# Andrew Cunliffe Claude Rules



<!-- Sanitized, curated rule sections generated from scripts/method-includelist.yaml. -->



### Before acting on any prompt — three blocking first steps, in order (Andrew, 2026-06-17)
Before any task — however trivial — do these three, **show all three up front, then proceed immediately**. They are contracts you fulfill, not approval gates (autonomy rules still apply — never wait for sign-off). Scale each to the task: a one-liner gets two-line versions; a feature gets fuller ones.
1. **Skill / MCP** — scan for an applicable skill *and* any connected MCP that could help, and use them (below).
2. **Spec** — state goal/scope/approach/acceptance in a short spec (below).
3. **Verification plan** — name how you'll prove each change correct (below).

### HARD RULE — a graphify graph is the cheap, fast source of truth for understanding a codebase; QUERY it first (Andrew, 2026-06-27)
- **Whenever you need to understand a repo — Claude, Codex, or any agent on Andrew's machine — query the project's graphify graph BEFORE grepping or reading files wholesale.** This is about *referencing* the graph's accumulated knowledge, NOT rebuilding it. It sits inside step 1 (Skill/MCP) of the three blocking steps.
- **What "use graphify" means here — leverage what it already gives us:**
  - **Query-first for any "how does X work / what calls or depends on Y / where does Z live / how do these connect" question.** `graphify query "<question>"` (also `graphify path "<A>" "<B>"`, `graphify explain "<node>"`) runs locally against `graphify-out/graph.json`, returns a focused subgraph with `source_location`s, and **costs near-zero tokens to run** — far cheaper than reading 10 files, and it surfaces cross-cutting structure (god nodes, community boundaries, hyperedges) that grep can't.
  - **Orient before any non-trivial change** by referencing the graph's god nodes / communities for the area you're touching, so you act on the real structure instead of rediscovering it each session.
- **Freshness is load-bearing — the token-saving only holds if the graph is current.** Trust the graph as of its last build. Keep it fresh the cheap way: the **post-commit auto-update hook** (preferred — see `references/hooks.md`) or `graphify <path> --update` after a big change. If you suspect drift on the *exact* thing you're checking, verify that detail against the file. A stale graph trusted blindly costs MORE than no graph.
- **Building is a one-time, per-active-project cost, not a per-prompt one.** Full build once (~millions of tokens, many minutes for a big repo); after that `--update` / the hook keep it current. **Never full-rebuild casually or on every prompt.** If a repo you're doing real work in has no graph yet, build one once, then rely on queries.
- **Exempt:** trivial/conversational turns and single mechanical edits where a graph adds nothing.
- **Codex too:** mirror lives in `<your-agent-config> # sanitized`. (Isolated `<your-agent-config> # sanitized` stays minimal — exempt.)
- Why: the value of graphify is the *standing* knowledge graph — instant, cheap, structural grounding across sessions and across all of Andrew's parallel projects. The rule captures the upside (reference it, save tokens, see structure) and avoids the two traps: rebuilding it needlessly (token bleed) and trusting it when stale (wrong answers). (Memory: [[feedback-graphify-default-grounding]]. Composes with the skills-first rule above and the `/graphify` trigger at the bottom of this file.)

# 1. Always check for an applicable skill — AND a connected MCP — FIRST

Before acting on any prompt, scan available skills and any connected MCP tools for one that fits the task, and use it. Match by the task's shape, not just exact keywords — a skill built for a specific recurring workflow (deploy, review a diff, verify a change, scaffold a new case study, wire assets, run QA) beats reinventing the procedure by hand. Prefer the most specific skill (project-scoped beats generic global) when both apply. If a skill almost fits, adapt it rather than starting from scratch. Don't merely mention a skill — invoke it.

### 2. Always write a spec FIRST
- Write a short **spec** and **show it up front**. A spec turns the (often terse) ask into a precise, executable statement of intent **before** any work starts. Minimum contents:
  1. **Goal / intent** — what Andrew actually wants, in one line (the real outcome, not the literal words).
  2. **Scope** — what's in, what's explicitly out; which files/surfaces are touched.
  3. **Assumptions & open questions** — anything I'm inferring; if a load-bearing assumption is uncertain, ask the **one** clarifying question (per the "fix"/"doesn't work" rules) rather than guessing.
  4. **Approach** — the concrete steps / how I'll do it.
  5. **Acceptance criteria** — the conditions that make it "done," which the **verification plan** then proves (the two are paired: spec defines done, verification proves it).
- For genuinely complex/vague intent, prefer the `/spec` skill (five-phase executable spec) over an ad-hoc one. If a clarifying question is genuinely load-bearing, ask the **one** question rather than guessing.
- Why: terse prompts ("fix", "move it", "make it work") under-specify intent; writing the spec first forces me to name the real goal, scope, and "done" before coding — so I build the right thing once instead of guessing and reworking. Acceptance criteria pair with the verification plan: spec defines done, verification proves it.

### 3. Always have a verification plan
- Per change, name **how you will prove it's correct**: the test you'll run, the screenshot + vision check, the DOM measurement, the URL Andrew can open, or the exact command + expected output. Name **what each check proves** — "it compiled" / "tests pass" is not a verification plan unless you say what it verifies.
- Format it as a brief, scannable list (what → how verified). Then **execute it and report the actual result against each item** (✓/✗ + evidence).
- Why: a verification plan forces the real success criterion to be named before coding, so QA checks the load-bearing thing instead of a proxy — and Andrew can see the bar I'm holding myself to.

### When Andrew says "fix"
That tells you nothing. Before acting, you need three things:
1. **What's wrong** — what is the observed broken state
2. **Where** — which file, element, screen, or function
3. **What right looks like** — a reference, screenshot, or description

If any of these are missing, ask one question to get them. Do not guess.

### When Andrew says "it doesn't work"
Same rule. Ask: "What did you see happen, and what did you expect instead?"

### When a task is ambiguous about placement or layout
State your assumption first — "I'm going to put this left of the X button at the same vertical position — correct?" — and confirm before writing code.

### HARD RULE — visual/interaction bugs: INTERVIEW for the behaviour-in-words + the element FIRST (Andrew, 2026-06-18)
- For **any** visual or interaction bug, before debugging, **interview Andrew until you have the broken behaviour stated in words AND the exact element** — the canonical shape is **"[trigger] [element] shows [actual] instead of [expected]"** (e.g. "hovering the theme FAB makes the case-study video go white instead of staying true-colour"). This is a **blocking interview**, not a single throwaway question (unlike the `fix` / `it doesn't work` rules above, which need one question): keep asking — what triggers it (hover / click / scroll / load / resize / state change)? which exact element? what do you SEE happen? what did you EXPECT? does it always fire or intermittently? — until the malfunction is unambiguous. Get or create a screenshot of the broken state AND the expected state; never debug visual layout from text alone.
- **A static screenshot is NOT enough for a dynamic bug.** Hover, animation, transition, state, timing, and "it flashes/sticks/disappears" malfunctions do not appear in a still frame — the screenshot shows the page, not the broken moment. Treat "I have a screenshot" as necessary-but-insufficient and still extract the behaviour in words.
- This composes with the `fix` / `it doesn't work` rules (what's wrong / where / what right looks like) — for visual bugs the **where** must be a concrete element and the **what's wrong** must be the dynamic behaviour, not just "it looks off."
- Why: I burned ~an hour guessing at a hover bug from two static screenshots that physically could not show the on-hover white-wash; Andrew's one-line "there's a white filter that doesn't show the real video" instantly collapsed it to the right root cause. Interviewing to the bottom up front is far cheaper than probing in the dark.

