Age

/age

Review a diff or scoped path before merging, after /press, or whenever the user wants evidence-backed observations rather than an approval verdict. Do not apply fixes here — /cure owns application.

Inputs

/age [<ref-or-range>] [--scope <path>] [--comprehensive] [--full] [--safe] [--open-pr] [--auto] [--html]
/age <slug> [--full] [--safe] [--open-pr] [--auto] [--html]

--full un-collapses the ## Low section when 10 or more low-severity findings exist (the default report collapses them to a one-line summary).

--safe re-introduces cure selection. --open-pr propagates through /cure to terminal /plate; a new PR follows /plate's explicit-choice and review-shape policy.

When called with a <slug>, resolve .cheese/press/<slug>.md (if present) for press context and review the current working diff. When called with a <ref-or-range>, review that range. Default to the current working diff when neither is supplied. If the base branch is unclear, ask or use the repository's documented default.

--auto is the propagated autonomous-mode flag from /cook --auto. It changes the handoff (see ## Handoff and ## Auto mode for the cap rule and full chain).

--hard propagates through /cure to /plate. Age never fires the gate; /plate gives /hard-cheese the final verified artifact state before publication.

--html emits a static HTML copy alongside .cheese/age/<slug>.md: write the markdown first, then python3 src/age/age-html-report.py --report .cheese/age/<slug>.md --slug <slug> (bundle fallback: age.pyz html-report with the same flags), and print the returned path. It groups findings by severity into the shared HTML shell (shared/scripts/html_report.render_document) — offline, no CDN, no JS.

Portability reference: ../cheese/references/harness-portability.md covers helper resolution, sub-agent dispatch, GitHub operations, and handoff transitions; prefer the bundled or repo-local helper first, treat ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR} as optional host-provided fallback. The handoff blocks below are the portable contract; slash commands are host renderings, not the control model.

Review dimensions

Dimensions answer what kind of problem. Severity (blocker / high / medium / low) is per-finding, computed from base + location + compounding modifiers (see references/dimensions.md § Severity computation).

Dimension	Base range
correctness	low → blocker
security	low → blocker
encapsulation	low → blocker
spec	low → blocker
complexity	low → high
deslop	low → high
assertions	low → blocker
nih	low → high
efficiency	low → blocker
telemetry	low → blocker

Per-dimension base-severity tables, location-sensitivity, fix-cost-now / fix-cost-later, and recommendation shapes live in references/dimensions.md — read it before computing any finding's severity. This reduced workflow intentionally omits the git-history/precedent dimension.

Flow

1. Identify the diff, scope, and relevant spec or issue. Mode check: compute the review range's review_surface score and risk flags, then call age_route.route(score=..., risk_flags=..., entry="age") (src/fanout/age_route.py). n=1 — steps 2–4 below, unchanged. Any n>1 — read references/fan-out.md first; its lenses list, not a fixed label, sets worker count. Fan-out also requires /age not itself be a sub-agent — stay single-parent when it is. Thread the router's effort into the reviewer dispatch.

2. Gather evidence: diff, touched files, tests, callers/imports. If a press report exists for this slug, read it via python3 shared/scripts/read_handoff_slug.py --phase press --slug <slug> (bundle fallback: common.pyz read_handoff_slug --phase press --slug <slug>) and summarise unresolved items in a ## Press findings sub-section — /cure only reads .cheese/age/<slug>.md.

   No press report but a cook handoff exists: record press: skipped (see ## Output) and print the warning at handoff. No cook artifact either: skip the marker and continue.

   If .cheese/glossary/<slug>.md exists, read it so naming drift can be flagged as a deslop finding.

3. Review every dimension; dimensions with no findings simply omit themselves. Report every defect, however minor — never self-filter on perceived significance; filtering happens downstream in the verifier pass (n>1) or in severity computation (single-parent). Do not raise a finding for a gate failure identical to the diff's recorded baseline: block — see ../cook/references/quality-gates.md; flag only new or changed failures.

