context-check

Inspect context drift or refresh selected source-backed documents. This includes drift from a merge or external edit that commit-gate's Phase 5.5 auto-heal did not cover, and an explicitly requested full refresh of initialized context.

This skill is NOT in the daily loop. Commit-gate auto-heal (Phase 5.5, heal_worklist for v1 and v2_heal_worklist for managed pairs) owns routine maintenance. Reuse existing selection and authorization for requested refresh; an audit-only request remains read-only.

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Compatibility route. Prefer $ca-status drift for new explicit usage. The retained entry and natural-language intent use this owner under includes/command-compatibility.md.

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Entry boundaries

Use this owner for a requested provenance drift audit, $ca-status drift, or the explicit $ca-context-check compatibility entry. Explanation-only questions and ordinary status snapshots remain read-only answers, not repair requests. Report first for an audit-only request. A direct request to refresh selected documents or the full project context supplies that selection; reuse the existing authorization instead of asking again per document. Never change an unselected derived document. This owner neither stages nor commits. Routine commit-gate auto-heal is unchanged.

An initialized refresh belongs to this existing owner after an explicit selection. It is separate from initial population: do not call the initialized $ca-create-context/$ca-init --brownfield path, rerun the scaffolder, clear <!--INITIALIZED-->, or repeat context finalization. An ordinary status snapshot and the initial $ca-status drift report are read-only. A declined refresh leaves every file unchanged.

Pre-flight

Read these before computing drift:

1. .codearbiter/.provenance/ — the per-doc provenance records. Load all records via load_provenance_dir from hooks/_provenancelib.py.
2. .codearbiter/code-map.md — coarse concern map; read to orient on which modules the stale docs govern.

Flow

Step 1 — Compute drift

Use _provenancelib helpers in this order:

1. load_provenance_dir(root + "/.codearbiter/.provenance/") — returns the provenance map {doc: record}.
2. Collect all drift_trigger: true paths across all records.
3. batch_hash(paths, runner) — hash every existing path in one git call.
4. compute_drift(provenance_map, current_hashes) — returns a drift report {doc: [{path, kind}]} for docs that have stale sources.

Alternatively reuse the same logic as startup_drift_line by calling it for a human-readable summary, then inspecting compute_drift directly for detail.

The entries/Git-hash comparison above covers legacy v1 records only. For every enrolled v2 document, call assess_context_provenance with the bounded current source/target snapshot and an action-boundary snapshot probe. Inspect its per-document states as well as aggregate coverage. A missing, corrupt or unsupported record, incomplete acquisition, partial hash or unchecked identity is unknown coverage, even when a neighboring v1 or v2 record is usable. Report the usable records and the unknowns separately; never turn an empty legacy drift report into a fresh verdict for v2. v2_current acknowledges matching identities only. semantic: unverified and verified_fresh: false remain in force: only actual evidence can support a narrower semantic claim; changing hashes or choosing re-baseline does not perform that review.

Only if the relevant legacy drift report is empty and v2 coverage/identities have been checked without unknowns may this audit report no stale identities. That is not a claim that instruction-bearing facts are semantically verified. Only a separately explicit full initialized refresh selection may proceed without a stale-document list.

Step 2 — Report stale docs

For each doc in the drift report, call changed_scope(doc_provenance, drift) to list its drifted paths. Present a concise report before offering actions:

Stale docs (N):
  <doc>: <path1>, <path2>  (changed | missing)
  ...

Also present every enrolled v2 document's v2_current, v2_stale or unknown state from Step 1. For v2_stale, derive a proposed affected scope from that document's bounded evidence references and recheck the exact paths before selection; the legacy changed_scope list cannot discover v2 drift. An unknown state needs a bounded recovery/inspection, not an inferred fresh or stale path. Do not offer an automatic write for an unbounded scope.

Unsupported human content and owner reconciliation

An unsupported human Markdown layout, ambiguous duplicate anchor, unparseable custom section or oversized document is a write refusal for that document, not a reason to erase it or abandon safe task-time reading. An unrelated unknown section in an otherwise supported document remains unowned and byte-identical during a supported field update. Preserve exact bytes and report the specific unsupported or unowned span. Use the existing applicable instructions under their actual precedence for the current task; referencing those instructions unchanged does not create a new normative rule or require a new approval. Keep observed upstream conventions and accepted ADR references source-scoped when they do not already govern this project. Surface a real conflict without silently displacing either source.

