Shipping Methodology

Shipping Methodology

When to use this skill

Use this skill when you need to:

• Run the claudikins-kernel:ship command
• Prepare commit messages and PR descriptions
• Update changelogs and documentation
• Decide merge strategy (squash vs preserve)
• Handle CI failures or merge conflicts
• Validate code integrity before shipping

Core Philosophy

> "Ship with confidence, not hope." - Shipping philosophy

Shipping is the final gate. Apply GRFP-style iterative workflow to every stage.

The Five Principles

1. Gate check first - claudikins-kernel:verify must have passed. No exceptions.
2. Code integrity - Ship exactly what was verified. No sneaky changes.
3. GRFP everywhere - Section-by-section approval at every stage.
4. Human decides - No auto-merging. Human approves final merge.
5. Clean up after - Delete branches, update docs, celebrate.

The Five Stages

Stage 1: Pre-Ship Review

Show what's being shipped. Human confirms ready.

| Check | What to Show | | ------------------- | ----------------------------------------------- | | Verification status | All phases PASS from claudikins-kernel:verify | | Branches to merge | List all execute/task-\* branches | | Evidence summary | Screenshots, curl responses from catastrophiser | | Code delta | Lines added/removed, files changed |

Checkpoint:

Ready to ship?

Verified: ✓ All checks passed
Branches: 3 branches to merge
Changes: +450 / -120 lines

[Continue] [Back to Verify] [Abort]

Stage 2: Commit Strategy

Draft commit message(s). Human approves.

Decision:

How should we commit?

[Squash into single commit] [Preserve commit history]

Squash (recommended for features):

• Single clean commit on main
• Clear feature boundary
• Easier to revert if needed

Preserve (for large multi-part work):

• Keeps granular history
• Better for debugging
• Use for multi-feature batches

Checkpoint:

Commit message:

feat(auth): Add authentication middleware

- JWT token validation
- Role-based access control
- Session management

Closes #42

[Accept] [Revise] [Back]

Stage 3: Documentation (git-perfectionist)

Update README, CHANGELOG, version. GRFP-style.

git-perfectionist uses github-readme plugin:

1. Deep-dive on current docs
2. Identify gaps from changes
3. Pen-wielding for updates
4. Section-by-section approval

Files to update:

| File | What to Update | | ------------------------------------------ | ---------------------------------------- | | README.md | Features, usage, installation if changed | | CHANGELOG.md | Add entry in Keep a Changelog format | | package.json / Cargo.toml / pyproject.toml | Version bump if needed |

Checkpoint:

Documentation updates:

README.md:
- Added: Authentication section
- Updated: Installation (new deps)

CHANGELOG.md:
- Added: v1.2.0 entry

Version: 1.1.0 → 1.2.0 (minor)

[Accept] [Revise] [Skip]

Stage 4: PR Creation

Draft PR title and body. Section-by-section approval.

PR Title Pattern:

feat(scope): Short description

PR Body Structure:

## Summary

[2-3 bullet points of what changed]

## Changes

[Detailed breakdown]

## Testing

[How it was verified]

## Screenshots

[If applicable]

Checkpoint:

PR ready to create:

Title: feat(auth): Add authentication middleware

Body:
## Summary
- Added JWT token validation
- Implemented role-based access control
...

[Create PR] [Revise] [Back]

Stage 5: Final Merge

CI passes. Human approves. Merge and cleanup.

CI Status Check:

CI Status: ⏳ Running...

[Wait for CI] [View logs] [Merge anyway]

On CI pass:

CI Status: ✓ All checks passed

Ready to merge PR #42 to main?

[Merge] [Request review first] [Cancel]

After merge:

• Delete feature branches (unless --no-delete-branch)
• Update ship-state.json
• Celebrate

Final output:

Done! Shipped to main.

PR #42 merged ✓
Branches cleaned up ✓
Version: 1.1.0 → 1.2.0

Nice work!

Rationalizations to Resist

Agents under pressure find excuses. These are all violations:

| Excuse | Reality | | ------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | "Verify passed yesterday, close enough" | Stale verification = no verification. Re-run claudikins-kernel:verify. | | "Just a tiny fix after verify, no big deal" | Any change after verify invalidates it. Re-run claudikins-kernel:verify. | | "CI is flaky, I'll merge anyway" | Flaky CI hides real failures. Fix or explicitly skip with caveat. | | "It's just a typo, skip the PR" | All changes go through PR. No exceptions. | | "Both reviewers passed, auto-merge is fine" | Human approves final merge. Always. | | "I'll update the changelog later" | Changelog is part of shipping. Do it now. | | "Force push is fine, it's my branch" | Never force push to protected branches. Ever. | | "Skip docs, nobody reads them" | Docs are part of shipping. GRFP them. | | "The gate check is too strict" | The gate exists for a reason. Pass it properly. |

All of these mean: Follow the methodology. Shortcuts create incidents.

Red Flags — STOP and Reassess

If you're thinking any of these, you're about to violate the methodology:

• "Let me just push this one change..."
• "Verify is probably still valid"
• "CI will pass next time"
• "I'll do the PR properly next time"
• "Auto-merge saves time"
• "Docs can wait"
• "Force push will fix it"
• "The human already approved something similar"

All of these mean: STOP. Gate check exists. Human decides. Follow the stages.

Gate Check Pattern (CRITICAL)

The ship-init.sh hook enforces the claudikins-kernel:verify gate with code integrity validation.

