--- name: hashgraph-online/claude-md-drift-check source: https://app.decimal.ai/s/hashgraph-online-claude-md-drift-check@1/SKILL.md source_sha256: d6cab48938f3 --- # CLAUDE.md Drift-Check Skill > The instruction file is alias-resolved per > [`skills/_shared/instruction-file-resolution.md`](../_shared/instruction-file-resolution.md): > `CLAUDE.md` (Claude Code / Cursor IDE) wins ties; `AGENTS.md` (Codex CLI) is > picked up as a transparent alias when `CLAUDE.md` is absent. The resolved > path and kind are surfaced in the JSON output (`resolved_path`, > `resolved_kind`). ## Status PHASE 1 IMPLEMENTED (2026-04-19). Session-end opt-in quality gate. Upstream of `/close` commit preparation, downstream of `vault-sync`. ## Why this exists `CLAUDE.md` is narrative SSOT for a repo's Session Config and project context. It decays quickly when surrounding state changes — paths get renamed, project counts shift, issues close, session files get pruned in digests. The drift-cluster closed by agents/vault#57 (3 items in one sweep) was the 4th incidence of the `issue-description-drift-stale-filecount` learning. Manual curation does not scale; this skill turns drift detection into a repeatable gate. ## Checks | # | Check | What it scans | How | |---|-------|---------------|-----| | 1 | `path-resolver` | Every absolute path `/Users/…` in scope files | `existsSync(path)` | | 2 | `project-count-sync` | Hardcoded "N registered" / "N projects" claims next to `01-projects/` | compare to `ls -d 01-projects/*/` | | 3 | `issue-reference-freshness` | `#NN` in forward-looking sections (What's Next, Backlog, Open Issues, Offene Themen, Todo, Next Steps) | `glab issue view NN --repo ` | | 4 | `session-file-existence` | `50-sessions/YYYY-MM-DD-*.md` references anywhere in scope | `existsSync(vault/50-sessions/)` | | 5 | `command-count` | "N commands" / "N /commands" claims in prose | compare to `ls commands/*.md \| wc -l`; skipped if no `commands/` dir | | 6 | `session-config-parity` | Top-level keys under `## Session Config` in `CLAUDE.md` / `AGENTS.md` | diff against `docs/session-config-template.md`; a missing MANDATORY (minimal-baseline) key is an error, a missing OPT-IN-baseline-only key is a warning | | 7 | `vault-dir-parity` | `vault-integration.vault-dir` in BOTH `CLAUDE.md` AND `AGENTS.md` | reuse `_parseVaultIntegration`; flag when the two files disagree | | 8 | `generated-rule-staleness` *(WARN only)* | `.claude/rules/*.md` with `auto-generated: true` frontmatter | extract `learning-key`; WARN when the key is absent from `.orchestrator/metrics/learnings.jsonl` or its learning's `expires_at` is in the past; skipped silently when no auto-generated rules exist | | 9 | `rule-scoping` | `.claude/rules/*.md` frontmatter + `## See Also` footers + `.claude/rules/.md` citations in `CLAUDE.md`/`AGENTS.md` | five probes: `paths:` frontmatter (error), cited-but-missing rule citations (error), zero-match `globs:` patterns (warn), foreign PascalCase glob tokens (warn), unreadable rule files (warn — surfaced instead of silently skipped); skipped silently when `.claude/rules/` is absent | | 10 | `docs-parity` | `docs/components.md` count-claims, Session Config key parity (`docs/session-config-template.md` vs `docs/session-config-reference.md`), `.claude/metrics/` stale-path references in `docs/*.md` / `docs/examples/*.md` | three sub-checks (a/b/c) — see below; skipped silently when `docs/components.md` is absent | Check 3 deliberately scopes to forward-looking sections. Mentions inside "Recently Closed", "Decisions", "Archive", etc. describe history and must not be flagged. Check 5 counts `*.md` files directly inside `commands/` (non-recursive, non-hidden). The `commands/` directory is resolved relative to `VAULT_DIR` by default; use `--commands-dir ` to override. Check 6 (issue #30; severity split per #785) extracts the YAML block under `## Session Config` from both the canonical template (`docs/session-config-template.md` by default, override with `--config-template`) and the resolved local instruction file — reading the template TWICE, once per occurrence: `{ occurrence: 'first' }` reaches the "Full minimal baseline" (the 