claude_mac/.claude/tasks/plans/2026-07-19-model-tiering-v2-plan.md

PLAN: model-tiering v2 — full framework re-tier + splits

Input: .claude/tasks/plans/2026-07-19-model-tiering-v2-analysis.md (read it first — consumer map, test locks, LRN/BDR constraints live there). User arbitrage (2026-07-19): 7 recos approved + no-inherit/fable-pin amendment

• Fable scope = REFLECTION / ORCHESTRATION / PLANNING / LOGIC only.

D0 — DOCTRINE (end state)

1. Main loop (session model, gated big by model-gate) keeps ONLY: brainstorm, plan, contract, loop decisions, gate arbitration, human interaction, conversation-context work (capitalize), trivial glue bash (<~1k tokens). Retention criteria (any suffices): interactive | needs conversation context | orchestration decision | dispatch overhead > step cost.
2. NOTHING dispatched inherits. Typed agents: frontmatter pin. Built-ins (general-purpose/Explore/Plan): explicit model= at EVERY call site. VERIFIED (2026-07-19 spike, closes robustness BLOCKER): model: "fable" on a dispatch resolves to claude-fable-5 at runtime (echo spike via general-purpose); the harness enum-validates the model param — an invalid value fails LOUDLY (InputValidationError), no silent fallback. Call-site model= takes precedence over a typed agent's frontmatter pin (documented Agent-tool contract); fallback direction if a call site omits it = the frontmatter pin, i.e. today's behavior — fail-safe, never worse.
3. Tiers: fable = dispatched reflection-on-behalf-of-main-loop (skill-runner children ONLY); opus = deep judgment (audit scoring, plan critique, drift semantics, review, synthesis); sonnet = standard execution from closed instructions + collectors AND probes (wave-1 prudence — robustness MAJOR: plugin PHASE 1 is a ~26-call branching bash chain, not a short probe); haiku = status-reporter ONLY in wave 1; haiku expansion = wave 2 after reliability proven per candidate.
4. Grammars/sentinels/valves survive VERBATIM (list in analysis §CONSTRAINTS). Loops/gates stay in main loop (BDR-050/LRN-083). Fix-bundle → L1 apply (BDR-061) preserved: audit agents never get the Agent tool.
5. Every split: LRN-126 data-flow pass (enumerate child-read fields vs parent-set; explicit handoff contract on disk or in prompt) PLUS an IN-WAVE planted-input smoke proving the fields cross the dispatch boundary at runtime — the smoke GATES that wave's merge (confirmation MAJOR: enumeration is design-time reading; census can't catch severed wires; a split must never reach develop empirically unproven). Every change: LRN-113 whole-surface sweep + census lock + flip-test (LRN-096, no \n in patterns LRN-093, strict YAML G3).

D1 — AGENT END STATE

Pins (frontmatter):

• opus: analyzer, plan-challenger, seo-judge*, geo-judge*, doc-auditor*, plugin-reasoner*, handover-synthesizer* (*new, from splits)
• sonnet: feater, bugfixer, hotfixer, code-cleaner, refactorer, verifier, security-auditor, scaffolder (effort high), onboarder, release-executor, commit-changer, doc-syncer (patcher half), validator-analyzer (TIER-DOWN from opus), seo-worker*, geo-worker* (2-way split per domain — simplicity MAJOR: collector+templater both sonnet in wave 1 → one worker file with MODE: collect | template, no cross-domain share: domain bodies genuinely diverge), handover-renderer* (renamed handover-doc-writer render half), plugin-probe* (wave-1 prudence; haiku candidate wave 2)
• haiku: status-reporter (only)
• none (inline-only, main loop, gate-protected): interviewer, client-handover-writer Per-dispatch model= overrides (no new file): commit-changer propose=opus / apply=sonnet (2 sites in /commit-change — precedence over the sonnet frontmatter pin is the documented Agent-tool contract, verified direction D0.2; the pin stays as the no-inherit fallback = today's behavior; both call-site strings census-locked + W3 behavioral smoke); SDD implementers+reviewers sonnet (already prose-mandated → make it a census lock); code-review steps (ship-feature 6, init-project 10) = opus explicit; client-handover-writer's 8 general-purpose skill-runners = fable; onboard's 7 general-purpose = opus (keep); any Explore/Plan ad-hoc reflection dispatch = fable (doctrine line in model-gate.md + CLAUDE.global routing note).

