Produce lean repository guidance grounded in the Codex instruction chain that applies to the launch context.
Action Boundary
- Audit/optimize/plan: inspect and return an evidence-first report with proposed diffs; do not write.
- Approved plan or explicit scoped change/fix: edit local in-scope files and validate without another approval round.
- Fully specified trivial edit: implicit routing stays with direct editing; explicit skill invocation uses a minimal check, edit, validation, then stops.
- Confirm user-global, external, destructive, costly, or scope-expanding work. Never write Codex-home guidance unless requested.
Workflow
- Resolve project root, launch CWD, candidates, and effective config evidence.
Read Codex discovery semantics before
declaring files active. Prefer structured tools; use one-line
rg --files --hiddenwith include/exclude globs as the shell fallback. - Build the root-to-CWD chain, shadows, empty-file and byte-budget state.
Inventory off-chain files separately; unavailable config is
missing evidence. - Verify commands, paths, ownership, boundaries, and recurring failures. Apply quality criteria; decide durable instruction need independently from navigation need.
- Use the report contract for audits. For edits, follow update guidelines and evidence-backed templates.
- Run the smallest checks proving the changed claims, then stop.
Evidence Rules
- Separate facts, defaults, inference, and missing evidence; retry suspiciously empty reads once or twice.
- Treat
evals/as release evidence, not model or human proof. - Preserve human/managed content. Change both sibling fenced
code_map.mdtemplates only when their shared contract changes. - Audit existing overrides; create one only for an explicit temporary or strong override need.
Output Contract
Audit output: prioritized findings/evidence/impact/diffs/confidence, conditional chain/shadows, separate AGENTS/map decisions, validation, and risk. Edit output: changed files/outcome/preservation and passed/failed/skipped checks. Omit empty sections; evidence outranks scores.