vc-autoresearch

Output style: Follow process/development-protocols/communication-standards.md — answer-first, plain language, no unexplained jargon, TL;DR on long responses.

Reusable loop primitive. Runs: find gaps → write report → fix → check → repeat.

Used directly for spec/doc/UX hardening. Wired into PVL (plan-validate-fix loop — the fix cycle between writing a plan and approving EXECUTE) and EVL (execute-validate-fix loop — the confirmation run after EXECUTE) as the shared bookkeeping layer.

When To Invoke

• Standalone: user says "harden this spec", "fix all lint errors", "improve test coverage"
• PVL: the ORCHESTRATOR invokes it when vc-validate-agent returns a first-pass CONDITIONAL/BLOCKED verdict (validate-fix loops are needed)
• EVL: the ORCHESTRATOR invokes it at the EVL confirmation run — unconditionally after every EXECUTE DONE, before UPDATE PROCESS

Do NOT invoke during RESEARCH or INNOVATE phases.

Who Runs This (Loop Driver)

The ORCHESTRATOR is the loop driver. It executes every bookkeeping step itself:

• Step 0 setup — creates the task folder and the results.tsv tracking file.
• Cycle counter + per-cycle iteration report — writes one report file per loop iteration.
• TSV row — appends a row to results.tsv after each cycle.
• Plateau/cap/regression checks — stops the loop when no progress is made for 3 cycles (HALT_PLATEAU — no improvement after 3 tries), when the hard 10-cycle limit is hit (HALT_CAP), or when a test that was passing now fails (HALT_REGRESSION).

Subagents (vc-validate-agent, vc-tester, vc-plan-agent, vc-execute-agent) are fire-and-forget: they emit a verdict and terminate. They cannot invoke this skill on the orchestrator's behalf, cannot loop themselves, and cannot spawn each other.

If no one runs Step 0, the loop never exists and verdicts silently become "proceed" — that failure mode is exactly what this section forbids.

Per-verdict routing tables: process/development-protocols/orchestration.md §PVL/EVL Loop Routing.

Subcommands

Not ported (already covered by existing vc-system skills): debug → vc-debugger, security → vc-security, scenario → vc-scenario, predict → vc-predict.

Parameters

Canonical Domain Defaults

Full configs in process/development-protocols/vc-autoresearch-spec.md §Canonical domain configs.

* harness full config: .claude/skills/vc-autoresearch/domains/harness.md

Loop Execution

Step 0 — Setup

1. Parse parameters, apply domain defaults for any missing values
2. If auto_run: not set and NOT under /goal: prompt once — "Auto-run (no pauses) or confirm before each fix batch?" Choice is sticky for the full loop.
3. Create task folder: process/features/{feature}/active/{task_slug}_{dd-mm-yy}/
4. Initialize TSV at {task_folder}/results.tsv with header row and baseline row (iteration 0, gaps_found: TBD, loop_status: baseline)

Step 1 — Research

Spawn research_agents: parallel agents. Each agent:

• Reads the corpus files assigned to it
• Investigates its thread list (cross-file consistency, missing cases, contradictions, undefined behaviors, etc.)
• Returns a structured gap list: SEVERITY: FAIL | CONCERN | OBSERVATION per finding

Collect all findings. Count: gaps_found, fail_count, concern_count.

Apply severity floor: if iteration > severity_escalation_at, discard CONCERN findings (add to backlog section of report — do not fix).

Step 2 — Convergence check

"Until agents find no gaps" (no verify: param):

• If all agents returned zero findings above the severity floor: increment consecutive_all_clear counter
• If counter >= consecutive_all_clear: → SUCCESS
• Else: reset counter, continue to Step 3

"Hit the metric goal" (verify: param set):

• Run verify command, parse numeric output
• If output reaches target: → SUCCESS
• Else: continue to Step 3

Step 3 — Termination check (non-success)

Check in priority order:

1. PLATEAU — gaps_found unchanged or increased for 3 consecutive iterations → HALT_PLATEAU
2. CAP — iteration >= max_iterations → HALT_CAP
3. REGRESSION — more than 2 new gaps in areas that were gap-free last iteration → HALT_REGRESSION (always pauses for user, even under /goal)

If none triggered: continue to Step 4.