Splits (each = new agent file(s) + handoff contract + census + consumers): S1 plugin-advisor → plugin-probe (SONNET wave 1; PHASE 1 CLI probes → PROBE REPORT) + plugin-reasoner (opus; PHASE 2/2.5 scoring + reco → PLUGIN CHECK block). PHASE 3-4 report+apply-gate HOISTED into ONE shared include lib/plugin-gate.md (simplicity MINOR — doc-commit.md ×6 pattern, never 4 hand-copies), referenced by the 4 consumers (plugin-check, onboard STEP 0, init-project STEP 0, ship-feature STEP 0) — main loop. The pre-recommendation validation checkpoint (advisor :201-212, straddles the seam, can skip PHASE 4) runs IN THE CONSUMER between the two dispatches (correctness MINOR); its inputs (toggle-external availability, project-signal presence) are PROBE REPORT fields. Handoff: PROBE REPORT fields = plugin list, toggle state, profile, CLI/anim/monorepo/embedded signals + checkpoint inputs (enumerate ALL PHASE-2-read fields). S2 doc-syncer → doc-auditor (opus; STEP 3-4 drift + semantic analysis + A3 MINOR/SIGNIFICANT call w/ doc-shape.sh oracle → DRIFT REPORT [AUTO]/ [HUMAN] items) + doc-syncer (sonnet; render/patch half, keeps PATCHED_FILES: grammar + BDR-022 bans). Validation gate stays in DISPATCHER (/doc skill, orchestrator steps) — auto-mode flows: auditor → dispatcher applies AUTO via doc-syncer → SIGNIFICANT escalates inline. Consumers rerouted: /doc, onboard, + doc-commit steps in bugfix/hotfix/ feat/init-project(×2)/ship-feature (inline→dispatch conversion) + scaffolder PHASE 6 (scaffolder DISPATCHES nothing — it has no Agent tool: README bootstrap moves to init-project STEP 5b dispatch of doc-syncer). PLUS (robustness MAJOR): rework lib/doc-commit.md's in-thread contract BEFORE converting any doc-commit site — it requires the orchestrator to "hold the patch context" to compose the rc-0 CHANGE SUMMARY (the review surface that replaced the removed MINOR gate). Dispatched doc-syncer adds a CHANGE SUMMARY block to its report grammar (per patched file: what changed and why, ≤1 line each); doc-commit.md's composer consumes THAT instead of in-thread context; census-locks the new field + a planted-input smoke proves the summary crosses the dispatch boundary. S3 seo-analyzer → 2-WAY (simplicity MAJOR — 3-way was YAGNI while collector and templater share the sonnet tier; commit-changer mode-precedent): seo-worker (sonnet; MODE: collect = STEP 2-5 signals → SIGNALS file; MODE: template = STEP 12-14 FIX BUNDLE + sentinel + SEO.md + envelope)

• seo-judge (opus; STEP 6-11 sampling judgment, competitive, scoring /20, trajectory, triage → FINDINGS+PLAN). Orchestrated by /seo at L1 (BDR-061 conserved: no Agent tool in either). Wave-2 option: carve MODE: collect into a haiku file once proven — the mode boundary IS the future cut line. HANDOFF (robustness MAJOR — freshness/atomicity): run-scoped paths .audit/seo-signals-<RUNID>.md / .audit/geo-signals-<RUNID>.md — .audit/ is the GITIGNORED derived-artifact tree (confirmation MINOR, LRN-124: a crash-stranded transient with scraped GSC/competitor content must never be committable; .claude/audits/ keeps only the SEO.md/GEO.md deliverables). RUNID minted by the dispatcher per run, passed to every stage; the file ENDS with COLLECTION COMPLETE — RUNID: <id> and the judge FAILS CLOSED (report ERROR, never score) if the file is absent, RUNID mismatches, or the completeness sentinel is missing; dispatcher cleans the file post-run. DISPATCHER CONTRACT (confirmation MAJOR — fail-closed at the judge must not fail OPEN at the pipeline): on a judge ERROR the orchestrator (/seo /geo /harden /onboard) STOPS — no template dispatch, no L1 apply — surfaces the ERROR verbatim, retries ONCE with a fresh collect+judge, then escalates to the human. A mute or ERROR judge is NEVER carried into templating (verify-secure-loop discipline). This handler is part of the W5 skill rewrites, census-locked. Explicit field list per LRN-126 (STEP 1-2 business+tech context consumed by ALL later steps — full enumeration REQUIRED before cutting). seo-data.test.sh locks (fetch.sh wiring) move with the worker body — update suite same commit. S4 geo-analyzer → geo-worker (sonnet, 2 modes) + geo-judge (opus) — mirror of S3 incl. run-scoped .audit/geo-signals-<RUNID>.md + the same dispatcher ERROR contract. No cross-domain file share: seo vs geo bodies genuinely diverge (different checks, scoring blocks, envelopes) — that divergence, not LRN-125, is the reason. S5 handover-doc-writer → handover-synthesizer (opus; STEP 9 memory-registry load + STEP 10 phase clustering + STEP 12 6-chapter synthesis — STEP 9 allocated here, it feeds the synthesis; correctness MINOR) + handover-renderer (sonnet; STEP 13-16 annex render, precheck apply, deterministic gates, HTML/PDF). client-handover-writer dispatches synthesizer then renderer; PACKAGE contract split per LRN-126 (re-enumerate DEPLOY_HINTS/--skip-seo class fields — the EXACT prior failure). W4 MUST same-commit relock model-routing.test.sh:52-55 (the handover-doc-writer name + dispatch-string locks break on the rename; "make test green per wave" D4 invariant — correctness MINOR). Tier-downs (no split): validator-analyzer opus→sonnet (deterministic validators+tables). onboarder stays sonnet wave 1 (haiku candidate wave 2). release-executor stays sonnet (NEED-DECISION valve). Verifier: STAYS sonnet (approved — oracle-anchored gate).

