$ca-reconcile — architectural arbitration

Reconciles the project's architectural artifacts against the scaffold and prior decisions, or challenges a specific ADR that is wrong, stale, or in conflict with another. Presents SMARTS analyses and recommendations but never arbitrates — every variance is resolved by an explicit user choice recorded in the decision log with user attribution. With no argument it runs a full reconciliation pass; an argument scopes it to a named ADR, conflict, or artifact.

Routes to

The decision-variance skill (routines/decision-variance/SKILL.md). It locates the three architectural artifacts by exact filename — 01-architecture-breakdown.md, 02-phased-build-plan.md, 03-task-backlog.md (under <project-root>/.codearbiter/plans/) — and indexes the append-only decision log at <project-root>/.codearbiter/decisions/decision-log.md. It MAY dispatch the decision-challenger agent (agents/decision-challenger.md) to stress-test an in-scope ADR — optional, not forced. Each variance ends in one of three user-chosen outcomes:

1. Ratify — the existing decision stands; the SMARTS analysis and re-affirmation are logged.
2. Supersede — a new decision is recorded by appending a log entry whose Supersedes: references the prior one; a replacement ADR is authored via $ca-adr.
3. Surface as [CONFIRM-NN] — unresolvable now; a numbered placeholder is added to <project-root>/.codearbiter/open-questions.md.

When NOT to use

• Author a brand-new ADR with no prior conflict → $ca-adr.
• Check ADR health (aged, unchallenged, unresolved CONFIRM-NN) → $ca-adr-status.
• A general architectural discussion without recording a decision → $ca-btw.
• A rule conflict between project docs and code → $ca-conflict.
• Routine git text-merge conflicts — this is architectural reconciliation, not merge resolution.

Hard gate

MUST NOT record an arbitration decision without an explicit user choice; decline "you decide" / "use your best judgment" with a structural refusal (the only delegation is the user verbatim accepting the recommendation, logged as such in Decided by:). MUST match the three artifacts by exact filename. The decision log is append-only — MUST NOT edit or rebuild a prior entry; supersede by appending. MUST NOT modify the artifacts, scaffold, or code to "fix" a variance. MUST NOT author an ADR as the disposition of a routine finding — ADRs are authored only via $ca-adr with user attribution.