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 phaseContext enrichment for agentic AI application development using LangChain, Vercel AI SDK, and assistant-ui. Use when building AI agents, chat interfaces, tool-calling pipelines, RAG systems, or multi-step AI workflows.
Deep-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.
REST and GraphQL API design patterns, OpenAPI/Swagger specifications, versioning strategies, and authentication patterns. Use when designing APIs, reviewing API contracts, evaluating API technologies, or implementing API endpoints.
System architecture patterns including monolith, microservices, event-driven, and serverless, with C4 modeling, scalability strategies, and technology selection criteria. Use when designing system architectures, evaluating patterns, or planning scalability.
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.
Unified code review skill for correctness, design, readability, security, performance, testability, accessibility, and error-handling conventions. Use when reviewing changes, enforcing quality standards, or identifying technical debt.
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