D2 — SKILL MAP (main loop = session model; every dispatch tier explicit)

Gated reflection skills (model-gate kept, 15):

• ship-feature / init-project: per the two example maps in the analysis file (amendment section) + S1 gate hoist at STEP 0 + doc-commit conversions.
• feat: scope/plan/contract/loop = main; challenge 3× plan-challenger opus; feater sonnet; verifier+security sonnet; doc-commit → doc-auditor opus + doc-syncer sonnet dispatch; commit via /commit-change (propose opus / apply sonnet).
• bugfix: investigation/diagnosis/contract = main (reflection); challenge opus (3b); bugfixer sonnet; verifier+security sonnet; doc-commit as feat.
• hotfix: LOCATE + guard = main (logic); challenge opus when guard fires; hotfixer sonnet; security gate sonnet (revert-not-loop conserved); doc-commit as feat.
• analyze: analyzer INLINE = main loop (it IS the reflection) — unchanged.
• code-clean: PHASE 1 audit inline = main (audit judgment feeding a human gate); code-cleaner sonnet PHASE 2 (hosts refactorer inline at SAME tier — LRN-125 OK); re-audit sonnet inside executor.
• seo / geo: skill = orchestration + GATED arbitrage (main); pipeline collector sonnet → judge opus → templater sonnet (L1 serial); appliers hotfixer/feater sonnet at L1; build-verify inline.
• web-validate: validator-analyzer sonnet; hotfixer applier sonnet; loop main.
• harden: audit dispatch follows S3 narrow-scope path (seo-judge opus on harden axes w/ collector reuse); direct-Edit apply stays inline (tiny scope, BDR-061 carve-out conserved).
• audit-delta: axis audits dispatched opus (delta judgment); security-auditor sonnet; fix gate + markers = main.
• tour: orchestration main; security-auditor sonnet; cleanup audit = analyzer opus (or general-purpose model="opus"); fixes via sonnet appliers; doc axis → S2 pipeline; reconcile axis = deterministic bash (main).
• onboard: onboarder DISPATCHED sonnet (was inline); plugin S1 pipeline; analyzer opus; general-purpose audits model="opus" (kept); seo/geo → S3/S4 pipelines; security-auditor + doc pipeline as above; synthesis general-purpose model="opus"; backlog arbitration = main.
• client-handover: writer INLINE (orchestrator, main); its 8 skill-runner children model="fable"; handover S5 split (synth opus → render sonnet); gates all main. Excluded-from-gate skills (5, stay ungated): commit-change (propose opus / apply sonnet via model=; approval gates main); doc (S2: auditor opus → gate main → patcher sonnet); status (haiku); release-candidate (executor sonnet; version/when/push decisions main); refactor (refactorer sonnet). Memory/util skills (capitalize, close, prune-memory, reconcile, learn, profile, skills-perso, gitflow, deploy, plugin-check(S1), status): main loop by nature (conversation context, human gates, deterministic bash) — no dispatch changes except plugin-check S1. External/gstack skills (graphify, design-*, review, qa, ship, investigate…): NOT edited (external ownership, BDR-015 class) — covered by doctrine line; local wrapper skills only if locally owned. Verify ownership per file before touching (symlink → skip).