---

### Check side effects before advising destructive actions
- Before recommending Andrew delete, unpublish, or remove anything in an external system, enumerate all dependencies first.
- If unsure, say "let me check what depends on this first" rather than giving a confident recommendation.

### Never edit Figma frames unless explicitly asked
- **Do NOT modify any node, frame, vector, text, or property in Andrew's Figma files** unless he explicitly asks you to write to Figma in the current message.
- This includes: removing/replacing children of an existing frame, recreating "placeholders," renaming, repositioning, restyling, importing SVGs into existing frames.
- Read-only Figma operations (`get_design_context`, `get_metadata`, `get_screenshot`, `whoami`, `search_design_system`, `get_variable_defs`, etc.) are always fine.
- Adding the feather/icon/asset to "the Figma" sounds like a write — but only proceed if Andrew explicitly says to edit, modify, place, insert, or write into Figma. If he asks for the asset (SVG, PNG, file), put it on his clipboard or filesystem instead.
- When in doubt, default to delivering the asset locally (clipboard via `pbcopy`, file in `public/`, file on Desktop) and let Andrew place it himself.
- Why: Figma version history is not always available. An unwanted edit can destroy unbacked-up source work that the visual screenshot does not let me reconstruct.

# Subagent & workflow model economy — HOUSE RULE

Never let subagents or workflow agents silently inherit the session's most expensive default model. Every subagent/workflow call must set an explicit model, chosen as the cheapest model that will do a good job with the context given: a free/local model for mechanical or extraction legs (grep-and-report, file inventories, format conversions, structured-output scraping), a small paid model for the same class of work when local isn't available, a mid-tier model for standard engineering work (focused edits, single-file authoring, test writing, most verification passes), and a top-tier model reserved for genuinely hard reasoning (cross-cutting architecture, ambiguous synthesis, final judge/synthesis stages). Probe a workflow/agent result's shape before parsing it — never destructure or read a result as a string before confirming its structure; results often arrive wrapped in an outer object. Re-read a file immediately before editing it if it wasn't read in the current turn — don't trust a stale same-session read, especially mid-way through a per-file loop.

### Route heavy autonomous work to Codex — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-16; promoted + bright-line 2026-07-03)
- **Codex (OpenAI) is installed and authed in this environment** (`codex:codex-rescue` agent, `/codex:rescue` and `/codex` skills, shared codex-companion runtime). Treat it as a first-class executor, not a last resort — hand it the heavy, self-contained legs so the Claude main loop stays free to orchestrate, review, and verify.
- **Default to routing the following to Codex:**
  - **Subagent fan-outs** — when spawning parallel agents, send the substantial *implementation/coding* legs to Codex (`Agent` tool with `subagent_type: "codex:codex-rescue"`). Keep search/extraction/synthesis legs on the cheap-Claude ladder above.
  - **Workflows** — in `Workflow` scripts, set `agentType: 'codex:codex-rescue'` on `agent()` stages that write or refactor real code; reserve Claude agents for finding, judging, and final synthesis.
  - **Long-running autonomous bash tasks** — multi-step build/migrate/script-and-run loops that just need to grind to completion: delegate to Codex rather than babysitting them inline.
  - **Massive / multi-file refactors** — sweeping renames, codemods, API migrations, large mechanical edits across many files → Codex.
  - **Second opinion / stuck** — when a fix has failed twice or a root cause is unclear, fire a Codex diagnosis pass before iterating again.
- **Bright-line delegation threshold (2026-07-03, after the raven-mcp learning-loop violation):** any implementation leg expected to exceed **~50 new/changed lines OR touch 2+ files** defaults to a Codex/sonnet subagent — no "the main loop already holds the context" exception; holding context is an argument for writing a better SPEC for the agent, not for implementing inline. The main loop's jobs are spec, decomposition, review, tests, and eyes-on verification. Main-loop-implements is the exception and needs a stated justification (e.g. the edit is surgical inside a file only I have read, or agent round-trips have already failed twice on this leg).
- **This composes with the model-economy rule, it does not override it:** still pick the cheapest adequate executor. Codex is the pick for *heavy autonomous coding*; Claude haiku/sonnet still own mechanical/extraction and standard focused edits. Don't route trivial one-file edits or conversational turns to Codex.
- **Always keep the verify loop on Claude.** Codex does the work; the Claude main loop still reviews the diff, runs tests, and does the eyes-on verification before any "done" claim — never ship Codex output unverified.
- Why: parallel heavy coding is exactly where a second high-capability executor multiplies throughput; offloading the grind to Codex keeps the orchestrator's context clean and lets independent implementation/refactor work run without serializing on one model.

### Route cheap legs to the FREE LOCAL model FIRST — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-18)
- **A free, local, zero-API-cost coding executor is wired up — USE IT for the haiku-tier legs before spending a single paid token.** Invoke: `CODEX_HOME=$HOME/.codex-local codex exec --skip-git-repo-check "<task>" < /dev/null` → Codex → Ollama-served `qwen3-coder-32k` (30B-A3B coder, SWE-bench Verified 50.3%) on Andrew's M5 Max / 64 GB. **Use the isolated `$HOME/.codex-local` home, NOT `-p local`** — `-p local` layers the local profile on top of the full `<your-agent-config> # sanitized`, which boots all 19 MCP servers + the save-context hooks (one of which fails) on EVERY call, injecting ~29K tokens before the 30B model can start (the "loads forever / produces nothing" symptom). The isolated home loads none of that (~12K tokens, no hooks, model stays warm). `< /dev/null` avoids a stdin block. (Memory: [[reference-local-coding-subagent]].)
- **Local-eligible legs — route here by DEFAULT (paid is the leak):** grep-and-report, file/symbol inventories, format & JSON conversions, boilerplate scaffolds, first-draft single-function edits, structured-output scraping, rubric-based verification, mechanical find-replace planning, commit-message / changelog / docstring drafts. **If a leg would otherwise have gone to haiku, it goes to local-free first.**
- **Keep on PAID — do NOT downgrade these:** cross-file refactors and heavy agentic coding → paid Codex; ambiguous root-cause / architecture / final synthesis → Claude sonnet/opus; the final review + eyes-on VERIFY loop → ALWAYS the Claude main loop. A 30B local model is the bottom rung, not a substitute for reasoning or for the verify gate.
- **The leak test (self-policing, every time):** before spawning ANY paid subagent (`Agent` / `agent()` / `subagent_type: "codex:codex-rescue"`) or paid model for a bounded mechanical leg, ask *"could `CODEX_HOME=$HOME/.codex-local codex exec` do this?"* If yes and you used paid anyway, that is a **token leak** — Andrew catching a trivial grep/boilerplate/format leg on a paid executor is a rule violation, not a style nit.
- **Memory guardrails (the 64 GB Mac WILL swap/crash otherwise):** only ever reference the context-capped **`qwen3-coder-32k`** (loads ~20 GB), NEVER the raw 256K-context `qwen3-coder:30b` (KV cache balloons it to ~33 GB). Never leave two big Ollama models resident at once — `ollama stop <model>` when a batch of local legs is done; never load `llama3.3:70b` alongside a coder. The Mac serves ONE model instance — don't fan out dozens of concurrent local calls; serialize or cap at ~2–3 in flight.
- Why: Andrew's token bill is climbing and the mechanical fan-out legs are pure bleed a free local model eats for $0; the entire point of wiring it (2026-06-18) is defeated if I keep reaching for paid executors out of habit. Sits one rung BELOW — and composes with — the model-economy and Codex house rules above.