Step 4 — Write iteration report

Write a NEW per-iteration report file: {task_folder}/{task_slug}-iteration-{NNN}_REPORT_{dd-mm-yy}.md — {NNN} is the zero-padded 3-digit iteration number (001, 002, … 042), so files sort correctly and every iteration is uniquely named no matter how many run.

ONE FILE PER ITERATION — hard rule. NEVER append iterations to a single rolling file (no ITERATION-NOTES.md, no shared {task_slug}_REPORT_*.md updated in place). The rolling cross-iteration view is results.tsv, nothing else.

Append a row to {task_folder}/results.tsv.

If auto_run: false: surface gap summary, wait for user confirmation before fixing.

Step 5 — Fix

Spawn fix_agents: parallel agents. Each agent:

• Receives its assigned gap IDs and file targets
• Applies fixes
• Reports: APPLIED (fixed in this iteration) or BACKLOG (deferred, with reason)

Step 6 — Safety check

If guard: is set: run guard command.

• Passes → loop back to Step 1
• Fails → revert fix batch, log regression flag, retry this iteration. If regression budget exceeded (> 2 flags in one iteration) → HALT_REGRESSION

Step 7 — Loop

Increment iteration counter. Go to Step 1.

Termination Output

On any terminal state, write final iteration report with loop_status: set, then emit:

AUTORESEARCH COMPLETE
Domain:          {domain}
Iterations run:  N
Terminal state:  SUCCESS | HALT_PLATEAU (no progress after 3 cycles) | HALT_CAP (10-cycle hard limit) | HALT_REGRESSION (passing test now fails) | HALT_SEVERITY (critical gap found)
Gaps remaining:  N (FAIL: N, CONCERN: N)
Files updated:   [list]
Report:          {task_folder}/{task_slug}-iteration-{NNN}_REPORT_{dd-mm-yy}.md  (final iteration)
TSV:             {task_folder}/results.tsv

PVL Wiring

When vc-autoresearch is the bookkeeper for a PVL (plan-validate-fix loop):

• domain: plan, corpus: = the plan .md file
• Research step = vc-validate-agent runs V1–V3 gates; autoresearch does NOT run these itself. The validate step itself fans out in parallel via vc-validate-findings (Layer 1 dimension agents + Layer 2 feasibility agents) — that parallelism is owned by vc-validate-agent.
• Gap signal = FAIL / CONDITIONAL / CONCERN from validate-agent
• Fix step (parallel) = when the gap set spans independent plan sections, the orchestrator spawns multiple parallel plan-fix agents, one per independent gap group, partitioned so no two agents edit the same plan region. fix_agents: defaults to the count of independent gap groups (cap to the plan-domain default unless raised). Each fixer is scoped to its assigned gap IDs only. When gaps are interdependent or touch one section, fall back to a single plan-fix agent.
• Convergence = validate-agent returns PASS → SUCCESS
• Cap = 10 plan-validate-fix loops
• Per-cycle report = every PVL cycle writes its own report file {task_folder}/{plan-slug}-pvl-iteration-{NNN}_REPORT_{dd-mm-yy}.md (zero-padded {NNN}) capturing: gaps found (with severity), fixes applied vs backlogged, and the validate verdict for that cycle. Never a single rolling notes file.