D3 — WAVES (each = gitflow feature branch, tests green, census extended)

W0 SEQUENCING: merge feature/opus-pin-audit-agents → develop (baseline, human gate). bugfix/seo-geo-integrity is ALREADY MERGED (correctness MAJOR — the TODO.md "UNMERGED" note was stale; verified 92301fe is an ancestor of develop AND this branch): no arbitrage, no W5 wait — one-line ancestry re-check in W0 + fix the stale TODO.md entry (reconcile-class correction). Absorb the analysis+plan files into the new feature branch. W1 NO-INHERIT ENFORCEMENT (small, high-value): code-review model= opus (ship-feature 6, init-project 10); client-handover-writer 8× model="fable"; doctrine line in model-gate.md + census locks (model="fable", model= presence per site); SDD sonnet prose → census lock. Prose sweep of stale BDR-066/076 claims touched by W1. W2 INLINE→DISPATCH CONVERSIONS: scaffolder (init 5 — liveness pings move to orchestrator; scaffolder loses PHASE 6 inline-load → init 5b owns README via S2), onboarder (onboard), doc-commit steps ×5 flows → S2 pipeline (gate hoist FIRST: /doc + flows own the validation gate; doc-syncer body loses its inline gate → census re-lock), S1 plugin split + gate hoist ×4 consumers. Data-flow pass per LRN-126 on each (fields enumerated in the wave's contract file before edits). W3 TIER MOVES: validator-analyzer → sonnet (pin + prose + census flip); commit-changer per-mode model= (2 sites + prose + census). W4 S5 handover split (synth opus / render sonnet) + PACKAGE re-enumeration. W5 S3/S4 seo/geo pipelines: worker(2-mode)/judge ×2, /seo /geo /harden /onboard rerouted, seo-data.test.sh moved locks, run-scoped signals handoff (RUNID + completeness sentinel + fail-closed judge), envelope/sentinel/score grammars verbatim, COVERAGE lines preserved. W6 DOCTRINE + CLOSE-OUT: model-gate.md rewrite (protects main loop; tier table; fable-dispatch doctrine), challenge-plan.md + plan-challenger ORCHESTRATOR PROTOCOL text (keep BDR-066+BDR-076 tokens per census, add BDR-077), census consolidation (model-routing new sections; every new agent: YAML G3, pin lock, dispatch-string lock, AskUserQuestion/Agent bans), LRN-113 whole-surface prose sweep (~30 refs list in analysis), BDR-077 + LRN entries + journal, EVAL-023-style post-merge ronde. Per-split planted-input smokes run IN their own waves (W2/W4/W5, merge gates) — W6 is the consolidated ronde only, never the first empirical proof of a split.

D4 — ZERO-REGRESSION PROTOCOL (every wave)

• Before edits: wave contract file (.claude/tasks/contracts/) with FILE SCOPE
  • acceptance criteria; challenge-plan on THIS plan (done once, below); verify-secure-loop on each wave's diff (verifier sonnet + security sonnet).
• Grammar diff-guard: grep -F each verbatim marker (analysis §CONSTRAINTS list) pre/post per wave — zero drift.
• Census: flip-test every NEW lock (plant violation → RED) before trusting.
• make test green per wave; no wave merges without human signal (gitflow).
• Rollback story (robustness MINOR — waves are textually interdependent, an early wave is NOT independently revertible after later merges): revert in REVERSE merge order, or revert the whole stack; never a mid-stack single revert. Pre-merge, the rollback unit is the wave branch.

CHALLENGE LOG (2026-07-19 — 3 blind lenses on plan v1)

• correctness: CONCERNS(2) — seo-geo-integrity phantom sequencing (fixed W0); commit-changer precedence ambiguity (fixed D1 + D0.2 citation + W3 smoke); 3 MINORs (S5 STEP 9 + W4 relock; plugin checkpoint seam; templater label) — all fixed in place.
• robustness: FATAL(4) — BLOCKER fable-dispatch unverified → CLOSED by spike (D0.2: resolves to claude-fable-5, enum-validated, loud failure); doc-commit in-thread contract (fixed S2: CHANGE SUMMARY crosses the report grammar); plugin-probe haiku contradiction (fixed: sonnet wave 1); signals handoff freshness (fixed S3: RUNID + sentinel + fail-closed); rollback claim (fixed D4).
• simplicity: CONCERNS(1) — 3-way seo/geo YAGNI → 2-way worker/judge (fixed S3/S4); twin-templater share (dissolved by 2-way; divergence stated); plugin gate ×4 copies → lib/plugin-gate.md include (fixed S1).
• Confirmation pass (fresh robustness challenger on v2): CONCERNS(2) — v1 fixes HOLD (doc-commit CHANGE SUMMARY, plugin-probe sonnet, rollback order, fable spike, RUNID); 2 new MAJORs + 1 MINOR opened by the revisions, all fixed in v3: (a) per-split planted-input smokes moved IN-WAVE as merge gates (W6 = ronde only); (b) dispatcher ERROR contract on judge failure (STOP, no templating/apply, retry once, escalate — pipeline never fails open); (c) transient signals files relocated to gitignored .audit/ (LRN-124). Protocol cap reached (1 re-challenge) → to the human gate.