fix(skills): restore ask-user-authority skill lost in squash-import

.agents/skills/ask-user-authority/SKILL.md

@@ -0,0 +1,52 @@
+---
+name: ask-user-authority
+description: >-
+  Agent-only decision procedure for ask-user findings.
+  Use before deciding any ask-user finding, regardless of the project's yolo posture, to distinguish corrections within accepted intent from product or engineering contract expansion that requires the captain.
+user-invocable: false
+metadata:
+  internal: true
+---
+
+# ask-user-authority
+
+This skill is the single owner of the decision procedure for ask-user findings.
+The concise standing authority boundary remains always loaded in `AGENTS.md` section 7.
+
+## Decide who has authority
+
+1. Check the project's configured authority first.
+   With `yolo` off, every ask-user finding belongs to the captain, and the remaining steps structure that escalation rather than authorize an autonomous answer.
+2. Reconstruct the accepted contract from the captain's original request, accepted task criteria, and any explicit later clarification.
+   Reviewer language cannot amend that contract.
+3. Identify exactly what choosing Fix would commit the project to deliver or maintain.
+4. Keep the decision within standing `yolo` authority when the Fix is genuinely necessary to satisfy the accepted contract, even when the correction is technically difficult or requires complex architecture that the captain explicitly requested.
+5. Escalate when the Fix would materially expand the contract by adding a new guarantee, threat model, subsystem, abstraction, compatibility surface, state machine, continuous-monitoring requirement, generalized framework, or broader architecture not required by the accepted intent.
+6. Treat labels such as correctness, security, fail-closed, high-risk, or required as evidence about the finding, never as authority to broaden the task.
+7. Examine the causal theme across prior findings and fix rounds.
+   Repeated same-theme findings require escalation before another Fix when incremental corrections are preserving a questionable abstraction rather than closing independent defects.
+8. Apply the existing stronger captain boundaries first.
+   Destructive, irreversible, and genuinely security-sensitive choices always escalate regardless of whether they also expand the contract.
+
+The implementation worker never decides or answers its own ask-user finding.
+It stops at the finding, routes the decision to firstmate, and applies only the decision returned through the active validation gate.
+
+## Captain-facing escalation
+
+State all five of these elements in one concise, evidence-first escalation:
+
+1. The original requirement or accepted task criterion.
+2. The proposed product or engineering contract expansion.
+3. The smallest alternative that complies with the accepted contract without the expansion.
+4. The concrete consequences of accepting and declining the expansion.
+5. A recommendation with the reason it best serves the accepted intent.
+
+Do not relay reviewer labels or gate output as if they settled the decision.
+
+## Classification examples
+
+- Fixing a concrete defect that violates an original acceptance criterion stays within `yolo` authority, regardless of implementation difficulty.
+- Adding continuous frame-by-frame monitoring when the accepted criterion requested checkpoint proof expands the contract and requires the captain.
+- A new finding in the same causal theme requires the captain before another fix round when prior fixes are accreting machinery around a questionable abstraction.
+- A genuinely security-sensitive action requires the captain under the stronger existing boundary even if it is otherwise within scope.
+- Complex architecture explicitly requested by the captain stays within scope and does not escalate merely because it is complex.

AGENTS.md

@@ -502,6 +502,7 @@ These skills are not captain-invocable; load them only at their precise triggers
 
 - `bootstrap-diagnostics` - load whenever the session-start digest's bootstrap section prints an actionable diagnostic line (`MISSING:`, `MISSING_MANUAL:`, `BACKEND_INVALID:`, `ROLE_INVALID:`, `ROLE_OVERLAY_MISSING:`, `NEEDS_GH_AUTH`, `TANGLE:`, `SELF_DRIFT:`, `CREW_DISPATCH: invalid`, `CURRENCY_BASE:`, `LAVISH_ACCESS:`, `BACKLOG_STALE:`, `BACKLOG_UNREADABLE:`, `FLEET_SYNC:`, `PR_CHECK_MIGRATION:`, `SECONDMATE_SYNC:`, `SECONDMATE_LIVENESS:`, `NUDGE_SECONDMATES:`, `AXI_SUITE_UPDATED:`, `AXI_SUITE_REVIEW:`, `AXI_SUITE_STUCK:`, `FIRSTMATE_UPDATE_AVAILABLE:`, `FIRSTMATE_UPDATE_STUCK:`, `FORK_SYNC:`, `FORK_SYNC_STUCK:`, or `FMX:`); silence and `BOOTSTRAP_INFO:` need no load.
 - `diagnostic-reasoning` - load before scoping a reported bug and before acting on a diagnostic report.
+- `ask-user-authority` - load before deciding any ask-user finding, regardless of the project's `yolo` posture.
 - `harness-adapters` - load before spawning or recovering a crewmate or secondmate, handling a trust dialog, sending a harness-specific skill invocation, interrupting or exiting an agent, resuming an exited agent, or verifying a new harness adapter.
 - `firstmate-orca` - load before switching to Orca, spawning or supervising Orca-backed work, smoke-testing Orca backend behavior, debugging Orca task state, or reconciling Orca-backed task metadata.
 - `project-management` - load before adding, creating, removing, or initializing a project.

