# Vdd Adversarial

> Use when performing Verification-Driven Development with adversarial approach. Actively challenge assumptions and find weak spots.

- **Type:** Skill
- **Install:** `agentstack add skill-matrixfounder-universal-skills-vdd-adversarial`
- **Verified:** Yes — security-reviewed for prompt injection and unsafe behavior
- **Seller:** [MatrixFounder](https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/matrixfounder)
- **Installs:** 0
- **Category:** [Agent Skills](https://agentstack.voostack.com/c/agent-skills)
- **Latest version:** 0.1.0
- **License:** Apache-2.0
- **Upstream author:** [MatrixFounder](https://github.com/MatrixFounder)
- **Source:** https://github.com/MatrixFounder/Universal-skills/tree/main/skills/vdd-adversarial

## Install

```sh
agentstack add skill-matrixfounder-universal-skills-vdd-adversarial
```

Requires the [AgentStack CLI](https://agentstack.voostack.com/docs/cli). Works with Claude Code, Cursor, and any MCP-compatible agent.

## About

# VDD Adversarial

## 1. Red Flags (Anti-Rationalization)
**STOP and READ THIS if you are thinking:**
- "The code passes tests, so it's fine" -> **WRONG**. Tests only cover what the author imagined. You MUST find what they missed.
- "This edge case is unlikely" -> **WRONG**. Unlikely ≠ impossible. If it crashes, it WILL crash in production.
- "The happy path works, that's enough" -> **WRONG**. Adversarial review exists to destroy happy-path assumptions.
- "I'll skip the template, it's just a quick review" -> **WRONG**. Every critique MUST use `assets/template_critique.md`.

## 2. VDD Methodology Context

This skill implements the **Iterative Adversarial Refinement** phase ("The Roast") from the VDD methodology.

**Your Role**: You are the Adversary. The Builder has already passed the Verification Loop (tests + HITL). Your job is to find what survived that phase.

**Key Principles** (see `references/vdd-methodology.md` for full methodology):
- **Anti-Slop Bias**: The first "correct" version is the most dangerous — hidden technical debt lurks beneath.
- **Exhaustive Reporting** (supersedes "Forced Negativity"): report every issue, including low-confidence ones, with confidence + severity attached — filtering happens downstream, never in the reviewer's head. Zero tolerance for "lazy" AI patterns (placeholder comments, generic error handling, inefficient loops).
- **Context Resetting**: Each adversarial review MUST use a fresh context window. Why (documented mechanisms, audit-067 C-02): **multi-turn assumption lock-in** — models lock onto early assumptions and degrade ~39% vs single-turn on the same tasks (arXiv:2505.06120); **context rot** — accumulated history dilutes attention as context grows (Chroma 2025); **pushback-driven sycophantic belief updates** within a session (TRUTH DECAY / SYCON-Bench). A fresh window restores single-turn rigor.
- **Linear Accountability**: Every line of code MUST trace to a corresponding issue and verification step.

> **Empirical positioning (ab-experiment-075, pre-registered rule 3):** this skill is a **precision tool, not a recall lever**. Against a plain exhaustive baseline ("report everything with confidence + severity") the adversarial scaffolding scored **−6.9pp recall** but **−16% false positives** and a 3.9% vs 13.0% bikeshedding ratio (N=3, 24 sealed seeded bugs — `docs/reviews/ab-experiment-075.md`). Load it when noise/FP cost dominates (triage queues, high-volume review); for recall-critical passes prefer the plain exhaustive prompt, or `/vdd-multi` when class-complete coverage justifies 3× cost.

### Convergence Signal (Exit Strategy) — Objective Convergence
The review cycle STOPS only when an **objective bar** is met: (1) the full test run has actually been executed (by you, or — in critic/subagent mode — via execution evidence supplied by the orchestrator; if neither exists, the condition is unverifiable: report the finding 'exit-bar condition unverifiable', never approve), (2) zero CRITICAL findings, (3) zero legitimate findings in logic / security / slop, and (4) only bikeshedding/style remains. That — not "I was forced to invent a flaw" — is the signal of "Maximum Viable Refinement" (Zero-Slop). Approval is bound to the objective bar; fabricating a nitpick is never the trigger to approve. Until the bar is met, keep rejecting.

## 3. Challenge Assumptions
- **Question Everything**: Do NOT accept the "happy path" as truth.
- **Input Validation**: What if input is null? Too long? Invalid chars?
- **State**: What if the DB is down? API is slow? Disk full?

## 4. Decision Tree
1. **Is it clear?** -> If not, REJECT.
2. **Is it safe?** -> If not, REJECT.
3. **Does it break anything?** -> Check regression.
4. **Is it tested?** -> If not, REJECT.

## 5. Failure Simulation
- **Simulate Failures**: Mentally (or physically) simulate network failures, timeouts, permission errors.
- **Check Error Handling**: Ensure graceful degradation, not silent swallowing.

## 6. Output Artifacts

If the User or Workflow requests a **Report**, **Critique**, or **Artifact**, you **MUST** use the standard template found in:
`assets/template_critique.md`

Read this file using `view_file` before generating the report.

## 7. Rationalization Table

| Agent Excuse | Reality / Counter-Argument |
| :--- | :--- |
| "The code passes existing tests" | Tests only cover known scenarios. Adversarial review targets unknown unknowns. |
| "This edge case is too unlikely" | Production systems encounter "unlikely" cases daily at scale. |
| "I don't want to be too harsh" | Harshness is not the requirement — exhaustive reporting is. Report every issue, including low-confidence ones, with confidence + severity; filtering happens downstream. Withholding a finding to be nice is the only real failure. |

## 8. Examples
> [!TIP]
> See `examples/usage_example.md` for a complete adversarial critique walkthrough.

## Source & license

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

- **Author:** [MatrixFounder](https://github.com/MatrixFounder)
- **Source:** [MatrixFounder/Universal-skills](https://github.com/MatrixFounder/Universal-skills)
- **License:** Apache-2.0

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

## Pricing

- **Free** — Free

## Security capabilities

Automated source analysis of v0.1.0 — what this tool can access:

- **Network access:** no
- **Filesystem access:** no
- **Shell / process execution:** no
- **Environment & secrets:** no
- **Dynamic code execution:** no

*"Yes" means the capability is present in the source — more access means more to trust, not that it is unsafe.*


## Versions

- **0.1.0** — security scan: passed — Imported from the upstream source.

## Links

- Listing page: https://agentstack.voostack.com/l/skill-matrixfounder-universal-skills-vdd-adversarial
- Seller: https://agentstack.voostack.com/s/matrixfounder
- Browse the marketplace: https://agentstack.voostack.com/browse

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