Name the mechanism when a situation feels confusing. Use to cut through a tangle to the one causal handle. Separates surface symptoms from the underlying mechanism, the constraint causing it, the feedback loop keeping it alive, and the highest-leverage intervention point — then the action that changes the mechanism…
Fix only what failed — nothing else. Use after an attack surfaced defects, to prevent the model from rewriting everything for elegance. Returns the minimal delta under REMOVE / ADD / CHANGE, the patched artifact, the relevant retest result, and any defects still open.
Audit a prompt library as an operating system, not a pile of prompts. Use to find what a prompt collection over-does, under-does, and where it leaks into meta-looping. Classifies each prompt by the work it performs, finds overrepresented and missing moves, flags prompts that cause meta-loops or never produce…
Push the boundary after a safe version already exists. Use to find the boldest adjacent move that could multiply the result without turning it into fantasy. Returns the safe default, the boundary-pushing path, why it might work, why it might be stupid, the cheapest experiment that distinguishes them, the version to…
Create or update the canonical feature / test / defect ledger for a codebase. Use to turn a repo into a durable quality record that survives sessions. Maintains features (with evidence), tests (with status), and defects (with severity) via the ratchet CLI so quality state is queryable, not remembered.
Discover user-facing features, workflows, routes, APIs, configs, and tests in a codebase by evidence, not guesses. Use to turn an unfamiliar or under-documented repo into an inventory of what actually ships. Returns features with code evidence, undocumented screens/routes/workflows, APIs and state transitions needing…
Read the current ratchet state so the loop doesn't rediscover itself. Use to orient at the start of a session or between moves. Returns the current objective, active artifact, last decision, open defects, confidence, next recommended command, and a staleness warning if work changed without a compile.
Run a change (or an artifact) through a test harness built to embarrass it, then record the results as defects. Use instead of asking whether the work is good — never self-grade. Builds acceptance / happy-path / edge / abuse / ambiguity / regression tests plus fake-progress red flags, runs the artifact through them…