BREAKING CHANGE: the {NNN} in CA-{SCANNER}-{NNN} identifies the check that
produced the finding. It used to be the finding's position in that scanner's
output for that run, which made it unstable across CONFIGURATIONS, not just
across releases as STATE framed it. Measured on two fixtures: "No custom
subagents" was CA-GAP-007 on minimal-project and CA-GAP-004 on healthy-project.
A user who fixed an unrelated earlier gap silently renumbered every later one,
so a .config-audit-ignore pin retargeted to a neighbouring finding with no
version change at all.
Second measured arm: README already documented the opposite scheme. It and the
scanner headers describe ~20 numbers as check codes (CA-SKL-003 = oversized
body, CA-PLH-015 = folder shadowing, CA-TOK-006 = schema deferral), and the
counter could only produce those in the all-fire case -- source-order positions
are 4, 3 and 8. The documentation described the scheme; the implementation was
what was wrong. Every published number is preserved by construction and pinned
exhaustively in tests/lib/finding-codes.test.mjs.
scanners/lib/finding-codes.mjs is the single authority. Every finding() call
passes a `code`; an undeclared or missing one THROWS. No counter fallback --
that would reproduce D1's findGapId -> 'unknown' silent degradation and let a
half-converted scanner ship IDs that look valid. findingCounter/resetCounter
are deleted outright, not left as no-ops. Retirement is now a mechanism:
RETIRED_CODES tombstones a withdrawn key so its number is never reissued,
seeded with GAP t3_8 -- the D1 removal that opened this chunk.
IDs are consequently NOT unique per finding: one check failing in three files
emits three findings sharing an ID. That inverts which consumer is correct, so
every f.id/findingId site was classified before the change. diff-engine and
most of fix-engine already keyed on scanner+title+file (drift was never lying);
fix-engine's verification did not, and keyed on the ID alone -- fixing one of
two sibling instances marked both fixed, and the untouched one, still present
in the re-scan, was reported as a REGRESSION. Red test first, then keyed on
(findingId, file), which both planFixes and applyFixes already carry.
plugin-health's crossIds Set was measured and is a clean negative: cross
findings are allFindings.slice(crossPluginStart) and codes 18/19 are emitted
only in that tail, so the partition holds by construction.
unknownSuppressions() reports a pin that names no declared check, in the
--output-file payload (ux-rules rule 2 -- a stderr-only warning is invisible to
the commands) and only when one exists, so a clean config is byte-identical.
That is what makes the break safe: a stale pin goes loud instead of dying quiet.
Frozen tests/snapshots/v5.0.0/ untouched on disk. IDs are masked out of that
comparison (mask-finding-ids.mjs) rather than re-derived -- re-deriving
positional IDs would assert the retired scheme against itself, and #58's
isGapEntry off-by-one is the measured example of that misfiring. The dead
re-derivation is removed from strip-retired-gap.mjs. default-output snapshots
re-approved after confirming the diff is IDs and nothing else.
Guards, each seen red against its own defect: a missing code (scanner errors
out mid-sweep), an orphan declaration, a resurrected retired key, and a
documented ID naming no check. The sweep asserts the union across all 16
scanners, never per scanner -- a per-scanner assertion goes green on a partial
conversion.
Fasit written before implementation: docs/mbug28-id-semantics-fasit.local.md,
including one correction made before running (CML has 12 checks over 13 call
sites -- the anchored and calibrated char-budget arms are one check, which a
repeated-title sweep found and my call-site count had missed).
Suite 1535 -> 1573, 0 failing.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01MyqCQKK2ornJ1jFWwqx17E
CC 2.1.226's /doctor Check 8 covers auto mode with usage-weighted judgement.
The binding positioning forbids carrying a feature whose whole value is
duplicating a /doctor check, so the "adopt this feature" nudge goes. The
deterministic side stays: SET still validates autoMode structure and still
flags it as dead config in shared project settings. GAP dimensions 25 -> 24.
The title lived in FOUR tables, not the two the removal was scoped against:
the dimension list, scoring TITLE_TO_ID, the humanizer's static translations,
and the scoring denominators (TIER_COUNTS t3 8->7, TOTAL_DIMENSIONS 25->24,
MAX_WEIGHTED 42->41) -- the one that moves a user-visible number. findGapId
falls back to 'unknown' silently, so a partial removal would have degraded
without failing. A blanket sync invariant now asserts all four against
GAP_CHECKS instead of comparing occurrences pairwise; each arm was verified
red against its own defect (denominator drift, orphaned humanizer entry,
resurrected dimension).
Frozen tests/snapshots/v5.0.0/ stays untouched. strip-retired-gap.mjs is the
removal twin of strip-added-scanner.mjs: it strips the retired dimension from
whichever side still carries it and re-derives GAP IDs, since retiring a
dimension from mid-list shifts every later ID by one. Derived utilization
figures are dropped from comparison rather than recomputed -- recomputing them
in a test helper would assert the new arithmetic against itself, and
scoring.test.mjs already pins them exactly. Re-seeding was rejected: it would
silently bake in any other drift across every scanner those four files cover.
risk_score, risk_band, verdict, overallGrade, maturity and segment are
byte-identical across the change (severity info carries zero risk weight; GAP
is excluded from the overall grade). Utilization shifts 43 -> 44 on the fixture.
D2 (CA-SKL-002) is NOT removed. Verified against the primary source first: the
CC changelog carries exactly one budget-fraction statement (L3786, 2.1.32) and
nothing supersedes it, so our 2% is current and 002 is not a duplicate with a
stale figure. /doctor's ~1% could not be reconciled from the changelog and it
discloses its own numbers as disk estimates, so it is recorded, not adopted.
Left explicitly unverified in a code note: L3786 says "character budget" while
we express tokens -- a 4x difference nobody can settle from the wording.
Suite 1531 -> 1535, all green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01RsfPGxgwbR3MY54wDC6hat
`KNOWN_OPEN` in cli-unknown-flag-rejection.test.mjs named two CLIs as still
carrying the argument-swallow defect. That number was the previous session's
field of view, not a measurement. Measuring all fourteen found **7** open on
the unknown-flag arm and **10** on a second arm the deferral note never
described.
Arm 1 — unknown flag: with no `else` branch, `--zzz` leaves no trace. exit 0,
full payload, a confident answer to a question the caller did not ask.
Arm 2 — the sharper one: `a === '--output-file' && args[i + 1]` asks only
whether a next token EXISTS, never whether it is a value. `manifest`,
`campaign-cli` and `knowledge-refresh-cli` each wrote a file literally named
`--json` into the caller's working directory when handed `--output-file
--json`, exit 0, with `--json` mode silently dropped. A wrong answer is bad;
an unintended file on disk is worse.
Two of the CLIs this catches were already in GUARDED and green on arm 1 while
arm 2 stood open a few lines away — the guard asserted one relation instead of
the invariant.
Fixed with a shared gate (`lib/cli-args.mjs`) that runs BEFORE each CLI's own
parse loop rather than replacing it: valid argv reaches the existing parser
byte-for-byte unchanged, so the byte-stability argument is structural rather
than empirical. `drift-cli`, `fix-cli` and `plugin-health-scanner` were
already correct on both arms and were moved into GUARDED instead of rewritten.
The three CLIs with a bespoke unknown-flag branch had it removed once the gate
made it unreachable.
Suite 1488 → 1531. Frozen v5.0.0 snapshots untouched; `self-audit
--check-readme` passed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_014P6Rh59Mtj4uYrdYMCYZJE
Surfaced by the router dogfood: quoting the placeholder stopped the shell from
swallowing it, which moved the failure down into the CLIs — and revealed that
most of them never check the target at all. Measured:
node scanners/posture.mjs /nonexistent/path/xyz --output-file …
exit 0
Health: B (86/100) — Good shape — a few items to address
Nothing in that output distinguishes it from a real audit: well-formed
envelope, all 10 areas present, 16 opportunities reported. A typo'd path did
not fail — it flattered.
Exit 3 is the right code by the plugin's own contract: 0/1/2 are PASS/WARNING/
FAIL about a configuration that WAS examined, and every command template gates
on exactly that distinction, so a bad path flowed through the whole workflow as
a clean result.