7 schema-mandatory keys), `{ occurrence: 'last' }` reaches the "Full opt-in baseline" (the full key catalog, a strict superset of the minimal block). A template key missing from the local file is a `session-config-parity` **error** when it belongs to the minimal-baseline set, and a **warning** when it is opt-in-baseline-only — a consumer repo that legitimately does not adopt an opt-in feature (e.g. no `handover-gate`) must not go red; only the true 7-key mandatory contract does. When the template carries a single `## Session Config` heading (no separate opt-in block), `'first'` and `'last'` resolve to the same block and every key is treated as mandatory, preserving prior behaviour for single-block templates. Both fenced YAML (```` ```yaml ... ``` ````) and raw YAML body (up to next `## ` heading) are accepted. The check skips gracefully when the template file is absent, when no instruction file is detected, or when explicitly disabled via `--skip-session-config-parity`. The parity set is **template-driven**: every column-0 YAML key under `## Session Config` in the template (across both occurrences) is checked. As of the gsd Pattern Adoption Quick-Wins bundle (PRD 2026-05-22, issues #517–#521), the template-side keys include four opt-in top-level blocks: - `state-md-lock` (Pattern 1 / #518) — mechanical STATE.md write lock - `slopcheck` (Pattern 2 / #520) — opt-in package legitimacy gate - `templates-first` (Pattern 3 / #519) — gh/glab template-read enforcement hook - `verification-auto-fix` (Pattern 4 / #521) — opt-in auto-fix retry loop after Quality-Gate fail A local CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md that omits any of these now surfaces a `session-config-parity` **warning** (not an error) — they are opt-in-baseline-only keys, so omitting them never trips `mode: hard`, and never blocks `autonomous-gated` skill-evolution's `runConfigValidationGate()` (which runs the checker with `--mode hard` and reads only `errors[]`). Check 7 (issue #600) is the **only** check that intentionally reads BOTH instruction files rather than the single alias-resolved one. The alias rule (CLAUDE.md wins ties, AGENTS.md is the Codex alias) means `resolveInstructionFile()` picks exactly one — so a repo carrying both files can silently let `AGENTS.md` drift out of sync with `CLAUDE.md`. A sibling project ran for weeks with a correct `vault-integration.vault-dir` in `CLAUDE.md` and a dead path in `AGENTS.md`. Check 7 reads `vault-integration.vault-dir` from each file (reusing the `_parseVaultIntegration` parser from `scripts/lib/config/vault-integration.mjs` — no hand-rolled YAML) and flags a `vault-dir-parity` error when the two values diverge (the error is attributed to `AGENTS.md`, the secondary alias, and names both values). The check skips gracefully when only one instruction file is present (nothing to compare), when neither file declares a `vault-integration:` block, or when explicitly disabled via `--skip-vault-dir-parity`. Two files that both omit `vault-dir` (both unset) agree and pass. Check 9 (`rule-scoping`) validates `.claude/rules/*.md` frontmatter against the `scripts/lib/rule-loader.mjs` contract, catching the class of defect where a rule silently drifts out of the activation pipeline the loader actually implements. Four probes: **(1) paths-presence** — a top-level `paths:` frontmatter key is not a key `rule-loader.mjs` recognises (it only reads `globs:`), so a rule with `paths:` silently loads ALWAYS-ON regardless of intended file scope; flagged as an error. **(2) cited-but-missing** — `(a)` `.claude/rules/.md` citations inside `CLAUDE.md`/`AGENTS.md` that don't resolve to a file on disk, and `(b)` bare `.md` tokens in a rule's own `## See Also` footer that don't exist as sibling rule files (tokens carrying a path separator, e.g. `../../skills/_shared/state-ownership.md`, are cross-directory references and explicitly out of scope); both flagged as errors. **(3) zero-match-globs** — a `globs:` pattern matching zero files in `git ls-files` (falls back to a manual directory walk when git is unavailable); flagged as a WARNING, not an error, because library/exemplar repos legitimately