prepare-digest-delta

Prepare the Repo Digest delta (apply-at-merge)

You just implemented and evidenced a ticket. You already know exactly what changed — so you are the cheapest place to write down how the Repo Digest should move and which feature this ticket ships. This skill records that as a single, structured evidence row. It is INERT: nothing is applied now. The factory's merge step reads this row post-review and applies it deterministically (no new agent call). If the ticket is rejected, it never merges, so this prepared delta never pollutes the digest.

This is the prepare half of prepare-at-delivery / apply-at-merge. Recording the delta here — instead of running a fresh claude -p on every merge — is the whole cost win. Keep it cheap: you are summarising a diff you already have, not re-deriving it.

Steps

1. Decide what the digest should say now. For each Repo Digest section your change makes stale (architecture, key flows, conventions, surface area, gotchas, …), write the SHORT updated prose for that section — only sections you actually changed. If the change is small and touches no section's narrative, you may record zero sections (the merge will still stamp freshness).

2. Name the feature this ticket ships. One feature note: its name, a one-line summary, and — if you know it — the scopeNode and provenance (e.g. the epic ref). This is what the merge advances/adds to shipped.

3. Record ONE evidence row via the Dispatch MCP delivery-evidence path (attach_delivery_evidence / the record-evidence flow), evidence_type: manual_note, whose summary is exactly the marker line below — the marker, a single space, then a compact one-line JSON payload:

   GAFFER_DIGEST_DELTA_V1 {"repo":"<repo-name>","sections":[{"section":"<digest section>","content":"<updated prose>"}],"feature":{"name":"<feature name>","summary":"<one line>","scopeNode":"<id or omit>","provenance":"<epic ref or omit>"}}
   

   • The summary MUST start with GAFFER_DIGEST_DELTA_V1 (marker + one space).
   • The payload MUST be valid one-line JSON. sections may be []; feature may be omitted if this ticket ships no discrete feature.
   • Record at most one such row per ticket. If you record more than one, the merge uses the LAST — so re-record a corrected full payload rather than a partial patch.

4. Stop. Do not call any digest or feature tool yourself — applying is the merge's job, and only the merge's, so a rejected delivery is never applied. Once this and your AC evidence are recorded you are done — the runner records the delivery and submits for review.