necmttn/ax/ship-checklist

ship-checklist - every write needs a read path an agent can find

The recurring miss in ax: we ship the write + an on-demand CLI read, and skip the proactive / agent-facing read. A signal only visible on a manual CLI run is invisible to the self-improvement loop. ax's whole thesis is that agents discover and act on signals - so a new write is not done until an agent can find it without being told.

Organizing rule: every write needs (B) an on-demand read AND (C) a proactive read AND an agent-facing surface (MCP/skill). Most features do A+B and stop.

Run this before opening the PR. Skipping a row is fine - but say so in the PR and why, don't skip silently.

A. Write

• [ ] Schema in schema.surql + registered in SCHEMA_TABLES (CI mirror guard)
• [ ] Ingest idempotent + incremental (since-aware) + deref-free denormalization for reads (no record derefs inside aggregates - they hang prod)
• [ ] Backfill: does history get the signal, or only new data? Note "dark until re-ingest" if so
• [ ] Stage deps = every producer of the input table

B. Read - on-demand

• [ ] CLI: a command or a facet on an existing one (consistent family)
• [ ] --json envelope for scripting
• [ ] Dashboard/studio surface (if visual)

C. Read - proactive (the usually-missed half)

• [ ] MCP tool so an agent can query it in-context (apps/axctl/src/mcp/tools.ts)
• [ ] ax improve recommend generator - mint a proposal when the signal crosses a threshold (agent gets the suggestion unprompted)
• [ ] ax insights / dashboard next-actions wiring (if it implies an action)
• [ ] dojo agenda item (if the overnight loop should act on it)
• [ ] Skill: a cognitive pattern teaching an agent to act on the signal (e.g. the ln skill routes visual judgment to subagents off ax cost images)

D. Documentation

• [ ] CLAUDE.md command/section docs (there is a docs gate for new subcommands)
• [ ] llms.txt / site docs / README, if user-facing
• [ ] CHANGELOG + release notes (release-please)
• [ ] Spec in docs/superpowers/specs/ for non-trivial features

E. Onboarding / distribution

• [ ] Onboarding prompt (@ax/onboarding-prompt) - should a day-1 user/agent know it exists?
• [ ] Marketing coverage (site page / blog / X), if a user-facing capability
• [ ] /api/version capability flag, if relevant

F. Verify (evidence, not assertion)

• [ ] Tests: unit on pure helpers + schema-mirror guard + CLI command-list test
• [ ] Live-verified against the real DB - paste the actual output in the PR
• [ ] "Dark until data" honesty: state if it needs backfill/telemetry to light up

How to use

Create a TodoWrite item per relevant row, or paste the A-F headers into the PR body as a checked list. The point is the C section - if a new signal has no MCP tool, no improve generator, and no skill, an agent will never surface it on its own, and the feature is half-built no matter how clean the write is.