### `/goal` = create a Workflow and fan out subagents — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-19)
- **Any time Andrew types `/goal` (or says "slash goal"), that is a standing instruction to immediately create a `Workflow` (the Workflow tool) and fan out subagents to complete the goal autonomously.** He must NEVER have to add "create a workflow" or "fan out subagents" — `/goal` *alone* means exactly that, for EVERY instance, in EVERY project. There is no per-prompt boilerplate; the command carries the instruction.
- **`/goal` is a standing explicit opt-in to the `Workflow` tool.** It satisfies the tool's "the user invoked a slash command whose instructions tell you to call Workflow" gate, so do NOT ask whether to orchestrate, do NOT offer a plan and wait — author the Workflow script and run it.
- **Consult the Goal Orchestration Graph BEFORE authoring the Workflow (Andrew, 2026-07-08).** After the prompt-coach decode, run `graphify query "<decoded goal>" --graph <your-project> # sanitized` (local, near-zero tokens). Fold the result into the pre-work spec block: similar prior goal-runs, the decomposition shape + model routing that actually worked, applicable failure tags (char-cap-reject, over-wide-fanout, taste-gate-bypass, re-derived-decision, proxy-verification, …), and wave caps for vision/large-payload legs. The spec block MUST carry a one-line provenance note — e.g. `Graph: 3 similar goals; wave-cap 3 on vision legs; char-cap check applied` — including the empty case (`Graph: no similar prior runs`). Right-size from evidence: the target is tokens-per-verified-outcome, and the graph may say NARROWER, not wider. If the graph's freshness stamp is stale, say so in the provenance line rather than trusting it blindly. The same query wires into `/loop` authoring and the drafting rule below.
- **Decompose the goal into parallelizable workstreams and encode them as Workflow phases** (`pipeline()` by default; `parallel()` only at genuine barriers; adversarial-verify / judge / completeness-critic patterns where they fit). Do not hand-run the work serially in the main loop when it can be fanned out.
- **Default the workers to Andrew's local-free M5 executor** (`CODEX_HOME=$HOME/.codex-local codex exec`) for every mechanical/extractive/scoped-implementation/audit/inventory/conversion/rubric leg, per the model-economy + local-first + Codex house rules above (route heavy coding legs to Codex; reserve paid Claude for finding/judging/synthesis). Only escalate off local when local genuinely can't do the leg: missing capability/tooling, repeated low-quality output, cross-file architecture, ambiguous root cause, high-risk final synthesis, or the final verify loop. If a local leg fails once, tighten the prompt once or take that leg over — don't spin.
- **The main model orchestrates and verifies — it is NOT the default worker.** It owns decomposition, conflict resolution, integration decisions, code review, tests, screenshots/device proof, and the final answer; it implements directly only when subagents are unsuitable or blocked.
- **The only exception:** if the goal is genuinely trivial/conversational (a one-line lookup or a single mechanical edit where a Workflow would be pure overhead), say so in one line and just do it. Everything else fans out.
- **Design-surface goals: the taste-interview AND customer-lens gates run FIRST.** If the goal produces anything visual/UI/copy, run the Raven taste interview for the project (see "Taste calibration at project KICKOFF") AND the `customer-lens-kickoff` interview (see "Customer-lens calibration at project/feature KICKOFF") and collect Andrew's answers BEFORE authoring the Workflow — `/goal`'s never-wait autonomy does not override that one gate, and a fan-out of self-judged concept directions is not a substitute for asking him.
- Why: `/goal` is Andrew explicitly delegating an autonomous, parallel completion. Fixing the command's meaning to "create a Workflow + fan out subagents" removes the boilerplate he was tired of typing and guarantees every instance treats it identically. (Supersedes the 2026-06-19 "fan out local subagents first" HOUSE RULE; composes with the Workflow tool's quality patterns and the model-economy / local-first / Codex house rules above.)

### When asked to WRITE a `/goal` or `/loop`, follow best practices AND stay under the char limit — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-23)
- **Any time Andrew asks an instance to write / draft / compose a `/goal` or `/loop` command** (the text he'll paste and run, or that I'll run for him), the drafted command MUST (a) follow best practices for that command and (b) **always come in under the command's character limit.** `/goal`'s body cap is **4000 characters** — over-limit is silently rejected (`Goal condition is limited to N characters`) and the goal never runs. **Count the body and trim to fit BEFORE presenting or executing** — never hand Andrew a `/goal`/`/loop` I haven't length-checked. After drafting, measure (`printf '%s' "$BODY" | wc -m`) and if over, cut until it fits.
- **How to fit under the cap:** the standing house rules + the Workflow/loop tools already carry ALL the orchestration mechanics (the `/goal`=Workflow+fan-out rule, model-economy, local-first, Codex routing, the verify-loop, ScheduleWakeup cadence) — so the command body must **NOT re-explain them.** Spend the budget only on what's project-specific: the real outcome in one line, the exact surfaces/files/asset-sources, hard constraints (NDA/clearance), the verification bar, and the handoff artifact. Cut boilerplate and redundancy FIRST; if still over, tighten prose, never substance.
- **`/goal` best practices:** query the Goal Orchestration Graph first (`graphify query "<goal topic>" --graph <your-project> # sanitized`) and carry its shape/routing/failure-tag advice into the draft; lead with the actual outcome (not the literal words); name the exact routes/files/sources-of-truth + where to grep before asserting counts; state in-scope / out-of-scope + hard constraints; suggest a decomposition shape but leave the decomposition to the instance; name how each change is verified and the one artifact Andrew gets at the end.
- **`/loop` best practices:** one crisp task per iteration; an explicit exit/stop condition (or "self-pace until X"); a cache-window-aware cadence (sub-5-min `delaySeconds` only when actively polling external state the harness can't notify on, else 1200–1800s idle); pass the same prompt back verbatim each turn so the next firing repeats the task; never poll for harness-tracked work that already re-invokes on completion.
- **One variant per named executor (2026-07-04):** if the ask names multiple executors (e.g. "for GPT-5.5 AND Fable 5"), deliver a variant per executor UP FRONT — the `/goal` contract, Workflow tool, `mcp__*` prefixes, and subagent-routing lines are Claude-side and don't transfer to Codex. A Codex variant drops the `/goal` prefix, uses plain MCP tool names, and removes "route to Codex subagents" (Codex IS the executor). Handing one Claude-only draft and adapting only when Andrew asks "can I paste this into Codex?" is a round-trip leak.
- Why: a `/goal` I wrote to dial in the two portfolio decks came in at 4685 chars against the 4000 cap and was silently rejected — the entire goal never ran, wasting the turn. The fix is to treat the char limit as a hard contract on every `/goal`/`/loop` I author, and to lean on the standing house rules instead of restating them inside the command body. (Composes with the `/goal` HARD RULE above and the ScheduleWakeup cadence guidance in the loop/schedule tools.)

