Out of Scope

Pattern adapted from mattpocock/skills .out-of-scope/ directory. Used to stop re-suggesting features that have been deliberately rejected.

When /out-of-scope vs /adr vs /learn

Surface	What it captures	Consulted when
/out-of-scope	Rejected feature request + reasoning + escape hatches	Future feature triage / brainstorm sessions
/adr	Accepted technical decision + alternatives	Future architecture reviews
/learn	Cross-tenant pattern (failure mode, fix recipe)	Any session in any company on a similar problem

A request that becomes "we'll never build this for these reasons" → /out-of-scope. A decision that becomes "we picked X over Y because" → /adr. A failure mode that crystallized into "always check Z first" → /learn.

Step 0 — Resolve company + scope

$ARGUMENTS may include:

• [company] slug
• [scope=repo|co|hq]
• <one-line rejected request> — used as title and slug seed

Pick scope via AskUserQuestion if ambiguous:

Scope	Target dir	When
repo	<repo>/.out-of-scope/	Rejection only applies to that codebase
co	companies/{co}/knowledge/out-of-scope/	Rejection applies across the company's repos
hq	core/knowledge/public/out-of-scope/	Rejection is HQ-wide policy ("we will never adopt X")

Hidden .out-of-scope/ (with leading dot) for repo scope mirrors Matt's convention. The plain out-of-scope/ for co and hq because those are inside core/knowledge/, not at repo root, and hiddenness is unnecessary.

Step 1 — Check for duplicates

Before writing, search the target dir + parent scopes for an existing entry with a similar title:

ls <target>/*.md 2>/dev/null
grep -li "<keyword>" <target>/*.md <target-parent>/*.md 2>/dev/null

If a matching entry exists:

Option	Action
Append	Add a new "Prior requests" line to the existing file with today's date and a short quote
Update	Edit the existing file to refine reasoning (rare)
New entry	The existing entry is genuinely about a different idea — proceed to write

Present via AskUserQuestion.

Step 2 — Compute slug + filename

Title comes from $ARGUMENTS or via prompt. Slug rules:

• Lowercase
• Spaces / underscores → -
• Strip non-alphanumeric except -
• Cap at 60 chars
• Verb-first when possible (e.g., disable-batched-questions-in-grill, not grill-batched-question-disable)

Filename: <slug>.md. No numeric prefix (unlike ADRs — these aren't ordered).

Step 3 — Walk the user through the four sections

Use up to two AskUserQuestion calls (HQ batched-question policy: ≤4 questions per call) to collect:

1. Title — short noun phrase, sentence case
2. Rejection statement — one paragraph: what is being rejected and the boundary of the rejection
3. Why this is out of scope — reasoning, often citing existing escape hatches (the user's natural-language steering, an alternate skill that handles this, a manual workaround)
4. Prior requests — issue/PR/conversation refs if any (#<n>, Linear <co>-<n>, conversation date)

Step 4 — Write the markdown

Template:

# <Title>

<One-paragraph rejection statement: what's out of scope, and the boundary of the rejection.>

## Why this is out of scope

<Reasoning. Often points to escape hatches:
- The user can already steer this naturally
- Skill X already handles this surface
- The fix belongs at level Y, not in scope here>

<Optional: explain why the obvious-looking fix is wrong>

## Prior requests

- <issue/PR ref> — "<short quote>"
- <conversation date> — "<short quote>"

If no prior requests yet, the section can read (this is the first time we've considered + rejected this).

Step 5 — Cross-link

If the rejection relates to an accepted ADR, add a link in the ADR's Considered Options or Consequences section pointing to this out-of-scope file.

If the rejection emerged from a /brainstorm session, link the brainstorm artifact (personal/projects/{slug}/brainstorm.md or companies/{co}/projects/{slug}/brainstorm.md) in the rejection's "Prior requests" section.

Step 6 — Report

Print:

✓ Out-of-scope entry written: <target>/<slug>.md
  Title: <title>
  Scope: repo | co | hq
  Prior request count: <N>
  Linked ADRs: <list / none>

Consultation pattern (for other skills)

When /brainstorm, /prd, or any feature-triage skill receives a feature request, it should grep all three out-of-scope dirs (most-specific first):

# in repo scope
grep -li "<keyword>" \
  <repo>/.out-of-scope/*.md \
  companies/{co}/knowledge/out-of-scope/*.md \
  core/knowledge/public/out-of-scope/*.md \
  2>/dev/null

Match → surface the rejection summary + ask the user "is this different from <existing>, or are you re-litigating?" before proceeding.

This is the whole point of the graveyard. A graveyard nobody reads is just a folder.

Examples (copy from Matt's repo for shape)

• repos/public/skills/.out-of-scope/question-limits.md — rejecting a configurable cap on grill-me question count
• repos/public/skills/.out-of-scope/mainstream-issue-trackers-only.md — rejecting support for esoteric trackers
• repos/public/skills/.out-of-scope/setup-skill-verify-mode.md — rejecting a verify-mode for setup skills

Cross-references

• /adr — sibling for accepted decisions.
• /brainstorm, /prd — should consult /out-of-scope before adding ideas.
• /learn — for cross-tenant failure-mode patterns (different surface).
• Pattern source: mattpocock/skills .out-of-scope/ directory.