Skills and managed work

RSP publishes a default suite of twelve host-neutral Skills for on-demand loading. Each has a narrow authority boundary and returns its result to an existing project or RSP owner.

Skill	Responsibility
rsp	Derive the next action; guide setup, durable writeback, and archive decisions.
rsp-shape	Shape one executable Change or justified shallow Group.
rsp-design	Resolve one bounded domain, module/seam, or evidence-seeking design question.
rsp-implement	Implement one selected ready Change with fresh verification.
rsp-diagnose	Establish a cause, or return a truthful unresolved diagnosis, before correction.
rsp-tdd	Drive one justified behavior through RED, GREEN, and safe REFACTOR.
rsp-verify	Run one bounded read-only verification pass against a selected WorkOwner's declared evidence boundary.
rsp-review	Review a fixed code, document, or mixed comparison without mutation.
rsp-resolve-findings	Dispose fixed findings, correct accepted ones, verify, and request re-review.
rsp-commit	Create one authorized exact-scope local commit.
rsp-release-docs	Draft, audit, finalize, or reconcile an explicit release documentation surface.
rsp-manage	Coordinate one eligible long-running, recovery, or multi-slice continuation.

rsp-structural-audit is an optional report-only project Skill. It audits one bounded repository or subtree before implementation authority is granted.

Installation, runtime role, and invocation are separate:

Skills	Distribution	Runtime role	Invocation
rsp	default	Core	direct project entry
rsp-shape	default	Shape	Core-routed or explicit shaping
Design, implementation, diagnosis, TDD, verification, review, finding resolution, and Release Docs	default	Discipline	Core-routed specialist or explicit bounded request
rsp-commit	default	local-delivery Discipline	Core- or Manage-routed after an authorized exact boundary
rsp-manage	default	Controller	Core-selected from an explicit request or effective project policy
rsp-structural-audit	optional	Discovery	explicit report-only request

default means installed with the suite; it does not mean automatically invoked. Ordinary Discipline Skills do not recursively orchestrate user-facing flows. Only a Core-qualified Manage controller composes bounded worker lanes.

Compose the suite from evidence

• Shape establishes the executable owner.
• Design answers one material question and returns to that owner.
• Diagnose precedes TDD when a failure is unexplained.
• TDD is selected only when explicitly required or when a concrete changed risk makes pre-mutation RED materially safer.
• Verify executes one declared read-only evidence boundary. A Change uses its WorkRef and Verify boundary; a Group uses a named Integration: condition from the Group Brief's Completion Conditions. A request-only boundary is temporary and must be written back before Group closeout. Manage retains worker identity, independence, acceptance, and closeout.
• Review remains read-only; Resolve Findings owns accepted correction.
• Release Docs requires an explicit confirmed release operation.
• The host, user, and Git own execution-location selection and cross-branch integration. Manage operates only in the checkout or environment it actually observes; no canonical Skill selects or lands an execution environment.
• Commit owns one exact local commit in the current checkout and never absorbs cherry-pick, cleanup, or cross-branch integration.
• No Skill infers commit, push, publication, deployment, approval, or human-acceptance authority.

Control outcomes

RSP may use an optional Core-owned response summary to explain current progress without creating persisted controller state. Its compact default fields are Work, Phase, Result or Stop, Evidence, and Next; Mode, State, Changed, and Resume appear only when active. Work identifies the current WorkOwner: a Change uses its WorkRef and a Group uses its Group reference. Optional machine mode remains solo | delegated | coordinated and optional machine status remains running | waiting | completed; State is presentation, not a persisted lifecycle state. Route, topology, lane result, acceptance, and closeout remain nested details or gates, not peer status flows. Core still chooses one route: specialist Discipline, bounded direct execution, managed execution, return to Shape, or stop. Direct execution remains valid for one ready owner, one writer, one execution phase, one integrated decisive check, no recovery, no independent acceptance obligation, no managed lifecycle coordination, and no ready successor. Multiple files or documentation surfaces alone do not change that route.