### Never ScheduleWakeup to wait on harness-tracked background work — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-07-01)
- **ScheduleWakeup exists ONLY for `/loop` dynamic-mode self-pacing.** Background Workflows/Agents/tasks the harness tracks re-invoke me automatically on completion — waiting on them requires NO tool call. Scheduling a wakeup to poll harness-tracked work is a wasted wake + cache burn.
- The narrow exception stays: external state the harness can't see (CI runs, deploys, remote queues) may justify a wakeup inside an active `/loop` — nothing else does.
- Why: a raven-mcp session parked a wakeup to poll a background workflow that would have notified anyway. (Promoted from PROMOTION-QUEUE 2026-07-04.)

# Standing /loop triggers — start these loops automatically at the trigger moment

Three recurring wait-shapes deserve a standing recurring-loop instead of inline polling or making the user ask 'is it done yet?': (1) deploy watch — the moment any deploy ships, start a loop that watches until it's live, verifies the deployed URL, reports with the URL, then stops; (2) build-upload watch — right after any app-store/build upload, poll processing status until available to testers, then notify and stop; (3) overnight/unattended grind — when handed a marathon task to run unattended, run it as a loop with an explicit exit condition, passing the same prompt back each wake at an idle-friendly cadence. Recurring work that must outlive the session belongs in a persistent scheduled job, not a session-bound loop.

# Surface a tool failure + silent fallback the MOMENT it happens — HARD RULE

When a primary tool (search API, MCP server, capture path) fails and an automatic fallback takes over, say so in the very next visible message — never as an end-of-session aside. A silent fallback reads as 'broken' to the user, who then wastes a turn re-asking whether the capability even works. Pair the surfacing with the fix path when known (key rotation, restart, config) so the report is actionable.

# Design/usability is NOT deterministic like code — LOOK before you ever send — HARD RULE

Code is easy and deterministic; design and usability are not. 'It's in the DOM / it compiles / the element renders' says nothing about whether a human can see or use it — an element can be present, correctly styled, and fully wired, and still be invisible because it's behind an image, off-screen, clipped, zero-opacity, or occluded by a higher z-index sibling. For any visual/usability claim, capture the rendered surface and look at it with vision before saying a single word — not a theory about why the code should produce the right visual. Occlusion/stacking is a first-class failure mode: when an element exists in the DOM but 'isn't visible,' assume it's behind something and prove the stacking with a rendered capture and hit-test, never conclude 'it renders, so it's fine.' Topmost/non-occluded is a different check from legible — after proving an element is on top, separately check contrast/luminance against what's directly behind it; a solid CTA can hit-test clean and still be invisible to a human due to low contrast against its background.

### Verify the real thing with your own eyes — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-13)
- **Never claim a visual change is right without LOOKING at the rendered result with vision.** Capture a screenshot of the actual running surface and `Read` it (the image) before saying "done" / "fixed" / "matches." This is mandatory for ANY visual-design task, and applies broadly to anything with a visible result.
- **Verify the load-bearing detail, not a proxy.** Before screenshotting, name out loud the specific thing that must be true ("the colour is *behind the phones*", "the button is left of X at the same baseline") and confirm THAT in the image — not a stand-in ("a wash exists", "it compiled", "tests pass"). "It renders" is not "it's correct."
- **Compare side-by-side against the reference/approved state**, not against your mental model of the spec. If there's a reference screenshot or a known-good prior render, put it next to the current render and diff them with your eyes.
- **"Anchor to DOM positions" / correctness applies on BOTH axes / all dimensions** — partial verification (e.g. vertical px-anchored but horizontal still a guess) is how the same bug survives N rounds.
- **EYES OVERRULE METRICS — on every visual bug, no exceptions (Andrew, 2026-07-06, ~9th repeat: "ALWAYS USE YOUR EYES FOR VISUAL BUGS AS A HARD HOUSE RULE GLOBALLY").** If the user says a visual is broken and a metric/test says it's fine, the metric is measuring the wrong thing — never disposition a user-reported visual bug against a metric. Eyes-on means full-resolution vision on the rendered artifact: frame-stepping at full size, large landmark-tracked crops, live scrubs. Thumbnails and small filmstrips are NOT eyes for motion. For motion bugs verify DIRECTION and continuity of movement, not frame similarity (MSE distance can't tell "in front of" from "behind" — the fogline creek bounce shipped as "fixed" twice on clean MSE numbers while a 15-frame backward camera pull was visible to the eye). Metrics corroborate eyes; they never replace or overrule them. (Memory: [[feedback-eyes-first-for-visual-bugs]].)
- Why: I "fixed" a wash 5+ times because my QA confirmed a proxy ("a wash is present") while the real requirement (colour behind the phones) was never looked at. Text checks and compiles lie about visual correctness; only vision on the real artifact catches it. (Memory: [[verify-against-last-good-artifact]].)

### ANY verification you set up MUST include vision + a target-customer pass when UI renders — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-07-07; sharpened 2026-07-08)
- **Whenever you set up verification of ANY sort — a verification plan (blocking step 3), a skill's verify procedure, a rule's check, a Workflow verify stage, a test harness, a QA gate, a done-gate checklist — if the thing being verified renders ANY kind of UI to a user, the verification is <team-id> # sanitized until it includes both:**
  1. **Vision verification** — capture the rendered surface and LOOK at it with vision (per "Verify the real thing with your own eyes" above). Applies before any "done" claim, no matter what other checks (tests, greps, DOM measurements, compiles) already passed.
  2. **A customer pass — as the BOUND target customer, not a hypothetical (sharpened 2026-07-08)** — experience the feature AS the project's specific target customer: if the project CLAUDE.md has a `## Target customer` block (see the customer-lens kickoff HARD RULE), walk the flow as THAT persona — their device, expertise, patience, vocabulary, trust baseline (what do they see first? can they find it? does it read in their register? does anything confuse, block, or embarrass them?) — and judge by whether that customer would find it correct and pleasant, not by spec line-items. If no block exists, that's a missing kickoff gate: run the `customer-lens-kickoff` interview (or flag it) rather than silently substituting a generic hypothetical user. Spec-compliance and customer-experience are different verdicts; verification must render both.
- **This binds at verification-AUTHORING time, not just execution time:** when writing a verification plan, a new skill, a Workflow verify stage, or a rule that includes checks, the plan itself must name the vision step and the customer-walkthrough step for any UI-rendering surface — a plan that omits them is a malformed plan, fix it before executing. Delegated verify legs (subagents/Workflow stages) must carry the instruction too; the main loop still owns the final eyes-on.
- **Scope:** anything a user sees — web pages, app screens, decks, artifacts, emails/drafts as-rendered, plugin UIs, CLI TUIs with visual layout, generated images/video. Exempt: pure non-visual changes (backend logic, scripts, infra) — there, the customer pass becomes "consume the output as the downstream consumer would" where applicable.
- Why: checks that verify the implementation (tests, DOM, metrics) systematically miss what a customer actually experiences — occlusion, confusion, ugliness, dead flows. Making vision + customer-walkthrough a structural part of every verification setup (not a per-task memory) closes that gap at the root. (Composes with "Verify the real thing with your own eyes", "Design/usability is NOT deterministic", the `done-gate` skill, and blocking step 3.)