This was a consistency gap, not a design question. Measured across the nine
target-taking CLIs, four already did it right with the same message and the
same exit code (manifest, token-hotspots-cli, whats-active, optimize-lens-cli);
five did not (scan-orchestrator and drift-cli exit 1, posture,
plugin-health-scanner and fix-cli exit 0). The five now share
lib/require-target-dir.mjs, which carries that exact behaviour. The four with
inline copies are left alone — consolidating them is a cleanup, not part of
this fix.
The guard is asserted over ALL nine CLIs, so a new one cannot join the wrong
half, and a third case is covered: a target that exists but is a regular file.
A valid target — including an empty directory — is explicitly unaffected.
Suite 1483 -> 1486, frozen v5.0.0 snapshots untouched.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01YDAwy1ZXRpZxht1wyCeSbF
assessFreshness aged only the entry's own source.verified stamp, so an
entry re-verified against an old source stayed green while a newer source
sat unnoticed (BP-SUB-001 was stamped 2026-07-31, a week after the
superseding-grade article of 2026-07-24 was published). The stamp
certifies the old source; it says nothing about the evidence.
- entries may carry corroborating sources[] with published dates
- new evidence-age rule: stale when the NEWEST published date across all
sources exceeds evidenceStaleAfterDays (default 365); re-verifying the
old source never clears it, only newer evidence does
- source.supersededBy marks a replaced source: stale regardless of stamp
- stale items now carry reasons[] (verified-age / no-verified-date /
superseded / evidence-age)
- BP-SUB-001 gains the 2026-07-24 context-engineering article as a
verified corroborating source (near-verbatim coverage). NOT added to
BP-MECH-*/BP-SIZE-001: own verification found no mechanism-choice or
size-limit content in the article, contrary to the brief's assumption.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_019NeaMRXVGzh9oSwigJDjE9
Dogfooding `campaign` + `knowledge-refresh` against a throwaway ledger. Seven
defects, all found by running the commands as written and measuring, not by
reading them.
The headline pair only existed together. `knowledge-refresh` built
`STALE_AFTER="--stale-after 30"` and expanded it unquoted, trusting the shell to
split it in two. bash does; zsh — the macOS default, and what the Bash tool runs
here — does not. The CLI got one argv entry, matched no flag, and because it had
no unknown-flag branch, silently kept the 90-day default and reported "✓ All 14
register entries were re-verified within the last 90 days": a true-sounding
sentence about a threshold the user had just overridden. Fixing either half alone
leaves a silent wrong answer or a loud one; both are fixed, and a guard now
rejects any template that packs a flag and its value into one variable.
`knowledge-refresh` also read one register and wrote another: step 6 named an
unanchored `knowledge/best-practices.json` while the CLI reads
`${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/…`, which for an installed plugin is the cache. The
validation gate then ran the cached test against the cached register — green no
matter what was written. The two copies were byte-identical that day, which is
exactly why it was invisible.
`campaign` vouched for repos it could not read. `add /finnes/ikke` returned
`added` + exit 0; `refresh-tokens` then put the phantom in `swept[]` with a
0-token delta and left `skipped[]` empty, so the machine-wide bill claimed
coverage of three repos on a machine with two. Paths stay tracked — an unmounted
volume is a legitimate absence — but are reported as `addedUnverified`, and the
command names them.
Two class sweeps, both measured rather than assumed. `posture` was the single
scanner (1 of 14) whose fatal catch exited 1, which ux-rules defines as a normal
WARNING grade — a crash indistinguishable from a result. And all 13 payload
writers failed on a `--output-file` whose parent did not exist, which on a fresh
machine turned `campaign`'s first run into "the ledger may be corrupt"; they now
share `scanners/lib/write-output.mjs`.
Predicted breadth was too wide for the first time in five sessions: 6 of 8 CLIs
predicted to lack unknown-flag rejection, 4 measured. `drift` and `fix` already
reject them, via a construct the grep did not recognise — a grep matches an
implementation, the invariant is a behaviour. The sweep was rewritten to run each
CLI with a bogus flag and read the exit code.
Suite 1453 → 1469/0. Frozen snapshots untouched. `optimize-lens-cli` and
`token-hotspots-cli` share the unknown-flag defect and are deferred to the v5.14
argument-handling chunk with their positional-swallow arm; the count is recorded
in the guard rather than rounded down to zero.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_012NHWjN8EnoxSqRvMTLK2NE
Pipeline step 4 dogfood. `/config-audit rollback` could not see a single one of
the four real backups on this machine, and reported "Backup not found" for one
that was sitting right there.
Four defects, one root: nothing agreed on where a backup lives or what its
manifest looks like.
- M-BUG-22 `lib/backup.mjs` resolved `~/.config-audit/backups` (pre-v2.2.0)
while every command, agent and doc uses `~/.claude/config-audit/backups`.
The auto-backup hook and fix-cli wrote to the first, implement to the second,
rollback read only the first. Canonical root now, with the legacy root kept
readable so older backups stay listable and restorable (`legacy: true`).
- M-BUG-25 `parseManifest` understood only the engine's quoted `original_path:`
spelling, but implement hand-builds its manifest with `- backup:`/`original:`/
`sha256:`. Every implement-made backup parsed to zero files and restoreBackup
returned `{restored: [], failed: []}` — a success-shaped no-op. Both formats
parse now, and a manifest with unparseable entries throws instead of
pretending to succeed.
- M-BUG-23 both session hooks watched `~/.config-audit/sessions`, which does not
exist; sessions live under `~/.claude/`. "Check for active sessions" had never
fired once. It fires now.
- M-BUG-24 the suite called createBackup() against the developer's real home —
it had left nine stray backups there, and cleanupOldBackups() deletes past ten.
Root is overridable via CONFIG_AUDIT_BACKUP_ROOT; both test files use it.
Rollback still cannot delete files implement CREATED — no backup can hold a file
that never existed. It no longer does so silently: manifests carry a `created:`
list, restoreBackup returns `createdNotRemoved`, and rollback.md requires the
report. Automatic deletion is a destructive action and needs its own design.
Verified against backup 20260717_032636 on a throwaway copy: all three files
restore byte-exact (sha256 match), zero writes outside the copy, backup dir
unmodified. Suite 1382 -> 1398/0; frozen v5.0.0 snapshots untouched.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SejM9RQAa1Hfuq7Ek2WfFr
Every command so far asked an addition question — what to add, what to move,
what it costs. Nothing asked what is no longer earning its always-loaded rent.
This adds that axis as a fourth lensCheck on the existing hybrid motor rather
than a new scanner or a 22nd command: the measured payoff (~18% of one file)
justifies a mode, not machinery.
It is the only lens that proposes REMOVING config, so it carries a guarantee
the others don't need: a load-bearing block is never a candidate. Precision is
asymmetric — a missed dead line costs a few tokens per turn, a deleted one
costs a wrong remote or a broken script — so the floor is decided in code
(lib/floor-exclusion.mjs) before the opus judge sees anything, never in prose.
Granularity is the leaf block, with two structural exceptions: a paragraph
ending in ':' merges with the list it introduces, and an ordered list is a
contract whose steps inherit floor from any sibling. Unordered lists
deliberately do not inherit — a load-bearing bullet and a disposable one
routinely share a list, and container-reasoning is the error the hand-built
ground truth exists to catch.
Verified against that ground truth (built before any classifier existed), with
the comparison machine-checked rather than read by eye: zero load-bearing
blocks proposed, 11/18 deletable groups surfaced, ~756 tok ~ 18% of a ~4300
token file — inside the pre-registered band. The first run found five floor
violations the synthesized fixture missed; each got a structural rule and a
fixture shape so it cannot regress.
Three real bugs the dogfood run exposed, all now covered:
- JS \b is ASCII-only, so /\bunngå\b/ never matches — every Norwegian keyword
ending in æ/ø/å was silently dead.
- A bare word/word is not a path; "pros/cons" vetoed the largest deletable
block until PATH_RE was tightened to rooted paths and globs.
- "Mid-sentence" must key on a preceding lowercase letter; the loose version
read **bold labels:** and quoted openers as entities, costing 4 of 11 groups.
BP-SUB-001 is grounded entirely in the Anthropic steering blog already cited by
BP-MECH-001..004 and asserts nothing from the talk that motivated the feature —
no "80%", no ablation figure.
