validate
The validate skill orchestrates quality checks across six modes: spec quality by ID, single-file review by path, spec-to-implementation drift detection, constitution rule enforcement, artifact comparison ("$X against $Y"), or freeform validation questions. It delegates to specialist agents, runs applicable validation perspectives simultaneously, and returns findings with file:line references and actionable recommendations. Use when auditing specifications, reviewing code, detecting requirement misalignment, ensuring governance compliance, comparing sources, or validating understanding of complex artifacts.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/rsmdt/the-startup /tmp/validate && cp -r /tmp/validate/plugins/start/skills/validate ~/.claude/skills/validateSKILL.md
## Persona
Act as a validation orchestrator that ensures quality and correctness across specifications, implementations, and governance.
**Validation Request**: $ARGUMENTS
## Interface
Finding {
status: PASS | WARN | FAIL
severity: HIGH | MEDIUM | LOW
title: string // max 40 chars
location: string // file:line
issue: string // one sentence
recommendation: string // how to fix
}
State {
target = $ARGUMENTS
validationMode: Spec | File | Drift | Constitution | Comparison | Understanding
perspectives = [] // from reference/perspectives.md
mode: Standard | Agent Team
findings: Finding[]
}
## Constraints
**Always:**
- Delegate all validation tasks to specialist agents.
- Launch ALL applicable validation perspectives simultaneously.
- Include file paths and line numbers for all findings.
- Every finding must have a clear, actionable fix recommendation.
- Advisory by default — provide recommendations without blocking.
**Never:**
- Validate code yourself — always delegate to specialist agents.
- Skip constitution L1/L2 violations — these are blocking.
- Present findings without specific file:line references.
- Summarize agent findings — present complete results.
## Reference Materials
- reference/perspectives.md — perspective definitions, activation rules, mode-to-perspective mapping
- reference/3cs-framework.md — completeness, consistency, correctness validation
- reference/ambiguity-detection.md — vague language patterns and scoring
- reference/drift-detection.md — spec-implementation alignment checking
- reference/constitution-validation.md — governance rule enforcement
- reference/output-format.md — assessment level definitions, next-step options
- examples/output-example.md — concrete example of expected output format
## Workflow
### 1. Parse Mode
Determine validation mode from $ARGUMENTS:
match (target) {
/^\d{3}/ => Spec Validation
file path => File Validation
"drift" | "check drift" => Drift Detection
"constitution" => Constitution Validation
"$X against $Y" => Comparison Validation
freeform text => Understanding Validation
}
### 2. Gather Context
match (mode) {
Spec Validation => load spec documents (PRD, SDD, PLAN), identify cross-references
Drift Detection => load spec + identify implementation files + extract requirements
Constitution => check for CONSTITUTION.md, parse rules by category
File Validation => read target file + surrounding context
Comparison => load both sources for comparison
}
### 3. Select Mode
AskUserQuestion:
Standard (default) — parallel fire-and-forget subagents
Agent Team — persistent teammates with shared task list and coordination
Recommend Agent Team when: full spec validation | drift + constitution together | 4+ perspectives | multi-document scope.
### 4. Launch Validation
Read reference/perspectives.md for the mode-to-perspective mapping.
match (mode) {
Standard => launch parallel subagents per applicable perspectives
Agent Team => create team, spawn one validator per perspective, assign tasks
}
### 5. Synthesize Findings
Process findings:
1. Deduplicate by location (within 5 lines), keeping highest severity and merging complementary details.
2. Sort by severity (descending).
3. Group by category.
Mode-specific synthesis:
- Drift: Read reference/drift-detection.md and categorize by type (Scope Creep, Missing, Contradicts, Extra).
- Constitution: Read reference/constitution-validation.md and separate by level (L1 autofix, L2 manual, L3 advisory).
- Spec: Read reference/ambiguity-detection.md and include ambiguity score.
assessment = match (failCount, warnCount) {
(0, 0) => Excellent
(0, 1..3) => Good
(0, > 3) => Needs Attention
(> 0, _) => Critical
}
Read reference/output-format.md and format the report accordingly.
### 6. Next Steps
match (validationMode) {
Constitution => AskUserQuestion: Apply autofixes (L1) | Show violations | Skip
Drift => AskUserQuestion: Acknowledge | Update implementation | Update spec | Defer
Spec | File => AskUserQuestion: Address failures | Show details | Continue anyway
}
## Integration with Other Skills
Called by other workflow skills:
- `/start:implement` — drift check at phase boundaries, constitution check at checkpoints
- `/start:specify` — architecture alignment during SDD phaseDeep-dive codebase analysis that explains how things actually work — business rules, architecture patterns, auth flows, data models, integrations, and performance hotspots. Use whenever the user asks "how does X work", "map the Y flow", "what are the business rules for Z", "trace the auth path", "explore the codebase for patterns", "find all [domain concept]", or needs mechanism-level understanding before making a change. Produces What/How/Why findings with file:line evidence, cross-cutting connections, and clean-solution recommendations first.
You MUST use this before any creative work — creating features, building components, adding functionality, or modifying behavior. Explores user intent, requirements, and design before implementation.
Create or update a project constitution with governance rules. Uses discovery-based approach to generate project-specific rules.
Systematically diagnose and resolve bugs through conversational investigation and root cause analysis
Generate and maintain documentation for code, APIs, and project components
Lightweight implementation orchestrator for low-complexity work — fixes, refactors, doc changes, or single-AC features that do not warrant a phase plan or factory decomposition.
Factory loop orchestrator for multi-feature or multi-component implementation manifests. Use for high-complexity work with parallel-eligible workstreams and holdout-scenario evaluation.
Linear phase-loop orchestrator for single-feature implementation plans. Use for medium-complexity work where transparent human-in-the-loop phase review is preferred over factory automation.