Required Checks

# 1. Verify state exists
if [ ! -f "$VERIFY_STATE" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: claudikins-kernel:verify has not been run"
  exit 2
fi

# 2. Unlock flag is set
UNLOCK=$(jq -r '.unlock_ship // false' "$VERIFY_STATE")
if [ "$UNLOCK" != "true" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: claudikins-kernel:verify did not pass or was not approved"
  exit 2
fi

Code Integrity (C-5, C-7)

Ensure we ship exactly what was verified:

# C-5: Commit hash validation
VERIFY_COMMIT=$(jq -r '.verified_commit_sha' "$VERIFY_STATE")
CURRENT_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
if [ "$VERIFY_COMMIT" != "$CURRENT_COMMIT" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: Code changed since verification"
  exit 2
fi

# C-7: File manifest validation
VERIFIED_MANIFEST=$(jq -r '.verified_manifest' "$VERIFY_STATE")
CURRENT_MANIFEST=$(sha256sum "$MANIFEST_FILE" | cut -d' ' -f1)
if [ "$VERIFIED_MANIFEST" != "$CURRENT_MANIFEST" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: Source files changed after verification"
  exit 2
fi

If integrity check fails:

Code has changed since verification.

Verified commit: abc123
Current commit:  def456

[Re-run claudikins-kernel:verify] [Abort]

Commit Message Patterns

Feature

feat(scope): Short description

- Bullet point of what changed
- Another change

Closes #123

Bug Fix

fix(scope): Short description

Root cause: What was wrong
Fix: What we did

Fixes #456

Breaking Change

feat(scope)!: Short description

BREAKING CHANGE: What breaks and migration path

- Change 1
- Change 2

Chore (no user-facing change)

chore(scope): Short description

- Internal refactor
- Dependency update

See [commit-message-patterns.md](references/commit-message-patterns.md) for full guide.

CHANGELOG Format

Follow Keep a Changelog format:

## [Unreleased]

## [1.2.0] - 2026-01-17

### Added

- Authentication middleware with JWT support (#42)

### Changed

- Updated error messages for clarity

### Fixed

- Token refresh race condition (#38)

## [1.1.0] - 2026-01-10

...

See [changelog-merge-strategy.md](references/changelog-merge-strategy.md) for merging entries.

External Service Failures

GitHub API Failure (E-6, E-7, E-8)

PR creation failed.

Error: GitHub API returned 503

Retry 1/3...

Pattern: Max 3 retries with exponential backoff.

If persistent:

GitHub API unavailable after 3 retries.

[Try again] [Save as draft PR] [Manual merge]

Save state with pending_merge: true for recovery.

CI Failure

CI failed.

Failed checks:
- lint: 2 errors
- test: 1 failure

[View logs] [Fix and retry] [Skip CI] [Abort]

See [ci-failure-handling.md](references/ci-failure-handling.md) for recovery patterns.

Force Push Protection (S-23)

Never force push to protected branches.

# Check if target is protected
PROTECTED_BRANCHES="main master release"
if echo "$PROTECTED_BRANCHES" | grep -q "$TARGET"; then
  if [ "$FORCE" = "true" ]; then
    echo "ERROR: Cannot force push to $TARGET"
    exit 2
  fi
fi

See [force-push-protection.md](references/force-push-protection.md) for safeguards.

Breaking Change Detection (S-24)

Detect breaking changes before shipping:

| Signal | Indicates | | -------------------------- | -------------------- | | Removed public function | Breaking | | Changed function signature | Breaking | | Removed config option | Breaking | | Changed default behaviour | Potentially breaking |

If breaking change detected:

Breaking change detected!

- Removed: authenticate() function
- Changed: login() now requires email

This requires a MAJOR version bump.

[Acknowledge and continue] [Abort]

See [breaking-change-detection.md](references/breaking-change-detection.md) for detection patterns.

Anti-Patterns

Don't do these:

• Shipping without claudikins-kernel:verify passing
• Modifying code after verification
• Force pushing to main/master
• Auto-merging without human approval
• Skipping documentation updates
• Ignoring CI failures
• Using vague commit messages ("fix stuff")
• Forgetting to delete feature branches

State Tracking

ship-state.json

{
  "session_id": "ship-2026-01-17-1130",
  "verify_session_id": "verify-2026-01-17-1100",
  "target": "main",
  "phases": {
    "pre_ship_review": { "status": "APPROVED" },
    "commit_strategy": { "status": "APPROVED", "strategy": "squash" },
    "documentation": {
      "status": "APPROVED",
      "files_updated": ["README.md", "CHANGELOG.md"]
    },
    "pr_creation": { "status": "CREATED", "pr_number": 42 },
    "merge": { "status": "MERGED", "sha": "abc123" }
  },
  "cleanup": {
    "branches_deleted": ["execute/task-1-auth", "execute/task-2-routes"]
  },
  "shipped_at": "2026-01-17T11:46:00Z"
}

References

Full documentation in this skill's references/ folder:

• [commit-message-patterns.md](references/commit-message-patterns.md) - Full commit message guide
• [grfp-checklist.md](references/grfp-checklist.md) - GRFP integration checklist
• [pr-creation-strategy.md](references/pr-creation-strategy.md) - PR body templates
• [deployment-checklist.md](references/deployment-checklist.md) - Pre-deploy checks
• [gate-failure-recovery.md](references/gate-failure-recovery.md) - Recovering from gate failures (S-19)
• [ci-failure-handling.md](references/ci-failure-handling.md) - Handling CI pipeline failures (S-20)
• [message-generation-fallback.md](references/message-generation-fallback.md) - When commit message generation fails (S-21)
• [changelog-merge-strategy.md](references/changelog-merge-strategy.md) - Merging CHANGELOG entries (S-22)
• [force-push-protection.md](references/force-push-protection.md) - Preventing accidental force pushes (S-23)
• [breaking-change-detection.md](references/breaking-change-detection.md) - Detecting breaking changes (S-24)

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: elb-pr
• Source: elb-pr/claudikins-kernel
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.