/flow-next-prime

name: flow-next-prime
description: Comprehensive codebase assessment for agent and production readiness. Classifies the project (lifecycle, topology, size, stack, shape), scans 8 pillars, verifies commands actually run, checks GitHub settings. Leads with a verdict + ranked next-actions; fixes agent readiness only. Triggers on /flow-next:prime.
user-invocable: false

Flow Prime

Comprehensive codebase assessment inspired by [Factory.ai's Agent Readiness framework](https://factory.ai/news/agent-readiness).

**Role**: readiness assessor, improvement proposer **Goal**: full visibility into codebase health, targeted fixes for agent readiness

Read [working-rules.md](../../references/working-rules.md) first unless you already have this run; it holds for every step of this skill.

Two-Tier Assessment

| Category | Pillars | What Happens | |----------|---------|--------------| | **Agent Readiness** | 1-5 | Scored, maturity level calculated, fixes offered | | **Production Readiness** | 6-8 | Reported for awareness, no fixes offered |

This gives you **full visibility** while keeping remediation focused on what actually helps agents work.

**Criteria counts live in [pillars.md](pillars.md), never here.** pillars.md is the single census source (the legacy scored criteria feeding the maturity level, the informational rows, and the new agent-readiness tier groups AO/DR/TO/HP). Do not restate a count in this file - a hardcoded number drifts the moment a criterion is added. The classification, operability ladder, per-shape playbooks, per-stack matrix, and harness check-set live in the four reference files: [classification.md](classification.md), [playbooks.md](playbooks.md), [stacks.md](stacks.md), [harness.md](harness.md).

Why This Matters

Existence checks lie. A repo can carry a CLAUDE.md, a hook file, and a `lint` script yet be un-agentic in practice - the file is an empty template, the build is broken, imports don't resolve, or it is really one of 99 sibling repos. Prime judges **substance**, not existence, and names the single highest-leverage next action.

Agents waste cycles when:

• **No closed verify loop** → can't confirm a change works without a full CI round-trip; the feedback gate belongs at the RIGHT layer (edit-time/commit format+lint, tests via the verify command + acceptance requirements + CI required check - never a test-running pre-commit hook agents `--no-verify` around or stall on)
• **Undocumented env vars** → guesses, fails, guesses again
• **No agent instruction file (or a generic/stale one)** → doesn't know project conventions, the operability tier, or which files are off-limits
• **The app can't be built or driven** → can't verify changes work; a legacy stack with no headless build has no feedback loop at all

These are **environment problems**, not agent problems. Prime grades them as layered gates and helps fix the ones that help agents work.

Input

Full request: $ARGUMENTS

Accepts:

• No arguments (scans current repo)
• `--report-only` or `report only` (skip remediation, just show report)
• `--fix-all` or `fix all` (apply all agent readiness fixes without asking)
• `--classify-only` or `classify only` (print the Phase 0.5 classification block and EXIT - the cheap portfolio-triage sweep over many repos; see classification.md)
• A path to a different repo root (first non-flag argument)

Examples:

• `/flow-next:prime`
• `/flow-next:prime --report-only`
• `/flow-next:prime --classify-only ~/other-project`
• `/flow-next:prime ~/other-project`

**Resolve `ROOT` from `$ARGUMENTS`** (the first non-flag token; default `.`). If `ROOT` is not the cwd, resolve it first (`ROOT=$(cd "$ROOT" && pwd)`), then it MUST thread through everything: `cd "$ROOT"` before the `.flow/meta.json` pre-check, the Phase 0.5 classification probes (the `flowctl prime classify` emitter takes `ROOT` as its positional argument, e.g. `flowctl prime classify --json "$ROOT"`), and the Phase 2 verification commands; and every scout dispatch prompt in Phase 1 starts "Assess the repo at `ROOT`" (scouts scan cwd by default

• without this they'd scan the wrong repo and the report would be confidently wrong end-to-end). If

threading `ROOT` isn't feasible, error rather than silently scan cwd.

Route Before Reading References

Parse the mode before loading any reference:

• **`--classify-only`:** read [classification.md](classification.md) directly,

run its emitter + judgment-layer contract, print its fixed classification block, and EXIT. Do **not** read `workflow.md`, `pillars.md`, `playbooks.md`, or `remediation.md`; never ask, dispatch scouts, verify, report, or remediate.

• **All other modes:** read [workflow.md](workflow.md) and execute it. The

workflow loads classification, pillars, playbooks, stacks, harness, and remediation guidance only at their consuming phases. `--report-only` stops after the report and must never load remediation templates.

This dispatch is fail-open for an unknown/malformed mode: use the full workflow, never silently skip assessment or safety instructions.

Workflow

The mode router above selects the entry reference. Do not pre-read references for branches that will not execute.

Guardrails

General

• Never modify code files (only config, docs, scripts)
• Never commit changes (leave for user to review)
• Never delete files
• Respect .gitignore patterns

User Consent

• **MUST use `AskUserQuestion` tool** for consent (call `ToolSearch` with `select:AskUserQuestion` first if its schema isn't loaded). Never just print questions as text.
• Always ask before modifying existing files — **except** under `--fix-all`, which waives the prompt for **append/merge** edits (adding a `.gitignore` line, augmenting an agent file, appending a hook) INCLUDING their required devDependencies for the Critical/High/Medium tiers. `--fix-all` still does NOT: overwrite/replace existing file content unseen, touch the Bonus tier (devcontainer, CI workflow — those stay e