crit-story

Author a crit story with crit story

This skill authors a story-mode overview, then enters the same interactive review cycle as /crit (wait → address comments → next round). Invoke it only when the user explicitly asks for story generation; do not infer it from generic review, PR, or diff-review requests.

Primary path: author in-session with --guide / --prep / --story-file (do not run bare crit story, which spends agent_cmd tokens), then run bare crit to listen for Finish Review.

Step 1: Fetch the guide

crit story --guide

This prints the resolved authoring guide (the user's customized version if they have one — always invoke this at runtime rather than reusing this skill's own prose) followed by --- and the JSON schema for the fields you must emit. Read and follow that guide's principles and JSON shape exactly — it is the source of truth, not this file.

Step 2: Write the prep file

crit story --prep /tmp/crit-story-prep.txt

This writes the full, untrimmed diff (commit messages + every hunk with its (file_path, old_start) id) to the given path and prints the path. Read that file — the diff is never inlined into the guide prompt.

Step 3: Author the story JSON

Following the guide from Step 1, cluster hunks by theme (not by file) and write a JSON object with only prologue, chapters, and support to a temp file, e.g. /tmp/crit-story.json. Do not include version, generated_at, agent, base_sha, head_sha, scope_fingerprint, or coverage — crit fills those in.

Step 4: Ingest

crit story --story-file /tmp/crit-story.json

Exit 0 means the story was saved (crit opens the browser to show it). Then continue to Step 5 — do not stop after ingest. Exit 1 means it was rejected — the coverage report (missing/duplicated hunks) is printed to stdout as JSON on every attempt, success or failure. If rejected:

• duplicated non-empty: a hunk is claimed by two chapters (or a chapter and support). Decide where it belongs and re-ingest.
• missing non-empty with auto_repaired: true on exit 0: crit already back-filled the omissions into support[]. Optionally re-author to place them deliberately.
• A drift error ("diff changed since prep"): re-run crit story --prep and re-author from the fresh prep file.

Step 5: Reconnect and wait until Finish Review

CRITICAL — you MUST run this step after a successful ingest. Do NOT skip it. Do NOT proceed without it.

Story ingest opens the review UI and exits — it does not wait for the human. Run crit in the background using run_in_background: true:

crit

Pass timeout: 86400000 (24 hours) with run_in_background: true on every blocking crit call. Without it, Claude Code stops background commands after 30 minutes. Claude Code may lower the value to its own limit (2 hours unless the user sets BASH_MAX_TIMEOUT_MS).

crit reconnects to the story session's daemon (already started by ingest) and blocks until the user clicks "Finish Review".

If ingest printed a review URL, relay it verbatim:

"Crit is open at http://localhost:. Leave inline comments on the diff, then click Finish Review."

Do NOT proceed until crit completes. Do NOT ask the user to type anything. Do NOT read the review file early. Wait for the background task to finish — that is how you know the human is done reviewing.

Offer to raise the limit to 24 hours by adding this to ~/.claude/settings.json (it takes effect after Claude Code restarts):

"env": { "BASH_MAX_TIMEOUT_MS": "86400000" }

If the user agrees, merge it into the existing file; do not overwrite other settings. Then, if the user wants you to keep waiting, run the same crit command again as in Step 5.

Step 6: Read the review output

When crit completes, read stdout and follow its instructions. Check stderr for approved: true or approved: false.

If the finish prompt says the review is approved / "approved": true, tell the user no changes were requested and stop.

Fallback (mid-round re-entry or headless workflows): crit comments / crit comments --json.

Step 7: Address each review comment

Story mode is an editorial view over the underlying diff. Address comments against the actual source files. Do not edit, regenerate, or patch the saved story JSON unless the user explicitly asks.

For each unresolved comment:

1. Understand what the comment asks for
2. If it contains a suggestion block, apply that specific change
3. Revise the referenced source file using Edit
4. Reply with what you did: crit comment --reply-to <id> --author 'Claude Code' '<what you did>' (reply bodies support markdown)
5. Do not pass --resolve. Resolving is the reviewer's call. Only add --resolve if the user explicitly asks.

echo '[
  {"reply_to": "c_a1b2c3", "body": "Fixed"},
  {"reply_to": "c_d4e5f6", "body": "Refactored as suggested"}
]' | crit comment --json --author 'Claude Code'

For long or multi-line bodies, write the JSON to a file and pass --file. Use --file, not a < redirect.

crit comment --json --file /tmp/replies.json --author 'Claude Code'

Step 8: Signal completion and start next round

CRITICAL — you MUST run this step. Do NOT skip it. Do NOT proceed without it.

The finish prompt on stdout includes the command to run again — use it to start a new round.

On subsequent calls, crit automatically signals round-complete first, then blocks until the next "Finish Review" click.

Tell the user only: "Replied in Crit. Review the changes in your browser and click Finish Review when ready." Do not repeat your replies or list the comments in chat. The reviewer reads them in Crit.

Do NOT proceed until crit completes. When it does, return to Step 6. If the user finishes with zero comments, the review is approved — stop the loop and proceed.

What this skill does NOT do

• It does not produce agent-authored review comments during story authoring — humans leave comments in the browser after ingest.
• It does not edit or regenerate the saved story JSON during the review loop unless the user explicitly asks.
• It does not run bare crit story (LLM via agent_cmd) unless the user explicitly asks for that path.
• It does not call crit push or crit share unless the user asks to share.