Suite 1365 -> 1382/0. Frozen v5.0.0 snapshots untouched; plain optimize output
byte-identical on identical input (--subtract adds keys only when passed).
knowledge-refresh-cli's reference date moved to 2026-08-01: its premise that
every seed entry was verified 2026-06-20 expired when BP-SUB-001 got a genuine
verification date, and backdating the entry to fit the test would have been a
lie about when its source was checked.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01RW2haJXbxZpKivKHseSXNh
The agent-listing scanner (AGT) emits an always-loaded per-turn token cost
("Agent description is long, re-sent every turn in the always-loaded listing";
scanner category 'token-efficiency', "the dominant single always-loaded
source"). But SCANNER_TO_CATEGORY in humanizer.mjs had no AGT entry, so its
findings fell through to the 'Other' fallback (humanizer.mjs:140) — a bucket
that isn't even in the analyzer-agent's category list. Neither the scanner
prefix nor the per-finding category ('token-efficiency' is not in
CATEGORY_TO_IMPACT) resolved AGT to its true impact.
Same class as M-BUG-16/15: a finding type without its matching humanizer
mapping landing on a default that mismatches its own evidence. The analogous
SKL body finding correctly buckets "Wasted tokens"; AGT (the same always-loaded
token-waste mechanism) silently landed under the meaningless "Other".
Found during analyze-prep premise-verification of the linkedin-posts scan: the
3 AGT findings bucketed "Other" while the analogous SKL findings bucketed
"Wasted tokens".
Fix: add AGT: 'Wasted tokens' to SCANNER_TO_CATEGORY, alongside TOK/CPS/SKL.
RED-first (extended the Wasted-tokens category test to include AGT; the 'Other'
fallback test still uses a synthetic 'XXX' scanner, unaffected). Frozen v5.0.0
untouched (AGT post-dates it; humanizer bypassed for --raw/--json); no
default-output snapshot contains AGT -> 0 regen. Suite 1359/0.
Verified end-to-end on linkedin-posts: 3 AGT findings now "Wasted tokens", 0
"Other" remaining, 28 findings unchanged (category-only). All 16 orchestrator
scanner prefixes now covered by the category map (class closed).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01683eAqVecv9VZfQzL8CQ9h
The skill-listing check emits a third finding for an oversized skill BODY
(v5.11 B7, RAW title "Skill body is large (loads on demand when the skill
runs)"). The body is an ON-DEMAND cost — it loads only when the skill is
invoked, not the always-loaded listing Claude reads every turn. The scanner is
careful to distinguish the two (RAW title + comment + evidence note).
But the humanizer-data SKL.static map had no entry for this title, so it fell
through to SKL._default ("A skill is using more of the listing budget than it
should"). The humanized title therefore claimed a listing-budget cost and
directly contradicted the finding's own humanized evidence ("loads ON DEMAND
only ... NOT every turn like the always-loaded listing") — the same internal
contradiction class as M-BUG-15/M-BUG-14, and the same "new finding type added
without a matching humanizer entry" gap the scanner checklist warns about.
Found by finding-granularity premise-verification of the linkedin-posts scan
before feeding it to the analyze pipeline (the prior session's pass focused on
the GAP findings and did not catch the SKL fall-through).
- humanizer-data.mjs: add SKL.static entry for "Skill body is large (loads on
demand when the skill runs)" with on-demand-correct title ("A skill's body is
large (it loads only when that skill runs)"), description, and recommendation.
No listing-budget language; tier1/tier3 forbidden-word checks pass.
- RED-first tests at both layers: humanizer.test.mjs (humanizeFinding path:
title is not the listing-budget _default, conveys on-demand body) and
humanizer-data.test.mjs (static entry exists, on-demand-correct).
RAW envelope unaffected (humanizer bypassed for --raw/--json), frozen v5.0.0
snapshots untouched, default-output fixtures contain no oversized-body skill so
no snapshot regen. Suite 1357->1359/0 (+2).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01683eAqVecv9VZfQzL8CQ9h
The t2_3 ("No path-scoped rules") and t3_6 ("No subagent isolation")
feature-gap checks iterate a collection (rule files / agent files) and return
false for an EMPTY one — so they fire even when the user has zero rules / zero
subagents, the same state their presence-gap siblings flag. But the humanized
titles presupposed the feature already exists:
- "Your rules all load on every conversation" (with zero rules)
- "Your subagents share Claude's main work folder" (with zero subagents)
The second directly contradicts GAP-005 "You haven't set up any specialized
helper agents yet" in the same report — a user cannot simultaneously have no
subagents and have subagents that lack isolation. Found by dogfooding the
analyze pipeline against linkedin-posts (premise-verifying each finding before
trusting the analyzer-agent's report).
Decided fix = align the two titles with the house "You haven't set up X yet"
absence framing (state-neutral: honest for both the zero-state and the
has-but-unconfigured state), NOT a base-feature presence gate in the scanner —
that would change the frozen v5.0.0 marketplace-medium baseline (zero
rules/agents, freezes these gaps firing) and break the RAW byte contract.
Mirrors M-BUG-14's humanizer-layer, copy-only approach.
- humanizer-data.mjs: title "Your rules all load on every conversation" ->
"You haven't set up path-scoped rules yet"; title "Your subagents share
Claude's main work folder" -> "You haven't set up subagent isolation yet".
description + recommendation unchanged. t3_5/t3_7 ("Your skills don't ...")
left as-is: their possessive is correct in the common case where skills
exist; the zero-skills edge is latent, not manifest here.
- RED-first unit test pins both titles existence-neutral (forbids "your rules
all load" / "your subagents"; feature still named).
Frozen v5.0.0 snapshots untouched (RAW bypasses humanizer); default-output
snapshot regenerated (2 titles only, no collateral). Verified on linkedin-posts:
GAP-004/005/011 now all consistently absence-framed. Suite 1356->1357/0.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01683eAqVecv9VZfQzL8CQ9h
The t2_2 feature-gap check is a pure presence check (rules file OR @import
present) with no length gate, consistent with its t2_3/t2_4/t2_5 siblings.
But the humanized copy claimed the file is "one big block" and that splitting
makes it "easier on the loading time" — an unconditional size/load-cost
overclaim. For a ~625-token non-modular CLAUDE.md the load saving is trivial,
so the description lied. Found by dogfooding feature-gap against linkedin-posts.
Decided fix = copy-softening, NOT a length gate in t2_2 (that would make it the
only size-gated check among the presence-check siblings + risks byte-stability
if a short non-modular CLAUDE.md fixture exists in snapshots).
- humanizer-data.mjs: title "one big block" -> "all live in one file";
description drops "long"/"loading time", keeps the honest structural
"split into linked files with @import or .claude/rules/" framing.
recommendation unchanged.
- RED-first unit test pins the size-neutral copy (no "big"/"long"/"loading
time" in title/desc, structural split framing kept).
Frozen v5.0.0 snapshots untouched (RAW envelope bypasses humanizer); SC-5
default-output byte-stable (no non-modular GAP finding in those fixtures).
Suite 1355->1356/0.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01683eAqVecv9VZfQzL8CQ9h
The CC settings schema is passthrough (verified against the 2.1.193 binary): it
forwards unrecognized keys unchanged rather than rejecting them, so an arbitrary
unknown key is valid/forward-compatible, not an error — the finding's "silently
ignored" claim was factually wrong. The only real risk is a TYPO of a real key
(the intended setting then silently has no effect). Fix: flag an unknown key only
when it closely matches a known key (new levenshtein helper; edit distance <= 2,
both keys >= 4 chars); severity medium -> low; honest passthrough framing in the
scanner + humanizer. Also refreshed KNOWN_KEYS with 6 binary-verified keys
(agentPushNotifEnabled, remoteControlAtStartup, skipAutoPermissionPrompt,
skipDangerousModePermissionPrompt, skipWorkflowUsageWarning, tui). Suite 1341/0
(+12). Frozen v5.0.0 snapshots untouched (0 CA-SET findings there), no re-seed.
Dogfood ~/.claude/settings.json 6->0 (all 6 keys above were false unknown-key
findings; 0 typo flags introduced across 167 walked files).
