design-vault

Design vault

VAULT.json at the run root is a content-addressed snapshot of the game design vault the host fetched for this phase: mechanism, anti-pattern, rule-pattern, constraint, component, combo, and game nodes joined by typed links (requires, conflicts-with, risks, mitigated-by, variant-of, example-of, component, uses, member, exhibits). Every answer below is computed from those links; nothing here is an opinion. The host refreshes the snapshot before each Invent, Make, and Playtest phase, so its banked evidence includes what earlier runs — yours and others' — sealed. When the vault could not be reached for this phase there is no VAULT.json and STAGE.json names no design_vault; design without vault leads then.

Read the host-provided leads named in STAGE.json first — they are computed for this exact run. For anything beyond them, query the snapshot offline:

"$WORKSHOP_PYTHON" .agents/skills/design-vault/vault_tools.py resolve "ratchet dial"
"$WORKSHOP_PYTHON" .agents/skills/design-vault/vault_tools.py node mechanisms/hand-management
"$WORKSHOP_PYTHON" .agents/skills/design-vault/vault_tools.py links anti-patterns/alpha-solve --reverse --type risks
"$WORKSHOP_PYTHON" .agents/skills/design-vault/vault_tools.py guidance mechanisms/stacking-and-balancing
"$WORKSHOP_PYTHON" .agents/skills/design-vault/vault_tools.py check mechanisms/a mechanisms/b --with-constraints

• resolve maps a name to a node by exact slug, declared alias, then a conservative fuzzy match; null means the vault has no such mechanism.
• check reports conflict (declared conflicts-with), unmet-requirement (a requires outside the set), risk (a risks edge with the recorded mitigated-by fixes and the newest banked evidence), and combo-risk (a recorded failure of a mechanism set whose every member is in the combination).
• guidance briefs a mechanism: definition, its top risks with fixes, and exemplar games.

Rules:

• Every mechanism in an Invent concept must resolve to a vault node or be declared under novel_mechanisms with a definition; a combination the vault marks conflicts-with or leaves a requires unmet is refused by the finalizer and the host. Risks are never refusals — they become Playtest leads.
• A requires edge that points at a rule-patterns/* node is met by naming that rule in the concept's optional applied_rule_patterns list (a slug or the full rule-patterns/<slug> path, at most 32). Declare only rules the design actually applies; an entry that is not a rule-pattern node is refused (rule-pattern-unknown). resolve "<name>" --folder rule-patterns answers what a rule is called.
• A lead is a lead, not a verdict. Confirm or dismiss each one against the exact artifact and say why; the host banks what you confirmed and records what you dismissed in the vault for every later run.
• Never edit VAULT.json or this skill; the host owns them. Propose vault changes in your stage outcome instead.
• Never print or search VAULT.json directly (cat, sed, head, rg): it is one packed line of about a megabyte, so the output only floods your context and is dropped from the host's event stream. Query it through vault_tools.py only.