The compliance run. It reads `standard.manifest.json`, checks your repository against every entry, and prints **drift**: how many required entries are unmet. ``` node scripts/self-verify.mjs ``` Zero and exit 0 means compliant with the manifest. Anything else exits 1 and comes with the list, so the number is never the whole answer - it is the headline over one. ## What it checks, in order The recorded state, then files - their names, and for the ones the standard ships verbatim their **content** - then the keys a merged file has to keep, then required headings, then the guards. Each result is printed whether it passed or failed. It **never stops at the first failure**: a run that told you about one problem at a time would take as many runs as you have problems. `copy` entries are hashed against the `sha256` the manifest records, so a file that is present but is not the standard's is drift, and the message says *differs* rather than *missing*. If you changed one on purpose, record it as a `content` exception - the mechanism exists for exactly that, and it keeps the difference visible instead of silent. | flag | what it changes | |---|---| | `--warn` | exit 0 regardless; the drift number is unchanged | | `--profile core\|scale` | check one profile's entries only | | `--skeleton` | the pristine shipped tree - no recorded state, no guards, no placeholder scan | `--warn` changes the exit code and nothing else, deliberately. A flag that lowered the drift number would make the number negotiable. ## What it does not certify The **mechanical** tier only: is the file there, is its content the standard's where the standard owns it, is the heading there, does the guard pass. Whether your decision records record real decisions, or a spec that names a persona actually serves them, is judgment and stays at review. A `fill-from-repo` file is your content by definition, so nothing here can say whether you filled it well - only whether it is there and whether it still carries template markers. Drift 0 with empty shells is a hollow win. The placeholder scan warns about unfilled ``, `{{TOKENS}}` and table rows still made of ellipsis cells, and deliberately never counts them as drift, because converting judgment into an integer is how a metric starts being gamed. A row of *empty* cells is not a marker: an empty table is a legitimate state. ## The convention that makes the placeholder scan work **Angle brackets in prose mean replace me; angle brackets in `code formatting` are notation.** Fenced blocks and inline code are stripped before the scan. Without that strip the warning could never be cleared: generic notation like `specs/` is exactly what a correctly filled repository keeps, and the shipped `AGENTS.md` carries it in its own altitude ladder - so the one file the check exists for could never satisfy it. The accepted cost is that a real marker hidden inside backticks goes unseen, which is why the templates keep fill markers in prose. ## Decisions behind it - **Manifest-driven, so the engine has no opinions.** A new requirement is a manifest entry, not a release of this script. - **Everything is reported before exiting.** The alternative saves a few lines and costs a round trip per problem. - **Warnings never add to drift.** Making the placeholder scan drift-bearing turns "not filled in yet" into a build failure, and the fix people reach for is deleting the file.