Boundary:

• vc-autoresearch owns: iteration counter, plateau detection, per-cycle iteration report, regression flag, parallel-fix partitioning (which gap groups go to which fixer) — all executed by the ORCHESTRATOR at each cycle boundary; no agent runs these implicitly
• vc-validate-agent owns: V1–V7 gate sequence + its own Layer-1/Layer-2 fan-out, SUPPLEMENT REQUEST format, validate-contract write, known-gap exclusion — it emits its verdict and terminates; the orchestrator re-spawns it from V1 after each SUPPLEMENT_APPLIED

EVL Wiring

When vc-autoresearch is the bookkeeper for an EVL (execute-validate-fix loop):

• domain: tests, verify: = validate-contract gate commands (read from contract — never invented)
• Research step = a SPAWNED vc-tester agent runs the validate-contract fully-automated gate commands (vc-tester may run independent gate groups in parallel). The orchestrator NEVER runs gate commands in its own shell — a gate result not produced by a vc-tester spawn does not count as an EVL confirmation, even if green.
• Gap signal = failing gate (non-zero exit)
• Fix step (parallel) = when multiple independent gates fail across non-overlapping file groups, the orchestrator spawns multiple parallel execute-fix agents (vc-execute-agent in supplement mode), one per failing gate / file group, partitioned so no two agents edit the same file. Each fixer is scoped to exactly its failing gate — no scope expansion. When failing gates share files or a single root cause, fall back to a single execute-fix agent. The fix is ALWAYS a vc-execute-agent spawn — the orchestrator never edits source files itself, no matter how small the fix.
• Convergence = all validate-contract fully-automated gates pass → SUCCESS
• Cap = 10 execute-validate-fix loops
• Per-cycle report = every EVL cycle writes its own report file {task_folder}/{plan-slug}-evl-iteration-{NNN}_REPORT_{dd-mm-yy}.md (zero-padded {NNN}) capturing: which gates ran, which failed (with trimmed failure output), fixes applied, and the re-run result for that cycle. Never a single rolling notes file.

Boundary:

• vc-autoresearch owns: iteration counter, plateau detection, TSV log, per-cycle iteration report, HANDOFF SUMMARY trigger, parallel-fix partitioning (which failing gate goes to which fixer) — all executed by the ORCHESTRATOR at each cycle boundary; no agent runs these implicitly
• vc-tester owns: which gate commands to run, HANDOFF SUMMARY format, agent-probe re-invocation — its confirmation run is UNCONDITIONAL after every EXECUTE DONE (execute-agent's internal iterate-until-green loop never substitutes for it); it reports failing gates and terminates; the orchestrator runs the fix cycle and re-spawns it

Iteration Report Format

See process/development-protocols/vc-autoresearch-spec.md §Iteration report for full frontmatter schema and body sections.

Gap entry format:

### GAP-I{N}-{ID} — {short title}
- **SEVERITY:** FAIL | CONCERN | OBSERVATION
- **LOCATION:** {file} §{section}
- **GAP:** {what is missing or wrong}
- **RESOLUTION:** {what was changed}
- **STATUS:** APPLIED | BACKLOG

Each iteration report is written inside the active task folder as {slug}-iteration-{NNN}_REPORT_{dd-mm-yy}.md with {NNN} zero-padded to 3 digits (task-folder artefact colocation — never a sibling reports/ dir). One file per iteration; PVL/EVL cycles use the {plan-slug}-pvl-iteration-{NNN} / {plan-slug}-evl-iteration-{NNN} slug variants.

TSV Log Format

Header row:

iteration	timestamp	gaps_found	fail_count	concern_count	applied	saturation_status	loop_status	notes

• Baseline row = iteration 0, before any fixes, loop_status: baseline
• One row appended after each iteration's fix batch completes
• saturation_status: ACTIVE | PLATEAU | SATURATED
• loop_status: CONTINUE | HALTED_SUCCESS | HALTED_PLATEAU | HALTED_CAP | HALTED_REGRESSION

Run vc-autoresearch:evals {task_folder}/results.tsv to analyze trends and get a plateau/recommendation report.

Hook Notes

• iteration-context.cjs — injects last 3 TSV rows at UserPromptSubmit; must scan process/features/*/active/*/results.tsv (not project-root autoresearch/ paths)
• session-init.cjs — active plan summary at SessionStart; adapted to scan process/general-plans/active/ and process/features/*/active/
• stop-notify.cjs — terminal notification at SessionEnd; no changes needed
• Do NOT register scout-block.cjs or privacy-block.cjs from the autoresearch reference repo — vc-system settings.json has superior versions; registering them would cause conflicts