Skill: Pace

Purpose

Persist the user's explicit choice of pace mode — how visibly the analytical machinery surfaces during L3+ analyses. Pace is orthogonal to complexity level (L1–L5). Level decides which agents run; pace decides how visible the work is.

Modes

Invocation

The user types one of:

• /pace guided
• /pace narrated
• /pace autopilot
• /pace (no argument) — show the current mode and the three options
• Natural language: "slow down, pause between steps" → guided; "just run it silently" → autopilot; "narrate but don't stop" → narrated

Behavior

1. Resolve the target mode. If the argument is one of guided|narrated|autopilot, use it. If no argument, print the current mode (read from working/session_state.yaml → pace_mode) and the three options. Stop.
2. Validate. If the argument is anything else, echo the three valid modes and ask which one the user wants. Do NOT guess or silently fall back.
3. Read existing state. Load working/session_state.yaml if it exists; otherwise start with an empty dict. Preserve every other key.
4. Write atomically. Write the updated YAML to working/session_state.yaml.tmp, then rename to working/session_state.yaml. This prevents corruption if the process is interrupted mid-write.
5. Confirm to the user. One line:
   • guided → "Pace set to guided. I'll pause after each phase and wait for /continue."
   • narrated → "Pace set to narrated. I'll announce each phase and run end-to-end."
   • autopilot → "Pace set to autopilot. I'll run silently and show you the final output."
6. Apply on next phase boundary. If an analysis is already in flight, the new mode takes effect starting with the next phase. Tell the user so. Never switch mid-phase — it produces inconsistent banner state.

Failure Handling

• Write fails (permissions, disk full, working/ missing): honor the mode in the current session in memory and warn: "Pace set to {mode} for this session, but I couldn't write working/session_state.yaml ({reason}). Run /pace {mode} again after resume to restore it."
• YAML parse fails on existing file: back up the broken file to working/session_state.yaml.broken-{timestamp}, write a fresh one with just pace_mode, and tell the user. Never overwrite without backing up.
• No working/ directory: create it (mkdir -p working), then proceed.

Implementation

Use Python for atomic write and YAML safety. Keep it minimal:

import yaml, os, pathlib, datetime

STATE_PATH = pathlib.Path("working/session_state.yaml")

def set_pace(mode: str) -> tuple[bool, str]:
    assert mode in {"guided", "narrated", "autopilot"}
    STATE_PATH.parent.mkdir(parents=True, exist_ok=True)

    state = {}
    if STATE_PATH.exists():
        try:
            state = yaml.safe_load(STATE_PATH.read_text()) or {}
        except yaml.YAMLError:
            bak = STATE_PATH.with_suffix(
                f".yaml.broken-{datetime.datetime.now().strftime('%Y%m%dT%H%M%S')}"
            )
            STATE_PATH.rename(bak)
            state = {}

    state["pace_mode"] = mode
    tmp = STATE_PATH.with_suffix(".yaml.tmp")
    try:
        tmp.write_text(yaml.safe_dump(state, sort_keys=False))
        os.replace(tmp, STATE_PATH)
        return True, ""
    except OSError as e:
        return False, str(e)

Edge Cases

• Mid-phase invocation: honor at next phase boundary, not immediately. Tell the user.
• No L3+ analysis running: still persist the mode. It applies to the next one.
• User types /pace during a guided pause: show current mode + options, do not consume the pause.
• working/session_state.yaml already has other keys (from session-handoff, resume-pipeline): preserve them all; only touch pace_mode.

See Also

• Full pace-mode spec and auto-detection rules: .claude/skills/question-router/SKILL.md → "Step 3.5: Pace Mode Selection" and "Phase Banner Format".
• Session state schema and other persisted keys: .claude/skills/session-handoff/SKILL.md.