Diamond Assess Skill

Evaluate current diamond state and recommend next action.

Workflow

1. Identify the diamond: Which diamond (ID, scale, phase) is being assessed?

2. Gather current state:

   • Current phase (Discover/Define/Develop/Deliver)
   • Evidence collected so far
   • Confidence score with breakdown
   • Blockers or risks

3. Check theory gates for next transition:

   • Reference theory-gates.md for the current transition
   • Check

     product_type

     from

     diamonds/active.yml

     -- gates conditioned on product_type include:
     • Security Gate: full OWASP for software/ai_tool; platform-only for content; infra-only for service
     • Delivery Metrics Gate: routes to product-type-appropriate metrics canvas
     • Service Quality Gate: Downe applies to consumption experience for all product types; Nielsen only for digital interfaces
   • Evaluate each applicable gate: Pass / Fail / Insufficient Evidence / N/A (if gate doesn't apply to this product_type)
   • Document what is missing for failed gates

4. Check confidence threshold:

   • Reference confidence-thresholds.yml for the current scale
   • Apply

     project_type_adaptations

     to compute effective threshold (see confidence-thresholds.yml)
   • Compare current confidence to the effective threshold
   • Identify what would increase confidence

5. Check for anti-patterns:

   • Reference anti-patterns.md
   • Flag any detected failure modes
   • For L1/L2 diamonds: also check for system archetypes (Senge) — Fixes That Fail, Shifting the Burden, Limits to Growth, Eroding Goals
   • At L3->L4 transitions: also run the Design Completeness Check (quality/CLAUDE.md) to verify all layers of the product design stack have evidence. Source: Mill, building on Garrett.

6. Check canvas health:

   • Run the

     /canvas-health

     checks inline: missing required files, stale confidence, inconsistent evidence types
   • Report any critical or warning-level findings
   • This catches silent canvas degradation before it affects progression decisions

6b. Check metric snapshot freshness (v0.14; L0/L1/L2/L5 only):

• If the current diamond scale is L0, L1, L2, or L5 AND

  .claude/jit-tooling/active-metrics.yml

  exists:
  • For each

    status: active

    source, find the newest file in

    .claude/evals/metrics/<source>/

    .
  • If the newest snapshot is >7 days old (or missing entirely), flag as a warning and recommend

    /metrics-pull

    .
  • If

    active-metrics.yml

    is missing, recommend

    /metrics-detect

    (softer — info-level, not a gate).
• Rationale: evidence loops for Purpose/Strategy/Opportunity/Market depend on external signal freshness. A stale snapshot silently anchors confidence.
• Do NOT block progression on stale snapshots — this is a NUDGE, not a gate.

7. Check corrections.md:
   • Any relevant past mistakes to avoid?

7b. Check trio perspective coverage (Torres Product Trio):

• For the current diamond phase, verify all three perspectives (product/design/engineering) have been applied.
• Reference

  engine/theory-gates.md

  §Trio Perspective Requirement for the per-scale coverage matrix.
• Flag any missing perspectives as a gap: "Design perspective not yet applied at L[X]. Consider running

  /usability-check

  or

  /service-check

  ."
• If perspectives are in conflict, recommend

  engine/perspective-resolution.md

  .

8. Coaching check (Rother's Coaching Kata): Surface these five questions in the output to prompt the human's thinking:

   1. What is the target condition for this diamond? (What does "done" look like?)
   2. What is the actual condition right now? (Summarize from steps 2-7 above)
   3. What obstacles are preventing progress? Which one are you addressing now?
   4. What is your next step? What do you expect will happen? (Force a prediction before acting)
   5. When can we check what we learned from that step? (Commit to a review point) The coach (human) should answer these, not the agent. The agent surfaces them. Source: Rother (Toyota Kata) — the 5 questions install scientific thinking as a daily habit.

9. Log assessment in decision-log.md (MANDATORY):

   • APPEND a

     ### Diamond Assessment

     entry to

     harness/decision-log.md

   • Include: diamond ID and scale, gates passed/failed, current confidence with rationale, evidence gaps
   • This log entry is essential for auditability — every assessment should be documented

10. Recommend next action:

• If all gates pass and confidence meets threshold: recommend transition to next phase
• If gates fail: recommend specific actions to address failures
• If confidence is low: recommend evidence-gathering activities
• If anti-patterns detected: recommend corrective actions
• If regression needed: recommend which phase to return to and why

11. Play devil's advocate: Before recommending progression, ask:

    • What are we most likely wrong about?
    • What evidence have we dismissed?
    • Is there a simpler path we're overlooking?

12. Report harness thickness (informational):

    • Count: total skills, active guardrails, mandatory reads, hooks, theory gates
    • Current: 44 skills, 34 guardrails, 4 mandatory reads, 5 hook layers, 12 gates
    • If thickness has increased since last assess, note it
    • This is observability, not a gate — purely informational
    • Source: Trivedy (Anatomy of an Agent Harness, LangChain blog — "scaffolding should decrease as models improve," but harnesses remain valuable as they engineer systems around model intelligence)

Output Format

ALWAYS output in plain language first, then technical details. Use

.claude/engine/status-translations.md

for translations.

ALWAYS render the journey map first. Follow

.claude/engine/wayfinding.md

to render the "You Are Here" map before any other output. This orients the user to where they are in the full L0→L5 progression before diving into gate details.

[Journey map from wayfinding.md — rendered first]

## Where We Are

Current focus: [plain-language description from status-translations.md]
  [1-2 sentences of context]
  Confidence: [plain word] ([number], [Gilad level]) -- [why this level, what would increase it]

## Progress

[N] of [M] diamonds complete:
  [Name]: [STATUS] -- [plain-language one-liner]
  [Name]: [STATUS] -- [plain-language one-liner]

## Theory Gate Check (for next transition)

| Gate | Status | Suggested Skill |
|------|--------|----------------|
| Evidence | Pass/Fail | /user-interview or /assumption-test |
| Four Risks | Pass/Fail | /assumption-test |
| ... | ... | ... |

## What I'd Challenge (Devil's Advocate)
- [Key assumption to question]
- [Evidence gap to flag]

## Coaching Check (for the human)
1. What does "done" look like for this diamond?
2. Given what we know now, what's the biggest obstacle?
3. What's your next step -- and what do you expect will happen?
4. When should we check what we learned?

## Recommended Next Step
[Plain-language recommendation with theory justification]

Suggested actions:
  - /skill-name -- [why this is relevant now]
  - /skill-name -- [why this is relevant now]

Theory Citations

• Torres: Evidence-based progression
• Gilad: Confidence scoring with contextual explanation
• Cagan: Four risks assessment
• Snowden: Cynefin classification
• Shotton/Kahneman: Devil's advocate bias check
• Rother: Coaching Kata (5 questions for scientific thinking)