Claude-Code-Game-Studios/.claude/skills/story-done/CONTRACT.md

/story-done — Handoff Contract

Role in Pipeline

Closes the implementation loop for a single story by verifying every acceptance criterion, checking test evidence, detecting GDD/ADR deviations, and — after user approval — updating the story file to Status: Complete with a ## Completion Notes section.

Inputs Required

Files That Must Exist

File	Required Fields / Sections	Read-Only?
production/epics/**/*.md (the story file)	Status: (expected: In Progress, or Ready if /dev-story was skipped — /dev-story sets In Progress, and /story-done is the only skill that closes a story it verified — /dev-story's dependency option [C] also sets Complete, on a dependency the user says is done, after an ask), Type:, Manifest Version, TR-ID(s), ADR reference(s), ## Acceptance Criteria, list of files to create/modify, ## Test Evidence path	No — status and completion notes written after approval
docs/architecture/tr-registry.yaml	Entry per TR-ID with current requirement text	Yes
GDD section referenced by each TR-ID	Acceptance criteria and key rules for cross-check	Yes
docs/architecture/adr-NNNN-[slug].md (referenced ADR)	## Decision, ## Consequences	Yes
docs/architecture/control-manifest.md	Manifest Version: header date, forbidden patterns	Yes (existence checked; absent = skip staleness check)
production/session-state/active.md	Active story path (used when no argument given)	No — <!-- CHECKPOINT --> block overwritten

Tier. The TR registry, GDD-section and ADR rows are standard/full inputs. At workflow: minimal the story traces to the brief, and Phase 4 runs the acceptance-criteria check only (no GDD/ADR traceability); the manifest, hardcoded-value and scope checks still run. At qa.level: minimal no test evidence is required (SKILL.md Phase 3) — but the Visual/UI run-and-observe screenshot is not waived.

Test Evidence Files (presence checked, not pre-required to exist — absence triggers gate)

Story Type	Expected Location
Logic	tests/unit/[system]/[story-slug]_test.[ext]
Integration	tests/integration/[system]/[story-slug]_test.[ext] OR production/session-logs/ playtest record
Visual/Feel	production/qa/evidence/[story-slug]-evidence.md + a retained screenshot
UI	A retained screenshot of each screen touched, under production/qa/evidence/ — no evidence doc or sign-off required
Config/Data	production/qa/smoke-*.md

Preconditions

• The story file must be findable either by argument path, in production/session-state/active.md, or in the current sprint file as IN PROGRESS
• Implementation must have been attempted (source files listed in the story's "files to create/modify" should exist) — this skill does not implement; it verifies
• For Logic and Integration stories, the test file at the ## Test Evidence path must exist before a COMPLETE verdict is possible — unless testing.strict in project.yaml sets that type to advisory (testing.strict.logic/.integration: false), in which case a missing test is recorded as a warning but does not block
• For Visual/Feel and UI stories, a retained screenshot must exist under production/qa/evidence/ before a COMPLETE verdict is possible, and for Visual/Feel an evidence doc with every sign-off [x] Approved too (UI needs the screenshot only, as coding-standards.md says) — unless testing.strict.visual/.ui is set to false, in which case the gap is recorded as a warning but does not block
• This skill does not execute the test. Phase 3 checks existence with Glob; nothing runs. A test that exists and FAILS satisfies the gate, so a failing test cannot block a COMPLETE verdict here — this gate is existence, not "exist and pass". Pass/fail is established by /gate-check and /smoke-check, both of which run a suite and both of which come after story closure. See the note under Phase 3 of SKILL.md.

Verdicts Emitted

COMPLETE / COMPLETE WITH NOTES / NOT ASSESSED / BLOCKED.

NOT ASSESSED outranks COMPLETE — one or more acceptance criteria could not be evaluated at all, which is not the same as evaluating them and finding them met. Precedence is BLOCKED, then NOT ASSESSED, then COMPLETE WITH NOTES, then COMPLETE; see the verdict section of SKILL.md. This contract listed no verdict set at all, so a reader had nothing to branch on.