### Run the `done-gate` skill before ANY "done"/"shipped"/"fixed"/"matches" claim — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-29)
- **Before the words "done", "shipped", "fixed", "matches", "complete", or "ready" on any task with a result Andrew will look at, invoke the `done-gate` skill and pass its gate.** It exists to stop his #1 trust failure (his words): *"I really hate when you tell me something's done and it's not done... I hate when I see a goal completed, and then I go look at it, and it's terrible."*
- Root cause he named: I reach **~60% of the ask — even when handed an exact Figma — then call it done.** Fix = a gate, not a vibe. The skill classifies the ask and enforces the right behaviour:
  - **Quantifiable ask (e.g. "make it exactly like this Figma")** → "exactly" IS the criteria: decompose the reference into a per-element/per-string/per-value/per-**animation** checklist up front, then diff the REAL running artifact side-by-side against it before claiming done. Every animation must actually *fire*, not just exist in code.
  - **Interpretive ask ("make the animation like X")** → no clean bar, so **make a few options and find the right one WITH Andrew** — never hand one answer and call it done.
  - **Wall at ~80%** → STOP and report "here's 80%, here's exactly what's failing and why." **Never a false 100%** — the honest partial beats the confident wrong.
- **Get ONE cheap directional check before scaling to N full expensive builds/renders on interpretive/taste-bearing work.** When there's no crisp acceptance rubric (the "interpretive ask" case above), don't fan out to multiple full-cost generations (paid video/image runs, full CSS builds) hoping one lands — get Andrew's directional nod on a cheap draft first, THEN scale. Portfolio ran 3-4 full 5-way Higgsfield fan-outs (~700+ credits) before any convergence, every round rejected outright.
- **A design-judge/rubric PASS is NOT sufficient evidence of taste-fit.** Rule-based gates (no second hue, no faux italic, contrast, tap targets) only catch explicit violations — they say nothing about whether a design holistically matches Andrew's taste. 15+ generated creative variants passed the design-judge gate in one session and were all rejected outright by Andrew (best rated "55/100... so much wrong with it"). Only Andrew's own eyes (or the cheap directional check above) is the real gate for taste-bearing/interpretive work — a passing rubric is necessary, never sufficient, on this category.
- Frame: taste + execution is genuinely hard and I'm still learning it → collaborative, not solo confidence. *"We have to work together to get it right."* Operationalizes the vision-verify rule above. (Skill: `<your-agent-config> # sanitized`; context: `<your-agent-config> # sanitized`. Promoted from portfolio PROMOTION-QUEUE 2026-07-08: `taste-fit-cheap-check-before-expensive-fanout`, `design-judge-pass-not-sufficient-for-taste-fit`.)

### Fire a Codex devil's-advocate pass before ANY "done"/"fixed"/"shipped"/"complete"/"matches" claim — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-30)
- **Before I tell Andrew anything is "done" / "fixed" / "shipped" / "complete" / "verified" / "matches", I must spawn an independent Codex pass whose explicit job is to FALSIFY the done-claim — a devil's advocate, not a rubber stamp.** It runs adversarially: "Here is what I claim is done and why; prove it is NOT done — find what's broken, missed, unverified, or only ~80% there." Codex is the second pair of eyes the done-gate has been missing, and Andrew's #1 trust failure is a confident "done" that isn't (see done-gate + [[feedback-restrained-not-salesy]] + [[verify-against-last-good-artifact]]).
- **How it runs (composes with the Codex house rules above, does not replace the eyes-on verify):**
  - **Report-only, always.** The Codex prompt MUST contain "report only, do not edit any files" (Codex diagnosis fence). After it returns, `git diff --stat` BEFORE reading its output and revert any stray edits.
  - **Hand it the claim + the evidence,** not a vague ask: the exact files/lines changed, the spec/acceptance criteria, the reference being matched, and what I claim each change proves. Tell it to check correctness, edge cases, the actual diff, unstated requirements, and partial-completion ("is this really 100%, or 80% dressed up as done?"). **For any user-facing result, also paste the project's `## Target customer` block verbatim** (customer-lens kickoff rule, 2026-07-08) under "Judge UX and messaging as this customer:" — the falsification must attack from that persona's angle (comprehension, trust, findability, register), not just code substance.
  - **Codex is BLIND to vision.** It verifies the *substance* — logic, the real diff, that the change does what's claimed, what's missing. It does NOT replace the main-loop eyes-on vision verify for any visual/UX result; both run (Codex on substance, me on the rendered artifact). Never let a Codex pass stand in for looking at the thing.
  - **Resolve every objection before claiming done.** If Codex surfaces a real gap, fix it (or honestly report the partial per done-gate's "here's 80%, here's what's failing"). Only after its objections are dispositioned do I make the completion claim — and I say that an adversarial Codex pass was run.
- **Scope / exemption:** applies to every substantive completion claim (a fix, a built UI, a refactor, a deploy, a deck slide, an asset wire). Exempt: trivial conversational turns and single mechanical edits where there is no real "done" to falsify. When in doubt, run it — a cheap skeptic pass beats Andrew catching a false "done."
- Why: Andrew explicitly asked for this after a night where parallel instances kept declaring deck work "done" without verifying — measurement-and-skeptic grind is exactly Codex's strength, and an independent adversary catches the plausible-but-wrong "done" that my own confidence won't. (Composes with the `done-gate` skill, "Verify the real thing with your own eyes", "Never claim done without a verification URL", [[feedback-always-devils-advocate]], and the Codex routing house rules.)

### When you REPLACE or REVERT an architecture to fix X, re-verify prior requirements Y and Z still hold — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-07-01)
- **Swapping the base model/architecture to fix one problem does NOT carry the earlier requirements forward for free — they silently drop unless you re-implement and re-verify them on the new base.** Before calling the swap done: (1) write down every requirement the OLD architecture satisfied (the earlier asks, the approved behaviours), (2) confirm each STILL holds on the new base — with eyes-on, not assumption, (3) for any that broke, re-implement it on the new base or explicitly flag the tradeoff to Andrew. Never present a "fix" that quietly regresses a prior approved requirement.
- **Watch for capabilities that become NO-OPS after the swap.** When the new base changes an invariant (e.g. the deck's stage went strict-16:9 so `cqx===cq===cqMin` → `anchorX`/`anchorY` do nothing), any code written for the old invariant may now be dead/inert while still *looking* authored. Grep for and re-test the machinery the old model relied on; don't trust that a labeled anchor/flag still does what its name says.
- Why: reverting the deck from stretch-to-fill (v2) to fixed-16:9 letterbox (v3) fixed raster distortion but silently DROPPED Andrew's equal-margin / frame-fill / content-re-anchor model — and made the whole `anchorX` system a no-op. Both of his asks were never satisfied at once; I traded one for the other and shipped it as "done." (Composes with "Verify the real thing with your own eyes", the done-gate skill, and "Reproduce on the user's surface".)

# Before making a self-heal/recovery loop retry MORE, add or verify a concurrency guard in the SAME change — HARD RULE

Increasing retry aggression on a recovery/self-heal path (retry-every-cycle instead of once, shorter interval, more attempts) is unsafe until the recovery operation is proven idempotent or serialized by a lock — do both in the same edit, never retries-first. More-frequent recovery multiplies the chance that two runs overlap (a boot job plus a periodic healthcheck, or two healthcheck cycles), and if the recovery is non-idempotent (stop-then-start, teardown+rebuild, destructive re-init), two overlapping runs corrupt the very state they're healing. Before raising retry cadence on any recovery loop: confirm whether another trigger fires the same recovery (assume yes); gate concurrent runs with an atomic lock so only one recovery touches the shared resource at a time; re-check the healthy condition after acquiring the lock; only then raise the retry cadence. An unlocked, overly aggressive retry loop can be the original cause of the very outage it's trying to fix.