CLAUDE.md token estimates counted block-level <!-- --> HTML comments toward
always-loaded tokens, but CC strips them before injection (preserved only inside
code fences, per code.claude.com/docs/en/memory). Fix: new stripInjectedHtmlComments
+ effectiveMemoryBytes in active-config-reader; the CML cascade (walkClaudeMdCascade)
and token-hotspots now size CLAUDE.md from effective (stripped) bytes, while raw byte
figures stay honest. Block-level only — inline comments retained (conservative,
verified scope). Suite 1329/0 (+13). Frozen v5.0.0 snapshots untouched (no fixture
has <!--), no re-seed. Dogfood ~/.claude CLAUDE.md ~3386->3301 tok (~85 tok discount,
matches worklist prediction).
A directory named `backups` holds backup COPIES, not live config, so walking
it during a config audit produces stale findings. config-audit's own session
backups (~/.claude/config-audit/backups/<ts>/files/.../CLAUDE.md) were the
canonical case: a ~/.claude-scope audit walked 36 frozen config copies as if
live, polluting CPS (C3) and HKV/RUL (C6) results. Same non-live-noise family
as M-BUG-2.
- Add `backups` to SKIP_DIRS (broad, name-based — consistent with vendor/dist/
.cache): the rule is general, a backups/ dir is never live config.
TDD: 2 failing tests (no config under backups/ discovered + backups/ counted
as skipped) -> green; a third asserts live config beside the backups tree is
still discovered. Full suite 1310/0 (+3). Byte-stable: no fixture is named
`backups` and `backups` appears in zero frozen snapshots, so v5.0.0 + SC-5 +
default-output outputs are unchanged. Dogfooding ~/.claude: files under
/backups/ drop from 36 -> 0; 717 live config files retained.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01EnUvKEqyEa1m9gy6Aqhdqq
enumerateAgents previously counted every .md in an agents dir as an
always-loaded agent. Per the official CC subagents docs, CC registers a
subagent only when its frontmatter declares both name and description, scans
agents dirs recursively, and (at a HOME self-scan) must not count
~/.claude/agents twice.
- M-BUG-5: require valid name+description frontmatter; frontmatter-less files
are registration no-ops costing 0 always-loaded tokens. Fixes the user-agent
over-count (this machine: 13 -> 0).
- M-BUG-3: listMarkdownFiles gains opt-in recursion; enumerateAgents recurses
so agents in subfolders (agents/review/x.md) are counted, matching CC.
- M-BUG-4: configDirs dedupes project==user paths, so a `manifest --global`
self-scan (repoPath===$HOME) counts ~/.claude once (user scope), killing the
spurious "project 13" double-count. Benefits rules/agents/output-styles.
TDD: 4 failing tests -> green. Full suite 1305/0; --json/--raw byte-stable,
frozen v5.0.0 + SC-5 + default-output snapshots untouched (no snapshot records
agent enumeration rows).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01EnUvKEqyEa1m9gy6Aqhdqq
active-config-reader walked ~/.claude/plugins/marketplaces and ignored both the
enabledPlugins toggle and the polyrepo cache layout. On a polyrepo machine it
counted disabled/uninstalled marketplaces plugins as "active" while MISSING the
actually-enabled plugins installed under plugins/cache. This corrupted the agent
listing and every pluginList consumer (manifest, AGT, whats-active, hooks, rules).
Now: when installed_plugins.json is present, inject only plugins that are in the
manifest AND enabledPlugins[key]===true, each resolved to its active installPath
(incl. cache/). When the manifest is absent (fixtures/pre-v2 installs), fall back
to the historic marketplaces walk rather than silently dropping config — mirrors
file-discovery.mjs's "trust installed_plugins.json" contract.
Verified on real machine: agent listing 114->104, ghost plugins (newsletter,
content-machine, harness, kiur, ...) gone, voyage/linkedin/ms-ai/okr now correctly
counted. Full suite 1301/0; byte-stable snapshots untouched (hermetic empty HOME).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01CrTb8ktf1XZWEVwgz5MTTo
Completes the deferred B8 half. `--context-window auto` now probes the
configured model and calibrates SKL/CML budgets to its real window instead
of always falling back to the conservative advisory anchor.
- lib/context-window.mjs: pure modelToContextWindow() maps known 1M-tier
model IDs (Fable 5, Opus 4.8/4.7/4.6, Sonnet 4.6 — verified June 2026 —
plus the explicit [1m] tier tag, dated/provider-prefixed IDs, and the
opus/sonnet/fable aliases) to the 1M window; unknown/unconfirmed -> null
(caller keeps the conservative anchor). resolveContextWindow() auto branch
now probes opts.model: recognized -> auto-probed (not advisory); unknown
or unpinned -> auto-unresolved (advisory, pre-B8b behavior).
- lib/active-model.mjs (new): resolveActiveModel() reads the model the way
Claude Code resolves it — shell ANTHROPIC_MODEL override, then settings
cascade local > project > user. Injectable env, hermetic under test HOME.
- scan-orchestrator: resolves the active model only when the flag is `auto`
and threads it into resolveContextWindow; posture inherits via runAllScanners.
Default (no flag) and explicit --context-window <n> paths ignore the model
and stay byte-stable; frozen v5.0.0 + SC-5 snapshots untouched. TDD: 17 new
tests (context-window mapping/probe + active-model cascade). Suite 1296 green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
SKL-002 (skill-listing budget) and CML char-budget now calibrate to a
resolved context window instead of always anchoring at 200k:
- resolveContextWindow(): --context-window <n> calibrates; 'auto' keeps the
conservative 200k anchor but marks advisory (model→window probing deferred
to B8b); no flag → 200k anchor, byte-identical to pre-B8 default.
- scaleForWindow(): linear off the 200k anchor (identity at the anchor).
- SKL + CML each keep an untouched default branch (window===200k && !advisory)
for byte-stability and a calibrated branch; advisory downgrades the budget
finding from a breach (low/medium) to info.
- Flag wired through scan-orchestrator + posture; runAllScanners resolves once
and threads { contextWindow } to scanners (others ignore the 3rd arg).
- CPS intentionally excluded: it has no window-anchored budget (fixed
150-line volatility heuristic), so there is nothing to calibrate.
15 new tests; e2e CLI verified (1M suppresses SKL-002, auto → info, default
unchanged); full suite 1279 green; snapshots byte-stable.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
New CA-SKL-003 (low): a SKILL.md body over ~5,000 tokens (~500 lines)
should split reference content into supporting files / use context: fork.
- measureActiveSkillListing() now returns body metrics (chars/lines/tokens);
the body was already read in full, only the frontmatter was parsed before.
- Honest framing: BODY_CALIBRATION_NOTE marks this as ON-DEMAND cost (loads
only when the skill is invoked, NOT every turn like the always-loaded
listing) and an estimate — hence low severity.
- 5 new tests; full suite 1262 green; snapshots byte-stable (default branch
untouched; new finding fires only on bodies >5k tok, none in fixtures).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
HKV now flags hooks that build hookSpecificOutput.additionalContext from
un-grepped command output as an INFO advisory (weight 0, never severity-bearing
— excluded from the self-audit nonInfo set). That field enters Claude's context
every time the hook fires (plain stdout on exit 0 does not), so an unfiltered
payload is a recurring per-turn token cost.
- New lib scanners/lib/hook-additional-context.mjs: pure assessHookAdditionalContext
(unit-tested, no IO) + IO wrapper assessHookContextForRepo (walk hooks->scripts).
Heuristic: additionalContext + verbose-prone capture (cat/git log/execSync/…) &&
no filter (grep/head/jq/.slice). Deliberately low precision -> advisory only.
- HKV: emits the advisory inline on scripts it already reads (after the M5 verbose
check). Additive, info severity -> frozen v5.0.0 + SC-5 snapshots untouched.
- feature-gap: new filterHookLeverFinding companion, fires ONLY when >=1 chatty
hook is detected — surfaces the filter-before-Claude-reads lever (CC
filter-test-output.sh). Silent otherwise (opportunity, not noise).
- docs: README HKV + GAP scanner rows; scanner-internals.md HKV row + full B5
implementation note. CLAUDE.md kept lean ([skip-docs]); B5 fully documented in
README + scanner-internals.
Mechanism verified 2026-06-23 against code.claude.com/docs context-window.md
(additionalContext enters context; plain stdout does not). Suite 1239 -> 1254 green.