carry dead stack rules (this repo alone carries ~37 by design — Swift/Next.js/Supabase rules with no matching files in a pure-Node-ESM codebase). **(4) foreign-glob** — a glob pattern containing a PascalCase product-like token (regex `[A-Z][a-z]+[A-Z]`, e.g. `WalkAITalkieTests`) — a likely copy-paste leftover from another project's rule scope; flagged as a WARNING. Glob matching reuses the same picomatch-with-inline-fallback resolution `scripts/lib/rule-loader.mjs` uses (`parseGlobsFrontmatter` is imported directly; the picomatch resolution itself is duplicated locally since `rule-loader.mjs` does not export a public matcher function). The check is skipped silently (no `checks_run` entry, no `checks_skipped` entry) when `.claude/rules/` is absent, or explicitly via `--skip-rule-scoping`. Check 10 (`docs-parity`, issue #780) validates the public docs surface against live repository state via three sub-checks, all reported under the single `docs-parity` check id: **(a) count-claims** — `docs/components.md`'s own heading counts ("## Skills (N user-facing)", "## Commands (N)", "## Agents (N typed sub-agents)", "## Hook event types (N)") are compared against the SAME actual on-disk derivation the surface-count family (Check 5) uses (`countSkills`/the commands-dir listing/`countAgents`/`readHookCounts`) — NOT Check 5's `claimRe` regexes, which are tuned for CLAUDE.md/README prose phrasing and verifiably do not match `components.md`'s own heading convention; a dedicated set of regexes tailored to the doc's actual authored structure is used instead. **(b) config-block-parity** — top-level Session Config keys documented in `docs/session-config-template.md` (opt-in baseline, via the Check 6 'last'-occurrence extractor) are compared against `docs/session-config-reference.md`; a key is considered documented in the reference when it appears in a `yaml` fence (any indent), a `##`/`###`/`####` heading, or the first cell of a markdown table row (`` | `key-name` | ... ``) — the reference's dominant documentation shape is one table row per field, so a naive fence-only extraction under-counts what it actually documents. Missing keys surface as `docs-parity` errors attributed to `docs/session-config-reference.md`. **(c) metrics-path-liveness** — any `.claude/metrics/` path reference (stale; canonical is `.orchestrator/metrics/`) found in root `docs/*.md` or `docs/examples/*.md` surfaces as an error at its exact file/line. The whole check is skipped silently (no `checks_run` entry, no `checks_skipped` entry) when `docs/components.md` is absent, or explicitly via `--skip-docs-parity`. ## Files - `checker.mjs` — pure Node ESM, no runtime deps. Reads scope files, runs enabled checks, emits JSON on stdout. - `checker.sh` — POSIX shim. Resolves `VAULT_DIR`, execs Node. No `pnpm install` needed (zero deps). - `package.json` — declares Node engine; no dependencies. - `tests/` — vitest suite added in Quality wave. ## Invocation ```bash VAULT_DIR=/path/to/vault bash checker.sh --mode warn ``` CLI flags (all optional): | Flag | Default | Effect | |------|---------|--------| | `--mode ` | `warn` | `hard` → exit 1 on errors; `warn` → exit 0, errors in JSON; `off` → short-circuit to `status: skipped-mode-off` | | `--repo ` | derived from `git remote get-url origin` | Override for Check 3's `glab issue view --repo` | | `--include-path ` | resolved instruction file (`CLAUDE.md` or `AGENTS.md` per alias rule), `_meta/**/*.md` | Repeatable. Scope files, relative to `VAULT_DIR`. Defaults are seeded post-resolution so Codex-only repos (`AGENTS.md`) are scanned out of the box. | | `--skip-path-resolver` | off | Disable Check 1 | | `--skip-project-count` | off | Disable Check 2 | | `--skip-issue-refs` | off | Disable Check 3 (also auto-skipped if `glab` not on PATH) | | `--skip-session-files` | off | Disable Check 4 | | `--skip-command-count` | off | Disable Check 5 | | `--skip-session-config-parity` | off | Disable Check 6 | | `--skip-vault-dir-parity` | off | Disable Check 7 | | `--skip-generated-rule-staleness` | off | Disable Check 8 | | `--skip-rule-scoping` | off | Disable Check 9 | | `--skip-docs-parity` | off | Disable