### Reproduce on the user's surface before theorizing — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-18)
- **When Andrew reports something missing / broken / wrong that you can't immediately reproduce, the FIRST move is to reproduce it on HIS surface — never to theorize.** Before you say "it's there / it's fine / must be cache," do all three:
  1. **Match his viewport / device.** If his screenshot shows a phone (mobile status bar, Safari chrome) or he says "on mobile," verify on the **iphone / WebKit** profile — a desktop check is worthless for a mobile claim. A breakpoint-`hidden` element (`hidden md:block`, `lg:hidden`) is invisible to desktop and is the single most common cause of "missing on prod."
  2. **Grep the component for responsive/visibility classes** on the element in question (`hidden`, `sm:`/`md:`/`lg:`/`xl:`, `display:none`, `opacity-0`) — before blaming anything external.
  3. **Check EVERY instance** of the pattern (all pages, all figures, all breakpoints, the source asset itself), not just the one you happened to look at.
- **Believe his eyes over your measurements.** A green build, a matching computed style, a passing ratio, or "it renders for me" can all be matching the wrong surface. If he says it's broken and your check says it's fine, your check is on the wrong surface — find the right one. Do NOT send him to hard-refresh / incognito / "clear cache" until (1)–(3) come up empty.
- **Verify the fix on the SAME surface he reported** — deployed URL + his device/viewport — and look at it with vision. "Fixed on desktop" is not "fixed" when he's on a phone.
- Why: across 2026-06-17/18 the same root cause burned hours and nearly lost trust — a 26% image crop "verified fixed" while the source asset was itself cut; a case-study serif "verified present" on desktop while it was `hidden md:block` and invisible on his phone. Each time I verified a proxy / the wrong surface and theorized (cache, expectation) instead of reproducing on his. (Memory: [[feedback-crop-fix-verify-asset-and-all-instances]].)

# Verify on a REAL device before any "it's good" — HARD RULE

For any device/mobile app, an emulator/simulator pass does not earn 'done'/'fixed'/'good'/'shipped'/'verified.' The default proof is the change running on a real physical device, eyes-on. Emulator/simulator counts only when the user explicitly says it's fine for that task — absent that word, real-device verification is required, and emulator-only is an explicit exception the user grants, never a silent default. State upfront which surface you'll verify on, and if device verification is required and none is connected, say so rather than quietly falling back to the emulator. A preview/mock/composite you generated yourself is a proxy, not verification — anything the OS or a downstream pipeline re-renders or transforms (icon masking/safe-zone cropping, font rendering, video transcode, image resize) must be checked on the real rendered surface, because a hand-made preview won't model the transform and can look perfect while the real output is broken.

### Restrained, not salesy — show the artifact, don't sell it — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-29; recurred 6×)
- **For ANY Andrew-facing artifact — deck, bio, token sheet, copy, UI, case study, essay — default to LESS.** His register is editorial restraint + specificity, not persuasion. Strip claim-headlines, persuasion verbs (proven, shipped, "moved the business", supercharge, unlock, durable, leverage), thesis/lead/sub stacks, and metrics-as-flourish. One artifact + a few words per idea; let the screen/work carry the point. **If a slide/section is *arguing* rather than *showing*, it's wrong.**
- **Before producing, OPEN his real reference and match it** instead of inventing an impressive format/voice (his deck refs: danield.design, <designer-reference> # sanitized — artifact-per-slide, near-zero copy). Selling reads as insecurity; restraint reads as confidence.
- Why: across 6 sessions I kept building the persuasive/impressive version (about-me as ad copy, token sheets as a marketing one-pager = "slop", portfolio deck = "biggest sales deck ever"). The root cause: I invent *my* impressive interpretation instead of matching HIS existing standard. Logged un-promoted 6× before this. (Memory: [[feedback-restrained-not-salesy]]; composes with [[feedback-open-the-actual-references]], [[feedback-andrews-outreach-voice]].)
- **A delegated verbatim content port (HTML→JSX, copy migration) can silently violate this rule even when structurally correct — diff word-for-word, not just structurally.** A Codex port swapped "Field-tested" → "Proven" and "the pattern that works" → "the proven pattern" (banned persuasion verbs) while preserving build-correctness — caught only by Raven's `audit_taste`, not any structural/build check. After ANY delegated port/transplant of existing copy, diff the ported text word-for-word against the source before trusting it verbatim. (Promoted from raven-mcp PROMOTION-QUEUE 2026-07-08: `content-port-verbatim-fidelity-diff` — 7th touch of this rule.)

### Recover lost work from the JSONL transcript FIRST — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-29; recurred 2×)
- **Any file or content a session produced is recoverable verbatim from the session's JSONL transcript** (`<your-agent-config> # sanitized<project>/<sessionId>.jsonl`). When work appears lost (a draft, a dictation, a file overwritten, context compacted), reach for transcript recovery BEFORE reconstructing from a thinner source or re-asking Andrew — reconstruction from memory loses fidelity; the transcript has the exact bytes.
- The transcript path is also surfaced at the end of every context-compaction summary. Grep it for the content (tool_result blocks, assistant text) and lift the exact text.
- Why: lost dictation / overwritten drafts are permanent data loss only if you don't check the transcript; reconstructing from a summary is strictly worse than the verbatim record that already exists on disk.

### Before declaring a computed-style fix "stale cache", grep for the winning override — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-29)
- **When a CSS change "isn't taking" and the live computed style contradicts the element's own class/rule, do NOT blame the browser cache or HMR first.** A computed style that contradicts the element's class list means **another selector is winning** — grep ALL `.css`/`.html` for the literal property value + `!important` + any higher-specificity selector targeting that element before concluding cache. The override is in the source, not the cache. (This session: a `.hero p { max-width:60ch / margin:0 auto }` rule silently outranked `.codeline`'s own margin for 6 rounds because I eyeballed scaled screenshots instead of measuring the live DOM and grepping the specificity conflict.)
- Corollary — **measure the live DOM, don't eyeball scaled screenshots.** A Playwright/scaled capture shows line-box leading, not real margin; only `getComputedStyle` + `getBoundingClientRect` on the served page tells you what actually applies. Believe the measured DOM and Andrew's eyes over the screenshot. (Composes with [[reference-next-global-css-hmr-stale]], "Reproduce on the user's surface".)

### Ramp/gray-step adjustments — make the perceptual gap real — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-29)
- When adjusting a color ramp or gray step, **compute the perceptual lightness (L) of every step**; a gap below ~20 L points between adjacent steps reads as "grabbed the wrong hex," not a system. "Barely lighter" is Andrew's complaint language for steps that are numerically different but perceptually identical — size the deltas so each step is visibly distinct.

