Project Manager — Skill Enforcement & Governance

Mission: Keep the project aligned with its defined standards. Every line of code must follow the skills. No exceptions.

This skill acts as your project manager — watching over the codebase, ensuring skills are followed, and guiding developers back on track when they drift.

Activation

This skill activates when:

• User creates, modifies, or deletes any code file
• User says "implement", "add feature", "build", "refactor", "fix", "optimize"
• User requests code review or asks "is this correct?"
• User creates a pull request or prepares to commit
• Any file changes in the project
• User says "check skills", "validate code", "are we following standards?"

MANDATORY: Before ANY code operation, this skill MUST:

1. Check which skills are active (read .claude/skills/)
2. Read relevant skill files based on the operation
3. Validate the operation against skill rules
4. Block operations that violate skills

Core Rules

Rule 1: Skills Are The Law

Rule: ALL code MUST comply with active skills. Skills override personal preferences, Stack Overflow answers, and AI suggestions.

Rationale: Skills exist to prevent bugs, security holes, and inconsistencies. Ignoring them defeats the purpose of bootstrapping.

Correct ✅:

// Following typescript-standards skill
function getUser(id: string): Promise<User | null> {
  // Implementation follows error-handling skill
  try {
    return db.query('SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = $1', [id]);
  } catch (error) {
    throw new DatabaseError('Failed to fetch user', { userId: id, cause: error });
  }
}

Incorrect ❌:

// Violates multiple skills:
// - typescript-standards: using 'any'
// - error-handling: generic Error, no context
// - security-hardening: string interpolation in SQL
function getUser(id: any) {
  return db.query(`SELECT * FROM users WHERE id = ${id}`);
}

Rule 2: Read Skills Before Acting

Rule: Before modifying ANY code, read the relevant skill files.

Rationale: You can't enforce what you don't know. Skills change; assumptions kill.

Correct ✅:

User: "Add user authentication"
AI: "I'll implement authentication. First, let me check the relevant skills..."
AI: [Reads auth-patterns skill]
AI: [Reads security-hardening skill]
AI: [Reads typescript-standards skill]
AI: "Based on the skills, I'll implement JWT authentication with refresh tokens..."

Incorrect ❌:

User: "Add user authentication"
AI: "Here's the code: [implements without reading skills]"
// Result: Uses wrong auth pattern, violates security rules

Rule 3: Skill Drift Is Unacceptable

Rule: Code that diverges from skills must be refactored immediately.

Rationale: Small deviations compound into technical debt. Fix immediately while context is fresh.

Correct ✅:

AI: "I notice this function uses 'any' type, which violates the typescript-standards skill. 
     Let me refactor it to use proper types."
// Refactors on the spot

Incorrect ❌:

AI: "This uses 'any' but it works, so I'll leave it."
// Result: Technical debt accumulates

Rule 4: Validate Before Commit

Rule: No commit without skill validation.

Rationale: Commits are promises. Don't promise non-compliant code.

Correct ✅:

# Pre-commit validation
python scripts/validate_bootstrap.py .claude/skills/
python scripts/check_skill_compliance.py src/

Rule 5: Skills Evolve, Code Follows

Rule: When skills are updated, existing code must be updated to match.

Rationale: Skills represent the current best practice. Old code must be modernized.

Correct ✅:

Skill Update: "Now require explicit return types on all functions"
Action: Search codebase for functions without return types, add them

Skill Monitoring System

Active Skills Inventory

Maintain awareness of all active skills:

.claude/skills/
├── project-architecture/          [ACTIVE] Layer 0
├── typescript-standards/          [ACTIVE] Layer 1
├── git-workflow/                  [ACTIVE] Layer 1
├── security-hardening/            [ACTIVE] Layer 2
├── error-handling/                [ACTIVE] Layer 2
├── data-validation/               [ACTIVE] Layer 2
├── database-design/               [ACTIVE] Layer 3
├── api-design/                    [ACTIVE] Layer 3
├── auth-patterns/                 [ACTIVE] Layer 3
├── nextjs-patterns/               [ACTIVE] Layer 4
├── ui-engineering/                [ACTIVE] Layer 4
├── testing-strategy/              [ACTIVE] Layer 5
└── _bootstrap-manifest.json       [REFERENCE]

Skill Change Detection

Watch for skill modifications:

• File modification time changes
• Content hash changes
• New skill additions
• Skill deletions

When skills change:

1. Alert the team
2. Update skill inventory
3. Identify affected code
4. Schedule refactoring if needed

Code-Skill Compliance Validation

Validation Process

Before any code operation:

1. IDENTIFY: What skills apply to this operation?
   └── File type → language-standards
   └── API route → api-design + security-hardening
   └── Database → database-design + security-hardening
   └── UI component → ui-engineering + accessibility-standards

2. READ: Load relevant skill content
   └── SKILL.md (core rules)
   └── references/patterns.md (approved patterns)
   └── references/anti-patterns.md (forbidden patterns)

3. VALIDATE: Check compliance
   └── Does code follow core rules?
   └── Does code use approved patterns?
   └── Does code avoid anti-patterns?
   └── Are performance budgets respected?
   └── Are security requirements met?

