/c-validate

Source of truth: skills/c-validate/SKILL.md. For the why behind this stage, read the Validate deep dive.

Purpose

Walks a plan’s post-deploy validation checklist (confirming prerequisites, running automated checks, and guiding manual workflow steps) and flips the plan to completed once everything passes.

When to use it

Use /c-validate after you’ve deployed an implemented plan, to confirm the live system actually behaves as intended and to formally close the loop. It is the sixth and final stage. It does not deploy for you. You deploy first, then validate.

Invocation forms

• /c-validate <path-to-plan-folder>: walk the plan’s 96-validation.md.

Inputs & preconditions

A plan at status implemented (it runs the walk) or completed (it re-validates after a re-deploy, resetting checkboxes per config). It refuses on draft/in-progress (run /c-execute first) and on on-hold/superseded. The plan must have a 96-validation.md with the three categories.

What it produces

Each validation item checked off as it passes (written to disk before any pause), and, on a full clean pass, the plan’s overview status flipped to completed. In the same step it reads the plan’s linked_design: and flips that design to completed too, with no prompt, and the completion message says so. Only an approved design flips: one already completed (a re-validation) is left as is, and any other status, or a linked_design: that doesn’t resolve, is reported as a warning rather than skipped.

Gates & guarantees

• Strict walk order: Category C (prerequisites) first and blocking, then A (automated checks it runs itself), then B (manual workflow, optionally delegated to a headless browser run).
• Status never advances to completed while any validation item is unchecked: no silent passes.
• On a failure it offers fix-and-retry, mark out of scope, or abort.
• It never writes code, never deploys, never runs /c-execute on failure, and never flips the linked design on anything short of a full pass.

Related commands

• Previous: /c-execute must have driven the plan to implemented first. /c-audit verifies the code matches the plan.
• Deep dive: The Validate stage for the checklist categories and closing the loop.