# Drive device/emulator UIs by confirmed targets, never blind coordinates — HARD RULE

When driving any device/emulator UI through coordinate input (taps, long-presses, swipes, typed text), never fire at a coordinate you haven't confirmed maps to the intended target, and always confirm each input landed (screenshot or an observable side-effect) before sending the next. For an invisible/debug trigger you add yourself, give it a visible marker or a UI-automation-readable handle and read its real bounds — don't park an invisible hit-box at a guessed offset and tap-hunt for it. Map screenshot-pixels to device-pixels explicitly before converting a visual position into a coordinate; status-bar/app-bar insets shift a layout's origin. Don't use the system back gesture/button to dismiss an in-app overlay — it can pop the whole activity/screen; tap the scrim/content instead.

### Reuse what already worked — never reinvent the wheel — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-06-13)
- **When refining or restoring something that worked before, find that working version and reuse it verbatim** — change only what the new ask strictly requires. Do NOT re-derive a fresh implementation from the spec.
- First move on any "fix this thing that used to be right" task: locate the last-good state (`git log -- <file>`, prior commit, existing component, sibling surface, earlier design) and restore/adapt THAT. Re-inventing reintroduces the same class of bug every round.
- Prefer existing, proven primitives over new ones: reuse the established component, token, pattern, harness, helper, or config rather than authoring a parallel one. Grep for prior art before writing new code.
- If you choose NOT to reuse an obvious prior solution, justify why to yourself (and to Andrew) before diverging.
- Why: there is no reason to rebuild what already exists and works — it wastes time, multiplies surfaces to maintain, and regresses the thing that was already correct. (Memory: [[verify-against-last-good-artifact]].)

---

### HARD RULE — grep the day's OTHER session logs for Andrew's own prior answer BEFORE asking or re-deriving (Andrew, 2026-07-01)
- **Before asking any load-bearing clarifying question — OR re-deriving a design/architecture decision — first `grep` the current day's OTHER per-instance session logs (`conversations/YYYY-MM-DD-*.md`) AND any running design-decision log (e.g. `conversations/<topic>-ratio.md`) for Andrew's own verbatim answer.** Andrew runs 6+ instances in parallel and often documents the *solution* (the responsive model, the margin rule, the ratio approach) in one instance's log earlier the same day; a different instance then re-asks or re-invents it. His model is usually already recorded — read it, don't re-derive it.
- This is sharper than the general "don't re-litigate a decided question" context rule: the answer lives in a **sibling session log on disk**, not in the live conversation, so it won't be in context unless you grep for it.
- Why: this session I re-derived the deck's 16:9 responsive model and (in the 06-30 deck-ratio log) re-asked via AskUserQuestion how cards should stretch — both times Andrew had already written the solution ("margins PROPORTIONAL not capped, image natural-size re-anchored — read the logs"). Re-asking a solved decision wastes his patience and reintroduces the wrong model. (Composes with the "fix"/"it doesn't work" one-question rules and the session-log system above.)

---

# Redirect module-level path globals to a tempdir BEFORE calling code under test — HARD RULE

When a test exercises a function that reads a module-level path constant pointing at a real persisted state file (a cache/snapshot/journal path), the test must monkeypatch/redirect that constant to a tempdir BEFORE invoking the function. Writing a fresh test file under /tmp is not sufficient isolation — the code-under-test still resolves the real project file via its own global and will read/clobber it. Verify the isolation held by comparing the real state file before and after the test run (unchanged = isolation worked); a test that mutates real state is a corrupting test, not a passing one.

### HARD RULE — parallel-instance collision check BEFORE commit / branch / push (Andrew, 2026-06-18)
- Andrew runs **many Claude instances in the same shared repo/working copy at once.** Before you commit, branch, or push, **always check whether another instance is already working the same files or feature** — do not assume you're alone. This is a mandatory pre-flight check, not a courtesy.
- **The check, every time, before committing/branching/pushing:** `git fetch origin`; then look at `git log --oneline -8 origin/main` and `git for-each-ref --sort=-committerdate refs/remotes/origin | head` for recent activity, and `git log --oneline origin/main -- <the files you're about to touch>` to see if your target files just moved. If your fix (or an equivalent) is **already on `origin/main` or a remote branch**, STOP — don't create a duplicate branch or re-push; reconcile to what's there.
- **Surface it to Andrew** the moment you detect overlap ("another instance already landed X on main / is editing Y") rather than silently proceeding — and prefer landing onto the up-to-date base over spinning a parallel branch.
- **Never switch the shared working-tree branch or `pull --rebase` out from under a possibly-active instance** without checking; for docs/log commits prefer `git push origin HEAD:main` (no checkout) when HEAD already tracks the main content.
- Why: I committed a verified fix onto a fresh branch and pushed it — another instance had **already fast-forwarded the same commit into `main`** and shipped a change on top, so my branch was dead-on-arrival duplication. A 5-second `git fetch` + log scan would have caught it. (Mirrors the serif instance's identical "fix stranded on another instance's branch" miss the same day.)

### Rollback method
- Never use `git revert` alone if an auto-save hook is running — it will re-commit the old code.
- Always edit the file directly to remove unwanted code, then let the hook commit (or commit manually).

---

# Taste calibration at project KICKOFF — HARD RULE

The moment a new project kicks off — a fresh repo, or the first real design/content work in any project — run a taste-surface calibration interview before generating any UI, copy, or design decisions. Taste is per-surface: the rules that bind one surface (e.g. a monochrome personal site) don't necessarily bind another (e.g. a product site), and voice register shifts per surface too. Check whether the project is already calibrated; if not, ask short questions covering surface family, which style scopes apply, voice register, per-rule overrides, and how to identify the project — then persist the answers and start the work using them. This is the one place where asking before acting is required, not an autonomy violation. Record every taste/direction decision made or corrected during the work so future kickoffs on related surfaces can suggest it as a default.

### Customer-lens calibration at project/feature KICKOFF — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-07-08)
- **The moment Andrew kicks off a new project OR a new feature in any project, run the `customer-lens-kickoff` skill and interview him on the target customer/user BEFORE any UX, copy, or messaging work.** Taste calibration answers *how it should look and sound*; this answers **who it is for** — and it is the lens every verification must judge through. Sibling gate to the taste interview above; the two run together at kickoff, and like that gate this interview is the one place asking-before-acting is required, not an autonomy violation. Binds under `/goal` too — it runs before the Workflow is authored.
- **Persist the answers as a `## Target customer` block in the PROJECT's CLAUDE.md** (mirrored into the project's AGENTS.md if one exists, so Codex loads it) using the skill's D4D-based format. Feature kickoffs on an already-bound project need only the one delta question ("same customer, or different for this feature?") — full interview only when the segment differs; deltas persist as `### Feature overrides`.
- **Every UX/messaging verification judges AS that specific customer, never a generic user:** the done-gate customer walkthrough runs as the bound persona (their device, patience, vocabulary); every Codex devil's-advocate prompt for a user-facing result pastes the block verbatim and attacks from that persona's angle (comprehension, trust, findability); delegated verify legs (subagents/Workflow stages) carry the block in their prompt — a UX/messaging verify leg without it is malformed, same standard as omitting the vision step.
- **Skip:** surfaces with no user at all (pure backend, scripts, infra) — state that in one line and continue. When Andrew corrects a customer read mid-work, update the block in the same turn.
- Why: Andrew (2026-07-08) — the 2026-07-07 customer-pass rule still said *hypothetical* customer, a lens with no face; a walkthrough as "some user" passes things the real target would bounce off. (Skill: `<your-agent-config> # sanitized`. Composes with the taste-calibration gate above, the done-gate skill, the Codex devil's-advocate rule, and the vision + customer-pass verification rule.)

