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To justify deviations before coding, you need a formal deviation gate that requires irrefutable justification. This skill synthesizes a canonical happy path from official docs and enforces a structured gate to document any necessary deviations before implementation begins.

A pre-implementation research pass is a structured process to ground coding decisions by analyzing official docs, validated references, in-repo patterns, and git history. It synthesizes a canonical happy path and documents justifications for any deviations before development starts.

To synthesize a happy path from git history and in-repo patterns, conduct a four-source research pass that cross-references these inputs with official documentation and validated implementation references. This process derives a canonical plan and outputs a confidence checkpoint as evidence of deliberation.

No, manual triggering is not required for non-trivial changes. This skill includes an automation cue that auto-invokes on non-trivial changes to prompt upfront planning, automatically generating a grounded research plan and a justified happy path before you implement code.

You should use a formal deviation gate when your planned implementation diverges from the synthesized canonical happy path. It enforces upfront planning by requiring a formal justification before any coding begins, ensuring all deviations from the researched standard are documented and validated.

The best way to ground coding decisions is to run a four-source research pass that analyzes existing in-repo patterns alongside official documentation, validated implementation references, and git history. This synthesizes a canonical happy path and outputs a confidence checkpoint as evidence of deliberation.