4. Compute severity per finding (base + location bump + compounding bump, capped at blocker). Group findings by severity (## Blocker → ## High → ## Medium → ## Low); within a severity group, order by file.

5. Write the report (see ## Output), then python3 shared/scripts/write_handoff_artifact.py --phase age --slug <slug> --status ok --next cure --artifact "" --orientation "<one-line orientation>" --durable-flags "<none | one line per flag>" --body-file "$report_file" (bundle fallback: ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/scripts/common.pyz write_handoff_artifact with the same flags). Print the path.

6. Hand off (see ## Handoff below).

Preferred tools and fallbacks

Call source-code backends directly according to the shared code-intelligence-routing.md contract. For caller graphs, use the selected semantic backend's caller query plus tilth_deps when available.

Need	Prefer	Fallback
Diff inspection	delta	git diff --unified=3
Caller/dependency impact + curated review context	semantic caller search + tilth_deps	manual scoping; note the precision loss
Architecture / hotspot framing for large diffs	changed-file map + caller/dependency evidence	skip and note in confidence
Design rationale for encapsulation/spec dimensions (optional)	mcp__hallouminate__list_corpora / mcp__hallouminate__ground on repo:<repo>:wiki, grounding design intent before grading, rendering consulted pages in ## Wiki context	skip; omit ## Wiki context; proceed with diff + code evidence only; cap at speculating when rationale is the primary evidence
GitHub/PR context	gh	local git commands or user-provided PR data
Merge/conflict awareness	mergiraf	manual conflict checks

Optional MCPs: hallouminate and milknado follow the detect-and-degrade contract in ../cheese/references/optional-plugins.md — state absence once, fall back, reduce confidence only if evidence quality suffers, never block.

Sub-agent fan-out

/age sizes its own fan-out via the age router (src/fanout/age_route.py), not a size-only threshold, and resolves every dispatched worker through ../cheese/references/agent-resolution.md (read-only, fresh-context; exact specialist, then compatible specialist, then a prompt-constrained general agent with degraded: true). Mechanics: references/fan-out.md, references/packet.md, references/sub-agent-gate.md.

Output

Cross-cutting house style and citation form: ../cheese/references/formatting.md. This section owns the findings-report shape; formatting.md owns the voice rules and the footnote primitive.

Write to .cheese/age/<slug>.md with a minimum handoff slug at the top — status, next, artifact, durable_flags, baseline, one-line orientation. press: skipped is the first body line after the blank separator when a cook artifact exists but no press report does; omit it otherwise.

Body, in order: # Age Report — <slug>; ## Orientation (1-2 sentences); ## Press findings (omit unless a press report exists); ## Wiki context (omit unless hallouminate grounding hit); severity sections (**[dim:sev]** path:line — claim, then location: <tier> · fix-cost-now: <tier> · fix-cost-later: <tier> · confidence: <tier>, then recommendation: <action>); ## Confidence; ## Next step. See references/report-example.md for the full skeleton plus a worked instantiation.

Empty severity sections are omitted entirely. When ten or more low findings exist, collapse the ## Low section to a single line:

## Low
*N low-severity findings suppressed.* Re-run with `--full` (or `/age --full`) to see them.

Per-finding confidence: uses the voice-kernel scale (references/voice.md § Reasoning posture): certain — verified by direct evidence (diff/code read, command output); speculating — inferred from indirect signal. A don't know grading never ships as a finding row — gather the missing evidence or drop the claim. Suppressed lows feed the cure-selection table only when --full is passed.

status: ok when the review completed; status: halt: <reason> when evidence was unreachable. next: cure when any finding meets the medium+ floor; next: done otherwise. durable_flags: mirrors cook's gate: default none.

