Scope Check

🌱 ShiningPlague-adopted. Originally Donchitos (barebones stub); battle-tested on a shipped Godot project. Upstream was a pointer-only file; this version is the full implementation — priority-ordered scope doc lookup, 20% drift heuristic, park-or-expand proposal.

Detect scope deviation by comparing current work against the governing spec, plan, or story.

If an artifact named here is absent: say so plainly in one line, skip that step, and continue. Never invent the file to satisfy a checklist, and never fail a close because an optional artifact was never created.

Procedure

1. Identify Governing Scope Document

Find the active scope document (in priority order):

• Active plan: docs/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-*-plan.md with status 🚧 ACTIVE
• Active spec: docs/specs/YYYY-MM-DD-*-design.md with status 🚧 IN PROGRESS
• Active story: production/epics/<epic-slug>/*.md with status in-progress
• Active workstream state: production/workstreams/<name>.md → "In Progress" section

2. Extract Stated Scope

From the governing document, extract:

• What was planned to be built/changed
• What was explicitly out of scope (if stated)
• Expected outcomes at ship

3. Compare Against Current Work

git diff --stat + read changed files. For each change:

• In scope — directly serves the stated plan
• Adjacent — related but not stated (potential creep)
• Out of scope — unrelated to current work

4. Assess Creep Risk

• Count adjacent + out-of-scope changes
• Estimate effort consumed on non-scope work
• Flag if the ratio exceeds 20% (heuristic — adjust per context)

5. Output

## Scope Check: [governing document name]

### In Scope
- [change 1] ✓
- [change 2] ✓

### Adjacent (potential creep)
- [change 3] ⚠ — related but not in plan

### Out of Scope
- [change 4] ✗ — not related to current work

### Verdict
CLEAN — all work is in scope
or
DRIFT — [N] changes outside scope, [estimate] effort diverted

6. If Drift Detected

Propose to designer:

• Park out-of-scope work in live_test_notes.top_of_mind_YYYY-MM-DD
• Or expand scope (with explicit acknowledgment)
• Or revert and refocus

Project Paths

• Specs: docs/specs/
• Plans: docs/plans/
• Workstreams: production/workstreams/