Claude-Code-Game-Studios/.claude/docs/director-gates.md

Director Gates — Shared Review Pattern

Index of all director and lead review gates. Skills reference gate IDs from this index instead of embedding prompts inline — eliminating drift when prompts need updating. Each gate's full definition (Trigger, Context to pass, Prompt, Verdicts) lives in its own file under .claude/docs/director-gates/, named after the gate ID in lowercase.

Scope: All 7 production stages (Concept → Release), all 3 Tier 1 directors, all key Tier 2 leads. Any skill, team orchestrator, or workflow may invoke these gates.

When a skill spawns a director for a gate, it must NOT read the gate definition file itself. Include the gate definition file path in the Agent prompt and instruct the director agent to read it first, then pass only the context fields that gate's row requires. Gate definitions are read by the spawned agent, in the agent's own context window.

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Gate Index

Agent by prefix: CD- creative-director · TD- technical-director · PR- producer · AD- art-director · LP- lead-programmer · QL- qa-lead · ND- narrative-director. Definition files below are in .claude/docs/director-gates/; each one's header names its agent's model tier.

Gate ID	Purpose	Definition file
CD-PILLARS	Pillar stress test after pillars are defined	cd-pillars.md
CD-GDD-ALIGN	GDD pillar alignment after a system GDD is authored	cd-gdd-align.md
CD-SYSTEMS	Systems decomposition vision check after /map-systems	cd-systems.md
CD-NARRATIVE	Narrative consistency of story/lore documents	cd-narrative.md
CD-PLAYTEST	Player experience validation of playtest reports	cd-playtest.md
CD-PHASE-GATE	Creative readiness at phase transition	cd-phase-gate.md
TD-SYSTEM-BOUNDARY	System boundary review before GDD authoring	td-system-boundary.md
TD-FEASIBILITY	Technical feasibility of early concept risks	td-feasibility.md
TD-ARCHITECTURE	Master architecture document sign-off	td-architecture.md
TD-ADR	Individual ADR review before Accepted	td-adr.md
TD-ENGINE-RISK	Engine version risk for post-cutoff APIs	td-engine-risk.md
TD-PHASE-GATE	Technical readiness at phase transition	td-phase-gate.md
TD-MANIFEST	Control manifest review before it is written	td-manifest.md
TD-CHANGE-IMPACT	Design-change impact assessment review	td-change-impact.md
PR-SCOPE	Scope and timeline validation	pr-scope.md
PR-SPRINT	Sprint plan feasibility review	pr-sprint.md
PR-MILESTONE	Milestone risk assessment	pr-milestone.md
PR-EPIC	Epic structure feasibility before story breakdown	pr-epic.md
PR-PHASE-GATE	Production readiness at phase transition	pr-phase-gate.md
AD-CONCEPT-VISUAL	Visual identity anchor after pillars lock	ad-concept-visual.md
AD-ART-BIBLE	Art bible sign-off before asset production	ad-art-bible.md
AD-PHASE-GATE	Visual readiness at phase transition	ad-phase-gate.md
LP-FEASIBILITY	Implementation feasibility of the architecture	lp-feasibility.md
LP-CODE-REVIEW	Code review of an implemented story	lp-code-review.md
QL-STORY-READY	Acceptance-criteria testability before sprint	ql-story-ready.md
QL-TEST-COVERAGE	Test coverage review for one story before it closes (/story-done)	ql-test-coverage.md
ND-CONSISTENCY	Narrative consistency of writer deliverables	nd-consistency.md
AD-VISUAL	Visual consistency of art/tech-art decisions	ad-visual.md

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Review Modes

Review intensity controls whether gates run.

Global config: modes.review_mode in project.yaml — one word: full, lean, or solo. Legacy fallback: production/review-mode.txt (single line, same values); project.yaml wins when both are present. /start never writes it: left unset, it follows modes.rigor (minimal → solo, standard → lean, full → full). Set it explicitly only with /settings modes.review_mode=<value>.

Per-run override: any gate-using skill accepts --review [full|lean|solo], overriding the global config for that run only.

Mode	What runs
full	All gates active — every workflow step reviewed
lean	PHASE-GATEs only (/gate-check) — per-skill gates skipped. The rigor: standard value
solo	No director gates anywhere (game jams, prototypes, max speed). Default — the rigor: minimal value

One exception: /team-narrative runs ND-CONSISTENCY in every review mode whenever narrative-director is on the team — it is that pipeline's only narrative consistency check, not an optional review.

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Invocation Pattern (copy into any skill)

MANDATORY: apply the review mode before every gate spawn.

The value is already resolved — skills call !`bash "${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../hooks/yaml-helper.sh" resolve_config --keys review_mode` (with the matching allowed-tools grant — see config-resolution.md) and read review_mode from the emitted block. Do not re-derive it here. The full chain (project.local.yaml → project.yaml → production/review-mode.txt → modes.rigor expansion, standard→lean), its defaults and its failure modes are specified in .claude/docs/config-resolution.md, and covered by the config test suite.

An inline --review [mode] argument, if the skill accepts one, overrides the resolved value for that run.