Outputs Produced

Files Written

File	Guaranteed Fields / Sections	Notes
production/epics/**/*.md (the story file)	Status: Complete, ## Completion Notes block (date, criteria count, deviations, test evidence path, code review status)	updated after explicit user approval
production/sprint-status.yaml	status: done, completed: [date], top-level updated field	updated silently alongside story file if file exists
docs/tech-debt-register.md	Advisory deviation entries (if user confirms)	appended if advisory deviations exist and user agrees
production/session-state/active.md	<!-- CHECKPOINT --> block: current task (story path and verdict), next step (the next story), blocker, tech debt count	block overwritten, never appended (file created from .claude/docs/templates/session-state.md if absent)

Output Guarantees

• Status: Complete is written only after the user explicitly approves: on a COMPLETE or COMPLETE WITH NOTES verdict, or — on a BLOCKED or NOT ASSESSED verdict — only when the user explicitly asks to close anyway (the Phase 7 override, which always prompts as a scope_changes decision), with the override risk recorded in ## Completion Notes
• ## Completion Notes always contains: completion date, criteria pass count, deviation summary, test evidence path (or "None required"), code review status
• Session state always records the final verdict and the next recommended story path

Immutability Rules

• READS but does NOT modify: docs/architecture/tr-registry.yaml, docs/architecture/adr-NNNN-[slug].md (Decision + Consequences only), GDD sections, docs/architecture/control-manifest.md, source files under the code root — src/, Assets/ or Source/ by engine (Grep only) — and test files under the engine's test root (existence checked with Glob; never run or edited)
• MODIFIES: the story .md file (status + completion notes), production/sprint-status.yaml (if exists), production/session-state/active.md (the <!-- CHECKPOINT --> block, overwritten), docs/tech-debt-register.md (append a row, and update its Last updated: and Total items: lines, only with user approval)
• Does NOT write to the code root or the test root under any circumstances

Hard Constraints (Never Violate)

• Never sets Status: Complete without explicit user approval ("May I update the story file?")
• Never marks a Logic story Complete on a missing unit test when its resolved gate level is BLOCKING — the level is BLOCKING by default and whenever testing.strict.logic is true; it is ADVISORY only when testing.strict.logic is explicitly false
• Never marks an Integration story Complete on missing evidence (integration test file or playtest session log) when its resolved gate level is BLOCKING — BLOCKING by default and under testing.strict.integration: true; ADVISORY only under an explicit false
• Never marks a Visual/Feel or UI story Complete on a missing retained screenshot in production/qa/evidence/ when its resolved gate level is BLOCKING — BLOCKING by default and under testing.strict.visual/.ui: true; ADVISORY only under an explicit false. A written description of a visual check is not a substitute for the image
• Never auto-fixes failing acceptance criteria — report failures and ask the user what to do
• Never proceeds to Phase 7 (file update) on its own when the verdict is BLOCKED or NOT ASSESSED — list blockers and offer help resolving them; Phase 7 is reached only on the user's explicit request to close anyway, and then always prompts (scope_changes), even in autonomous mode
• Never silently overrides a BLOCKED verdict — if the user insists on advancing despite blockers, document the override risk explicitly in ## Completion Notes

Downstream Skill Expects

Next skill: /gate-check (Production → Polish gate, or end-of-sprint review)

• It will read: story files in production/epics/ checking Status: Complete and presence of ## Completion Notes
• It will read: tests/unit/ and tests/integration/ for test file presence and will run the test suite via Bash
• It assumes: every Complete Logic story whose testing.strict.logic gate resolved to BLOCKING (the default) has a corresponding test file that exists; under an explicit testing.strict.logic: false a Logic story may be Complete with the test gap documented in ## Completion Notes

  Existence, not passing. /story-done checks that the test file exists with Glob and runs nothing, so a Complete Logic story may carry a test that fails. /gate-check running the suite is the FIRST point at which pass/fail is established, so it must never treat a Complete status as evidence the tests passed — it has to run them. That is also why an unconfigured test runner is NOT ASSESSED there rather than a silent skip: with no run, nothing upstream has verified the story either.

• It assumes: Visual/Feel and UI stories that are Complete have a retained screenshot in production/qa/evidence/, and Visual/Feel ones a signed-off evidence doc as well — that gate is BLOCKING by default; only under an explicit testing.strict.visual/.ui: false may such a story be Complete with the deviation documented in ## Completion Notes
• It will read: production/sprint-status.yaml for status: done entries if that file exists

Known Fragile Points

• The story's ## Test Evidence section must contain the exact file path written by /dev-story; a path mismatch causes a false BLOCKING result even if the test file exists under a slightly different name
• If Type: is absent from the story header, test evidence gate enforcement is ADVISORY only — stories can slip through without tests
• Manifest version staleness check is skipped if docs/architecture/control-manifest.md does not exist; the check being skipped is noted in the report but is non-blocking
• production/sprint-status.yaml update is silent (no separate approval); if that file uses a different key structure than expected, the update silently fails and sprint tracking becomes stale
• The traceability table escalation rule (>50% UNTESTED = BLOCKING) can be triggered by deferred Visual/Feel criteria that are legitimately not automatable — ensure deferred criteria are explicitly marked DEFERRED (not left as unchecked) to avoid false escalation