groom

Source contract preview

This generated excerpt gives readers the beginning of the live primitive contract before they jump to GitHub.

Keep the backlog healthy, organized, tidy, and strategically aligned. One
loop, always-on. You cannot groom a backlog without tidying it.

## Stance

Grooming is the single operation that keeps `backlog.d/` useful. Every
invocation runs the full loop:

1. **Always tidies** — closes shipped tickets, reorders by priority, flags stale items.
2. **Always brainstorms** — opens the aperture on what could be on the backlog that isn't.
3. **Always interrogates** — challenges the premise of top items with ad-hoc
   roster lanes and the technical-review bench.
4. **Always investigates** — dispatches Explore subagents against code hotspots.
5. **Always researches** — delegates to `/research` for outside context and
   reports which research surfaces succeeded, failed, or were unavailable.
6. **Always simplifies** — favors deletion and consolidation over addition.

Emphasis flags (`--emphasis explore|rethink|moonshot|scaffold`) weight the
loop toward a direction. They do not turn steps off. There is no `tidy`
subcommand; tidy is the price of admission.

You are the executive orchestrator. Keep synthesis, prioritization, and
decision authority on the lead model. Delegate investigation and evidence
gathering to focused subagents in parallel.

## Delegation Floor

Delegation floor applies: probe the roster first; dispatch two or more
providers for substantive work; direct solo only for mechanical, emergency,
user-forbidden, or fewer-than-two-providers cases. See
`harnesses/shared/AGENTS.md` (Roster).

Local lane guidance: Use lanes for backlog drift, premise challenge, technical
hotspots, product opportunity, ideal-form design, security/privacy,
agent-readiness, simplification/deletion, and external context; the lead keeps
final prioritization.

## Audit Mode

`/groom audit` is a read-only skill quality coverage report, not a normal
...