T-3N5B-wire-sdlc-verify-changes-into-the-judge-workflow-step

State: planning/draft · Impact: high · Complexity: medium

Goal

judge is the AI review step of the per-task gate (implement → check → judge → pr-review). Its built-in definition is empty, so a project without its own workflows.judge gets no judgment at all and nothing says so. Reopened 2026-10-01 to ship verify changes as the default.

Today

• The workflows: grammar landed with D-LSLH (3d2099505). judge is a lifecycle name with an intentionally empty built-in (lib/config/workflows.ts, pinned by workflows.test.ts:90-105), so sdlc run judge is a silent no-op unless a project sets workflows.judge.
• D-LSLH rejected the self-referential [{run: 'judge'}] built-in (a run: cycle). It did not weigh a script: step that calls verify changes directly.
• The work tick resolves judge by workflow name (ticks/work.ts), so a project override already takes effect.
• This repo sets workflows.judge to bun solutions/ontological/cli/sdlc.ts verify changes --base main --blocking.

Proposed

The built-in judge workflow is one script: step, sdlc verify changes --blocking. --base is left to the op’s own default (the remote’s default branch). Projects override, prepend or append as with any workflow.

Approach

1. Amend D-LSLH’s lifecycle-name rule: judge gets a real built-in; the other lifecycle names keep empty ones.
2. Change the built-in in lib/config/workflows.ts; replace the empty-default test with one asserting the step.
3. Check verify changes behaves sensibly with no rules or standards in a project (an empty judgment passes, not errors).
4. Decide whether this repo keeps its workflows.judge override (it pins the dev-checkout CLI).
5. Add a CHANGELOG entry: projects without workflows.judge now run an AI review in the gate, which costs tokens.

Areas

Area	Note
solutions/ontological/lib/config/workflows.ts	The built-in table
solutions/ontological/lib/services/verify/	The op the step calls
docs/planning/decisions/D-LSLH-collapse-verbs-workflows-chain-hooks/	The rule to amend

Acceptance criteria

• AC-1: In a project with no workflows.judge, sdlc run judge runs verify changes and exits non-zero on a blocking finding.
• AC-2: A project append: under judge runs after verify changes, verified by a test.
• AC-3: A project with no instruction files or standards passes judge.
• AC-4: D-LSLH records the amended rule.

Out of scope

• The adversarial pr-review step and pr-respond rounds that follow judge.

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