spec-adversarial-review

Use this after spec-synthesis-review passes and the orchestrator's scoring gates are met. Do not use this before blocker_reasons is empty and completeness_score >= 80 and evidence_confidence_score >= 80.

Purpose

Find every remaining gap that could force an engineer to make a judgment call the spec should have made for them. The full adversarial attack surface: ambiguity, missing failure modes, contradictions between sections, unstated dependencies, scalability gaps, security blind spots, untestable claims.

Agent team allocation

The orchestrator creates agent teams via TeamCreate before delegating to this skill. The team persists across all rounds for context continuity.

Section agents (depth)

One per substantive spec area. Allocate dynamically by reading the completeness matrix. A simple spec gets 3-4 agents, a complex one 8-10.

Candidate roles (allocate only those with substantive spec content):

• core flows agent
• entity and state transitions agent
• interfaces and integrations agent
• constraints and failure modes agent
• security boundaries agent
• acceptance criteria agent
• data model agent
• migration and rollback agent

Cross-cutting agents (coherence)

Always allocate these regardless of spec size:

• literal implementer — "If I read this spec with zero context and built exactly what it says, what would go wrong?"
• QA adversary — "What claims are untestable? What edge cases have no defined behavior?"
• consistency checker — "Where does section X contradict or assume something incompatible with section Y?"

Round structure

Every round MUST spawn the full agent team — all section agents and all cross-cutting agents. Do not spawn a subset, even if earlier findings were narrow. The point of subsequent rounds is to verify fixes did not introduce new issues elsewhere and to catch things the previous round missed.

Each round:

1. all agents read the current spec, UBIQUITOUS-LANGUAGE.md, and AGENTS.md (project root, if they exist) independently
2. section agents probe their area for: ambiguous language, missing failure modes, unstated assumptions, vague constraints, gaps an engineer would have to fill with judgment
3. cross-cutting agents probe for: inter-section contradictions, untestable claims, unstated dependencies, things that work on paper but break in practice
4. each agent researches the codebase before filing a finding — if the answer is in the code, it is a resolution, not a finding
5. findings are collected, deduplicated, and classified:
   • critical — multiple valid interpretations of a core behavior, missing failure mode that changes architecture → escalate to user
   • high — ambiguous constraint, unclear boundary, missing edge case with non-obvious answer → escalate to user
   • resolvable — answer is unambiguous from codebase or context → auto-resolve, log decision, flag for user visibility
6. user answers escalated findings
7. the orchestrator (as lead agent and sole reducer) applies all resolutions to the spec — this skill emits structured resolution proposals, it does not write canon directly
8. next round begins on the updated spec

Convergence

• minimum: 2 rounds if round 1 produces findings. If round 1 produces zero material findings from all agents, 1 round is sufficient.
• maximum: 5 rounds (safety cap)
• exit: a round where ALL agents — section and cross-cutting — independently report zero material findings
• bias: toward running another round if any agent is uncertain. The cap is a safety valve, not a target.
• "material" defined broadly: anything that could cause an engineer to make a judgment call the spec should have made for them

Cap behavior

Hitting the cap (5 rounds without convergence) is NOT an acceptable exit. It triggers a decomposition signal:

• emit adversarial_status = decomposition_required as structured input to the orchestrator
• emit decomposition-proposal.md identifying natural seams, tangled concerns, and 2-3 suggested sub-specs with boundaries
• emit sub-spec-brief-<name>.md per suggested sub-spec containing:
  • extracted evidence relevant to that sub-spec
  • scope and boundaries (in and out)
  • constraints inherited from the parent spec
  • dependencies on other sub-specs (if any)
  • enough context for a fresh session to run spec-intake without losing information
• the decomposition proposal must identify dependency edges between sub-specs
• the user decides per sub-spec: run now (sequential), run in parallel via agent teams (for independent sub-specs), or save for later (self-contained brief for a new session)

Back-transitions

When escalating back to earlier pipeline stages:

• emit adversarial-escalation.json listing: finding IDs, affected sections, blocker reason if reopened
• the orchestrator passes this to spec-loop so the re-entry round is targeted to the specific findings, not a generic pass

Finding structure

Each finding must include:

• finding_id — stable identifier
• round — which adversarial round
• agent_role — which agent filed it
• severity — critical, high, or resolvable
• spec_section — which section of the subject spec
• description — what the problem is
• evidence — what the agent observed (spec text, codebase evidence, or both)
• resolution — how it was resolved (user answer, codebase research, or pending)
• resolution_source — user, codebase, or auto

Outputs

Emit as structured input to the orchestrator (do not write these directly):

• adversarial-review-log.md — all findings across all rounds with resolutions and provenance
• adversarial-round-N.json — structured findings per round
• resolution proposals for specs/<subject>.md
• structured adversarial fields for manifest.json:
  • adversarial_rounds_completed
  • adversarial_status (converged | decomposition_required)
  • adversarial_findings_total
  • adversarial_findings_resolved_by_research
  • adversarial_findings_resolved_by_user

On decomposition:

• decomposition-proposal.md
• sub-spec-brief-<name>.md (one per suggested sub-spec)
• adversarial-escalation.json (on back-transition)

Hard rules

1. This skill does not write canon. It emits proposals. The orchestrator reduces.
2. Research the codebase before filing any finding. If the answer is there, it is a resolution, not a finding.
3. Zero material findings means zero. "Probably fine" is not zero.
4. The cap is a decomposition signal, not an acceptable exit.
5. adversarial_status has exactly two values: converged or decomposition_required. No middle ground.
6. Agent teams are the required organizing mechanism. Do not use ad-hoc agent spawning.
7. Never predict convergence. Never skip a round because you believe it will converge. Spawn all agents, collect their findings, and only then determine whether findings are zero. "I'm confident round N will converge" is not a substitute for running round N.