/ground — executable grounding protocol

Makes the "verify before done" discipline self-terminating (a ledger with a termination test), self-resolving (a decision policy for forks), and independently verified (a cold second agent), so it runs to completion without you re-prompting "ground further" each step.

Core invariant

Do not return to the user while any load-bearing claim is UNVERIFIED or any code-determinable fork is unresolved. "Looks done" is not a termination criterion — an empty UNVERIFIED column is.

1. Build the ledger

List every claim the step rests on, as a table: | # | Claim | Status | Evidence |

• A row is VERIFIED only when Evidence is a concrete file:line (read) or a command + its output (run).
• "Structurally certain" / "by reading" / "likely" / "should" → UNVERIFIED. No exceptions.
• Behavioral claims — control flow, ordering, teardown, exception propagation, state mutation, concurrency — require run evidence, not read evidence. Reason only to design the check; then run it.
• For any library / framework / API claim, ground truth is the installed version or the official docs (Context7) — not memory.
• A claim too vague to mark either way is split into checkable sub-claims.

2. The five moves

1. Read breadth-first — topology: imports, calls, where state lives (Grep/Glob/Read; fan out parallel searches for fan-out questions).
2. Read the private internals — closures, captured vars, callbacks, indirection — not just exports.
3. Test each plan claim against the code — grep the counts, check the visibility.
4. Name what is intentionally excluded, and why.
5. Write findings into the plan / ledger.

3. The loop + termination

Run the moves, fill the ledger, repeat. Each pass must verify ≥1 row or split a vague claim. Terminate when a full pass yields no new verifications AND the UNVERIFIED column is empty for all load-bearing claims.

4. Decision policy — make forks resolve themselves

For each fork the grounding surfaces, classify:

• Code-determinable — one branch is correct given how the code wires, a project invariant, or the development trajectory. → Decide it. Write decision + grounded reasoning + rejected alternative(s) into a decision log. Do not ask.
• Preference / value — needs the user's priorities, risk tolerance, or product direction; or is irreversible and expensive. → Stop and surface it inline (markdown list, never AskUserQuestion) with a grounded recommendation.
• Unsure which class → treat as preference and surface. Conservative on purpose.

The bar: ask only what the code genuinely cannot answer.

5. Independent verification

When the ledger is clean, spawn the grounding-verifier agent (cold, read-only). Give it the step goal + the ledger + the diff (if any) — not your justification narrative. It performs:

• (a) Row-check — each cited evidence actually supports its claim; re-run behavioral checks (the run is ground truth regardless of reader).
• (b) Gap-scan — independently hunt load-bearing claims the ledger omits: bypass paths, untested assumptions, unnamed exclusions, count claims that are off.
• (c) Summary-fidelity — confirm the §6 packet faithfully describes the diff.

Resolve every REFUTED / INSUFFICIENT finding (re-ground, fix, or escalate) before surfacing. The verifier reduces but does not eliminate error — it breaks the self-grading loop. Independence comes from cold context + adversarial stance, not model diversity (same model is fine). For code changes you may also run the bundled /code-review and /verify skills alongside it.

6. The review packet — abstraction parity

The ledger is an audit trail, not a review surface. Produce a separate packet at the altitude of the user's original request, descending to code only in an appendix:

1. The ask — restated in the user's words.
2. What I did — plain English, same altitude.
3. Decisions + why + rejected alternatives — one line each, plain English.
4. Genuine forks for the user, if any.
5. One-command behavioral proof — before/after, a single command the user can run.
6. Appendix — ledger, decision log, full diff. There for drill-down, never required to review.

7. Ceiling (autonomy)

Default ceiling 2: ground → decide code-determinable forks → implement → verify → stage everything and stop before commit for sign-off. Ceiling 1: also commit autonomously. Ceiling 3: widen the preference class, escalate more.

Anti-patterns (hard stops)

• Marking a behavioral claim VERIFIED from reading. Run it.
• Bouncing a code-determinable fork to the user because asking is cheap.
• Treating the ledger as the review surface (forces the user to learn the codebase to review).
• Reactively patching when a check fails — read the code and reason first.
• Surfacing before the verifier has cleared its findings.