Spec: Issue 207 Verification Recovery Skill Distribution

Context

Rebase Reconciliation

Published issue #206 now owns the lifecycle catalog entries and places verify-behavior, create-verification-skill, and update-verification-skill in the default verification pack. The planning pack retains implement-spec. The combined default scaffold therefore installs all four cooperating skills, while project-owned content below .agents/skills/verify-behavior/references/ remains outside managed materialization.

The following context records the pre-#206 layout that motivated issue #207; its planning-pack placement is historical rather than the current contract.

The planning scaffold pack distributes verify-behavior and implement-spec, but it does not distribute create-verification-skill or update-verification-skill. implement-spec relies on those lifecycle skills when verification encounters an Uncovered Surface or Uncovered Behavior, so a freshly scaffolded project cannot follow the recovery workflow described by its installed skills.

The lifecycle skill sources already exist in the Harness repository and in the canonical shared-skills repository. This change completes their CLI catalog and planning-pack distribution without generating or replacing project-owned verification references.

Non-Goals

• Generate .agents/skills/verify-behavior/references/ during scaffold or update.
• Change the content or behavior of the three verification skills.
• Invoke either lifecycle skill from scaffold or update.
• Change preservation rules for an existing project-owned verifier.
• Add the lifecycle skills to unrelated capability packs.

Requirements and Outcomes

OUT-001: Complete verification recovery capability

A project selecting the planning scaffold pack receives verify-behavior, create-verification-skill, update-verification-skill, and implement-spec, allowing the installed delivery workflow to recover from missing surface or behavior coverage.

OUT-002: Preserve project-owned verifier content

Adding the recovery skills does not create, regenerate, or overwrite project-owned content below .agents/skills/verify-behavior/references/.

OUT-003: Keep catalog and pack contracts verifiable

The CLI catalog recognizes both lifecycle skill sources, and automated tests fail if either catalog entry or planning-pack membership is removed.

Acceptance Criteria

After the #206 rebase, AC-001 and AC-005 are reconciled to the verification-pack boundary: the verification pack contains the three verification skills; the planning pack contains implement-spec; and a default scaffold installs all four cooperating skills. The historical criteria below retain their original wording as source evidence.

• AC-001: A planning-pack scaffold manifest contains verify-behavior, create-verification-skill, update-verification-skill, and implement-spec.
  • Covers: OUT-001
• AC-002: Scaffold copies the packaged source for both lifecycle skills to their exact skill IDs.
  • Covers: OUT-001
• AC-003: Existing bytes below .agents/skills/verify-behavior/references/ remain unchanged when the planning pack is scaffolded or updated.
  • Covers: OUT-002
• AC-004: Catalog-level automated coverage resolves both lifecycle skill IDs to their packaged source directories.
  • Covers: OUT-003
• AC-005: Pack-level automated coverage asserts that the planning pack contains both lifecycle skill IDs alongside verify-behavior and implement-spec.
  • Covers: OUT-003

Constraints

• Preserve the existing Project Verifier ownership and scaffold-preservation contract.
• Use the existing packaged lifecycle skill directories as the distributed sources.
• Keep the change within the CLI-owned catalog, planning-pack contract, tests, and required scaffolding documentation and release notes.
• Preserve all stack ancestry through the issue #206 pull-request branch before issue #207 is published.

Dependency Readiness

Ready. The accepted parent is local branch team/stefan/issue-206-skill-activation-boundaries, observed at immutable commit 7357f43b686f4866e45925f875e458e8c29ef6f3 when the issue #207 branch was created. Before publication, issue #207 must be restacked onto the final pushed head of the issue #206 pull request.

Branch/Base Intent

Use child branch team/stefan/issue-207-verification-recovery-skills. Its pull request must target team/stefan/issue-206-skill-activation-boundaries, whose own stack ancestry follows issue #205. Rebase the child onto the final issue #206 pull-request head before publishing or updating the issue #207 pull request.

Accepted Technical Decisions

• Register create-verification-skill and update-verification-skill as first-class entries in the existing CLI skill catalog.
• Add both IDs to the existing planning capability pack because that pack already owns verify-behavior and implement-spec.
• Reuse the packaged source directories already present in the repository.
• Leave project-owned verification references outside managed skill-source materialization.

Accepted Testing Decisions

• Protect both catalog registration and planning-pack membership with focused automated tests.
• Exercise the scaffold boundary sufficiently to prove the selected pack installs all four cooperating skills while existing verifier-reference preservation remains green.

Verification Seams

Verify through the public scaffold selection/output boundary and the generated scaffold manifest, with catalog and pack registry tests as focused contract seams.

Decision Log