/tribunal
The deep, rarely-convened whole-codebase audit lane. Routed to when the user invokes {{CMD:tribunal}}. Seven gated phases — cost/model, map, roster dispatch, triage, report, approval+filing, telemetry. Costs on the order of millions of tokens; proceeds only after the user
$ npx -y skills add arbiterForge/codeArbiter --skill tribunal --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
/tribunal
Context preview
The summary Claude sees to decide when to auto-load this skill.
The deep, rarely-convened whole-codebase audit lane. Routed to when the user invokes {{CMD:tribunal}}. Seven gated phases — cost/model, map, roster dispatch, triage, report, approval+filing, telemetry. Costs on the order of millions of tokens; proceeds only after the user
SKILL.md
tribunal.SKILL.mdname: tribunal
description: The deep, rarely-convened whole-codebase audit lane. Routed to when the user invokes {{CMD:tribunal}}. Seven gated phases — cost/model, map, roster dispatch, triage, report, approval+filing, telemetry. Costs on the order of millions of tokens; proceeds only after the user acknowledges the estimate; never a required gate; nothing filed or sent without explicit authorization.tribunal
The deepest, most expensive review codeArbiter offers — convened rarely, on demand, never as a gate. Routed to when the user invokes `{{CMD:tribunal}}`. Eleven specialist lenses judge the codebase; every finding persists to its own file (plus append-only triage/run logs) under a run dir that survives compaction and disconnects, so the run resumes from disk.
Pre-flight
Read these, or STOP and surface the gap — never guess a command or a path:
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/tech-stack.md` — stack, async model, concurrency primitives, test/lint/secrets commands, and, when documented, the tracker command. Stop if the test/lint/secrets commands are missing; do not guess.
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/CONTEXT.md` — the `stage:` maturity value and domain vocabulary.
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/coding-standards.md` — the conventions lenses judge against.
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/security-controls.md` — trust boundaries, approved crypto/secret stores; feeds the appsec and secrets lenses. Absent on some repos — proceed without the security lenses' control-file checks if so.
- A git repository must be present.
- The reference set under `{{PLUGIN_ROOT}}/skills/tribunal/references/` — each is cited at its phase, loaded on demand. Do not preload them.
Phase 0 — Cost, model & resume · gate: STOP
This lane is expensive. Orient and get explicit go-ahead before dispatching anything.
- **Resume check.** Scan `.codearbiter/reports/` for the most recent run dir matching the current scope-slug, any date — never just today's. If none, skip to sizing. If found, check completion: incomplete (no `report-written` event in its `run.jsonl`) means either resumable or stale, judged by that run dir's latest `run.jsonl` timestamp. A run whose `run.jsonl` carries `run-aborted` is terminal — never offered for resume; a fresh run starts. Younger than 7 days → recover position with the cheap cursor scan in `references/schemas.md` (grep the last `wave-triaged`, do not read finding bodies) and offer to resume at the first un-triaged wave instead of restarting; skip the estimate. Older than 7 days → STOP and ask the user to resume anyway or start fresh — the codebase may have drifted under the findings, and stale-tree findings must not silently merge with fresh ones. Complete → start a fresh run.
- **Abandon.** If the user tells the orchestrator to abandon the run, log a `run-aborted` event to `run.jsonl` before stopping.
- **Cost acknowledgment.** Size the job, compute the token band, recommend the model (highest-reasoning available, high effort), and offer the cost-control levers. Present the band plainly; nothing dispatches until the user acknowledges it and confirms the model.
- Establish `RUN_ID` = `<UTC-date>-<scope-slug>` on a fresh run; create `.codearbiter/reports/<run-id>/`; open `run.jsonl`. On resume, reuse the existing `RUN_ID` as-is — the date is the run's creation date and never changes on resume.
- Procedure: `references/cost-and-models.md` — load now.
Gate: the user has acknowledged the estimated cost and confirmed the model. An unacknowledged run does not pass.
Phase 1 — Map + judgment overlay · gate: BLOCK
Map before reviewing; the map decides what gets scrutiny.
- Produce the inventory (inline, or on a large repo dispatch the optional cheap mappers per `references/cost-and-models.md`): file tree, language breakdown, entry points/routes, core-logic and shared-utility locations, dependency and integration surface. Write `inventory.md`.
- Apply the judgment overlay in `references/ai-markers.md`: risk-rank directories (untrusted input, money, auth, PII, churn = highest), mark trust boundaries, record AI-authorship markers and an iteration-depth estimate. High-marker / high-iteration areas carry a scrutiny boost and a small severity prior.
- Choose the active lenses — the full roster minus any whose concern is absent from scope (no migrations → drop the migration lens). Record launched/skipped as `run.jsonl` events.
- Choose the wave partition — the default in `references/cost-and-models.md`, or a repartition for cause — and record it in the `run-started` event (`references/schemas.md`); resume reads this recorded partition, never re-derives it.
Gate: `inventory.md` written with the risk/boundary/marker overlay, and the active-lens set recorded.
Phase 2 — Roster dispatch (dual output: finding files + summary) · gate: BLOCK
Dispatch the active lenses in the wave partition recorded at Phase 1 (default in `references/cost-and-models.md`) at the concurrency from `references/cost-and-models.md` (≤5 in flight). Give each agent only its scope slice, on the model/effort from `references/cost-and-models.md`; the agent itself reads its own mandate (`references/lenses/<lens>.md`) and the finding contract (`references/finding-record.md`), and loads neither the other lenses' mandates nor the orchestrator schemas. The orchestrator reads `references/finding-record.md` to read findings at triage, and consults a lens mandate only to adjudicate that lens's finding.
- Each `tribunal-*` agent writes each finding to its own file `findings/<lens>/<finding-id>.json` the moment it is found — one file per finding, never a batched write at the end (write contract: `references/finding-record.md`).