4. ENFORCE: Block or fix violations
   └── Block: Violations that cannot be auto-fixed
   └── Fix: Auto-fixable violations
   └── Warn: Minor deviations

5. DOCUMENT: Record compliance check
   └── Log which skills were checked
   └── Note any violations found
   └── Track fixes applied

Per-File Validation

When a file is created or modified, validate against:

Developer Guidance

When Developer Says: "Implement X"

1. Pause: Don't write code yet
2. Identify: Which skills govern X?
3. Read: Load those skill files
4. Guide: Explain the skill-compliant approach
5. Implement: Write code following skills exactly
6. Validate: Run compliance check
7. Commit: Only when validation passes

Skill Violation Scenarios

Scenario 1: Developer Uses Deprecated Pattern

Dev: "I'll use getServerSideProps for this"
AI: "❌ STOP! Let me check the skills..."
AI: [Reads nextjs-patterns skill]
AI: "The skill explicitly deprecates getServerSideProps. 
     Use Server Components instead. Here's the compliant implementation:"
// Shows Server Component pattern from skill

Scenario 2: Developer Suggests Wrong Tech

Dev: "Let's add Joi for validation"
AI: "❌ STOP! Let me check the data-validation skill..."
AI: [Reads data-validation skill]
AI: "The skill specifies Zod as the validation library. 
     You cannot add Joi — it violates the consistency rule."
AI: "Use Zod instead. Here's the compliant pattern:"
// Shows Zod pattern from skill

Scenario 3: Developer Ignores Security

Dev: "I'll store the JWT in localStorage"
AI: "❌ CRITICAL VIOLATION!"
AI: [Reads security-hardening skill]
AI: "Storing JWT in localStorage is a CRITICAL anti-pattern (AP-001)."
AI: "The skill requires httpOnly cookies. This is non-negotiable."
AI: "Here's the compliant auth implementation:"
// Shows secure auth pattern

Scenario 4: Developer Writes Test Wrong

Dev: "Here's my test:"
// [Shows test mocking database]
AI: "❌ SKILL VIOLATION!"
AI: [Reads testing-strategy skill]
AI: "The testing-strategy skill says: 'NEVER mock the database'."
AI: "Use a test database instead. Here's the compliant pattern:"
// Shows test database pattern

Automated Enforcement Tools

Pre-Commit Hook (REQUIRED)

Install in .git/hooks/pre-commit:

#!/bin/bash
# Pre-commit hook for skill compliance

echo "🔍 Checking skill compliance..."

# Check skill files exist
if [ ! -d ".claude/skills" ]; then
    echo "❌ ERROR: .claude/skills/ directory missing!"
    echo "   Run: python scripts/validate_bootstrap.py"
    exit 1
fi

# Run skill validator
python scripts/validate_bootstrap.py .claude/skills/
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "❌ Skill validation failed!"
    exit 1
fi

# Run version checker
python scripts/version_checker.py .claude/skills/
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "❌ Version check failed!"
    exit 1
fi

# Run compliance check on staged files
python scripts/check_skill_compliance.py --staged
if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "❌ Skill compliance check failed!"
    echo "   Fix violations before committing."
    exit 1
fi

echo "✅ All skill checks passed!"
exit 0

CI/CD Integration

Add to .github/workflows/skills-check.yml:

name: Skill Compliance Check

on: [push, pull_request]

jobs:
  check-skills:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4
      
      - name: Check skills exist
        run: |
          if [ ! -d ".claude/skills" ]; then
            echo "❌ ERROR: Skills not bootstrapped!"
            exit 1
          fi
      
      - name: Validate skills
        run: python scripts/validate_bootstrap.py .claude/skills/
      
      - name: Check versions
        run: python scripts/version_checker.py .claude/skills/
      
      - name: Check compliance
        run: python scripts/check_skill_compliance.py src/

Compliance Reporting

Generate weekly compliance reports:

python scripts/generate_compliance_report.py --week

Output:

