Plugin Skills Reference

Plugin

Every command shipped with the Archcore plugin, with its outcome and flags. For grouped coverage with examples, see Skills. For the document types these commands produce, see Document types.

All four commands

Command	Outcome	Arguments and flags
/archcore:init	Make your repo legible to AI agents	--depth=light|standard|deep, --mode=small|medium|large, --domain=<slug>, --refresh
/archcore:plan	Turn a request into the document package it needs	[topic], plus an optional expert path: sdd, sources, iso, research, rnd, evidence, a route name, or a document type
/archcore:document	Record a decision or document what lives in code	[module, topic, or decision], plus an optional type: adr, rfc, spec, doc, guide, rule, research, evidence
/archcore:review	Check your changes and your docs against each other	--deep, --drift, and an optional path, tag, or scope

Path, route, and type names are positional, not flags. /archcore:plan iso payment gateway runs the ISO links directly.

/archcore:init depth budget

--depth sets the synthesis budget and is independent of --mode. Extraction runs at every depth.

Depth	Hotspot specs	Cross-cutting rules	Authored files	Relations
light	10% of the ranked pool, floor 3	Every candidate over the recurrence threshold	Linked	Basic
standard (default)	25% of the ranked pool, floor 4	Every candidate over the recurrence threshold	Linked	Basic
deep	60% of the ranked pool, floor 6	Every candidate over the recurrence threshold	Extracted and split; authored decisions become adr documents	Enriched, spec to rule and spec to spec

The spec budget is max(floor, round(rate × pool size)), clipped to the pool size, with no absolute maximum. It is a ceiling, not a quota: a 5-module pool yields at most 5 specs at deep. A 214-module pool budgets around 54 specs at standard, a 12-module pool budgets 4. Large mode adds a floor of one spec per selected domain and fills the rest by repo-wide rank; a --domain re-run applies the same formula to that domain’s narrowed pool.

Above 25 specs the preview carries a high-volume notice naming the spec count, the estimated tokens, and the cheaper depth. Nothing is written before the single confirm.

/archcore:plan routes

The skill computes a route from grounding before it creates anything, announces the route, then runs the instruments that route names. Naming an expert path skips the computation.

Computed values

Value	Values it can take
Δ (canon delta)	creates, modifies, retires (capability lists), decision, intent_gap
Π (gap profile)	machine, user, world, undecided, empirical
M (maturity)	pencil, stone
R (risk flags)	external-contract, data-migration, security-compliance, irreversibility, multi-team

Route table

Route	Fires when	Package	Base size
null	Every Δ list empty, no decision, no intent gap	Nothing	S
decision	Only a settled choice is delta	adr, or rfc for an open proposal	S
amendment	modifies names an existing capability	Code-wrong or spec-wrong verdict against that capability’s spec	S
capability	creates holds one capability	spec and plan, plus a prd when intent_gap exceeds that capability’s purpose	M
umbrella	creates holds two or more capabilities	Umbrella prd, one spec per capability, one plan	L

Additions and escalations apply on top of the matched route:

Condition	Effect
The delta introduces an operational procedure	Adds one guide
R carries data-migration	Adds a migration runbook guide
A decision or amendment implementation spans two or more tasks	Adds one plan
M is stone, or R is non-empty	Raises the size label one step; the announcement names the raising flag
R carries security-compliance	Escalates the flagged capability into the ISO links, and raises the size label one more step

Size labels run S, M, L, XL and cap at XL. They are derived, never asked.

Π engagement

Source	Action
machine	Compose from grounding with no question, citing the artifact
user	Interview within the question ceiling
world	Research instrument, producing a research or an rnd by the closing test
undecided	Decision instrument, producing an adr or rfc
empirical	Timeboxed spike, producing an rnd that holds Goal, Questions, and Findings only

Expert paths

Named	Path	Relations created
sdd	prd → spec (one per capability) → plan	spec implements prd, plan implements spec
sources	mrd → brd → urd	The three source documents are peers, related rather than implementing
iso	brs → strs → syrs → srs	brs implements mrd and brd, strs implements brs and urd, syrs implements strs, srs implements syrs
research	frame → gather → conclude, type fixed to research	research related the idea or prd it informs, when one exists; evidence supports or contradicts the investigation when gather files a material
rnd	frame → gather → conclude, type fixed to rnd	rnd related the idea or prd it informs, when one exists; rnd depends_on research when a territory map exists
evidence	gather only, filing one standalone material	supports or contradicts a local investigation when one is named; supersedes the local evidence it replaces; a standalone material may have none
A route name	null, decision, amendment, capability, or umbrella; Δ is still derived, and the name fixes only the route and the label	Per the route
A document type	The instrument that produces it, entered at its first gate	Per the instrument

Without a named type, a request that names a pending decision or a set of candidates produces an rnd; any other investigation produces a research. The research path produced an rnd before plugin v0.8.2. On a CLI older than v0.8.3 the path falls back to rnd and reports the required version.

Graph state no longer decides the package. Inside an engaged instrument, a gate whose topic an existing document covers still closes through skip_when.

/archcore:document tracks

Track	Input	Produces
Decision	A settled decision, a team standard, or a proposal	adr for a settled decision, rfc for an open proposal
Describe	A module, component, API, system, or technical topic	spec, doc, or guide, picked from the evidence
Research	A ready investigation report, or one external material, named by type	research for a report filed with document research; evidence for a material filed with document evidence

Decision cascade

After an ADR is recorded, /archcore:document offers one continuation. It creates nothing before you confirm.

Continuation	Flow	Relations created	Use when
Standard	adr → rule → guide, optionally + cpat	rule implements adr, guide related rule, cpat implements adr, rule related cpat	The decision describes enforceable behavior.
Architecture	adr → spec → plan	spec implements adr, plan implements spec	The decision changes a boundary contract.

The ADR alone is a valid endpoint. An rfc gets no cascade.

/archcore:review modes

Invocation	Mode	Returns
/archcore:review	Branch review (default)	Both directions of the branch diff against .archcore/, each finding verdicted spec-wrong, code-wrong, or ok.
/archcore:review	Project health	Fallback on the default branch or an empty diff: counts by category, status, and type, relation counts, orphans.
/archcore:review --drift	Staleness scan	Code drift, cascade drift, and temporal drift over the scope.
/archcore:review --deep	Full audit	Every document, plus coverage gaps, relation health, and consistency findings.
/archcore:review --deep tag:auth	Scoped audit	The same as --deep, narrowed to a tag, type, or path.

When reviewed changes repeat an undocumented pattern, review offers a cpat or task-type capture. It asks once, and a decline writes nothing.

Document types

The 21 document types have no dedicated slash commands. The commands above route to them. Call mcp__archcore__create_document directly when you need a specific type without a routing command.

Category	Types
Vision	prd, idea, plan, rnd, research, mrd, brd, urd, brs, strs, syrs, srs
Knowledge	adr, rfc, rule, guide, doc, spec, evidence
Experience	task-type, cpat

Full descriptions and required sections for each type: Document types.

See also

• Skills: full descriptions with examples for every command.
• Document types: required sections per type.