/ca-btw
Lightweight Q&A about the project — answer from context and return, no routing, no state change.
$ npx -y skills add arbiterForge/codeArbiter --skill ca-btw --agent claude-codeHow it fires
How this skill gets triggered: by you, by Claude, or both.
- Fires itselfAuto-invocation. Claude auto-loads it when your prompt matches the work.
- You can call itInvoke it directly when you want it.
- Slash command
/ca-btw
Context preview
The summary Claude sees to decide when to auto-load this skill.
Lightweight Q&A about the project — answer from context and return, no routing, no state change.
SKILL.md
ca-btw.SKILL.mdname: ca-btw description: Lightweight Q&A about the project — answer from context and return, no routing, no state change. argument-hint: "<question>"
$ca-btw — quick Q&A
The one exception to the slash-command pipeline. Answer the question and return. No skill is routed to, no agent dispatched, no file written. Always safe to invoke.
Flow
1. Read `<project-root>/.codearbiter/` docs as needed to answer accurately — `CONTEXT.md`, `tech-stack.md`, `coding-standards.md`, `security-controls.md`, `decisions/`, `specs/`, `plans/`. 2. Answer directly and conversationally — not a formatted report. 3. If the answer is not in context, say so plainly. Never guess.
Hard gate
Read-only. MUST NOT write or modify any file, route to a skill, dispatch an agent, run tests, or resolve a `[CONFIRM-NN]`. If the question is really a request to build or fix something, say so and point to `$ca-feature` or `$ca-fix` — do not start implementation from `$ca-btw`.
When you can't trust yourself with your code base, trust Arbiter.
Repo: arbiterForge/codeArbiter
Other skills on codearbiter.
- /brainstorming
The Socratic spec-refinement front of /feature, and the planning front of /sprint. Routed to BEFORE any code — it takes a one-line idea and drives it to an approved, concrete spec with testable acceptance criteria. Four gated phases — frame, refine, write, approve. No
Open skill - /commit-gate
The only path to a commit. Routed to when the user invokes /commit or otherwise instructs codeArbiter to persist staged changes. Nine gated phases — permission, branch, classification, verification (test/lint/secrets), behavioral proof, diff review, selective stage, message,
Open skill - /context-check
Optional manual drift audit — report stale provenance-tracked docs (via _provenancelib drift detection across .codearbiter/.provenance/), then per stale doc offer re-scout / re-baseline / defer. Not the daily loop; commit-gate auto-heal owns routine maintenance.
Open skill - /context-creation
The brownfield back-fill. Routed to by /create-context, and by startup when .codearbiter/CONTEXT.md lacks the <!--INITIALIZED--> body marker but source code exists. Six gated phases — pre-flight, scout dispatch, synthesis, gap interview, write, lock. Reads the existing codebase
Open skill - /crypto-compliance
The banned-primitive gate. Routed to when changed code hashes, signs, encrypts, derives keys, generates security-relevant randomness, configures TLS, or imports a crypto library. Rejects broken primitives, disabled TLS verification, and home-rolled crypto; the approved-primitive
Open skill - /debug
Investigate-then-decide root-cause analysis for a defect whose cause is unknown (distinct from /fix, which assumes a known bug). Five gated phases: capture, hypothesize, gather, decide, hand off. Investigation only, no code changes; exits to /fix, /adr, or a no-action close.
Open skill