matching surface router SKILL.md; C0/C1 exceptions apply.

Reading contract

Read active SKILL.md fully; references only when applicable. Resolve a skill's relative links from that skill's directory, not the working directory. Truncation is incomplete even at exit 0: reread separately or in numbered contiguous, non-overlapping chunks through EOF; verify no gaps before acting.

Subagent Skill Injection (DEV-SKILL-INJECT-01)

Attach dev+surface skills explicitly; search tasks also attach search and its policy. Use resolvable links or supported mentions/v1 items; hooks never infer omissions. Mappings: ownership; triggers: agents/openai.yaml.

Discovery delegation

Before broad reads, bound the question; delegate to configured explorer if independent and main has separate work. State scopes; host/no-delegation limits win. Record unavailability; read narrowly. Local lookup must determine next steps or be inseparable; explain substantial reads. Read-only/counts/parallelism do not justify them. Revisit on new subsystems/rereads/truncation; reclassify growth. Use a discovery packet; check needed spans, reassign named gaps before expanding, no routine re-investigation. Discovery replaces neither implementation delegation nor independent review. Isolation: dispatch surfaces; read-only leaves do not justify parallel writes. Authorized delegation needs no new approval. Model claims need runtime proof; cost compares main+child input/cache/output prices/tiers, not tokens.

Family Invariants

• FAMILY-SLOP-01 (DEFAULT): no filler, performative narration, decorative rationale, placeholders, TODO-only output, fake fallbacks, speculative wrappers/defensive clutter without boundary reasons. Prose/page tells: kwrite and dev-visualizer REPORT-DESIGN-01.
• FAMILY-READER-01 (DEFAULT): reader documents for human deliverables; link raw audit artifacts.
• FAMILY-CITE-01 (STRICT): findings/plans/reviews/contradictions cite path:line; plans name paths/verifiers; proof includes command+output/artifact.
• FAMILY-PROOF-01 (STRICT): completion follows §3; all routers inherit it.

3. Verification Before Completion (STRICT)

1. Identify the command proving the claim.
2. Run it fresh, never cached.
3. Read full output; check exit code and count failures.
4. Confirm it supports the claim.
5. Report the claim with evidence.

DEV-VERIFY-FLOOR-01 (STRICT): floor, not cap:

Verify child success independently: diff and behavior.

4. Change Documentation

C2+ supplied logs record change/reason/proof. C0/C1 follow §0.1; discovered logs create no duty. Explicit requests/release contracts bind named logs; no unrelated records.

5. Safety Rules

• Search consumers before export removal; unused internal exports may go within scope; public removal needs compatibility/migration decisions.
• Confirm import target files/exports; externalize config in files/env and name magic constants.
• Surface async errors: verified JS/TS backend neverthrow boundaries (dev-backend §3), otherwise try/catch with contextual logs.
• Destruction (ESCALATE): explicit approval for file deletion/table drops/state resets/cache clearing.
• DEV-GIT-COMMIT-01 (DEFAULT): locally commit each complete implementation step; do not accumulate a feature uncommitted.
• DEV-GIT-PUSH-01 (ESCALATE): explicit current-session approval for remote pushes, force pushes, remote branch creation and tags. Local commits are autonomous; completion grants no push permission.
• DEV-SHELL-TEXT-01 (STRICT): generated prose/replacements use apply_patch/files/quoted-delimiter heredocs/--body-file, never double-quoted shell or sh -c payloads. Use git -C <source>; hooks cannot see workdir. SHELL-SUBST-01/WORKTREE-GUARD-04 are narrow safeguards.
• DEV-PRIVACY-01 (STRICT): no raw client/personal transcripts, documents/figures, named private conversations or credentials in repo evidence/fixtures/samples. Store outside checkout; devlog records filename/date/summary. Codexclaw plans and evidence follow cxc state path (outside the checkout in external mode). Before first branch push, list identifying company/product/people/distinctive-number terms and search the push range (DEFAULT). Fix hits by rewriting unpushed commits, never follow-up commits that retain exposed history.
• Dependent delivery follows stacked PRs (DEV-STACK-01, DEV-STACK-02, DEV-STACK-04, DEV-STACK-OPT-IN-01); retain its merge/native-selection grants.

Conditional Routes

Read matching rows; repo tools own local facts.