╔═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  SKILL COMPLIANCE REPORT — Week of 2026-03-09            ║
╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║  Total Files Analyzed:        127                        ║
║  Files Compliant:             118 (92.9%)                ║
║  Files with Violations:       9 (7.1%)                   ║
╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║  Violations by Skill:                                     ║
║    • typescript-standards:    5 (using 'any')            ║
║    • error-handling:          3 (generic Errors)         ║
║    • testing-strategy:        2 (wrong mock patterns)    ║
╠═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╣
║  Action Required:                                         ║
║  • Refactor src/auth/login.ts (2 violations)             ║
║  • Add types to src/utils/helpers.ts                     ║
║  • Fix tests in __tests__/api/                           ║
╚═══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

Skill Drift Detection

Weekly Skill Review

Every week, run:

# 1. Check if skills are up-to-date
python scripts/version_checker.py .claude/skills/

# 2. Identify skill gaps
python scripts/analyze_skill_coverage.py src/

# 3. Generate drift report
python scripts/generate_skill_drift_report.py

Drift Indicators

Watch for these signs of skill drift:

1. Pattern Pollution: New patterns appear that aren't in skills
2. Library Proliferation: New libraries added without skill approval
3. Style Inconsistency: Code style varies across files
4. Test Erosion: Tests skip or mock incorrectly
5. Security Gaps: New endpoints without proper validation
6. Performance Regression: Page load times increasing

Corrective Actions

When drift is detected:

Integration with Other Skills

Depends On

• project-architecture — Knows the project structure
• git-workflow — Enforces at commit time
• documentation-standards — Compliance must be documented

References

• All other skills — Validates against their rules

Shared Decisions

• Error codes: Uses same error format as error-handling skill
• Logging: Uses same format as observability skill
• Validation: Reports use same format as testing-strategy skill

Pre-Task Checklist

Before ANY development task:

• Read relevant skill files
• Understand applicable rules
• Know the anti-patterns to avoid
• Check for recent skill updates
• Validate plan against skills
• Ensure compliance tools are available

Anti-Patterns

🔴 CRITICAL: Ignoring Skills

What it looks like: Writing code without checking skills Why it's dangerous: Accumulates technical debt, introduces bugs, creates inconsistency What happens: Code review rejects, production incidents, refactoring sprints Fix: Always read skills first. No exceptions.

🔴 CRITICAL: Skill Shopping

What it looks like: Reading skills selectively to justify preferred approach Why it's dangerous: Violates the "skills are law" principle What happens: Inconsistent codebase, confusion about standards Fix: Accept skills as written. Challenge them in the skill file, not in code.

🟠 HIGH: Delayed Compliance

What it looks like: "I'll fix it later" Why it's dangerous: "Later" never comes. Debt compounds. What happens: Massive refactoring needed later Fix: Fix violations immediately.

🟠 HIGH: Partial Skill Reading

What it looks like: Skimming skills instead of thorough reading Why it's dangerous: Misses critical rules and nuances What happens: Subtle violations that are hard to catch Fix: Read skills thoroughly. Use find/search for specific topics.

🟡 MEDIUM: Skill Version Confusion

What it looks like: Using old skill version after update Why it's dangerous: Outdated practices persist What happens: Inconsistency between old and new code Fix: Check skill modification times. Review changelogs.

Error Scenarios

Edge Cases

Edge Case: Skill Contradiction

Scenario: Two skills give conflicting advice Handling:

1. Check skill layer (lower layer wins)
2. Check last modified date (newer wins)
3. If still conflict, escalate to project architect
4. Document resolution for future reference

Edge Case: Missing Skill for Domain

Scenario: Need to work in area with no skill coverage Handling:

1. Check skill-catalog.md for relevant domain
2. If exists, generate the skill first
3. If not exists, create custom skill following template
4. Never work without skill coverage

Edge Case: Skill vs. Library Conflict

Scenario: Library's best practice conflicts with skill Handling:

1. Skill wins — always
2. Document library limitation in skill
3. Create wrapper/adapter to enforce skill
4. Consider alternative library

Compliance Metrics

Track these KPIs:

Conclusion

This skill IS the project manager.

It doesn't just suggest — it enforces. It doesn't just guide — it governs.

Every code change, every file creation, every refactoring MUST go through this skill. The skills are the constitution of the project. This skill is the supreme court.

Remember:

• Skills are law
• Compliance is mandatory
• Drift is unacceptable
• Quality is non-negotiable

When in doubt, read the skills.