xedit-conflict-audit

xEdit Conflict Audit (W2)

Inherits the hub xedit-automation skill. Do not restate routing or anti-patterns here; this skill is the W2 workflow only.

Purpose

For a record or a plugin in scope, produce a verdict: no_conflict | itpo | itm | minor | breaking, plus the winning override, the override chain, and a list of plugins that reference the record. Output is a concise summary, not the raw daemon round-trips.

When To Use

• "Why is this mod's change not showing up?" → audit the affected records.
• "Which plugins overlap on this NPC / weapon / armour / keyword?" → audit by editor ID / form ID.
• "Is this load order safe to ship?" → audit a representative sample of records.

Tools

Use these MCP intent tools (do not drop to xedit_call unless an intent tool does not fit):

• xedit_session (always first; once per conversation).
• xedit_list_capabilities (once per conversation; sanity-check drift).
• xedit_find_record (locate the record(s) you want to audit).
• xedit_inspect_conflicts (the verdict tool).
• xedit_read_record (when you need to see the actual conflicting field values).
• xedit_call for r6-only daemon fields that no intent wrapper exposes yet: records.references, records.conflict_status, and records.apply_filter.

If the conflict is broad (many records across many plugins), do not loop through them one by one in the orchestrator — delegate to a read-only investigator sub-agent (see Hub skill, "Sub-agent delegation recipes").

R6 broad-audit shortcuts (capability gated)

Check xedit_list_capabilities and branch on system.capabilities.supports.*. Use these r6+ one-call forms when available; old child-by-child and record-by-record loops remain the fallback for pre-r6 daemons.

Recursive references (supports.referencesRecursive)

For CELL/WRLD/DIAL/QUST targets, prefer:

xedit_call({
  command: "records.references",
  args: { file, formId, recursive: true }
})

recursive: true unions outgoing references across ChildGroup descendants, so one call replaces the old "list every ChildGroup child, then reference-probe each child" loop. Deep reference: xedit.references-recursive.v1.

ChildGroup conflict summary (supports.conflictStatusChildGroup)

When records.conflict_status returns result.childGroup, read that block before expanding individual records. It summarizes per-signature child-group state as { total, conflicting } and includes a capped conflictingHits array (cap 20) for the first concrete children to inspect.

This is the broad-audit starting point for CELL/WRLD/DIAL/QUST conflicts: summarize the childGroup block, then deep-read only conflictingHits or a small representative sample. Deep reference: xedit.conflict-status-childgroup.v1.

apply_filter regex + parentFormId (supports.applyFilterExtensions)

Use records.apply_filter to collapse broad candidate discovery into a single server-side query when the daemon advertises supports.applyFilterExtensions (or the narrower .regex / .multiPattern subkeys, if exposed separately).

• Regex fields: editorIdRegex, displayNameRegex, fullNameRegex, baseEditorIdRegex, baseDisplayNameRegex.
• Regex engine: System.RegularExpressions.TRegEx.
• Guardrails: 100ms per-record timeout, 4-worker semaphore, and a RegexSlotsExhausted response counter so saturation is distinguishable from no matches.
• Multi-pattern OR: each *Pattern and *Regex field may be a scalar string or an array with OR semantics; max 32 entries.
• parentFormId: single-call ancestor filtering, e.g. "all REFRs whose container chain contains CELL X" without building your own parent walk.

Deep reference: xedit.apply-filter-extensions.v1.

Workflow

1. Bootstrap session. xedit_session({}). Confirm gameMode, consentEnabled not needed here (read-only), and loadOrderSize matches expectation.
2. Sanity-check capabilities. xedit_list_capabilities({}). Read the drift.onlyInLive and drift.onlyInDigest arrays plus the r6 support keys. If a target command you intend to use is missing from live, stop and tell the user.
3. Scope the audit. Decide whether the audit is per-record, per-plugin, per-signature, or parent-scoped (e.g. all REFRs under a CELL).
4. Locate records with the narrowest supported query.
   • Per-record by FormID: xedit_find_record({ file, formId }).
   • Per-editor-ID: xedit_find_record({ editorId }).
   • Parent-scoped or regex candidate set on r6+: xedit_call({ command: "records.apply_filter", args: { file?, signature?, parentFormId?, editorIdRegex?, ... } }).
   • Per-plugin fallback: xedit_call({ command: "records.list", args: { file, signature? } }), then iterate or delegate if large.
5. Inspect conflicts with child-group awareness. For each focused target, prefer xedit_inspect_conflicts({ file, formId }). For broad CELL/WRLD/DIAL/QUST targets on r6+, call records.conflict_status through xedit_call if you need the raw result.childGroup summary; expand only conflictingHits or a representative sample instead of probing every child.
6. Collect references efficiently. On r6+, xedit_call({ command: "records.references", args: { file, formId, recursive: true } }) gives a ChildGroup-wide outgoing-reference union. On pre-r6, fall back to the old child walk or delegate the loop.
7. Classify verdicts. Read the verdict field from the intent tool or map the raw records.conflict_status result with the same W2 labels:
   • no_conflict → safe.
   • itpo / itm → likely safe; consider cleaning.
   • minor → human review.
   • breaking → halt and surface.
8. For non-trivial verdicts, read the actual record. xedit_read_record({ file, formId }). Compare record.fields vs winningOverride vs baseRecord. Identify the diverging fields.
9. Summarise. Produce a short report: one row per record or child-group signature bucket audited, columns [file, formId, editorId/signature, verdict, winningFile, referencerCount, childGroupConflicts]. Surface only the breaking/minor verdicts to the user by default; the rest are appendix.

Verification (what counts as semantic pass)

• The audit's verdict for each spot-checked record matches what manual xEdit GUI inspection would show.
• For breaking verdicts, you have read the actual record fields and can name the diverging fields.
• The output report is concise: one row per record or child-group signature bucket, no raw daemon envelopes.
• The session's audit log (.opencode/artifacts/xedit-mcp/audit/YYYY-MM-DD.jsonl) contains one entry per MCP tool call you made.

If you cannot meet these for a record, mark it unknown in the report and explain why — do not guess.

Common Mistakes

• Calling xedit_call records.conflict_status directly when xedit_inspect_conflicts would do it with the verdict label already mapped; use raw records.conflict_status only when you need r6 response blocks such as result.childGroup.
• Treating no_conflict as proof of safety without reading at least one representative record.
• Looping through hundreds of records in the orchestrator's context when r6 recursive, childGroup, apply_filter, or delegation would collapse the work.
• Forgetting to call xedit_session first; downstream tools will refuse with state_violation.
• Asking the daemon for a file that is not in the load order; LOAD001 will fire — load it via the session first.

Delegation hints

This workflow is a strong candidate for read-only sub-agent delegation in two cases:

1. Large scope (> ~10 records to audit) — the round-trips will fill the orchestrator's context. Delegate the loop; receive the per-record summary table.
2. Exploratory diagnosis ("I don't know which record is causing this in-game issue") — let a sub-agent triangulate by editor ID and signature; you'll get the candidates back.

When delegating, include this skill and the hub skill in the sub-agent's prompt and provide the scope + budget.