pre-mortem

Original：🇺🇸 English

Translated

Validate a plan or spec before implementation using multi-model council. Answer: Is this good enough to implement? Triggers: "pre-mortem", "validate plan", "validate spec", "is this ready".

2installs

Sourceboshu2/agentops

Added on2026-02-07

NPX Install

npx skill4agent add boshu2/agentops pre-mortem

SKILL.md Content

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Pre-Mortem Skill

Purpose: Is this plan/spec good enough to implement?

Run

/council validate

on a plan or spec to get multi-model judgment before committing to implementation.

Quick Start

bash

/pre-mortem                                         # validates most recent plan
/pre-mortem path/to/PLAN.md                         # validates specific plan
/pre-mortem --quick path/to/PLAN.md                 # fast inline check, no spawning
/pre-mortem --deep path/to/SPEC.md                  # 4 judges with plan-review preset
/pre-mortem --mixed path/to/PLAN.md                 # cross-vendor (Claude + Codex)
/pre-mortem --preset=architecture path/to/PLAN.md   # architecture-focused review
/pre-mortem --explorers=3 path/to/SPEC.md           # deep investigation of plan
/pre-mortem --debate path/to/PLAN.md                # two-round adversarial review

Execution Steps

Step 1: Find the Plan/Spec

If path provided: Use it directly.

If no path: Find most recent plan:

bash

ls -lt .agents/plans/ 2>/dev/null | head -3
ls -lt .agents/specs/ 2>/dev/null | head -3

Use the most recent file. If nothing found, ask user.

Step 1a: Search Knowledge Flywheel

bash

if command -v ao &>/dev/null; then
    ao search "plan validation lessons <goal>" 2>/dev/null | head -10
fi

If ao returns prior plan review findings, include them as context for the council packet. Skip silently if ao is unavailable or returns no results.

Step 2: Run Council Validation

Run

/council

with the plan-review preset and always 4 judges (--deep):

/council --deep --preset=plan-review validate <plan-path>

Default (4 judges with plan-review perspectives):

```
missing-requirements
```
: What's not in the spec that should be? What questions haven't been asked?
```
feasibility
```
: What's technically hard or impossible here? What will take 3x longer than estimated?
```
scope
```
: What's unnecessary? What's missing? Where will scope creep?
```
spec-completeness
```
: Are boundaries defined? Do conformance checks cover all acceptance criteria? Is the plan mechanically verifiable?

Pre-mortem always uses 4 judges (

--deep

) because plans deserve thorough review. The spec-completeness judge validates SDD patterns; for plans without boundaries/conformance sections, it issues WARN (not FAIL) for backward compatibility.

With --quick (inline, no spawning):

/council --quick validate <plan-path>

Single-agent structured review. Fast sanity check before committing to full council.

With --mixed (cross-vendor):

/council --mixed --preset=plan-review validate <plan-path>

3 Claude + 3 Codex agents for cross-vendor plan validation with plan-review perspectives.

With explicit preset override:

/pre-mortem --preset=architecture path/to/PLAN.md

Explicit

--preset

overrides the automatic plan-review preset. Uses architecture-focused personas instead.

With explorers:

/council --deep --preset=plan-review --explorers=3 validate <plan-path>

Each judge spawns 3 explorers to investigate aspects of the plan's feasibility against the codebase. Useful for complex migration or refactoring plans.

With debate mode:

/pre-mortem --debate

Enables adversarial two-round review for plan validation. Use for high-stakes plans where multiple valid approaches exist. See

/council

docs for full --debate details.

Step 3: Interpret Council Verdict

Council Verdict	Pre-Mortem Result	Action
PASS	Ready to implement	Proceed
WARN	Review concerns	Address warnings or accept risk
FAIL	Not ready	Fix issues before implementing

Step 4: Write Pre-Mortem Report

Write to:

.agents/council/YYYY-MM-DD-pre-mortem-<topic>.md

markdown

# Pre-Mortem: <Topic>

**Date:** YYYY-MM-DD
**Plan/Spec:** <path>

## Council Verdict: PASS / WARN / FAIL

| Judge | Verdict | Key Finding |
|-------|---------|-------------|
| Missing-Requirements | ... | ... |
| Feasibility | ... | ... |
| Scope | ... | ... |

## Shared Findings
- ...

## Concerns Raised
- ...

## Recommendation
<council recommendation>

## Decision Gate

[ ] PROCEED - Council passed, ready to implement
[ ] ADDRESS - Fix concerns before implementing
[ ] RETHINK - Fundamental issues, needs redesign

Step 5: Record Ratchet Progress

bash

ao ratchet record pre-mortem 2>/dev/null || true

Step 6: Report to User

Tell the user:

Council verdict (PASS/WARN/FAIL)
Key concerns (if any)
Recommendation
Location of pre-mortem report

Integration with Workflow

/plan epic-123
    │
    ▼
/pre-mortem                    ← You are here
    │
    ├── PASS → /implement
    ├── WARN → Review, then /implement or fix
    └── FAIL → Fix plan, re-run /pre-mortem

Examples

Validate a Plan

bash

/pre-mortem .agents/plans/2026-02-05-auth-system.md

3 judges (missing-requirements, feasibility, scope) review the auth system plan.

Cross-Vendor Plan Validation

bash

/pre-mortem --mixed .agents/plans/2026-02-05-auth-system.md

3 Claude + 3 Codex agents validate the plan with plan-review perspectives.

Architecture-Focused Review

bash

/pre-mortem --preset=architecture .agents/specs/api-v2-spec.md

3 judges with architecture perspectives (scalability, maintainability, simplicity) review the spec.

Auto-Find Recent Plan

bash

/pre-mortem

Finds the most recent plan in

.agents/plans/

and validates it.

pre-mortem

NPX Install

Tags

SKILL.md Content

Pre-Mortem Skill

Quick Start

Execution Steps

Step 1: Find the Plan/Spec

Step 1a: Search Knowledge Flywheel

Step 2: Run Council Validation

Step 3: Interpret Council Verdict

Step 4: Write Pre-Mortem Report

Step 5: Record Ratchet Progress

Step 6: Report to User

Integration with Workflow

Examples

Validate a Plan

Cross-Vendor Plan Validation

Architecture-Focused Review

Auto-Find Recent Plan

See Also