Work ownership, decision ownership, transient handoff, execution uncertainty, and acceptance are separate concepts. WorkOwner means the selected Change or shallow Group, DecisionOwner means the human or authority source required for a material decision, and NextOwner means the next control or execution capability. A stop must say who acts next, what input is required, and whether work returns through Shape or Core, or waits for fresh evidence, environment, verification, or capability. Missing required worker creation, a worker-authored result, or required host attribution is unavailable evidence, never successful completion.

Three review-related gates remain distinct:

• Implementation verification supplies fresh evidence after every mutation.
• Fixed-scope change review is the report-only Review comparison. It is required when explicitly requested, required by project authority or risk, or needed for managed review-clean; it is not automatically required for every tiny direct action.
• The durable writeback decision is required before archive and independently decides whether stable current facts or lasting rationale must update a Spec, scoped instruction, or Decision Record. It never substitutes for fixed-scope change review.

These outcomes exist only in the current response and host execution context. Changes and Groups remain the durable owners, and their lifecycle remains open or archived.

Managed automation

Manage is a controller for work with an observable coordination obligation: independent slices, recovery, distinct execution and acceptance owners, real-host/provider/hardware verification, bounded review convergence, managed lifecycle work, a clear ready successor, or a real multi-phase authority boundary. File count, Specs, product presentation, public documentation, and verification files do not qualify it by themselves. Substantial sequential work still selects Manage when one of those real obligations exists.

manage:
  activation: auto
  closeout: local

activation controls selection:

• explicit: Manage is selected only when explicitly requested.
• auto: after preserving specialist routes, Core resolves a ready owner and selects Manage only when current evidence shows one of the coordination obligations above; otherwise it continues the direct Core or Discipline route.

Core resolves one unambiguous shape-ready Change or shallow Group as the WorkOwner and solely owns initial Manage qualification plus the selected | declined route result. A Change is identified by its WorkRef; a Group is identified by its Group reference and direct child Changes. Missing or non-ready ownership routes directly to Shape under the current request's independent planning-artifact authority; with manage.activation: auto, a clear authorized non-tiny goal continues Shape → Core → Manage without another user request, while explicit waits for continuation. Once selected, Manage validates current owner and owned-diff drift without repeating direct-versus-managed eligibility. Ordinary same-scope phase results stay in Manage and require actual-path and local-diff inspection. Wider rereads and return to Core occur only when discovery or a request changes declared behavior, acceptance, public-interface, owner, topology, scope, or authority boundaries, after another invalidation signal, cross-session recovery, or closeout.

During managed execution, Manage chooses a transient sequential or parallel strategy from dependencies, mutation boundaries, verification resources, and host capability. It may delegate one worker or coordinate multiple independent workers; assignments, results, host observations, and execution strategy remain transient. Manage validates observed results before deriving acceptance, and independent Verify requires distinct worker evidence.

Diagnose and private Inspect lanes are read-only; Fix owns its mutation boundary. Manage uses fresh worker evidence when continuity, recovery, or independent verification requires it, and stops when required host attribution or accepted evidence is unavailable.

closeout sets a ceiling after Manage has actually been selected and qualified:

• manual: archive and commit remain manual.
• lifecycle: after required fixed-scope change review is clean and the durable writeback decision is complete, archive may follow; commit remains separate.
• local: automatically archives an eligible, verified, non-small terminal managed boundary with a clean exact owned boundary and routes its exact paths once to local Commit without another user request.

Manage derives commit kind, timing, and the compact delivery request; rsp-commit exclusively owns owner revalidation, exact staging, message construction, one local commit, and post-commit observation.

activation never grants planning or product-mutation authority. For a currently selected and qualified Manage run, closeout is only the automatic lifecycle/local-Git ceiling described above and nearer restrictions may narrow it. Push, tags, releases, publication, deployment, approval, human acceptance, and other external actions always remain explicit.

Managed interruption and resume reread accepted state, authority, diff, and evidence. Host owns cancellation, heartbeat, replay safety, and resource release; RSP does not persist controller or paused state.

Manager may keep a sparse accepted-state Focus Capsule for recovery. It is a bounded pointer, not authority, and excludes worker or runtime data. Cross-device use requires separately authorized Git transfer and fresh rederivation; unfocus or archive removes it.

See configuration for the exact keys and daily workflow for ordinary operation.