Godmode Impact Gate

Outcome

Before git commit, the staged edit's reach is scored against the project's own graph and boundaries - how many dependents it leaves unfollowed, whether it crosses the hooks/runtime import boundary, whether it steps outside the declared fence or leaves a paired artifact behind - and every finding is either fixed or accepted on the record through one named escape hatch. The gate is advisory; the one refusal that is not (the commit-time closure check) is satisfied by running the retests, never waived.

Use

• A multi-module edit is staged and about to be committed.
• A commit touches hooks/ or scripts/godmode_runtime/ and the import direction between them must hold.
• A plan declared an editable fence and the staged set may have stepped outside it.
• A crossing is intentional and should be accepted on the record rather than silently.

Do Not Use

• Finding who calls or imports a module before planning an edit to it - that is godmode-codegraph.
• Previewing or authorizing a force push, tag, or release - that is godmode-governance.
• Diagnosing why a retest went red after an edit - that is godmode-investigation.

Deterministic Execution Flow

1. Open a session, then enumerate the staged work and its size pressure. godmode session open (if none is open; steps 6 and 7 refuse without one), then godmode scope --minimality - lists what changed against the working tree and reports size pressure; it never blocks.
   • Fallback: outside a git repository it reports verdict: unavailable; name the paths explicitly in every later --changed instead.
2. Prove the saved graph before trusting its fan-out. godmode atlas graph verify - reports verified: false with a reason when no snapshot exists or it is stale.
   • Fallback: only then run godmode atlas graph rebuild, and repeat step 2.
3. Score the fan-out. godmode atlas closure --changed <path> [<path> ...] --depth 2 - every dependent of a changed path that was not itself changed. verdict: unfollowed-dependents (exit 1) is the finding, not an error; the count of dependents is the fan-out score.
4. Check the architectural boundary. godmode atlas --direction - hooks import the runtime only through the declared surface, and the runtime never imports hooks; exit 1 names each crossing.
5. Check the declared fence. godmode fence audit --changed <path> [<path> ...] - changed paths outside the plan's editable set.
6. Check paired artifacts. godmode precheck --about "commit <one-line summary>" --changed <path> [<path> ...] - read paired_artifacts.verdict: an artifact declared to change together with a staged path that did not.
7. Satisfy the commit-time closure refusal. godmode retest --run - runs the tests that pin the changed paths and attests their exit code. The pre-commit closure check refuses a staged code path with no green retest newer than its last edit; it has no escape and none is sought here.
8. Accept an intended crossing through the named escape hatch. A fan-out, fence or boundary finding that is deliberate is recorded before the commit: godmode remember --kind decision --subject "impact-accepted:<path>" --value "<why the crossing is intended and what bounds it>" --evidence seq:<the closure or audit record>. Size growth past a recorded ceiling is accepted with godmode minimality --accept-growth <section> --reason "<what the added surface bought>".

Read PURPOSE.md for the archive records this skill exists to close.

Must Not

• Never trust a fan-out from an unverified graph; step 2 comes before step 3, and rebuild runs only after verify says so.
• Never commit with --no-verify to get past the closure refusal; run godmode retest --run instead.
• Never accept a crossing silently; the escape hatch is a recorded decision that names the path and the reason, or it is not accepted.
• Never edit the fence or the paired-artifact declarations to make a finding disappear; accept it through the escape hatch or fix the edit.
• Never turn this advisory gate into a blocker for a docs-only or fixture-only commit; the closure check exempts those, and so does this skill.

Acceptance

• godmode atlas closure names every unfollowed dependent of the staged paths from a verified graph.
• Every boundary, fence or fan-out finding is either fixed or carries an impact-accepted: decision before the commit.

If an assertion cannot be proved, report the unmet assertion and the next safe action rather than the outcome it was meant to prove.