Then print Age report: .cheese/age/<slug>.md. When press: skipped is set, also print: Warning: no /press report for <slug> — hardening was skipped. Run /press <slug> first, or continue with /cure. When --html is passed, also print the HTML path returned by html-report (render command under --html in ## Inputs).

Handoff

Pipeline: culture → mold → cook → press → [age] → cure → plate

Compute the recommended set. Composite all-medium, cheap: the medium floor (blocker+high+medium) unioned with every Low at fix-cost-now: contained.

Decide act vs ask:

• Empty set — write next: done, print the report path, stop.
• Reason to ask — a set member has fix-cost-now: sprawling or fix-cost-later: structural, findings conflict, or --safe was passed: read references/handoff-detail.md and render the gate per ../cheese/references/handoff-gate.md, pre-selecting the composite and flagging heavy rows.
• Otherwise — act: announce the selection and dispatch /cure per references/handoff-detail.md § Dispatch. No gate.

--auto substitutes a severity-floor selection (## Auto mode below); references/handoff-detail.md also covers the no-chain override under /cook's fan pathway.

Auto mode

When invoked with --auto:

• Skip the handoff gate.
• If two cure passes have already completed (cap reached), stop and surface the final report — do not invoke /cure again even if findings remain.
• Otherwise, if any finding meets the medium+ floor — invoke /cure <slug> --auto --stake medium+ (forward --open-pr when it is in scope) and increment the cure-pass count when it returns.
• If no finding meets the medium+ floor, stop the chain with a one-line "auto chain clean" note and the report path.

Within cook's own fan pathway

/cook's fan pathway spawns age as a fresh-context sub-agent and owns the chain itself. Read references/handoff-detail.md § Within cook's own fan pathway for the no-chain isolation directive before writing the report.

Rules

• Review is not a verdict; explain where to look and why.
• Do not edit production files; /cure owns application.
• Do not raise a finding for a gate failure identical to the diff's recorded baseline: block; flag only new/changed failures per ../cook/references/quality-gates.md.
• Default to acting: auto-select the recommended set, dispatch /cure without a gate. Ask first only on a genuine reason or --safe. An empty recommended set is a clean stop, not a question.
• Do not invent evidence; cite files, diffs, commands, or unavailable-source notes.
• Agree when the diff is fine — an empty dimension is a valid outcome, not a gap to fill.
• Keep confidence qualitative (certain | speculating | don't know) at both the report and per-finding level; never a numeric score.
• Findings carry location + recommendation, not JSON sidecars or tag-anchored fix payloads — /cure reads the markdown directly.
• Apply references/voice.md (output discipline, reasoning posture, confidence vocabulary).

References

• references/dimensions.md — before grading any finding: rubrics, location sensitivity, fix-cost tables, recommendation shapes.
• references/fan-out.md — before any n>1 dispatch: router mechanics, lens partitions, six-seam sequence, verifier pass.
• references/packet.md — when assembling the Seam-2 shared context packet for a fan-out run.
• references/sub-agent-gate.md — before any sub-agent dispatch: digest contract, harness-agnostic selection, what the parent never delegates.
• references/handoff-detail.md — before the selection gate or a /cure dispatch: gate menu, dispatch payload, cook-fan-pathway no-chain override.
• references/report-example.md — alongside ## Output: worked rendering plus the full placeholder skeleton.
• references/voice.md — when writing the report: output discipline, reasoning posture, confidence vocabulary.
• references/deslop-rust.md, references/deslop-typescript.md, references/deslop-python.md, references/deslop-shell.md, references/deslop-go.md — when grading deslop in that language: pattern catalogs with lint-rule mappings.

Agent resolution

Resolve every dimension worker and fresh-context review through ../cheese/references/agent-resolution.md.

Work	Preferred types	Permissions/isolation	Minimum power	Effort	Fallback
Review a diff or one dimension	reviewer	read-only, fresh-context	powerful	high	compatible reviewer, then general

The canonical age report/handoff carries the shared agent_resolution block.