---

### No secrets in source code
- Never hardcode tokens, PATs, API keys, or credentials in source files.
- Use environment variables, dotfiles (`~/.my_token`), localStorage, or runtime user input. Read at runtime: `PAT=$(cat ~/.my_token)`.

### Token regeneration — check all consumers
- When asked "will regenerating this token break anything?", don't just grep the codebase.
- Check: source code, dotfiles, browser localStorage, workflow URLs, launchd/cron, CI/CD.
- When in doubt, say "it might break X — let me check" rather than confidently saying "no."

### Check parent layout before touching spacing
- Before adding margin/padding, check the parent's display, flex-direction, and gap.
- If the parent has a large gap (e.g., `gap:40px`), wrap elements in a container with its own tighter gap instead of fighting with margins.

### Responsiveness
1. Proportional over fixed for layout columns — `flex:1`, `1fr 3fr`, `min(900px, calc(...))`.
2. Fixed px OK for component dimensions, not layout frames.
3. Flex scroll containers: always `flex:1;min-height:0`.
4. Two-panel layouts: one side fixed + `flex-shrink:0`, other side `flex:1;min-width:0`.
5. `min-width:0` on flex children that truncate.
6. `overflow:hidden;text-overflow:ellipsis;white-space:nowrap` on constrained single-line text.

### Design system compliance
- Every CSS value should use `var(--token, fallback)` — no bare hex, px, or font values.
- Buttons use semantic classes — never inline button styles.
- Every interactive element must have a hover state.
- Icons use `stroke="currentColor"` and are sized consistently (14/16/20px).
- Always probe for design tokens before hardcoding any visual value.

### Canvas/preview renderer rules
1. Always include `align-items:stretch;justify-content:flex-start;` in canvas body inline styles.
2. Always specify column widths — at least one `flex:1`, rest fixed px. Never all `flex:1`.
3. Scrollable zones: `flex:1;height:0;overflow-y:auto`.
4. Body fill: `flex:1;min-height:0` — never `height:100%` inside flex.
5. Inner flex rows: `width:100%;overflow:hidden`.

### Parallel array index alignment
When two arrays share indices (e.g. `items[i]` maps to `guidanceCards[i]`), every code path that produces either array must keep them in sync. Before changing any shared-index array, grep for ALL assignment sites: `items = [`, `guidanceCards = [`, `.push(`, `.unshift(`. If one array gets prepended slots, they all must.

### DOM add/remove over CSS hiding for dynamic elements
For UI elements that may or may not exist, prefer not rendering the DOM node at all over hiding with CSS (`:empty`, `.hidden`, `display:none`). Removing the element entirely is simpler and more reliable — no phantom space, no CSS specificity issues, no dynamic `innerHTML` edge cases.

### Update ALL data sources, not just one
When fixing data that's defined in multiple places (defaults, example loaders, LLM handlers), grep and update ALL producers in one pass. Missing one causes misalignment bugs that only surface at runtime.

### Categorical mappers over multi-scheme corpora: confirm an explicit branch per scheme — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-07-02)
- When writing or auditing a function that maps categorical labels/verdicts from a corpus assembled from MULTIPLE producers/label schemes, grep every producer file for the schemes actually present and confirm the mapper has an explicit branch for EACH — never trust the mapper's aggregate output counts.
- A silent default-return (e.g. `return "PASS"` for an unrecognized verdict) doesn't throw and doesn't show in totals; it surfaces only as inexplicable downstream instability (a trained model flip-flopping between under- and over-flagging across checkpoints), which is expensive to root-cause after the fact vs a 30-second code read up front.
- Why: the design-judge local-LoRA training labels were corrupted exactly this way (2026-07-02 regrade). (Promoted from PROMOTION-QUEUE 2026-07-04.)

# Classify a bulk edit's qualifying condition against the rendered artifact BEFORE touching any file — HARD RULE

When a bulk edit's qualifying condition requires looking at the rendered result (not inferable from data/code alone — e.g. 'recolor every slide that reads as too dark,' 'swap every image that looks cropped'), build the classification list from the rendered artifact and get it confirmed before editing any file, especially before a production push. Don't classify from filenames, code structure, or a proxy signal that only correlates with the visual condition. A review pass checking the diff for internal correctness will not catch a wrongly-scoped bulk edit — it checks the edit's consistency, not whether the edit's scope matched the real qualifying condition.

### Flood-fill / matte-removal must diff against the pre-fill source, never just an eyeballed thumbnail — HARD RULE (Andrew, 2026-07-07)
- Any color-tolerance background-strip pass (flood-fill matte stripping, paper-bg removal) can silently eat interior CONTENT pixels that fall within the same tolerance as the background (a light-gray phone screen, a neutral-silver device panel) — a slide-scale thumbnail check does NOT catch this, because transparent content reads as "white-ish" against a light panel exactly like intact background does.
- Any flood-fill/matte-removal pass MUST diff the result against the pre-fill source and assert zero non-background CONTENT pixels were cleared (a "missing-content mask"), not just an eyeballed rendered-slide check.
- Why: a broken deck asset (transparent-phone-bg-on-light-panel) shipped for a full day undetected, caught only when Andrew compared against his original exports; nearly repeated the very next day in the same session's own next flood-fill pass. (Promoted from PROMOTION-QUEUE 2026-07-08: `flood-fill-bg-removal-eats-content-pixels`, 2x. Family: "Verify the real thing with your own eyes", crop-fix-verify-asset-and-all-instances.)

### Audit full CSS scope, not just requested element
When given CSS for a whole component, audit ALL elements against existing code — not just the one element explicitly mentioned. Parse all layers, diff every value, fix all mismatches in one pass.

### CSS `zoom` vs `transform: scale` for embedded components
Use CSS `zoom` (not `transform: scale`) when embedding real design system components that use `getBoundingClientRect()` or `ResizeObserver`. `transform: scale` is visual-only and breaks DOM measurements. `zoom` preserves unscaled coordinates.

### Prototype visual features in demo pages first
Before iterating on animations, transitions, or visual polish in production, build variants in a standalone demo page. Let the stakeholder pick, then implement once. Avoids multiple production commits for exploratory work.

### Wire ALL entry points for the same action
If a feature has multiple input paths (e.g. two chat inputs, drag-drop + paste + file picker), every path must handle the same inputs. When adding a capability to one path, grep for all paths and update them in the same pass.

### LLM system prompt must list valid values
When an LLM-powered feature has constrained options (dropdowns, preloaded templates), the system prompt must explicitly list valid values and say "use ONLY these." The model will hallucinate plausible alternatives if not constrained. Don't rely on the UI to enforce — the LLM doesn't see the UI.

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# Joint push log — HARD RULE (coordinate parallel instances via a shared log)

When multiple agent instances work across related repos/surfaces at once, keep one shared, append-only push log recording every push: timestamp, surface, branch, commit, one-line summary, instance id. The moment any instance pushes, it appends one line and commits+pushes the log immediately — a push that isn't logged is a coordination bug, because it's the failure mode that makes parallel instances duplicate or clobber each other's work. Read the log top-to-bottom at session start to see what other instances have already shipped. Never rewrite, reorder, or delete existing lines — append-only so concurrent appends from parallel instances merge cleanly. If a push changes a shared contract, also update the project's single source-of-truth ledger in the same change.

