Code-Ledger: Skill for Claude Code

Scope check

A correct fix wrapped in unrelated churn is still a bad diff: harder to review, destructive to git blame, and far more likely to collide with another agent's in-flight work. This audits an existing diff and removes only the churn.

Two passes. The first is deterministic and comes from the index; the second is git. Do both — they catch different things.

This file is guidance, not enforcement

Nothing here blocks anything. The deterministic answer lives in CodeLedger and is the same whether or not an agent read this file; these steps just make sure somebody asks for it.

Pass 1 — what the index can prove

Declare the scope before the work if you can (codeledger task --scope <paths|symbols>), then ask:

codeledger scope "<the task>"          # add --json for the machine-readable form

Verdict	Meaning
CLEAN	every recorded change is code, inside scope
TEXT_ONLY	bytes moved in a file and no symbol moved with them — formatting or comment churn
OUT_OF_SCOPE	code changed that the declared scope does not cover
UNKNOWN	containment could not be proven — not a pass; the reasons are listed

A declared scope is exact: auth.py::authenticate does not authorize editing auth.py::helper; declaring auth.py does. affected_scope is what the change reaches downstream — being affected is never a licence to have edited it, and a claim is editing authority, not evidence that a change belonged to the task.

If nothing is recorded yet, record it first:

codeledger refresh --changed --agent <you> --request "<the task>"

Its effect is the aggregate view — symbols-changed, text-only, none — and scope.status is the older boundary check. codeledger scope is the per-file, per-symbol answer and is what to trust when they disagree in detail.

Pass 2 — what git can prove

git status --short
git diff --stat

# Files whose entire change is whitespace and blank lines:
for f in $(git diff --name-only); do
  [ -z "$(git diff -w --ignore-blank-lines -- "$f")" ] && echo "FORMATTING ONLY: $f"
done