validation

/validation — Full Validation Phase Orchestrator

YOU MUST EXECUTE THIS WORKFLOW. Do not just describe it.

Loop position: moves 6 (slice acceptance) + bead acceptance roll-up of the [operating loop](../../docs/architecture/operating-loop.md). Consumes wave outputs; produces a [slice-validation roll-up](../../docs/templates/slice-validation.md): every Given/When/Then from the intent issue must map to a passing test. Activity logs do not close beads.

Strict Delegation Contract (default)

Validation delegates to /vibe, /post-mortem, /retro, and /forge (plus lifecycle skills /test, /deps, /review, /perf) via Skill(skill="<name>", ...) calls — separate tool invocations. Strict delegation is the default.

Anti-pattern to reject: spawning judges via Agent() in place of /vibe, inlining post-mortem analysis, skipping /forge. See [../shared/references/strict-delegation-contract.md](../shared/references/strict-delegation-contract.md) for the full contract and supported compression escapes (--quick, --no-retro, --no-forge, --no-lifecycle, --no-behavioral, --allow-critical-deps).

See [docs/learnings/orchestrator-compression-anti-pattern.md](../../docs/learnings/orchestrator-compression-anti-pattern.md) for the live compression signature. See [references/isolation-contract.md](references/isolation-contract.md) for the four-lever model and the compression patterns scripts/check-skill-isolation.sh flags in phase-skill SKILL.md bodies. See [references/best-practices.md](references/best-practices.md) for the lifecycle principle + anti-pattern citation table.

Validation owns the validate_acceptance port in the [Intent-to-Loop Hexagon](../../docs/architecture/intent-to-loop-hexagon.md). The roll-up must preserve bounded context, context packet, guard adapters, done state, and fresh proof for each accepted scenario. Apply the [Completion-Claim Kernel](../shared/validation-contract.md#completion-claim-kernel) before accepting DONE/closed/green claims.

Execution

Run the DAG in [references/dag.md](references/dag.md) — STEP 1 (vibe) → 1.5 (four-surface closure) → 1.6 (test pyramid) → 1.6b (validation-lane budget guard) → 1.7 (lifecycle: test/deps/review/perf) → 1.8 (behavioral) → 2 (post-mortem) → 3 (retro) → 4 (forge) → 5 (phase summary), no stopping between steps. That file owns the executable workflow, gate detail, blocking conditions, phase summary format, phase budgets, and the expensive-command policy.

Flags

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --complexity=<level> | auto | Force complexity level (fast / standard / full). Matches /rpi and /discovery syntax. | | --interactive | off | Human gates in validation report review (before writing summary). Does NOT override /vibe council autonomy. | | --no-lifecycle | off | Skip ALL lifecycle checks in STEP 1.7 (test, deps, review, perf) | | --lifecycle=<tier> | matches complexity | Controls which lifecycle skills fire: minimal (test only), standard (+deps, +review), full (+perf) | | --no-retro | off | Skip retro step only | | --no-forge | off | Skip forge step only | | --no-budget | off | Disable phase time budgets | | --strict-surfaces | off | Make all 4 surface failures blocking (FAIL instead of WARN). Passed automatically by /rpi --quality. | | --allow-critical-deps | off | Allow shipping with CVSS >= 9.0 vulnerabilities (acknowledged risk acceptance) |

See [references/flags.md](references/flags.md) for flag interactions, precedence, and combined-flag examples.

Expensive Command Policy

Routine validation is targeted by default. Broad proof commands such as go test -race, go test -shuffle, go test -count=N with N > 1, eval runners, retrieval bench, headless runtime smoke, and release gates require explicit operator/release/acceptance-criteria context. If one is run, record the reason and timeout in the phase summary.

When validating release-bound work, see [references/release-readiness-gates.md](references/release-readiness-gates.md) for the additional gates that must pass before shipping.

Quick Start

/validation ag-5k2                        # validate epic with full close-out
/validation                               # validate recent work (no epic)
/validation --complexity=full ag-5k2      # force full council ceremony
/validation --no-retro ag-5k2             # skip retro only
/validation --no-forge ag-5k2             # skip forge only

Output Specification

Format: markdown summary to stdout + on-disk artifacts. Files written: .agents/rpi/phase-3-summary-YYYY-MM-DD-validation.md (phase summary), .agents/post-mortems/YYYY-MM-DD-<topic>.md, .agents/learnings/<slug>.md, .agents/findings/registry.jsonl (appended), .agents/ratchet/state.json. Exit signal: completion marker — see below.

Completion Markers

<promise>DONE</promise>    # Validation passed, learnings captured
<promise>FAIL</promise>    # Vibe failed, re-implementation needed (findings attached)

Troubleshooting

See [references/troubleshooting.md](references/troubleshooting.md).

Reference Documents

• [references/validation.feature](references/validation.feature) — Executable spec: criterion→test roll-up, strict delegation, verdict.json, strict-surface blocking (soc-qk4b.2)
• [references/dag.md](references/dag.md) — executable workflow, gate detail, blocking conditions, phase summary format, phase budgets, expensive-command policy
• [references/per-criterion-rubric.md](references/per-criterion-rubric.md) — per-criterion verdict rubric and runner contract
• [references/step-1.8-behavioral-validation.md](references/step-1.8-behavioral-validation.md) — STEP 1.8 holdout + agent-spec evaluator council
• [references/four-surface-closure.md](references/four-surface-closure.md) — four-surface closure validation (code + docs + examples + proof)
• [references/forge-scope.md](references/forge-scope.md) and [references/idempotency-and-resume.md](references/idempotency-and-resume.md) — forge scoping, rerun behavior, standalone mode
• [references/remote-and-multi-repo-validation.md](references/remote-and-multi-repo-validation.md)
• [references/phase-data-contracts.md](references/phase-data-contracts.md) — phase artifact data contracts (cited from references/isolation-contract.md)