Check 10 | | `--commands-dir ` | `/commands` | Override path to `commands/` directory for Check 5 | | `--config-template ` | `/docs/session-config-template.md` | Override path to the canonical Session Config template for Check 6 | Environment: - `VAULT_DIR` — project root to scan. Defaults to `$PWD`. Can also be passed as positional arg 1. ## JSON output ```json { "status": "ok|invalid|skipped|skipped-mode-off", "mode": "hard|warn|off", "vault_dir": "", "resolved_path": "", "resolved_kind": "claude|agents|null", "files_scanned": N, "checks_run": ["path-resolver", "project-count-sync", "issue-reference-freshness", "session-file-existence", "command-count", "session-config-parity", "vault-dir-parity", "generated-rule-staleness", "rule-scoping", "docs-parity"], "checks_skipped": [": "], "errors": [ { "check": "", "file": "", "line": N, "message": "", "extracted": "" } ], "warnings": [ { "check": "", "file": "", "line": N, "message": "", "extracted": "" } ], "command_count": { "actual": N } } ``` The `resolved_path` / `resolved_kind` pair surfaces the alias resolution outcome (issue #33 AC2) so users on either platform can audit which instruction file the checker scanned. `kind: 'claude'` for `CLAUDE.md`, `kind: 'agents'` for `AGENTS.md`, `null` when neither was found. When `command-count` fires a drift error, the error object also carries `"command_count": { "actual": N, "claimed": M }` for easy programmatic diffing. Exit codes: - `0` — no errors, or errors present but `mode=warn`, or short-circuit (mode=off / no scope files) - `1` — errors present and `mode=hard` - `2` — invocation or infra error (missing `VAULT_DIR`, unreadable file, malformed glob) ## Session Config block (opt-in) In repo-level `CLAUDE.md` under `## Session Config`: ```yaml drift-check: enabled: true mode: warn # hard | warn | off include-paths: - CLAUDE.md - AGENTS.md - _meta/**/*.md check-path-resolver: true check-project-count-sync: true check-issue-reference-freshness: true check-session-file-existence: true check-command-count: true check-session-config-parity: true check-vault-dir-parity: true check-generated-rule-staleness: true check-rule-scoping: true check-docs-parity: true ``` When `drift-check.enabled` is `false` or the block is absent, the session-end phase is a no-op. ## Invocation points ### Session-End Phase 2.2 — opt-in quality gate - Trigger: after Phase 2.1 `vault-sync`, before commit prep - Behavior: full scan of the configured `include-paths` - Error handling: `mode=hard` exits non-zero and session-end converts errors into carryover + continue; `mode=warn` surfaces in quality-gate report; `mode=off` skipped silently - Rationale: drift is narrative-level; vault-sync catches frontmatter-level. The two gates are complementary. ### Future: wave-executor (not implemented) A lightweight variant could run after Impl-Polish when `CLAUDE.md` is edited mid-session. Out of scope for Phase 1. ## Design notes - **No zod.** Output is emission-only, input is plain text. Pure stdlib keeps dep footprint zero. - **No frontmatter parsing.** Scope files are scanned as Markdown prose; `vault-sync` owns frontmatter validation. - **Code-fence aware.** Path extraction skips triple-backtick blocks to avoid flagging example paths. Issue-ref extraction does NOT skip fences (configs and snippets often cite real live issues). - **Section-aware Check 3.** A `#NN` mention in "Recently Closed" is context; the same mention in "What's Next" is drift. The checker tracks the current `##` heading to decide. - **`glab` optional.** If `glab` is missing or not authenticated, Check 3 degrades to `checks_skipped` with a clear reason — never blocks. ## Relationship to vault-sync | Aspect | vault-sync | drift-check | |--------|-----------|-------------| | Target | Frontmatter + wiki-links in vault/*.md | Narrative drift in CLAUDE.md / _meta/*.md | | Schema source | Vendored Zod from baseline | None — regex + filesystem checks | | Deps | `zod`, `yaml` | None (stdlib only) | | Session-end phase | 2.1 | 2.2 | | Default mode | `warn` | `warn` | They are siblings, not overlapping. vault-sync is the structural gate; drift-check is the narrative gate.