What problem does it solve? Prototypes and proof-of-concept repos often skip engineering gates entirely or inherit full production standards that slow them down. This Skill defines a bounded prototype mode: a sanctioned reduced gate set for repos that answer one question and are then deleted or graduated, preventing throwaway code from silently becoming ungated production code. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Prototype initialization: The init-prototype.mjs script writes PROTOTYPE.md and an eqPrototype marker into package.json, lands the kept gates (typecheck, base lint, formatter hook, protected-files guard), and verifies that kept gates are actually enforcing rather than hollow. - Graduation measurement: The graduate-check.mjs script measures lint backlog, typecheck state, code size, and structure violations against the full standard, then returns a verdict (one-sitting, ratchet, or blocked) via exit codes. - Expiry enforcement: A SessionStart hook prints the prototype's question and expiry date and warns loudly once the date passes, so expired prototypes cannot masquerade as healthy repos. - Use Case: A team spikes a proof-of-concept to test whether virtualized rendering holds at 50k rows. They run init-prototype.mjs with the question and an expiry date, build with only typecheck and base lint as gates, then run graduate-check.mjs at expiry to decide between deleting the repo or graduating it to the full standard. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to set up prototype mode in a new Vite React repo by running the init-prototype script with your one question and an expiry date.