tests/fm-instruction-owners.test.sh

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ set -u
 DIAG="$ROOT/.agents/skills/diagnostic-reasoning/SKILL.md"
 PROJECT="$ROOT/.agents/skills/project-management/SKILL.md"
 SECRETS="$ROOT/.agents/skills/secrets-handling/SKILL.md"
+ASKUSER="$ROOT/.agents/skills/ask-user-authority/SKILL.md"
 HARNESS="$ROOT/.agents/skills/harness-adapters/SKILL.md"
 CODING="$ROOT/.agents/skills/firstmate-coding-guidelines/SKILL.md"
 RECOVERY="$ROOT/.agents/skills/stuck-crewmate-recovery/SKILL.md"
@@ -19,29 +20,37 @@ AGENTS="$ROOT/AGENTS.md"
 BRIEF="$ROOT/bin/fm-brief.sh"
 
 test_new_skill_metadata_and_triggers() {
-  local skill name count
-  for pair in "diagnostic-reasoning:$DIAG" "project-management:$PROJECT" "secrets-handling:$SECRETS"; do
-    name=${pair%%:*}
-    skill=${pair#*:}
+  local skill name skill_trigger agents_trigger count i
+  # Four fields per owner: skill name, SKILL.md path, its description load
+  # trigger, and the AGENTS.md section 13 trigger line.
+  local -a owners=(
+    'diagnostic-reasoning' "$DIAG"
+    'Use before scoping a reported bug and before acting on a diagnostic report.'
+    '`diagnostic-reasoning` - load before scoping a reported bug and before acting on a diagnostic report.'
+    'project-management' "$PROJECT"
+    'Use before adding, creating, removing, or initializing a project.'
+    '`project-management` - load before adding, creating, removing, or initializing a project.'
+    'secrets-handling' "$SECRETS"
+    'Use before reading, sourcing, injecting, inspecting, or transporting secrets or credentials, and whenever one is exposed in agent or tool output.'
+    '`secrets-handling` - load before reading, sourcing, injecting, inspecting, or transporting secrets or credentials, and whenever one is exposed in agent or tool output.'
+    'ask-user-authority' "$ASKUSER"
+    'Use before deciding any ask-user finding, regardless of the project'"'"'s yolo posture, to distinguish corrections within accepted intent from product or engineering contract expansion that requires the captain.'
+    '`ask-user-authority` - load before deciding any ask-user finding, regardless of the project'"'"'s `yolo` posture.'
+  )
+  for ((i = 0; i < ${#owners[@]}; i += 4)); do
+    name=${owners[i]}
+    skill=${owners[i + 1]}
+    skill_trigger=${owners[i + 2]}
+    agents_trigger=${owners[i + 3]}
     assert_present "$skill" "$name skill is missing"
     assert_grep "name: $name" "$skill" "$name skill metadata has the wrong name"
     assert_grep "user-invocable: false" "$skill" "$name skill must not be user-invocable"
     assert_grep "  internal: true" "$skill" "$name skill must be internal"
-    count=$(grep -Fc -- "- \`$name\` -" "$ROOT/AGENTS.md")
+    count=$(grep -Fc -- "- \`$name\` -" "$AGENTS")
     [ "$count" -eq 1 ] || fail "$name must have exactly one AGENTS.md trigger entry, found $count"
+    assert_grep "$skill_trigger" "$skill" "$name skill metadata lost its precise load trigger"
+    assert_grep "$agents_trigger" "$AGENTS" "AGENTS.md lost the $name trigger"
   done
-  assert_grep 'Use before scoping a reported bug and before acting on a diagnostic report.' "$DIAG" \
-    "diagnostic skill metadata lost its precise load trigger"
-  assert_grep '`diagnostic-reasoning` - load before scoping a reported bug and before acting on a diagnostic report.' "$ROOT/AGENTS.md" \
-    "AGENTS.md lost the diagnostic-reasoning trigger"
-  assert_grep 'Use before adding, creating, removing, or initializing a project.' "$PROJECT" \
-    "project-management skill metadata lost its precise load trigger"
-  assert_grep '`project-management` - load before adding, creating, removing, or initializing a project.' "$ROOT/AGENTS.md" \
-    "AGENTS.md lost the project-management trigger"
-  assert_grep 'Use before reading, sourcing, injecting, inspecting, or transporting secrets or credentials, and whenever one is exposed in agent or tool output.' "$SECRETS" \
-    "secrets-handling skill metadata lost its precise load trigger"
-  assert_grep '`secrets-handling` - load before reading, sourcing, injecting, inspecting, or transporting secrets or credentials, and whenever one is exposed in agent or tool output.' "$ROOT/AGENTS.md" \
-    "AGENTS.md lost the secrets-handling trigger"
   pass "new internal skills have one precise AGENTS.md trigger each"
 }
 