Version/badges/CHANGELOG wait for the v5.10 release cut.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
By default Claude Code defers MCP tool schemas (names-only, ~120 tok; full
schemas on demand via tool search). CA-TOK-006 detects config-file signals that
force the FULL schemas into the always-loaded prefix every turn:
- settings.json env.ENABLE_TOOL_SEARCH="false" (high)
- "ToolSearch" in permissions.deny (high)
- configured model is a Haiku model (medium)
- per-server .mcp.json alwaysLoad:true (CC v2.1.121+) (high)
auto[:N] is threshold mode (info, not a trigger).
New engine lib/mcp-deferral.mjs: pure assessMcpDeferral({settings,mcpServers})
(unit-tested, no IO) + thin IO wrapper assessMcpDeferralForRepo shared by TOK and
GAP. Severity scales with aggregate forced-upfront tokens (medium-confidence
reasons cap at medium). feature-gap cliOverMcpLeverFinding fires only as a
companion to CA-TOK-006 (prefer gh/aws/gcloud over MCP for common ops).
Honest scoping (Verifiseringsplikt): triggers on config files ONLY — never
process.env shell vars. Vertex / custom ANTHROPIC_BASE_URL / runtime /model
switch are launch state (would flap snapshots machine-dependently), so they are
DISCLOSED in every finding, not triggered. Tool-level anthropic/alwaysLoad and
claude.ai connectors likewise disclosed. Mechanism verified 2026-06-23 against
code.claude.com/docs (context-window.md, mcp.md#configure-tool-search +
#exempt-a-server-from-deferral, costs.md); the prefix-cache invalidation claim
was NOT-CONFIRMED in docs and is not asserted.
alwaysLoad added to CA-MCP VALID_SERVER_FIELDS (no longer flagged as unknown).
active-config-reader surfaces per-server alwaysLoad. Byte-stable: CA-TOK-006
fires only on new conditions; frozen v5.0.0 + SC-5 snapshots untouched.
Tests 1215 -> 1239 (engine 16, integration 5, lever 2, mcp-field guard 1).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The B3a cache filter already exposes discovery.staleCacheVersions; surface them
as a finding so the user knows the superseded plugin versions are safe to delete.
Honesty (Verifiseringsplikt): the finding loads on ZERO turns, so it must NOT
read as a per-turn token cost. TOK normally humanizes to "Wasted tokens"; a new
per-finding category override ('plugin-cache-hygiene' -> "Dead config") plus a
dedicated humanizer translation ("Old plugin versions are sitting on disk (safe
to delete) ... cost zero tokens per turn ... housekeeping, not a performance
problem") keep the prose accurate instead of the generic "using more space"
default. evidence carries the explicit "zero live-context impact" note.
- token-hotspots: Pattern H emits CA-TOK (low) from discovery.staleCacheVersions
when stale versions exist (`--global`); silent otherwise.
- humanizer: CATEGORY_TO_IMPACT lets a finding's category override the
scanner-default impact label (raw `category` field unchanged -> --json/--raw
byte-stable). humanizer-data: honest static translation for the finding.
- Tests: finding fires/severity/category, lists stale keys + zero-impact note,
silent when none; humanizer override -> Dead config; honest translation locked.
- Docs: tokens command render note (disk-cleanup, not a token problem) +
--no-exclude-cache flag; README + CLAUDE.md rows (7 patterns, cache-aware).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Stale ~/.claude/plugins/cache versions polluted token-hotspots ranking and
inflated CNF duplicate-hook findings with config that loads on zero turns.
installPaths point INTO the cache, so a blunt "skip all of plugins/cache"
would drop ACTIVE plugins — the filter is therefore version-aware: it reads
the adjacent installed_plugins.json, keeps active version dirs, drops only
stale ones (and exposes them via discovery.staleCacheVersions for B3b).
- file-discovery: cacheVersionKey() + applyCacheFilter() (active vs stale via
installed_plugins.json; HOME-independent, derives the manifest from the cache
path); discoverConfigFiles/Multi gain { excludeCache } + staleCacheVersions.
Absent/unparseable manifest -> no filtering (never silently drop live config).
- token-hotspots-cli + scan-orchestrator: --exclude-cache (default ON for these
live-cost scans) / --no-exclude-cache restores the full walk.
- Tests: cacheVersionKey unit cases; stale-dropped/active-kept/no-manifest
discovery cases; CNF-drop proof (soft-spot verified, not assumed:
include=1 -> exclude=0 duplicate-hook findings).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Extend the campaign ledger with a machine-wide always-loaded token bill, the
pure data-model + aggregation half of B2. Deliberately does NOT do live I/O:
the cross-repo readActiveConfig sweep that populates real numbers is B2b.
Design — shared layer counted ONCE, structurally:
- Ledger root gets an optional `sharedGlobal` summary (the always-loaded layer
paid in every repo: global CLAUDE.md + agent listing + global MCP + unscoped
global rules + active plugins' always components), stored ONCE via the new
setSharedGlobal().
- Each repo entry gets an optional `tokens` summary (its PER-REPO delta only),
set via the new setRepoTokens(); addRepo now seeds `tokens: null` (mirrors
findingsBySeverity).
- rollUp() stays PURE and gains a `tokens` aggregate: machineWide = sharedGlobal
+ Σ(per-repo deltas), so the shared layer is counted exactly once by
construction — the structural guard against the historic double-count bug.
Plus a `byRepo` table ranked DESC by always-loaded cost ("most expensive
repos") with a deterministic name tie-break.
Summary shape mirrors manifest's summarizeByLoadPattern exactly
({always|onDemand|external|unknown: {tokens,count}}) so B2b wires in trivially.
Keeps rollUp pure (no filesystem I/O) → byte-stable, respects the THIN campaign
motor invariant. Chosen over the plan's literal "run readActiveConfig inside
rollUp" which would break both (operator-approved deviation).
- 8 new ledger tests incl. the counted-once regression guard + byRepo ranking.
- Updated addRepo shape test (+tokens:null) and campaign-cli EMPTY_ROLLUP.
- No frozen snapshot affected (campaign is v5.7, absent from v5.0.0 baselines).
Suite green: 1189 tests.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Flag any single active agent whose description exceeds a 500-char soft cap
(the same bloat threshold TOK pattern F applies to SKILL.md descriptions).
Every char of an agent description re-enters context in the always-loaded
agent listing on every turn, so a long one is a per-turn cost.
Framing is deliberately ADVISORY, severity low: unlike CA-SKL-001 agents
have NO verified per-description cap, so nothing is dropped — this is a bloat
advisory, never a truncation claim. Per-agent advisories are emitted BEFORE
the aggregate roll-up (mirrors SKL 001->002).
- PER_AGENT_DESC_SOFT_CAP (=500) added to lib/agent-listing-budget.mjs as the
single source of truth, disclosed as a heuristic.
- Per-agent loop reuses measureActiveAgentListing()'s agents[] (name, source,
pluginName, path, descLength) — no new enumeration.
- 5 new tests (fire/strict-boundary/no-truncation-claim/recommendation/order).
Byte-stable: AGT already stripped from frozen v5.0.0 baselines; SC-5 unchanged
(HOME-scoped, hermetic HOME has no agents). Suite green: 1181 tests.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
New AGT scanner flags the aggregate always-loaded cost of the agent listing
(every active agent's name+description is injected each turn so the model
knows what it can delegate to). Mirrors the SKL skill-listing pattern but
encodes the key honesty caveat: the agent-listing mechanism is INFERRED
(agents are absent from Claude Code's documented context breakdown), so the
token figure is an UPPER-BOUND estimate and the aggregate budget is a
config-audit heuristic anchored on 200k — not a CC-documented allotment.
- scanners/agent-listing-scanner.mjs + scanners/lib/agent-listing-budget.mjs
- 8 TDD tests (tests/scanners/agent-listing-scanner.test.mjs)
- AGT folds into the Token Efficiency health area (scoring.mjs)
- byte-stability: AGT added to strip-added-scanner (frozen v5.0.0 baselines
left untouched, same as OST/OPT); SC-5 default-output snapshot refreshed
- suite 1168 -> 1176 green
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Completes Block 4 (4b backlog + 4c export/execution). Asymmetric: plan
export is new testable code; execution is pure reuse of the existing
per-repo implement/rollback (no new execution machinery), per the plan's
"reuse existing backup/rollback".
Plan export ("planer følger arbeidsstedet"):
- scanners/lib/campaign-export.mjs (pure, now injected, 8 tests):
planExportPath(repo,sessionId) -> <repo>/docs/config-audit-plan-<sessionId>.md
(sessionId-keyed so same-day re-audits never collide);
buildPlanExportDocument({...,now}) -> provenance header + verbatim plan.
