Ultraqa

This is a Hermes-native ultraqa workflow skill.

Why This Exists

ultraqa exists to keep verification work explicit, evidence-backed, and inside the Hermes/executor boundary instead of relying on ad hoc chat narration.

Do Not Use When

• The request is casual chat, a status-only acknowledgement, or another workflow has stronger routing evidence.
• The user needs implementation, review, CI, merge, or external publishing evidence that has not been delegated or observed.

Examples

Good example:

• Prompt: $ultraqa test the setup wizard with hostile install paths, stale config, and missing PATH cases.
• Expected behavior: Generate adversarial QA scenarios, expected signals, observed results, and fix-or-retry routing.
• Why: The request asks for verification pressure and hostile scenarios.

Bad example:

• Prompt: ultraqa: treat casual chat or unaccepted work as if this workflow already produced verified results.
• Expected behavior: Ask a clarification question or route to a narrower workflow instead of forcing ultraqa.
• Why: The request lacks the required inputs or would overclaim work that Hermes did not observe.

Completion Checklist

• The scenario, expected behavior, observed result, and pass/fail basis are named.
• Proposed fixes are separated from observed QA evidence.
• Missing or failed verification routes back to plan, fix, or a narrower test.

Recovery Notes

• If the expected behavior is unclear, route back to plan before running adversarial checks.
• If verification fails, return to fix or research with the failed signal instead of advancing.

Workflow Lane

• Current lane: Coding handoff (idea-to-deploy, llm-app-dev, cto-loop, deploy-and-monitor, code-review, build-failure-triage, verification-gate, security-safety-review, +28 more) - coding owners, handoffs, review, CI, and merge evidence.
• If intent belongs to another lane, hand back to oh-my-hermes or name the adjacent workflow.
• Shared product, routing, compatibility, and evidence rules: omh-routing/references/skill-common-rail.md.

Use When

Use when the task needs adversarial test scenarios, verification, and fix loops.

Strong routing signals: `ultraqa`, `$ultraqa`, `adversarial qa`, `hostile scenarios`, `e2e qa`, `real-world qa`, `qa scenario`, `release qa`, `敵対的QA`, `リリース前QA`, `障害シナリオ`, `장애 상황`, `쿠버네티스 장애`, `적절히 진단`, `검증 체크리스트`, `릴리즈 전 gate`, `对抗式测试`, `发布前测试`, `故障场景`

Catalog Metadata

Category: verification Phase: qa Hermes role: reviewer Quality tier: scenario-gated Reasoning demand: standard

Quality bar:

• Do not start this engine as an automatic continuation of another skill's output: an accepted plan, a clarified brief, or a routing recommendation is planning evidence, not permission. Unless the user explicitly invoked this engine themselves, restate in one line what will start (engine, scope, selected executor) and wait for the user's explicit go-ahead first.
• A mid-run user message is an interjection, not a stop: answer it briefly and, in the same reply, continue the run — re-read the phase todo when one is active and dispatch or advance the next pending step, or name the armed wait it is waiting on -- handle, bound completion signal, deadline -- instead of re-reading status. Only the user's explicit stop or cancel, or the engine's own completion gate, ends the run; when the interjection changes scope, say so and update the declared plan or todo instead of silently abandoning it. A mid-run message is the latest steering for the active task, not automatically a replacement objective: it replaces the objective when the user says so and steers the current one otherwise.
• A follow-up that needs new authority, materially expands the scope, or changes external state not already authorized is described first and started only on the user's approval: the turn ends by naming that next action and asking whether to take it, as one question carrying the choices the user has, never by declaring what will not be done; persistence never broadens the authorized scope. A refused escalation is answered the same way, with a safer alternative inside the boundary or the authorization the boundary asks for — never a workaround or an indirect execution.
• The closing brief scales to the change: one or two sentences plus the observed validation for a simple change, more only when the complexity earns it. Lead with the result or decision, in the user's words; omit abandoned approaches unless they explain a tradeoff the reader needs; narrate no internal bookkeeping (todo transitions, waits). When the work stops at a boundary or at a decision the user owns, end with the next action offered as a question, and state what was left undone as the option it leaves open, never as a refusal. Required closing lines stay outside this scaling: the observed run summary, and any prepared-not-observed or unmerged work, are stated whatever the brief's length.
• Generate hostile scenarios from changed behavior and known risk areas.
• Report pass/fail evidence separately from proposed fixes.
• For native omh_todo checkpoints, load the todo-checklist closing recipe; record then recall this qa declaration. Stored declarations are not proof.
• Delegate code mutations discovered by QA to the selected coding executor.
• A check no automation can hold gets a manual test guide, never a done claim: load references/manual-test-guide.md for the step shape (setup, do, expect, broken), the four reasons a step may stay manual, and why it stays prepared_not_observed until a run records a fresh observed_check_results/v1. code-story phase VI. Manual test guide; rendered surfaces go to visual-qa.
• For probes that must run in Hermes-owned isolation or outlive this session, load references/board-fanin.md: one probe row per scenario in its own worktree, one fixer row whose parents is every probe, re-verification through the review lane, and findings only through bounded readback.
• When Hermes owns the coding path, read hermes_coding_harness/v1 before saying build, verification, review, docs, or PR-prep evidence exists.

Handoff policy:

Hermes can design scenarios and report observed results; code fixes discovered by QA should become selected executor/runtime handoffs.

Required inputs:

• changed behavior
• acceptance criteria
• known risk areas

Expected outputs:

• adversarial scenarios
• pass/fail evidence
• fix recommendations

Artifact expectations:

• QA scenario evidence
• runtime verification summary

Safety rules:

• Do not imply hidden Hermes runtime behavior.
• Use the smallest verification that can prove the claim.

Runtime Evidence

Preferred harness for this skill: qa-specialist.

omh runtime record --skill ultraqa --harness qa-specialist --status started

Record observed delegation results; otherwise return not_available or not_observed. Prepared OMH routing is not execution, review, CI, merge-readiness, or merge evidence.

• When wrapper metadata includes memory_review_card/v1 or handoff_context_pack/v1, treat it as reviewed OMH-local or wrapper-supplied context only. Use conflict-free context summaries to shape plans and handoffs, but do not claim Hermes internal memory was read or changed. Preserve workflow intent and stop conditions; verify before claiming completion. Reply in the user's own words and the host's own voice: its SOUL.md persona owns reply language, tone, speech level, and sentence endings, progress updates included (where it sets no language, use the one the user wrote in), and OMH shapes structure and content only; OMH's record terms (surface, lane, wrapper, handoff, evidence boundary, not_observed) stay in records and tool calls, never in the sentence the user reads unless they ask about one; and when a stop condition or a decision the user owns ends the turn, offer the next action as a question rather than declaring what will not be done.

Use Hermes-native subagent/delegation features when available: native subagents -> Hermes delegation when available, otherwise sequential lanes.

Shared product, compatibility, topology, memory, harness, and execution rules: omh-routing/references/skill-common-rail.md. Load it when applicable; otherwise name an unavailable capability.