sdlc-studio: Instructions file for Codex

AGENTS.md

Guidance for coding agents working on this repository. Claude Code reads this via the @AGENTS.md import in CLAUDE.md; Codex, Copilot, Cursor, Gemini and others read it directly.

This file is always loaded. Keep it short enough to be read, and put nothing here that a command already prints. The pre-commit hook names every guard it runs, the rule it enforces, the offending line and the fix, so this file does not restate them.

Start here, every session

Do these four before acting, including after a context reset or compaction. They take under a minute and each one has cost a real sprint when skipped.

1. sdlc-studio/reviews/LATEST.md - what the last run landed and what it left owed.
2. /sdlc-studio status - pipeline state and the next step.
3. .claude/skills/sdlc-studio/lessons/_index.md - the cross-project lessons. Read them before any design decision, not after.
4. git fetch - a stale clone mints ids the remote already used and plans over artefacts somebody else changed.

The failure mode this repo actually has

Not ignorance. Rules that were read and then not followed. One session produced five instances: the lessons index went unread while the plan printed its digest; review prompts were hand-written though the shipped seat briefs exist; findings were not sorted into regression versus pre-existing; a backlog census was hand-scripted rather than taken from the tooling; and the full-suite-before-commit rule was broken one commit after being shipped, leaving main red for six commits.

So: when a rule matters, gate it in the command people actually run - LL0027 in the lessons registry. Adding a line here is the weakest available fix, and a rule stated here with no gate behind it should be read as a known-weak one.

What will refuse you

These block. Everything else in this file is guidance.

Gate	Refuses
pre-commit + commit-msg hooks	any lane .githooks/pre-commit --list or .githooks/commit-msg --list prints; the message rule (a multi-id subject with no Refs: trailer) and the collapsed-suite check are lanes there too
pre-push hook	a red boundary gate (gate.py --boundary push, or release for a tag): a push runs the full suite once plus the core gate lanes, and a tag adds the slow release lanes; python3 tools/gate_timing.py estimate --suite boundary-push --warn-seconds 0 prints the current figure
sprint plan	a batch whose units lack Affects: or Points:, or exceed the split threshold
transition -> Done	a story whose executable ACs have not passed
transition -> Fixed	a bug nothing speaks for (no ticked criterion, no Verify: line), or whose recorded verify_ac run is red
sprint close	an uncommitted change to a file a batch unit declares (uncovered units, unanswered items and failing lanes are recorded as known issues on the report, not refused)
critic.py brief	a unit whose author has recorded no self-check of its current diff with critic.py self-check record (review.author_self_check: block)
sprint sign	a report that is not the run's, a page that no longer re-derives to what was filed, a tree changed since the close, or a principal who is a unit's author or a reviewer recorded on it