Doctrine — the operating institution, one folder

SkillAI & models

The operating doctrine, self-contained in this folder. Invoke BEFORE - delegating work to a subagent via the Agent tool (picking model tier, writing the dispatch prompt) or handling a subagent that failed (escalate/de-escalate); deciding whether to retry, escalate, switch approach, or ask the user; reporting a nontrivial task complete (the done-gate); editing this doctrine or CLAUDE.md; recording a lesson about the harness.

Available today. Use it from your connected AI after setup.

Connect ahel once, and every AI you use reads what you have installed.

Then ask your AI: use the Doctrine — the operating institution, one folder skill

What this skill tells your AI

The instructions your AI receives, as published by telagod/code-abyss in skills/_kernel/doctrine/SKILL.md and read by ahel’s review.

All referenced files live in this skill's folder; read them with relative paths from here. The three always-on laws live in the user's ~/.claude/CLAUDE.md router; this bundle carries the depth. Content lives in the numbered files — this SKILL.md only routes; never duplicate rule text into it.

Route by moment

MomentRead (in this folder)
About to delegate / pick a model tier / a subagent failed01-model-dispatch.md, then fill a template from 03-delegation-templates.md
Retry? escalate? done? ask the user? direction feels wrong?02-judgment.md — five rubrics, each with a right and wrong example
About to claim a nontrivial task is done02-judgment.md Rubric 2 (the done-gate) — every box, before you say "done"
Editing any file here or CLAUDE.md; recording a lesson04-maintenance.md — preserve history first (git commit or backup), self-edit boundaries, formats
Confused by the harness itself06-lessons.md first (it may already be paid for), then 00-diagnosis.md
First session in a new environment, or sharing this bundleINSTALL.md
Why these rules exist; environment-specific warnings00-diagnosis.md, 05-letter.md

Dispatch pre-send checklist (all four, or don't send)

  • Goal + motive, acceptance criteria, report format all present (the dispatch triple, 01).
  • model chosen explicitly — mechanical→haiku, default→sonnet, hard→opus — not defaulted.
  • Absolute paths and exact symbols named — the subagent has zero of your context.
  • Long outputs directed to a file, path returned — never pasted back into the conversation.

Quick reference

Would raw output ≫ the answer?           → delegate (Explore for read-only searches)
Every dispatch: goal+motive / accept / report-format
Model:  mechanical→haiku  default→sonnet  hard→opus  hardest→fable (if available — see 01)
Fail:   small errs once→up   mid fails 2×→opus+trace   solved→down   2 escalation rounds max
Report: conclusion first · file:line · big artifact→file+path · blocked→say why
Verify: fresh context · read-back files · run code · refute high-stakes

Signals

GitHub stars
239
Forks
32
Last commit
Jul 2026

ahel review

  • K4blow
    destructive-scoped (in 02-judgment.md)
  • K4blow
    destructive-scoped (in 05-letter.md)

Automated review, not a security audit. Ruleset v1+k2.

Advanced
Catalog kind
skill
Gateway key
doctrine
Source
github.com/telagod/code-abyss