Apply the resolved mode:

• solo → skip all gates. Note: [GATE-ID] skipped — Solo mode
• lean → skip unless this is a PHASE-GATE (CD-PHASE-GATE, TD-PHASE-GATE, PR-PHASE-GATE, AD-PHASE-GATE). Note: [GATE-ID] skipped — Lean mode
• full → spawn as normal

PHASE-GATE panel width is a second, independent axis. review_mode decides whether the four PHASE-GATEs run at all; modes.workflow decides how many of them run — minimal → PR only, standard → TD + PR, full → all four. The rule and its rationale live in /gate-check Section 4b, the only skill that spawns PHASE-GATEs. Every other gate in this index is single-director and unaffected. Width never softens a verdict: the escalation rule below applies unchanged to whoever ran.

# Apply mode check, then:
Spawn `[agent-name]` via `Agent`:
- Gate: [GATE-ID] — `Agent` prompt instructs the agent to read
  `.claude/docs/director-gates/[gate-id].md` FIRST (parent must not read it)
- Context: [fields under that gate's **Context to pass**]
- Await the verdict before proceeding.

For parallel spawning (multiple directors at one gate point): apply the mode check per gate, then spawn all surviving agents simultaneously — issue all Agent calls before waiting for any result; collect all verdicts before proceeding.

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Standard Verdict Format

Every gate returns one of its three verdicts — or NOT ASSESSED when it could not judge. Skills must handle all four. The three judgement words are each gate's own — its definition file's Verdicts line is the authority — and the rows below are their meanings (TD-FEASIBILITY's VIABLE / CONCERNS / HIGH RISK, PR-MILESTONE's ON TRACK / AT RISK / OFF TRACK). NOT ASSESSED is the same word at every gate, so no Verdicts line lists it:

Verdict	Meaning	Default action
APPROVE / READY	No issues. Proceed.	Continue the workflow
CONCERNS [list]	Issues present but not blocking.	Surface to user via AskUserQuestion — options: Revise flagged items / Accept and proceed / Discuss further. Revise flagged items: the specialist who drafted the section re-drafts it; the revision goes through the skill's normal approve-then-write step, and the header records REVISED [date].
REJECT / NOT READY [blockers]	Blocking issues. Do not proceed.	Surface blockers to user. Do not write files or advance stage until resolved.
NOT ASSESSED [what was missing]	An input the gate names was missing or unreadable, so no judgement was made.	Name what was missing. Never treat it as APPROVE/READY: supply the input and re-run the gate, or record NOT ASSESSED and let the skill's own verdict reflect it.

Rank: NOT ASSESSED sits below REJECT / NOT READY and CONCERNS, and above APPROVE / READY — a known problem is more actionable than an unknown, and a gate that could not look has approved nothing. A director that found a problem and also lacked an input answers with the problem's word and names the missing input in its rationale. An artifact the skill reports as absent is information, not a missing input. At a phase gate, a missing artifact the target phase requires is a finding (NOT READY or CONCERNS); one /gate-check passes as "not expected before [phase]" or "not required at workflow: [tier]" is not a finding — a phase gate judges readiness for the phase being entered, not a later one.

Escalation rule: When multiple directors are spawned in parallel, apply the strictest verdict by that rank — one NOT READY overrides all READY verdicts, and one NOT ASSESSED keeps the result from being READY.

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Recording Gate Outcomes

After a gate resolves, record the verdict in the relevant document's status header:

> **[Director] Review ([GATE-ID])**: APPROVED [date] / CONCERNS (accepted) [date] / REVISED [date] / NOT ASSESSED [date] — [missing input]

For phase gates, record in docs/architecture/architecture.md or production/session-state/active.md as appropriate.

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Parallel Gate Protocol

At checkpoints needing multiple directors (most common at /gate-check):

Spawn in parallel (issue all `Agent` calls before waiting for any result):
creative-director → CD-PHASE-GATE, technical-director → TD-PHASE-GATE,
producer → PR-PHASE-GATE, art-director → AD-PHASE-GATE

Collect every verdict from the directors that ran, then apply escalation rules:
- Any NOT READY / REJECT → overall verdict minimum FAIL
- Any CONCERNS → overall verdict minimum CONCERNS
- Any NOT ASSESSED (and no NOT READY / REJECT or CONCERNS) → overall verdict at best NOT ASSESSED
- All READY / APPROVE → eligible for PASS (still subject to artifact checks)

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Gate Coverage by Stage

Stage	Required Gates	Optional Gates
Concept	CD-PILLARS, AD-CONCEPT-VISUAL	TD-FEASIBILITY, PR-SCOPE
Systems Design	TD-SYSTEM-BOUNDARY, CD-SYSTEMS, PR-SCOPE, CD-GDD-ALIGN (per GDD)	ND-CONSISTENCY, AD-VISUAL, TD-CHANGE-IMPACT (on GDD revision)
Technical Setup	TD-ARCHITECTURE, TD-ADR (per ADR), TD-MANIFEST, LP-FEASIBILITY, AD-ART-BIBLE	TD-ENGINE-RISK
Pre-Production	PR-EPIC, QL-STORY-READY (per story), PR-SPRINT, the PHASE-GATE panel (via gate-check — PR at minimal, TD + PR at standard, all four at full)	CD-PLAYTEST
Production	LP-CODE-REVIEW (per story), QL-STORY-READY, PR-SPRINT (per sprint), QL-TEST-COVERAGE (per story, via /story-done)	PR-MILESTONE, AD-VISUAL, TD-CHANGE-IMPACT (on GDD revision)
Polish	CD-PLAYTEST, PR-MILESTONE	AD-VISUAL
Release	The PHASE-GATE panel (via gate-check — PR at minimal, TD + PR at standard, all four at full)	—