If the requested change would adopt or replace normative instructions, route the proposal to its actual owner and obtain that owner's actual approval before any supported bounded update. Missing or legacy v1 provenance may use explicit native adopt with current evidence and selected supported spans, preserving the old provenance preimage. An unsupported template still needs reconciliation through its actual owner or a supported writer transition. Its refusal never authorizes raw Write/Edit fallback or a regex rewrite. Task, question, audit, release and ADR files remain with their existing writers; do not normalize, recreate or edit their history during context refresh.

Step 3 — Selected initialized refresh

Use the user's selected documents and affected scope. If only an audit was requested, offer reinspection, re-baseline and defer choices before writing. A request for full refresh already selects all five content documents and all six logical categories; do not repeat that question. Record the selection and source paths, then inspect only what those claims need. Keep the initialized marker and prior history. Full inspection accounts for all six categories; incremental inspection does not claim a new full scan.

re-scout / reinspect — use direct bounded inspection or optional scoped agents for the selected claims. The context-creation evidence and gap rules apply. When structured reports help, join_scout_reports tracks their declared coverage; a scoped result has full_coverage: false. The helper is not a permission or containment check. A missing report can be replaced by direct inspection, but failed or uninspected work never becomes evidence of absence. Recheck changed source snapshots and resolve contradictions before their claims are written. Unrelated gaps do not hold independent selected work.

If claims still hold, a selected owned-field metadata refresh may keep document bytes identical when current evidence changes the v2 provenance. Missing selection and unchanged proposed provenance refuse rather than claim a refresh. Surface the proposed content and provenance pair, inspect its source bindings, and apply within the selected authorization. Review consequential or disputed claims independently when useful; a matching digest does not verify semantics.

re-baseline — the legacy v1 provenance choice may acknowledge a verified cosmetic change through its existing owner, where applicable. For an enrolled v2 content document, use only a selected owned field and the native bounded update with new, validated source evidence and changed proposed provenance. If no field is selected or the proposed pair is a true no-op, retain the stale pair and defer that selection. Never directly write the v2 provenance or use the legacy rebaseline helper as a fallback for it.

full refresh — use bounded inspection across all six categories and synthesize all five content documents from current evidence. Preserve unknowns and reconcile material user decisions under context-creation Phase 3–4. Do not enter its Phase 6 lock for an already initialized repository.

For a selected whole-document refresh, prepare a UTF-8 draft inside the workspace that retains user-owned content outside the requested change. The installed CLI collects bounded source hashes and chooses create/adopt/update from the current pair. Substitute the actual inspected repository-relative source paths; repeat --source for each supporting file. For example:

python "${PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/init-codearbiter.py" --root "<project-root>" --context-draft "context-code-map-draft.md" --document code-map --source "src/main.py"

This retains an internal preview but does not change the content document or provenance. Inspect the returned diff, then apply the exact returned reference and digest:

python "${PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/init-codearbiter.py" --root "<project-root>" --context-apply "<preview_ref>" --preview-sha256 "<preview_sha256>"

The source list must support the draft; it is not an automatic semantic review. The convenience path records semantic_review: unreviewed. Use typed field previews below when only specific managed fields are selected.

For each selected document, send the typed preview through python "${PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/init-codearbiter.py" --root <exact-root> --context-request <request-file>. The request uses operation: preview and a preview object. Native context-preview supports create for a genuinely absent document, explicit adopt for supported missing/v1 provenance, and update for a managed v2 pair. Supply the exact expected document/provenance hashes, selected fields, typed content and source evidence. Keep request files inside the workspace.

Inspect the returned diff and preserved content. Apply with operation: apply, preview_ref and preview_sha256 through the same bridge; native context-apply rechecks the preview and current identities under its lock and writes the selected document/provenance pair together. No approval receipt, actor ticket or qualified scout profile is a prerequisite for ordinary already-authorized refresh. This is compare-and-swap protection, not a second permission system. A stale preview requires reinspection, never an overwrite. After a lost response, inspect the transaction and retry its identical request and operation ID or use native recovery; do not start a duplicate write.

Read back the committed pair and confirm <!--INITIALIZED--> remains for CONTEXT.md. Keep unowned spans byte-identical and retain legacy provenance history. Task, question, audit, release and ADR history stay with their actual writers. Never hand-write a provenance record or bypass a refused unsupported shape. A missing safe writer stops that write, not authorized task-time reads.

defer — do nothing for this doc now. The drift line will reappear at the next SessionStart. Use when the change is in-progress and the doc update should wait for a later commit.

After processing selections, summarize changed documents, deferred selections, the declared coverage, and whether the run was full or incremental. Keep unselected content, initialized state and prior history intact.

Hard rule

This skill MUST NOT commit. If re-scout or re-baseline produces updated .codearbiter/.provenance/ records, those file changes ride the next user-initiated commit through commit-gate normally. No staging, no commits here.