TL;DR

12-priority verification chain plus environment pre-flight. Blocking: security (critical), lint (exit 1), tests (exit 1), and strict deliverable failures. Advisory: tech debt, role docs, specs, knowledge index, UX audit, a11y, Lighthouse, Playwright, suggestions, impact prediction, quality trend. Run decision tree to select checks. Fix blockers before completion.

Execution Quality Gate

Activation

1. Activate during final $gate steps.
2. Activate on explicit $codex-execution-quality-gate or $gate.
3. Run before saying work is complete.
4. Activate on $pre-commit or "check before commit".
5. Activate on $smart-test or "which tests to run".
6. Activate on $suggest or "suggest improvements".
7. Activate on $impact or "what will this affect".
8. Activate on $quality-record to record quality trend snapshot.
9. Activate on $quality-report to generate trend report.
10. Activate on $ux-audit.
11. Activate on $a11y-check.
12. Activate on $lighthouse <url>.
13. Activate on $e2e check.
14. Activate on $e2e generate <url>.
15. Activate on $e2e run.
16. Activate on $codex-doctor or $doctor.
17. Activate on $setup-check.
18. Activate on $install-hooks or "install git hooks".
19. Activate on $install-ci or "install CI gate".
20. Activate on $output-guard or $guard or "check if this output is too generic".
21. Activate on $editorial-review or $editorial or "make this read less like AI / more like a human deliverable".
22. Activate on $check or "run quick gate".
23. Activate on $check-full or "run full gate".
24. Activate on $check-deploy or "run deploy gate".
25. Activate on $health or "check skill pack health".
26. Activate on $skill-audit, "audit skill capability", "plugin release readiness", or "capability scorecard".

Decision Tree Routing

Task type -> Pre-flight/setup?
    |- Yes -> run: doctor
    `- No -> Code change?
        |- Yes -> What kind?
        |   |- New feature -> TDD ($tdd) + pre_commit_check + smart_test_selector + predict_impact
        |   |- Bug fix -> systematic debugging ($root-cause) + TDD + pre_commit_check + smart_test_selector
        |   |- Refactor -> TDD (keep green) + tech_debt_scan + pre_commit_check
        |   `- UI change -> run: ux_audit + accessibility_check + pre_commit_check
        |
        |- Complex implementation? -> worktree ($worktree) + subagent execution ($sdd)
        |
        |- Deploy/ship? -> run: security_scan + lighthouse_audit + playwright_runner
        |
        |- Review/audit? -> run: quality_trend + suggest_improvements + tech_debt_scan
        |
        |- Written deliverable quality? -> run: output_guard
        |
        `- No code -> skip quality gate

Runtime Enforcement

• Advisory mode is the default: the AI must decide which gate scripts to run and report fresh evidence before completion.
• auto_gate.py is the single orchestration entry point when the user wants quick, full, or deploy-focused checks without remembering individual script names. Full and deploy modes include role-doc, spec, and knowledge-index checks as advisory warnings only.
• check_pack_health.py is the pack-level integrity check for manifest, registry, aliases, dot directories, global sync, and markdown encoding drift.
• audit_skill_pack.py is the release-readiness control plane for skill ownership, tool classification, security policy, test ownership, and the offline scorecard. Run it with --strict --no-write in CI and without --no-write when a local scorecard is required.
• Runtime enforcement is available through install_hooks.py, which installs a managed pre-commit hook that runs security_scan.py and pre_commit_check.py automatically before commit.
• Use --with-lint-test only when the team wants heavier local enforcement that also runs run_gate.py.
• Use install_ci_gate.py to generate CI enforcement for GitHub Actions or GitLab CI when the project should block pushes and pull requests in automation as well as locally.
• Hooks and CI templates are additive. They do not replace the normal gate decision tree, and uninstall should remove only the managed CodexAI block.
• If runtime enforcement is not installed, the AI must continue to self-enforce the gate manually.

Rules

• Follow the verification order, execution flow, and blocking policy in references/gate-execution-flow.md.
• Blocking failures must be fixed and rerun; warning-only signals may proceed only with explicit user-facing warnings.
• Run --help before invoking a script, treat scripts as black-box helpers, and inspect source only for customization or bug fixing.
• Use with_server.py only when runtime audits need controlled startup and shutdown.
• If user says skip gate or force complete, comply and warn: "Quality gate skipped. Lint/test/security status is unknown."
• For each invoked script, capture output, summarize passes/warnings/blockers, ask whether to fix blocking errors when present, and rerun after fixes to verify.
• See skills/.system/REGISTRY.md for full script paths.

Reference Files

• references/gate-policy.md: blocking vs warning rules for gate decisions.
• references/improvement-suggester-spec.md: post-task suggestion behavior and presentation protocol.
• references/impact-predictor-spec.md: pre-edit blast-radius analysis guidance.
• references/quality-trend-spec.md: periodic quality trend workflow and interpretation.
• references/output-guard-spec.md: heuristics for detecting generic filler and weak evidence in deliverables.
• references/editorial-review-spec.md: rubric for checking whether a deliverable reads like a human, accountable engineering artifact.
• references/ux-audit-spec.md: static UX audit checks and scoring.
• references/accessibility-check-spec.md: WCAG static checks and compliance scoring.
• references/lighthouse-audit-spec.md: Lighthouse wrapper behavior and graceful fallback.
• references/playwright-runner-spec.md: Playwright check/generate/run behavior.
• references/run-gate-spec.md: lint and test orchestration behavior for pass/fail decisions.
• references/security-scan-spec.md: severity-aware security scan integration and blocking criteria.
• references/bundle-check-spec.md: dependency and bundle signal interpretation guidance.
• references/script-commands.md: script CLI examples, including runtime hook and CI installers.
• references/pre-commit-check-spec.md: staged-file fast feedback behavior and blocker handling.
• references/smart-test-selector-spec.md: test selection strategy for changed files.
• references/tech-debt-scan-spec.md: advisory technical debt signal interpretation and prioritization.
• references/gate-execution-flow.md: verification order, execution steps, overrides, and output-handling rules.
• references/output-schemas.md: JSON status contracts for gate helper scripts, including hook and CI installers.

Related Discipline Skills

When the gate identifies issues, recommend these discipline skills:

Gate Finding	Recommend	Alias
Tests missing or failing	codex-test-driven-development	$tdd
Recurring bug or flaky test	codex-systematic-debugging	$root-cause
Complex plan needs execution	codex-subagent-execution	$sdd
Multi-file changes need isolation	codex-git-worktrees	$worktree