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context-check

Optional manual drift audit — report stale provenance-tracked docs (via _provenancelib drift detection across .codearbiter/.provenance/), then per stale doc offer re-scout / re-baseline / defer. Not the daily loop; commit-gate auto-heal owns routine maintenance.

What it does

Section titled “What it does”

This is an optional, on-demand check for a specific bypass case: a merge or a hand edit changed a tracked source file outside of a normal commit, so the routine auto-heal inside the commit gate never had a chance to fire. It is not part of the everyday loop — the commit gate’s own drift detection covers that. Invoke this only when you know drift happened outside a commit.

Phases

Section titled “Phases”
  1. Compute drift by comparing every tracked document’s recorded source hashes against the current ones, and report “no stale docs” if nothing has drifted.
  2. Report each stale document and the paths that changed under it.
  3. For each stale document, offer a per-document choice — re-scout the drifted paths and update or propose changes, re-baseline without re-scouting when the underlying change was cosmetic, or defer it to reappear later — then summarize what was done.

Exits

Section titled “Exits”

Whatever a re-scout or re-baseline produces rides your next commit through the normal commit gate — this skill never stages or commits anything itself. A deferred document simply resurfaces at the next session start.

Section titled “Related”

Source

Section titled “Source”
Source — plugins/ca/skills/context-check/SKILL.md (v2.9.1) 
---
name: context-check
description: Optional manual drift audit — report stale provenance-tracked docs (via _provenancelib drift detection across .codearbiter/.provenance/), then per stale doc offer re-scout / re-baseline / defer. Not the daily loop; commit-gate auto-heal owns routine maintenance.
---


# context-check


An optional, on-demand drift audit for bypass cases: a merge or an external
edit drifted a tracked source file you are not about to commit, so commit-gate's
Phase 5.5 auto-heal did not fire. This skill reports stale docs and lets you
act on each one individually.


This skill is NOT in the daily loop. Commit-gate auto-heal (Phase 5.5,
`heal_worklist`) owns the routine maintenance path. Invoke this only when drift
was introduced outside a commit (e.g. a direct push, a merge you did not
author, a manual file edit).


## Pre-flight


Read these before computing drift:


1. `.codearbiter/.provenance/` — the per-doc provenance records. Load all
   records via `load_provenance_dir` from
   `${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/_provenancelib.py`.
2. `.codearbiter/code-map.md` — coarse concern map; read to orient on which
   modules the stale docs govern.


## Flow


### Step 1 — Compute drift


Use `_provenancelib` helpers in this order:


1. `load_provenance_dir(root + "/.codearbiter/.provenance/")` — returns the
   provenance map `{doc: record}`.
2. Collect all `drift_trigger: true` paths across all records.
3. `batch_hash(paths, runner)` — hash every existing path in one git call.
4. `compute_drift(provenance_map, current_hashes)` — returns a drift report
   `{doc: [{path, kind}]}` for docs that have stale sources.


Alternatively reuse the same logic as `startup_drift_line` by calling it for
a human-readable summary, then inspecting `compute_drift` directly for detail.


If the drift report is empty: report "no stale docs — provenance is fresh"
and exit. No further action required.


### Step 2 — Report stale docs


For each doc in the drift report, call `changed_scope(doc_provenance, drift)`
to list its drifted paths. Present a concise report before offering actions:


```
Stale docs (N):
  <doc>: <path1>, <path2>  (changed | missing)
  ...
```


### Step 3 — Per-doc action loop


For each stale doc, present three choices and wait for the user to select one:


**re-scout** — dispatch an incremental re-scout of the drifted paths for this
doc, scoped to those paths only (like commit-gate Phase 5.5 heal but manually
invoked). The scout re-reads the changed paths and reports whether claims still
hold. If claims still hold: silently re-baseline the hashes via `rebaseline`.
If claims changed: surface the proposed doc edits for the user to accept before
re-baselining.


**re-baseline** — acknowledge the drift without re-scouting: call
`rebaseline(provenance, current_hashes)` to update the stored hashes silently.
Use this when the source change is cosmetic (formatting, comments, whitespace)
and the derived doc claims are still accurate.


**defer** — do nothing for this doc now. The drift line will reappear at the
next SessionStart. Use when the change is in-progress and the doc update should
wait for a later commit.


After processing all stale docs, summarize which docs were re-scouted,
re-baselined, or deferred.


## Hard rule


This skill MUST NOT commit. If re-scout or re-baseline produces updated
`.codearbiter/.provenance/` records, those file changes ride the next
user-initiated commit through commit-gate normally. No staging, no commits here.

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