mikeparcewski/wicked-garden-classify

/wicked-garden:classify

You are classifying a prompt into a v11 work-shape archetype. Your output drives downstream archetype routing for the rest of the session (until the user changes scope or invokes this skill again).

Why this exists

The v11 hook auto-classifier is a regex + boolean-signal heuristic. It works for prompts whose vocabulary matches the catalog phrase lists, but it misses paraphrases and underuses signals. You are a better classifier than regex. This skill is the path to use the model's full reasoning on the classification step, then persist the result so the rest of the session benefits without re-running classification on every turn.

Routing model (council-is-the-router)

This skill is the session router. The former wicked-signals product (a separate text-in / intent-out classifier) was archived because intent / work-shape classification is a native model capability — the router is just a model reading the prompt with full tool access (allowed-tools: ["*"]), which is exactly this skill. Read it as one council member making the routing call on the fast path.

When a routing or decision call is genuinely hard, ambiguous, or high-stakes, escalate to the multi-model council (wicked-garden-jam → council, worker wicked-garden-jam-council): multiple independent models deliberate, still with garden tools for additional processing. The council is the escalation, not a per-prompt router — convening 20 CLIs on every prompt would be absurd cost.

• Fast path (always on) — the prompt_submit hook emits <wg classify-due />, you classify + persist here, the parent turn steers on the persisted archetype.
• Escalation (on demand) — wicked-garden-jam council <question> --options "…".

What the catalog declares

.claude-plugin/archetypes.json defines the work-shape archetypes. Read it once at the start of this skill. Summary table:

| Archetype | Phases | Use when | |-----------|-----------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------| | triage | classify | prompt is genuinely ambiguous; ask for clarification | | explore | frame → diverge → converge | open problem space, multiple paths, brainstorm | | specify | elicit → structure → validate | requirements / acceptance criteria need writing | | decide | brief → options → score → record | 2+ viable options, need an ADR | | ship | canary → ramp → full → soak | already-built change being rolled out | | review | scope → assess → findings → remediate-or-accept | independent assessment of an artifact | | incident | triage → investigate → mitigate → resolve → followup | live production failure | | build | plan → implement → test → review | implement a feature or fix (most common) | | migrate | plan → expand → backfill → cutover → contract | in-place shape change with rollback proof | | modernize | discover → extract → blueprint → transform → parity → cutover | port a legacy codebase to a new stack (NOT in-place) |

Procedure

1. Read the prompt

What is the user actually asking for? Restate in one sentence in your own words. If you can't, the prompt is genuinely ambiguous → triage.

2. Pick archetype(s)

Archetypes are NOT mutually exclusive. Pick a SET. Common combinations:

• "implement schema change with backfill" → build + migrate
• "review the auth PR before deploy" → review + ship
• "should we use redis or memcached for sessions?" → decide (and possibly build if they want you to also implement it)

Score each match between 0.0 and 1.0. Use these calibration anchors:

• 0.9+: keyword + signal both clear, no ambiguity (e.g. "checkout is down 5xx spiking" → incident 1.0).
• 0.7–0.9: clear shape with one or two minor uncertainties.
• 0.5–0.7: archetype matches but the prompt is partial — agent should read the playbook and gracefully ask if anything was missed.
• <0.5: too weak; don't return this archetype.

If nothing scores ≥ 0.5, return triage only — that's the signal to ask for clarification before doing work.

3. Identify signals

Boolean flags that downstream archetypes use to scale rigor. Mark TRUE only when the prompt clearly implies it:

• blast_radius_high — change affects production traffic / many users / many systems.
• novelty_high — pattern not yet in this codebase.
• state_complexity_high — touches data shape, migrations, persistent state.
• reversibility_low — undoing is expensive (data migrations, destructive ops).
• reversibility_medium_or_low — undoing is non-trivial (config changes, breaking APIs).
• production_impact — production users / systems affected right now.
• compliance_scope — GDPR / SOC2 / HIPAA / PCI surface.
• ambiguity_high — multiple plausible reads.
• spec_ambiguity_high — success criteria are fuzzy.
• scope_unclear — boundary of work is undefined.
• multiple_viable_options — 2+ paths with no obvious winner.
• post_build — change is already implemented; this is about deployment.
• code_change — implementation work involved.
• independent_assessment_needed — someone else's work needs review.

Default any flag you didn't explicitly mark to FALSE. Do not over-tag.

4. Pick intent

Intent is coarser than archetype — used by the hook to gate directive emission. One of:

• simple-edit — typo, comment, formatting, single-line fix. Hook stays silent.
• feature — most non-trivial work (default for build/migrate/ship).
• rigor — high stakes (compliance, security, blast_radius_high).
• research — exploratory (explore, decide).

5. Persist

Emit a JSON object with the four keys above and pipe to the persist script. Use this exact shape — extras get dropped:

echo '{
  "intent": "feature",
  "archetypes": [
    {"name": "build", "score": 0.85, "evidence": ["implement keyword + code_change signal"]},
    {"name": "migrate", "score": 0.65, "evidence": ["schema change + state_complexity signal"]}
  ],
  "signals": {
    "code_change": true,
    "state_complexity_high": true,
    "reversibility_low": true
  }
}' | sh "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/_python.sh" \
  "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/classify/persist.py"

The script normalises and writes to SessionState. Confirm the response shows "ok": true, then return control.

6. Persist and return

You are context: fork — your job is to classify, persist, and return, not to run the work. Do not start executing the playbook inside this fork; the persisted archetype is what the parent turn resumes on (the prompt_submit hook's Tier-1 path re-emits the steered <wg archetype=… /> on the next turn from what you wrote to SessionState). The top archetype's playbook is skills/archetype/refs/{name}.md. Do not re-run classification mid-session unless the user explicitly changes scope.

When to skip this skill

• The prompt is a continuation token ("yes", "do it", "lgtm"). The hook already short-circuits these.
• The user typed /wicked-garden:archetype:<name> directly — they already classified.
• SessionState already has classified_at set for this session and the prompt fits the existing classification. Re-classifying on every turn is exactly the cost we're trying to avoid.

Failure modes

• Persist script fails: return the JSON to the user as text and ask them how to proceed. Do not invent a workflow.
• Catalog file unreadable: return triage with an explanation. The archetype machinery will surface the read error separately.
• Model can't decide between 3+ archetypes: return triage with a note. triage's job is to ask. Don't pick at random.