- **Evidence-or-drop.** Every finding cites a concrete `path:line` and the minimal snippet. An absence claim — "no handler", "no teardown", "missing validation" — requires reading the whole unit, never a truncated window.
- Specialists never dispatch further subagents. Update each wave's
Read more
name: tribunal
description: The deep, rarely-convened whole-codebase audit lane. Routed to when the user invokes {{CMD:tribunal}}. Seven gated phases — cost/model, map, roster dispatch, triage, report, approval+filing, telemetry. Costs on the order of millions of tokens; proceeds only after the user acknowledges the estimate; never a required gate; nothing filed or sent without explicit authorization.tribunal
The deepest, most expensive review codeArbiter offers — convened rarely, on demand, never as a gate. Routed to when the user invokes `{{CMD:tribunal}}`. Eleven specialist lenses judge the codebase; every finding persists to its own file (plus append-only triage/run logs) under a run dir that survives compaction and disconnects, so the run resumes from disk.
Pre-flight
Read these, or STOP and surface the gap — never guess a command or a path:
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/tech-stack.md` — stack, async model, concurrency primitives, test/lint/secrets commands, and, when documented, the tracker command. Stop if the test/lint/secrets commands are missing; do not guess.
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/CONTEXT.md` — the `stage:` maturity value and domain vocabulary.
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/coding-standards.md` — the conventions lenses judge against.
- `{{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/security-controls.md` — trust boundaries, approved crypto/secret stores; feeds the appsec and secrets lenses. Absent on some repos — proceed without the security lenses' control-file checks if so.
- A git repository must be present.
- The reference set under `{{PLUGIN_ROOT}}/skills/tribunal/references/` — each is cited at its phase, loaded on demand. Do not preload them.
Phase 0 — Cost, model & resume · gate: STOP
This lane is expensive. Orient and get explicit go-ahead before dispatching anything.
- **Resume check.** Scan `.codearbiter/reports/` for the most recent run dir matching the current scope-slug, any date — never just today's. If none, skip to sizing. If found, check completion: incomplete (no `report-written` event in its `run.jsonl`) means either resumable or stale, judged by that run dir's latest `run.jsonl` timestamp. A run whose `run.jsonl` carries `run-aborted` is terminal — never offered for resume; a fresh run starts. Younger than 7 days → recover position with the cheap cursor scan in `references/schemas.md` (grep the last `wave-triaged`, do not read finding bodies) and offer to resume at the first un-triaged wave instead of restarting; skip the estimate. Older than 7 days → STOP and ask the user to resume anyway or start fresh — the codebase may have drifted under the findings, and stale-tree findings must not silently merge with fresh ones. Complete → start a fresh run.
- **Abandon.** If the user tells the orchestrator to abandon the run, log a `run-aborted` event to `run.jsonl` before stopping.
- **Cost acknowledgment.** Size the job, compute the token band, recommend the model (highest-reasoning available, high effort), and offer the cost-control levers. Present the band plainly; nothing dispatches until the user acknowledges it and confirms the model.
- Establish `RUN_ID` = `<UTC-date>-<scope-slug>` on a fresh run; create `.codearbiter/reports/<run-id>/`; open `run.jsonl`. On resume, reuse the existing `RUN_ID` as-is — the date is the run's creation date and never changes on resume.
- Procedure: `references/cost-and-models.md` — load now.
Gate: the user has acknowledged the estimated cost and confirmed the model. An unacknowledged run does not pass.
Phase 1 — Map + judgment overlay · gate: BLOCK
Map before reviewing; the map decides what gets scrutiny.
- Produce the inventory (inline, or on a large repo dispatch the optional cheap mappers per `references/cost-and-models.md`): file tree, language breakdown, entry points/routes, core-logic and shared-utility locations, dependency and integration surface. Write `inventory.md`.
- Apply the judgment overlay in `references/ai-markers.md`: risk-rank directories (untrusted input, money, auth, PII, churn = highest), mark trust boundaries, record AI-authorship markers and an iteration-depth estimate. High-marker / high-iteration areas carry a scrutiny boost and a small severity prior.
- Choose the active lenses — the full roster minus any whose concern is absent from scope (no migrations → drop the migration lens). Record launched/skipped as `run.jsonl` events.
- Choose the wave partition — the default in `references/cost-and-models.md`, or a repartition for cause — and record it in the `run-started` event (`references/schemas.md`); resume reads this recorded partition, never re-derives it.
Gate: `inventory.md` written with the risk/boundary/marker overlay, and the active-lens set recorded.
Phase 2 — Roster dispatch (dual output: finding files + summary) · gate: BLOCK
Dispatch the active lenses in the wave partition recorded at Phase 1 (default in `references/cost-and-models.md`) at the concurrency from `references/cost-and-models.md` (≤5 in flight). Give each agent only its scope slice, on the model/effort from `references/cost-and-models.md`; the agent itself reads its own mandate (`references/lenses/<lens>.md`) and the finding contract (`references/finding-record.md`), and loads neither the other lenses' mandates nor the orchestrator schemas. The orchestrator reads `references/finding-record.md` to read findings at triage, and consults a lens mandate only to adjudicate that lens's finding.
- Each `tribunal-*` agent writes each finding to its own file `findings/<lens>/<finding-id>.json` the moment it is found — one file per finding, never a batched write at the end (write contract: `references/finding-record.md`).
- **Evidence-or-drop.** Every finding cites a concrete `path:line` and the minimal snippet. An absence claim — "no handler", "no teardown", "missing validation" — requires reading the whole unit, never a truncated window.
- Specialists never dispatch further subagents. Update each wave's
Showing the first part of this file.
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

