Targeted test
Best when a meaningful before/after signal can isolate the defect or requested behavior.
Repository proprioception for agents
Know where you are.
Complete the change.
Check what matters.
Agentic Coding keeps an AI oriented in the repository that exists now: current state, local instructions, live hypotheses, bounded changes, available oracles, and the exact point where confidence ends.
Maintained adapter 0.1.1 · MIT License · Source component consumed by Nova editions
The operating loop
Complete the change the work needs.
Use this loop to resolve uncertainty, not to delay a clear implementation. Make a coherent bounded change when the route is understood; finish after the relevant checks pass.
- 01MapFind the repository boundary, current state, local instructions, and behavior surface.
- 02LocalizeRead the target beside its nearest tests, callers, contracts, and error path.
- 03HypothesizeFor an uncertain cause, distinguish plausible mechanisms with an observation that could falsify them.
- 04ProbeProbe an uncertain cause or implement the coherent authorized change across its affected files.
- 05InterrogateRun the narrowest available oracle that actually exercises the claimed behavior.
- 06InterpretState what the outcome supports—and what it does not.
- 07CheckpointFinish when the task is handled. Preserve a re-entry condition only for consequential unfinished work.
A resumption surface, not a transcript
Carry only the state that keeps the next context competent.
- Objective
- The intended behavior and the evidence that would advance acceptance.
- Authority
- What is permitted, what is in scope, and what remains excluded.
- Repository state
- Root, branch or working state, local instructions, and known mutations.
- Decisive facts
- Tests, callers, interfaces, configuration, and error-path observations that constrain the explanation.
- Live hypothesis
- The current explanation and plausible alternatives, when causal uncertainty remains.
- Next probe
- The next useful implementation or discriminating probe; a re-entry condition when unfinished.
Verification with a declared scope
Ask the narrowest oracle that can disagree.
A passing command is evidence only for the behavior it exercised. Widen the oracle when a change crosses a shared utility, public contract, schema, build configuration, or permission boundary.
Build
Exercises integration, generated output, bundling, and configuration surfaces that a unit test may never touch.
Lint
Checks policy and static conventions; useful, but never a substitute for runtime behavior.
Typecheck
Discriminates contract compatibility and data-shape assumptions without claiming the program worked.
Target readback
Confirms the actual state written by a tool or patch, not merely the tool's success message.
Failure is evidence
Recover by changing the premise.
Preserve the failure and actual mutation state. Repair a deliverable defect, switch a wrong method, or use one credible substitute for an environment limit. Close a support-repair branch when it no longer advances the requested outcome.
Environmental faultThe code path may be sound; the runtime, dependency, service, or local setup is not.
Pre-existing failureThe baseline was already broken. Keep that missing before/after evidence visible.
False hypothesisThe observation contradicts the causal story. Retire or revise it.
Patch regressionThe change worsened behavior. Revert only your owned change against a known preimage, preserving concurrent work.
Insufficient oracleThe check passed or failed without exercising the decisive surface.
Unknown mutation stateThe repository may not be in the state the agent thinks it is. Re-anchor before another edit.
Permission and acceptance
Keep three truths separate.
What may be changed
User and host authority define the action boundary. A convenient tool does not expand it.
What was attempted
Record the actual command, patch, returned state, and failure signature without upgrading a tool message into verification.
What an oracle established
Independent acceptance stays distinct from authored implementation and carries the scope of the oracle used.
A useful invocation
Start with the work you want finished.
Use $agentic-coding to complete this repository change. Preserve unrelated work, investigate the uncertainties that matter, implement the coherent change and run the relevant checks. Report the changed behavior and any limitation that affects use.
The skill is designed for live repository work inside a host that already provides the relevant files and tools. The standalone repository maintains this shared component; Nova edition releases own installation and activation. The historical contest snapshot remains linked below.