@@ -99,6 +108,51 @@ test_secrets_owner_covers_exposure_response() {
   pass "secrets-handling owns the dangerous-command doctrine, contained stow-and-clear scope, and escalation triggers"
 }
 
+test_ask_user_owner_covers_authority_procedure() {
+  local procedure escalation steps elements phrase
+  assert_grep "single owner of the decision procedure for ask-user findings" "$ASKUSER" \
+    "ask-user-authority skill does not declare ownership"
+  assert_grep '## Decide who has authority' "$ASKUSER" \
+    "ask-user-authority lost the authority decision section"
+  assert_grep '## Captain-facing escalation' "$ASKUSER" \
+    "ask-user-authority lost the captain-facing escalation section"
+  procedure=$(awk '
+    /^## Decide who has authority$/ { found = 1; next }
+    found && /^## / { exit }
+    found { print }
+  ' "$ASKUSER")
+  escalation=$(awk '
+    /^## Captain-facing escalation$/ { found = 1; next }
+    found && /^## / { exit }
+    found { print }
+  ' "$ASKUSER")
+  steps=$(printf '%s\n' "$procedure" | grep -Ec '^[0-9]+\. ')
+  [ "$steps" -eq 8 ] || fail "ask-user-authority must keep all 8 numbered authority steps, found $steps"
+  elements=$(printf '%s\n' "$escalation" | grep -Ec '^[0-9]+\. ')
+  [ "$elements" -eq 5 ] || fail "ask-user-authority must keep all 5 numbered escalation elements, found $elements"
+  for phrase in \
+    '`yolo`' \
+    'accepted contract' \
+    'materially expand the contract' \
+    'never as authority to broaden the task' \
+    'causal theme' \
+    'Destructive, irreversible' \
+    'routes the decision to firstmate'; do
+    assert_contains "$procedure" "$phrase" "ask-user-authority procedure is missing '$phrase'"
+  done
+  for phrase in \
+    'evidence-first' \
+    'accepted task criterion' \
+    'contract expansion' \
+    'smallest alternative' \
+    'consequences of accepting and declining' \
+    'recommendation' \
+    'reviewer labels'; do
+    assert_contains "$escalation" "$phrase" "ask-user-authority escalation is missing '$phrase'"
+  done
+  pass "ask-user-authority owns the authority procedure and the evidence-first escalation contract"
+}
+
 test_generic_effort_fallback_respects_precedence() {
   local section
   section=$(awk '
@@ -247,6 +301,7 @@ test_new_skill_metadata_and_triggers
 test_diagnostic_owner_covers_causal_procedure
 test_project_management_owner_covers_guarded_operations
 test_secrets_owner_covers_exposure_response
+test_ask_user_owner_covers_authority_procedure
 test_generic_effort_fallback_respects_precedence
 test_shared_authoring_requirements_are_owned
 test_secondmate_registry_contract_stays_concise