constitution-enforcer_skill

Overview

This skill validates project governance and pre-implementation readiness by enforcing nine Constitutional Articles and running Phase -1 Gates. It blocks implementation when critical gates fail and produces actionable remediation steps and a paso a paso Phase -1 Gates checklist. Use it to ensure test-first, library-first, EARS-formatted requirements, full traceability, and integration-first testing before coding begins.

How this skill works

The enforcer inspects repository artifacts (requirements, steering files, tests, code, commit history) and runs a checklist of Phase -1 Gates. For each Article it performs rule checks (library presence, CLI entry point, test-first commit order, EARS syntax, traceability coverage, steering references, simplicity limits, anti-abstraction, and integration tests) and emits PASS/FAIL with remediation guidance. It can generate staged compliance reports and recommend follow-up skills to remediate failures.

When to use it

• Before any implementation or feature branch work begins
• During governance or architecture review meetings
• When validating requirements and test plans for EARS compliance
• Prior to CI/CD pipeline gating to prevent non-compliant merges
• When auditing traceability and project memory alignment

Best practices

• Run Phase -1 Gates early and fail fast to avoid rework
• Keep complexity-tracking.md updated with justifications for exceptions
• Automate checks in CI with configurable safety levels (low/medium/high/critical)
• Enforce library-first and CLI interface patterns for every feature
• Use real services for integration tests and maintain 100% traceability

Example use cases

• Validate a new authentication feature: ensure lib/auth exists, CLI entry, tests before code, and contract tests for database
• Gate a microservice proposal against Simplicity and Anti-Abstraction rules before approval
• Audit requirements.md for EARS patterns and map each requirement to tests and design artifacts
• Generate a staged constitutional-compliance-report and assign remediation actions when Traceability or Integration gates fail
• Integrate into pull request pipeline to block merges that violate Test-First or Library-First Articles