/ardd-status¶

Tier: core

Full cross-artifact consistency check — reads every artifact, plan, tasks file, and the register — and writes STATUS.md (its single writer); auto-runs after most state-changing skills.

Usage¶

/ardd-status
/ardd-status --view    # read-only side door: print the report and stop

No arguments. Non-destructive: it reads everything and writes exactly one file. Most state-changing skills run it automatically as their final step (/ardd-backlog, /ardd-plan, /ardd-refine, /ardd-feedback, /ardd-implement on completion, /ardd-defects — the canonical list lives in this skill's own SKILL.md). Manual runs are the right call after /ardd-init + a refine pass, or anytime you want a fresh check.

--view is a pure side door: it runs the same discovery and report assembly (steps 1–5), prints the report straight to the terminal, and stops — no STATUS.md write, no orphaned-flip confirmation, and no next-step prompt. Same "no writes of any kind" shape as /ardd-plan --list and /ardd-implement --list. Use it for a quick full consistency check without touching STATUS.md or being asked anything.

Run only from the primary checkout, never inside a delegated worktree — in solo mode that would trap the STATUS.md write on the worktree's branch. In collaborative mode, running on a feature branch in the primary checkout is the required norm (the refresh rides the branch and lands with the PR): in collaborative mode, no ArDD skill pushes a feature branch whose STATUS.md predates the state the push carries. The prohibition targets delegated worktrees (all modes) plus solo mode's trapped-write case.

Reads¶

Every .project/artifacts/*.md
.project/DEFECTS.md (count + last-verified date — read-only)
.project/feedback/* open count, .project/features/* status counts
.project/plans/* and .project/tasks/*
inflight-worktrees.sh — sibling worktrees' branches and tasks-file progress; worktree-reap.sh --dry-run — merged-reapable candidates (visibility only, never mutates); gh pr list --draft in collaborative mode
parallel-matrix.sh — pairwise overlap verdicts among ready tasks files and in-flight worktree claims (shared feature slugs via the tasks → plan chain, shared [artifacts: ...] tags)
completion-flip-check.sh per completed tasks file — orphaned completion flips
ardd-update-check.sh — whether the ArDD install is behind its source (local git by default; fetches first only when the constitution's update_check_max_age_days opt-in says the owned checkout's tags have gone stale). A dev-mode checkout that's actually ahead of the latest release tag reports distinctly (dev-ahead) and is never nudged to "update" — doing so would regress it.

What it checks¶

Cross-artifact consistency — concepts referenced but undefined, decisions that disagree across artifacts, UI fields missing from the data model
Constitution compliance — violations of the principles it actually declares (never an assumed fixed set)
Within-artifact issues — unresolved [OPEN: ...] items, vague language, draft artifacts that would block planning
Diagram staleness — each renderable artifact's diagram_status
In-flight work — sibling worktrees, reapable worktrees, draft PRs
Work Queue — one entry per ready tasks file (filename, bound plan/features, verdicts against the other ready files and in-flight claims). Entry data comes from tasks-list.sh; parallel-matrix.sh supplies only the pair verdicts (and is silent, by design, with fewer than two participants). independent means no declared overlap only — not "conflict-free"; merge_policy conflict handling still governs at merge time. claimed reads "claimed by in-flight worktree" — the same tasks file, ready here and in flight there. Read-only visibility, omitted entirely when no ready tasks file exists
By-epic breakdown — when any register feature carries a non-empty epic field, the Feature Backlog counts (backlogged/planned/tasked) are additionally grouped and reported per epic value; omitted entirely when no feature carries one
Documented but untracked — capabilities a stable artifact describes that have no register entry (any status) and no implementation, each pointing at /ardd-backlog --from-artifacts. Advisory only — it never creates register entries (drafts are skipped; the section is omitted when nothing is untracked)

Writes¶

.project/STATUS.md — its single writer. Artifact status table, open questions by artifact, defect/feedback/backlog summary lines, orphaned flips, the Work Queue section, the In Flight section, the update-available line, and a recommended next step. STATUS.md is the single re-entry point after any interruption.
One narrow register exception: for each orphaned completion flip found (a completed tasks file whose work branch merged while its feature still says tasked), it asks and — on confirmation — performs the tasked → implemented flip itself. Justified because no other skill run is left to catch it; a decline is simply re-reported next run.

Behavior notes¶

With next_step_prompt: true in the constitution frontmatter, the run ends by offering the recommended next step as a one-keypress prompt — only when it's a concrete runnable /ardd-* invocation; anything else stays plain text. With auto, that runnable recommendation is invoked directly (stated in the report first, no prompt). A denied/unavailable prompt reads as "no — stop here".

/ardd-lint — structural validation (fast, deterministic; this skill is the judgment-based consistency check)
/ardd-defects — artifacts vs. the code; this skill never reads code
guides/checking.md — which checking skill you want, and when