- scanners/campaign-export-cli.mjs (-cli, read-only by default, 10 tests):
--repo resolves the repo's linked session, reads its action-plan.md,
assembles the doc, emits {exportable,problems,targetPath,document}. Two
gates -> exit 1 advisory: no-session-linked / no-action-plan. Writes the
file ONLY under opt-in --write (byte-faithful copy; the LLM never re-types
a 200-line plan). --sessions-dir override for hermetic tests; exit 0/1/3.
Command: commands/campaign.md gains an `export <path>` mode (Step 6:
preview -> approve -> --write), then routes the user to the existing
/config-audit implement (backup + verify) + rollback + set-status
implemented. Nothing auto-written (Verifiseringsplikt).
Byte-stable: lib + -cli + command-doc only -> scanner count stays 15,
agents 7, commands 21 (export is a mode, not a new command), SC-5 +
backcompat suite untouched. suite 1150->1168. Block 4a (migrateLedger)
still deferred to the first breaking schema change.
Docs: CLAUDE.md section + badge 1150->1168/65->67 files; README badge +
campaign row + Testing prose (fixed stale 1055/59 -> true 1168/67).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add the durable ledger that sits ABOVE individual config-audit sessions for a
machine-wide audit campaign: repo list + per-repo lifecycle (pending → audited →
planned → implemented) + a machine-wide roll-up by status and severity.
scanners/lib/campaign-ledger.mjs — same hybrid split as knowledge-refresh:
- PURE transforms (createLedger / addRepo / setRepoStatus / rollUp) with `now`
injected (YYYY-MM-DD, never the clock) → deterministic + unit-testable.
- soft validateLedger (returns {valid,errors}, never throws) for loaded data;
transforms throw on programmer error (invalid status, unknown path).
- thin IO shell (defaultLedgerPath / loadLedger→null-on-ENOENT / saveLedger).
- persists to ~/.claude/config-audit/campaign-ledger.json — OUTSIDE the plugin
dir (next to sessions/) so it survives uninstall/reinstall/upgrade.
- schemaVersion stamped from the start → cheap Block 4 migration.
THIN scope (Block 3a, operator-approved): ledger + roll-up + persistence only —
no CLI/command/execution (Blocks 3b/3c/4). Internal plumbing, byte-stable until
consumed: no `export async function scan` + lives in lib/ → scanner count stays
15, no orchestrator wiring, SC-5 unchanged.
tests/lib/campaign-ledger.test.mjs — 28 tests (TDD, red→green). Full hermetic
suite 1091→1119 green.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The 'living' half of the v5.7 living knowledge base. Same hybrid split as the
optimization lens (Chunk 2b): a deterministic, byte-stable, unit-tested core +
a web/judgment command shell.
- scanners/lib/knowledge-refresh.mjs: pure assessFreshness(register,
{referenceDate, staleAfterDays=90}) — age-based fresh/stale classification of
source.verified; referenceDate injected (never reads the clock) → fully
deterministic. 15 tests.
- scanners/knowledge-refresh-cli.mjs: -cli (NOT an orchestrated scanner →
scanner count stays 15, suite byte-stable). Read-only — never writes the
register, never hits the network. --reference-date/--stale-after/--dry-run,
exit 0/1/3. 8 tests.
- commands/knowledge-refresh.md (opus): CLI stale-report → re-verify each stale
entry by re-reading its source.url → poll CC changelog + Anthropic blog →
apply ONLY human-approved writes, then re-validate the register. No unverified
claim is ever auto-written (Verifiseringsplikt). Web-driven → not byte-stable.
No new agent, no new orchestrated scanner. Docs/badges: commands 19→20,
tests 1068→1091 (20 lib + 32 scanner test files). self-audit A/A, readmeCheck passed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The recall+precision halves of the CA-OPT hybrid motor for the three
mechanism-fit cases the deterministic OPT scanner (2a) deliberately skips:
lifecycle→hook (BP-MECH-001), unscoped path-specific→rule (BP-MECH-002),
absolute "never"→permission (BP-MECH-004).
New:
- scanners/lib/lens-prefilter.mjs — cheap, recall-oriented line scan of the
CLAUDE.md body; detector names mirror the register lensCheck fields; skips
fenced code, gates the path class on an instruction verb. Pure + 13 tests.
- scanners/optimize-lens-cli.mjs — discovery + OPT scanner + pre-filter; attaches
only the CONFIRMED register entry to each candidate (unverifiable → dropped,
Verifiseringsplikt); emits {deterministic, candidates, register, counts}.
- agents/optimization-lens-agent.md — opus precision gate (7th agent, orange):
reads the real CLAUDE.md, drops low-confidence candidates, keeps only genuine
opportunities, cites register id + source.
- commands/optimize.md — /config-audit optimize orchestrates pre-filter→agent→report.
Agent-driven → deliberately NOT byte-stable (own command, outside the snapshot
suite). No new orchestrated scanner → scanner count stays 15. Counts: agents
6→7, commands 18→19, suite 1055→1068. Self-audit A/A unchanged, readmeCheck
passed (clean HOME). Plan: docs/v5.7-optimization-lens-plan.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
First detector of the 'is the config OPTIMAL?' axis (vs the existing 'correct?' scanners). New orchestrated scanner family CA-OPT (count 14->15), the deterministic half of the hybrid optimization lens.
CA-OPT-001 (low, Missed opportunity): a multi-step procedure in CLAUDE.md (>=6 consecutive numbered steps) that belongs in a skill. Reads recommendation + provenance from the best-practices register (BP-MECH-003). Conservative by design; the negative corpus proves null false-positives. Prose-judgment cases (lifecycle->hook, 'never'->permission) are deferred to the Chunk 2b opus analyzer.
Wiring mirrors OST: orchestrator entry, humanizer (OPT->'Missed opportunity' + family), scoring (OPT->'CLAUDE.md', existing area -> no new posture row -> byte-stable), strip-helper (OST,OPT), SC-5 regenerated under hermetic HOME (additive OPT entry only). 10 new tests; suite 1045->1055, self-audit A/A, readmeCheck passed (all verified with a clean HOME).
Note: the pre-existing TOK test reads the real ~/.claude (non-hermetic) -> run the suite with a clean HOME for deterministic results. Tracked as a separate follow-up.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Add knowledge/best-practices.json: a machine-readable, provenance-stamped, schema-validated best-practices register — the source of truth for the upcoming v5.7 optimization lens (CA-OPT). 13 seed entries migrated from the v5.5 V-rows (loading-model + compaction facts) and the Anthropic 'Steering Claude Code' blog (mechanism-fit rules); each entry carries source.url + verified date + confidence. Only confirmed claims are user-facing (Verifiseringsplikt).
scanners/lib/best-practices-register.mjs: zero-dependency loader + validator (loadRegister/validateRegister/getEntry, native JSON.parse — not YAML, since the repo is zero-dep and yaml-parser.mjs can't parse arrays-of-objects). tests/lib/best-practices-register.test.mjs: 22 tests (schema, provenance integrity, negative cases, lookup).
Byte-stable: no scanner consumes the register yet (Chunk 2), so all scanner output is unchanged. Suite 1023->1045, self-audit A/A, readmeCheck passed. Full design: docs/v5.7-optimization-lens-plan.md.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
New orchestrated scanner output-style-scanner.mjs — first new family since
SKL. Three findings, each pinned to a CONFIRMED V-row of the steering-model
plan + re-verified against code.claude.com/docs/en/output-styles:
- CA-OST-001 (medium, V10): user/project custom style missing
keep-coding-instructions:true (default false) → silently strips built-in
software-engineering instructions when active. Scoped to user/project.
- CA-OST-002 (low, V11): plugin style with force-for-plugin:true overrides the
user's selected outputStyle. Verifiseringsplikt correction — the plan bullet
said "project/user style," but force-for-plugin is plugin-styles-only per the
docs, so the check keys on source==='plugin'.
- CA-OST-003 (medium): settings outputStyle matching no built-in
(Default/Explanatory/Learning/Proactive, case-insensitive) nor discovered
custom style → dead config.
