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two-phase-doc-honesty-then-engineeringlisted

Response pattern after a state-drift catch surfaces BOTH doc inaccuracies AND a deeper engineering gap the docs were obscuring. Split the response into two phases that ship on different cadences: Phase A is an inline doc-honesty commit (truthful documentation of current state, orchestrator- direct, no authorization needed). Phase B surfaces the engineering gap to the PM as a separate dispatch decision (needs greenlight, costs more agent budget). Both ship; neither blocks the other. Use when: (1) a stale planning doc / spec / handoff catches mid-task and you're about to either silently re-do already-shipped work OR ship a doc-only fix that papers over a real engineering gap, (2) a "hard right over easy wrong" prompt forces you out of literal-spec adherence, (3) any catch where the documentation truth is small/fast and the engineering follow-on is larger/needs-authorization. Sibling to halt-as-deliverable (which covers the reframing of the work product); this skill covers the execution response after the catch
MrBinnacle/skills · ★ 0 · AI & Automation · score 65
Install: claude install-skill MrBinnacle/skills
# Two-Phase Response: Doc-Honesty Inline, Engineering Dispatched ## Problem A state-drift catch (the documented plan says X is PENDING but reality is X is DONE; the docs promise Y but the code can't deliver Y for the named target user; the case study cites a number that's no longer reproducible) surfaces TWO different kinds of work: 1. **Documentation inaccuracy** — the docs misrepresent current state. Fixing this is a few edits to README / examples / case-study / SOP doc. Fast. Low blast radius. No authorization needed beyond standard commit discipline. 2. **Engineering gap** — the docs were obscuring a real code-level limitation. Fixing this requires actual implementation work, possibly a subagent dispatch, possibly meaningful cost, definitely PM authorization in a budget-conscious context. If you bundle (1) and (2) into one effort, you either: - Wait on (1) because (2) needs authorization that hasn't arrived yet, leaving the docs lying to readers for hours/days - Pre-emptively dispatch (2) without authorization, violating the spend / scope discipline - Skip (2) and ship (1) as if the doc-honesty pass "closed" the issue, which it didn't — it just made the lie visible If you bundle them, you also create one commit / one push / one PR / one review cycle where there should be two — confusing the audit trail of what changed and why. The two-phase pattern keeps the responses cleanly separated by their natural cadence. ## Trigger conditions Apply this pattern when ALL of