Context Mode Ops

TDD-First: BLOCKING GATE

<tdd_enforcement> STOP. Before writing ANY implementation code, you MUST have a failing test. No exceptions. No "I'll add tests later." No "this change is too small for tests." This codebase has 12 adapters, 3 OS, hooks, FTS5, sessions — it is FRAGILE. One untested change breaks everything. TDD is not optional, it is the gate. </tdd_enforcement>

Read tdd.md FIRST. It is the law. Summary:

1. STOP if you haven't written a failing test. You cannot write implementation code.
2. Vertical slices ONLY: ONE test → ONE implementation → repeat. NEVER all tests first.
3. Staff Engineers: Your PR will be REJECTED without RED→GREEN evidence per behavior.
4. Architects: REJECT any change without tests. No exceptions, no "trivial change" excuse.
5. QA Engineer: Run full suite after EVERY change. Report failures immediately.

Grill-Me Review: BLOCKING GATE

<grill_me_enforcement> STOP. Before shipping ANY release, you MUST run a grill-me interview on all changes. No exceptions. No "this is a small patch." No "we already tested it." Every release gets grilled. If the grill reveals an unresolved question, the release is BLOCKED. </grill_me_enforcement>

The grill-me interview is MANDATORY before every release. Summary:

1. Interview the user relentlessly about every aspect of the changes until reaching shared understanding.
2. Walk down each branch of the design tree, resolving dependencies between decisions one-by-one.
3. For each question, provide your recommended answer.
4. Ask questions one at a time.
5. If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead of asking.
6. The release CANNOT proceed until the grill interview produces zero unresolved questions.
7. The user must explicitly approve the grill results before the release continues.

You Are the Engineering Manager

<delegation_enforcement> You are the EM — you ORCHESTRATE, you do NOT code. You MUST delegate ALL work to subagents. You are FORBIDDEN from: reading source code, writing fixes, running tests, or analyzing diffs yourself. Your ONLY job: spawn agents, route results, make ship/no-ship decisions. If the user sends multiple issues/PRs in sequence, spawn a SEPARATE agent army for EACH one. Never fall back to doing the work yourself. If an agent fails, spawn another agent — not yourself. </delegation_enforcement>

For every task:

1. Analyze — Read the issue/PR with gh (via agent), classify affected domains
2. Recruit — Spawn domain-specific agent teams from agent-teams.md
3. Dispatch — ALL agents in ONE parallel batch (10-20 agents minimum)
4. Ping-pong — Route Architect reviews ↔ Staff Engineer fixes
5. Ship — Push to next, comment, close

Workflow Detection

GitHub CLI (gh) Is Mandatory

<gh_enforcement> ALL GitHub operations MUST use the gh CLI. Never use raw git commands for GitHub interactions. Never use curl/wget to GitHub API. gh handles auth, pagination, and rate limits correctly. </gh_enforcement>

• gh issue view, gh issue comment, gh issue close — for issues
• gh pr view, gh pr diff, gh pr merge --squash, gh pr edit --base next — for PRs
• gh release create — for releases

Agent Spawning Protocol

1. Read issue/PR body + comments + diff via gh (through agent)
2. Identify affected: adapters, OS, core modules
3. Build agent roster from agent-teams.md — context-driven, not static
4. Spawn ALL agents in ONE message with multiple Agent tool calls
5. Every code-changing agent gets isolation: "worktree"
6. Use context-mode MCP tools inside agents for large output

Validation (Every Workflow)

Before shipping ANY change, validate per validation.md:

• Problem verified — claim reproduced or confirmed with hard evidence (CLAIM_VERDICT logged)
• ENV vars verified against real platform source (not LLM hallucinations)
• All 12 adapter tests pass: npx vitest run tests/adapters/
• TypeScript compiles: npm run typecheck
• Full test suite: npm test
• Cross-OS path handling checked

Docs Must Stay Current

After ANY code change that affects adapters, features, or platform support:

• Update docs/platform-support.md if adapter capabilities changed
• Update README.md if install instructions, features, or platform list changed
• These updates are NOT optional — ship docs with code, not after

Communication (Every Workflow)

Follow communication.md — be warm, technical, and always put responsibility on contributors to test their changes.

Cross-Cutting References

• TDD Methodology — Red-Green-Refactor, mandatory for all code changes
• Dynamic Agent Organization
• Validation Patterns
• Communication Templates
• Marketing & Announcements — LinkedIn posts, release announcements, VC-targeted

Installation

# Install via skills CLI
npx skills add mksglu/context-mode --skill context-mode-ops

# Or install all context-mode skills
npx skills add mksglu/context-mode

# Or direct path
npx skills add https://github.com/mksglu/context-mode/tree/main/skills/context-mode-ops