Byte-stability — a scanner addition, not a field addition. Growing the
scanners array + scanners_ok cannot be hidden by a field strip, but re-seeding
frozen v5.0.0 (the SKL precedent) would now bake in B2's hotspot triple +
claudeMd drift. So, per the B2 lesson, frozen v5.0.0 snapshots are PRESERVED
and the OST entry is stripped at compare time via new
tests/helpers/strip-added-scanner.mjs (wired into json/raw-backcompat + the
Step 5/6 humanizer tests); only SC-5 default-output is regenerated (additive
OST entry, diff reviewed). OST is fixture-gated (no output styles on
marketplace-medium / hermetic HOME → silent).
Wiring: orchestrator; humanizer (OST→Configuration mistake) + humanizer-data
OST family (title-coupled); scoring (OST→Settings, keeps 10 areas). Suite
1012→1023 (+11). Badges: scanners 14, tests 1023, TRANSLATIONS families 15.
Lore swept: README, CLAUDE.md, scanner-internals, humanizer.md. self-audit A/A.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Annotate every ranked TOK hotspot with the load-pattern triple
(loadPattern/survivesCompaction/derivationConfidence):
- hotspotLoadPattern() maps each discovery `type` → a deriveLoadPattern kind.
Rules reuse activeConfig.rules for precise `scoped` handling; claude-md maps
by scope. Two new deriveLoadPattern kinds back the rest: `command`
(on-demand — body loads on /invoke) and `harness-config` (external —
settings/keybindings/.mcp.json/hooks.json/plugin.json configure the CLI, not
the model context, so they cost no per-turn context tokens). Honest split:
the .mcp.json FILE is external; the MCP server's tool schemas are a separate
`always` hotspot.
Byte-stability — the opposite of B1's manifest. token-hotspots IS a byte-equal
SC-6/SC-7 CLI, and its hotspots ride inside scan-orchestrator + posture, so the
change touched SIX frozen-v5.0.0 comparisons across five test files. Resolved by
preserving the frozen baselines: a shared tests/helpers/strip-hotspot-load-pattern.mjs
strips the additive triple before each byte-equal compare (proves the original
schema is byte-identical). SC-5 default-output snapshots (scan-orchestrator +
token-hotspots) regenerated — diff reviewed as additive-only.
Tests 1008→1012. Self-audit A/A, scanner count unchanged at 13 (C bumps to 14).
Completes v5.6 B (B1 manifest + B2 token-hotspots).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Foundation chunk of v5.6 "steering-model II" (internal plumbing for B/C;
no command-output change, so --json/--raw/SC-5/6/7 stay byte-stable, count
stays 13).
active-config-reader.mjs:
- deriveLoadPattern(kind,{scoped}) — pure helper mapping each source kind to
loadPattern {always,on-demand,external} + survivesCompaction {yes,no,n/a}
+ derivationConfidence {confirmed,inferred}, traced to the published
loading model (V-rows in docs/v5.5-steering-model-plan.md).
- enumerateRules / enumerateAgents / enumerateOutputStyles — the three
source kinds previously unenumerated (mirror enumerateSkills). Output-style
discovery is direct (not a new file-discovery type) to keep the discovery
surface stable.
- readActiveConfig now exposes rules/agents/outputStyles arrays + totals
counts/subtotals (folded into grandTotal).
yaml-parser.mjs:
- parseSimpleYaml now reads YAML block sequences (paths:\n - a), not just
inline paths:. An empty-valued key with no `- ` items stays null
(backcompat). Resolves a pre-existing RUL false-positive (a block-seq-scoped
rule was misread as unscoped) — fix flows through unchanged RUL code.
Tests +35 (961 -> 996): block-seq parser cases, RUL block-seq regression
(no-misflag + durability-fires), deriveLoadPattern table, three enumerators
(positive+negative). Amended two existing ACR asserts (top-level key shape +
grandTotal sum). self-audit A/A, readmeCheck passed, mismatches []. tests
badge 961+->996+; README testing prose de-staled (635/36 -> 996/56);
CLAUDE.md Foundation note.
B (manifest/tokens render + snapshot regen) and C (CA-OST, count->14)
deferred to their own sessions/GO.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
Per the official "what survives compaction" model (context-window.md):
only the project-root CLAUDE.md (+ unscoped rules) is re-injected after a
context compaction. Two additive, structural findings (low severity):
- RUL: a large (>50-line) PATH-SCOPED rule — reloads only on a matching
file read, and is not re-injected after compaction, so must-hold rules
can silently drop mid-session.
- CML: a NESTED (subdirectory) CLAUDE.md — not re-injected after
compaction (only the project root is).
Additive (no new scanner, count stays 13); one humanizer entry each;
hermetic temp-fixture tests (positive + negative). Suite 957 -> 961,
SC-5 byte-stable, self-audit A/A.
Known limitation (pre-existing, broader than A): the lightweight
frontmatter parser reads inline `paths:` but not YAML block sequences,
so block-sequence-scoped rules are still seen as unscoped. Deferred.
Part of v5.5.0 "steering-model I". Foundation (active-config-reader
enumeration) deferred to v5.6 with B.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
Plugin subagents silently ignore `hooks`/`mcpServers`/`permissionMode`
frontmatter — these are honored only for user/project agents in
.claude/agents/ (code.claude.com/docs sub-agents). Setting them in a
plugin agent is dead config; `permissionMode` is MEDIUM because it
implies a restriction Claude Code does not apply (false security).
hooks/mcpServers are LOW.
Additive to PLH's agent-frontmatter loop (no new scanner, count stays
13). One humanizer pattern covers the three field titles. Hermetic
temp-fixture test (positive + negative). Suite 954 -> 957, byte-stable.
Part of v5.5.0 "steering-model I". Foundation (active-config-reader
enumeration) deferred to v5.6 with B — A/E are additive and don't
consume it.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
HKV: add Setup, UserPromptExpansion, PostToolBatch to VALID_EVENTS,
verified live against code.claude.com/docs/en/hooks.md (2026-06-19). A
valid hook using one of these was wrongly flagged "will never fire" — a
user could delete a working hook. Made the "(N total)" hint dynamic so
it can't drift again. Flagged the unverified kebab 'post-session' in a
comment (an existing test depends on it; follow-up check needed).
RUL: reword the globs finding. Only `paths:` is documented; whether CC
ever read `globs` is unverified, so the old "deprecated/legacy" framing
overclaimed (Verifiseringsplikt). New wording steers to the documented
`paths:` field. Updated the coupled fix-engine title match and the
humanizer entry (which also carried the "field was renamed" overclaim).
Suite 950 -> 954 (badge bumped). self-audit A/A, scanner count 13. No
version bump — these land in the pending v5.4.1 patch.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
settings-validator now validates the autoMode block (auto-mode classifier
config). Structure (medium): autoMode must be an object whose only keys are
environment/allow/soft_deny/hard_deny, each a string array ("$defaults" is a
valid entry); flags not-an-object, unknown-subkey, not-string-array. Dead-config
(low): Claude Code does not read autoMode from shared project settings
(.claude/settings.json), so an autoMode block committed there has no effect —
keyed on file.scope === 'project'.
Both premises primary-source-verified (code.claude.com/docs/en/auto-mode-config).
The plan's "test per-file scope first" gate passed: ConfigFile already carries
scope. SET is in the orchestrator; SC-5 re-checked, byte-equal (snapshot fixture
has no autoMode). Fixtures force-added (.claude/ is gitignored).
Tests +5 (944->949). Scanner count unchanged (13). --json/--raw byte-stable.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
PLH now validates each entry of a plugin.json `skills` field (string|array):
every entry must resolve to an existing directory inside the plugin root.
One finding per bad entry (medium, plugin-hygiene), problem ∈ {non-string,
escapes-root, not-found, not-a-directory}. Mirrors `claude plugin validate`.
String|array normalized so a non-string top-level value is caught too.
Verifiseringsplikt: the plan's "CC suggests the parent directory" error text
is NOT in the primary docs — dropped. Only the four primary-source-verified
conditions are asserted (escape backed by the path-traversal rule).
Tests +3 (941->944). Scanner count unchanged (13). --json/--raw byte-stable.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
PLH now flags a plugin.json component-path key (commands/agents/outputStyles)
that replaces a default folder still present on disk — Claude Code stops
scanning that folder, so its contents are silently ignored (dead config).
Mirrors CC's /doctor & `claude plugin list` warning (v2.1.140+).
