/ln-57-persistence-auditor

name: ln-57-persistence-auditor
description: "Audits queries, transactions, consistency and persistence resource lifetimes; read-only."

Persistence Auditor

**Goal:** Perform a read-only audit of persistence and data-heavy runtime paths. Connect static candidates to real query, transaction, resource, or consistency mechanisms and avoid claiming performance impact without evidence.

**Execution contract:** Track every checklist item as `PENDING`, `PROVEN` with observed outcome evidence, `CLEARED` with evidence its condition is absent, or `UNPROVEN` with a gap. Reading, delegation, tool failure, zero exit status, and self-reported success are not proof. Reconcile after each section; before returning, resolve all `PENDING`, count only `PROVEN` and `CLEARED`, and apply verdict and approval rules to every gap. Preserve intent, scope, mode, and existing authorization. Complete authorized work before required external approval; ask only consequential unresolved choices. If nobody can answer, report the exact question and apply the skill's gap verdict without waiting or guessing. Cite any blocking instruction and unresolved boundary; never invent approval gates. Scale depth to material risk; preserve mandatory checks, dependencies, and safety order while choosing verification methods. Accept equivalent user or repository evidence without requiring another skill, named artifact, or full lifecycle. Preserve source requirement and decision IDs. Bind reused evidence to relevant versions, dirty changes, configuration, environment, and observation windows; invalidate only affected claims. Choose the primary workflow by outcome and explicit selection. Consume neighboring contracts and valid evidence without duplicating ownership or restarting audits. Split distinct deliverables by scope, not mandatory skill invocation. Broad independent assessments use audit workflows; focused domain reviews remain read-only. On continuation, reconcile task, authorization, state, and gaps. Return a compact continuation record for long work or update an already authorized artifact; read-only skills do not persist it. Distinguish artifact readiness, verified behavior, and external-action authority. Trace applicable requirements to their authoritative owner, planned or implemented change, acceptance evidence and status in the existing artifact or response; no new registry is required. Explicit constraints remain binding until an authorized deviation; risk determines priority, not permission to ignore them. Investigate the causal flow beyond initially named files. Within implementation authority, include structural repair needed for the outcome; minimize total complexity and risk, not changed lines. This does not authorize unrelated cleanup or mutation during review. Before retrieval, define the evidence question; read selectively without skipping applicable instructions. Use tools for mechanical processing; summarize bounded results, errors, coverage, and source paths, keeping full output outside context. Before technical decisions, establish applicability and actual versions; verify version-dependent assumptions against official documentation or specifications. Search and read primary pages for current external recommendations; snippets are not evidence. Version-matched bundled documentation or valid prior evidence suffices. Record decision, version, source, and limitations. Mark unavailable evidence UNVERIFIED; block only essential dependent work. Prefer native mechanisms, justify added tools or abstractions with evidence, and reuse the existing rule owner.

Tool Routing

| Need | Preferred tool | Use it when | Fallback | |---|---|---|---| | Data-layer map | Native file search over manifests, models, mappings, repositories, migrations, queries, cache, queue, and pool configuration | Establishing stores, frameworks, ownership, and scope | Trace from known request, job, or command entrypoints | | Call paths and resource ownership | Language server or host-native code intelligence | Following service calls, transaction boundaries, async flow, session scopes, and cleanup | Targeted search plus direct inspection of definitions and callers | | Query behavior | Existing query logs, tracing, ORM diagnostics, and application metrics | Establishing frequency, duplication, timing, rows, and cache behavior | Static query-in-loop and fetch-shape analysis with explicit limits | | Query plans | Database-native explain tooling on an approved non-production target | A safe read query and representative schema/data are available | Inspect indexes, predicates, joins, statistics assumptions, and generated SQL statically | | Runtime performance | Existing profiler, benchmark, or repository diagnostic command | Allocation, blocking, loop amplification, or I/O cost needs measurement | Complete static cost path marked as unmeasured | | Correctness verification | Repository-defined tests, integration environment, and migration checks | Reproducing transaction, retry, consistency, or lifecycle behavior safely | Static failure trace and required verification plan | | External semantics | Official database, driver, framework, and runtime documentation matching installed versions | Isolation, pooling, cancellation, caching, trigger, or async semantics affect a finding | Primary-source web research; otherwise mark `UNVERIFIED` |

Never connect to production or run mutating diagnostics. `EXPLAIN ANALYZE` executes the statement: use it only for confirmed read-only queries on an approved disposable or non-production target. Do not create indexes, migrate, vacuum, rewrite data, or change pool settings during the audit.

Workflow Boundary

This workflow owns read-only persistence findings, including migration and replay risks. Schema delivery and database recovery are lifecycle implementation; runtime effect recovery is mutation implementation. Findings do not authorize either change.

Use this workflow for an independent assessment acr