Field set pinned to the docs' "replaces" category only (Verifiseringsplikt,
code.claude.com/docs path-behavior-rules): skills is excluded (adds to the
default skills/ scan — both load) as are hooks/mcpServers/lspServers (own
merge rules); a custom path that addresses the default folder is not flagged.
Tests +5 (936->941). Scanner count unchanged (13). --json/--raw byte-stable.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
Commands are namespaced (/name:command), so a command name shared by two
differently-named plugins keeps both reachable — it is ambiguity, not a hard
conflict. The check now mirrors COL's plugin-vs-plugin skill finding: severity
LOW (was HIGH), category plugin-hygiene, COL-shaped details.namespaces, and a
group-first shape (one finding per command name listing every namespace, not
pairwise). It keys on the declared namespace (was folder basename) and fires
only across 2+ distinct namespaces — when plugins share a declared name, the
namespace-collision finding (medium) is the right signal, so this stays silent.
Removes the inaccurate "only one wins" humanizer entry. Adds fixtures
(duplicate-command-name; a shared command in duplicate-plugin-name's colliding
namespace) and 4 tests. Suite 932->936. self-audit A 97 / A 100, scanners 13.
Two plugins that declare the same `name` in plugin.json collapse into one
component namespace (/name:command, name:skill, agent "name"). Resolution
between two installed same-name plugins is undocumented, so one plugin's
commands/skills/agents are silently shadowed and unreachable. PLH now flags
this at medium severity, keying on the declared `name` (not folder basename,
via new declaredName on scanSinglePlugin) with a COL-shaped details.namespaces
payload. Name-less plugins are excluded from the collision map.
Search-first (code.claude.com/docs/en/plugins): plugin components are
namespaced by the declared name, so a plugin component can never shadow a
user/project one — only a same-name collision loses components. This refutes
the original "plugin vs user vs project shadowing" framing in the backlog.
Adds humanizer pattern, fixture (duplicate-plugin-name: 2 colliding + 2
name-less), and 3 tests. Suite 929->932. self-audit A 97 / A 100, scanners 13.
Extends the DIS scanner and its shared permission-rules lib with a third
documented Claude Code permission footgun. Verified verbatim against
code.claude.com/docs/en/permissions (fetched 2026-06-19).
CC's Tool(param:value) matching (2.1.178) is off-limits for a tool's own
canonicalizing field — CC ignores such a rule and emits a startup warning,
because e.g. Bash(command:rm *) is bypassable by a compound command. The
forbidden fields: command (Bash/PowerShell), file_path (Read/Edit/Write),
path (Grep/Glob), notebook_path (NotebookEdit), url (WebFetch).
- lib/permission-rules.mjs: new forbiddenParamRule(entry) returning
{ tool, key, hint } or null. Only the param:value form (colon present)
whose key equals the tool's forbidden field is flagged; Bash(npm:*),
WebFetch(domain:host), Agent(model:opus), and Bash(command) (no colon)
are left valid. FORBIDDEN_PARAMS map is the single source of truth.
- DIS: scans allow + deny + ask and splits severity by intent — deny/ask
hits are false security (medium: the block never applies), allow hits are
dead config (low: param:value matching is deny/ask-only). Two findings,
permissions-hygiene, CA-DIS-NNN.
- 11 new tests (7 lib, 4 DIS) + 1 fixture forbidden-param-permissions
(force-added past .gitignore .claude/). Suite 918 -> 929. Snapshot
unchanged (SC-5 byte-equal), contamination grep clean, gitleaks clean.
README/CLAUDE document the broadened DIS mandate; test badge synced.
self-audit: PASS, configGrade A 97, pluginGrade A 100, scanners 13.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
Add a char-based CML finding that mirrors Claude Code's own startup warning
("Large CLAUDE.md will impact performance (X chars > 40.0k)"). CC 2.1.169 scales
that threshold with the model's context window, so the finding anchors on the
conservative 200k window (we cannot observe the user's window; the anchor fires
earliest) and discloses the relaxed ~200,000-char figure at 1M context. MEDIUM
severity (token cost, not an adherence cliff — consistent with the v5.2.0 reframe).
Keyed on chars, not lines, so it is complementary to the existing 200/500-line
checks (which stay untouched): a file can be long by lines yet under budget (short
lines, e.g. large-cascade at 37k chars / 1024 lines), or short by lines yet over it.
Extract the shared 200k/1M context-window constants to scanners/lib/context-window.mjs
(single source of truth; skill-listing-budget.mjs now imports + re-exports them).
40.0k figure and context-window scaling verified against the CC changelog (2.1.169,
2026-06-08) and the live startup-warning text. +6 tests, new fixture large-claude-chars
(48,531 chars / 100 lines). Suite 918/918, self-audit PASS configGrade A 97.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
Extends the DIS scanner and its shared permission-rules lib with two
documented Claude Code permission footguns. Verified verbatim against
code.claude.com/docs/en/permissions (fetched 2026-06-19).
- lib/permission-rules.mjs: new isIneffectiveAllowGlob(entry) — unanchored
tool-name globs in permissions.allow (`*`, `B*`, `mcp__*`) that CC silently
skips ("does not auto-approve anything"); valid only as a glob-free
`mcp__<server>__*`. Shared with CNF.
- lib/permission-rules.mjs: dominates() now treats the `Tool(*)` deny-all glob
as equivalent to a bare deny (covers a bare allow) — CC: "Bash(*) is
equivalent to Bash ... both forms remove the tool from Claude's context".
- DIS: new finding "Ineffective allow wildcard — Claude Code ignores this rule"
(low, permissions-hygiene, CA-DIS-NNN); the existing dead-allow finding now
also catches a bare allow killed by a Tool(*) deny.
- 9 new tests (5 lib, 4 DIS) + 2 fixtures (force-added past .gitignore .claude/).
Suite 903 -> 912. Snapshot unchanged, contamination grep clean. README/CLAUDE/
scanner-internals document the broadened DIS mandate; test badge synced.
self-audit: PASS, configGrade A 96, pluginGrade A 100, readme gate passed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
Chunk 2 of the disableBundledSkills GAP feature. Adds a conditional GAP check
that prescribes the `disableBundledSkills` lever — but only when the active
skill listing is measurably over budget (SKL's CA-SKL-002 overflow signal) and
the lever is un-pulled. It stays an opportunity, not noise.
Bundled skills (/code-review, /batch, /debug, /loop, /claude-api, …) live in the
CC binary, not on disk, so their exact cost is unmeasurable here — the finding
says so plainly, and frames the lever as zero-cost budget reclaim that leaves
the user's own skills untouched. CC 2.1.169+.
- Pure, exported bundledSkillsLeverFinding({leverPulled, aggregate}) → finding|null
(severity low, category token-efficiency, CA-GAP-NNN), wired into scan() via the
shared measureActiveSkillListing().
- Lever resolved via new isBundledSkillsDisabled(): env var + settings cascade
read directly, because discovery does NOT tag ~/.claude/settings.json (its
relPath lacks ".claude" when walked from the .claude root) — the dominant
user-scope location for this global preference would otherwise be missed.
- GAP scan() now reads HOME → existing GAP tests retrofitted to withHermeticHome
per the hermetic rule. Snapshots unchanged, contamination grep clean.
- 16 new tests (9 GAP, 7 lib). Suite 887 -> 903. README/CLAUDE.md document the
cross-scanner remediation; test counts synced. self-audit: PASS, configGrade
A 96, pluginGrade A 100, readme gate passed.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
Chunk 1 of the disableBundledSkills GAP feature. Moves the per-description cap,
aggregate budget constants, calibration note, and the enumerate-and-measure step
out of skill-listing-scanner into scanners/lib/skill-listing-budget.mjs — so SKL
(diagnoses overflow) and the upcoming GAP check (prescribes disableBundledSkills)
consume one budget definition instead of two divergent copies.
- New lib: assessSkillListingBudget (pure aggregate math) + measureActiveSkillListing
(HOME-scoped enumerate-and-measure wrapper).
- SKL delegates measurement; all finding strings kept byte-identical. 18/18 SKL
tests pass unchanged → behavior-neutral refactor.
- 12 new lib unit tests pin the budget contract. Suite 875 -> 887.
- README badge + CLAUDE.md test counts synced (self-audit --check-readme: passed).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01Ter3E2JSi1Khgmuf2kady8
