Auto UX Improvements

Three usability improvements to /cauto based on the first real pipeline run (scanner-expansion, 2026-04-13): flexible phase entry, scoped commit consolidation, and a structured pipeline summary.

Flexible Phase Entry (R-001)

/cauto now accepts any active workflow phase, not just review/review-spec. Given the current phase, it computes the remaining pipeline steps using a fixed mapping:

Current Phase Remaining Steps
review / review-spec Full pipeline
tdd-tests / tdd-impl / tdd-qa Resume from /ctdd onward
done /simplify onward
verified /cupdate-arch (high+) onward
documented Consolidation + PR only

Phases spec and model are rejected – the spec must be reviewed first.

Artifact Validation (R-002)

Before skipping a completed phase, /cauto validates its artifacts exist:

  • ctdd: test suite passes (configurable timeout via commands.test_timeout)
  • cverify: verification report exists
  • simplify/cupdate-arch/cdocs: no validation needed (optional/advisory)

If validation fails twice consecutively, the phase is re-run rather than skipped indefinitely.

Scoped Commit Consolidation (R-003)

Between /cdocs and PR creation, /cauto runs a consolidation step that stages only known pipeline output paths (verification report, ARCHITECTURE.md, AGENT_CONTEXT.md, README.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, workflow history, feature docs). Unknown untracked files are never staged. A belt-and-suspenders guard unstages anything under .correctless/artifacts/.

Protected branch guard prevents pushes to main, master, develop, or release/*.

See TB-004c in .correctless/ARCHITECTURE.md for the trust boundary analysis.

Pipeline Summary (R-004)

After PR creation, /cauto prints a structured summary with three sections:

  1. Findings & Decisions – every QA finding, verification finding, review decision, and override with dispositions. Truncation at >20 severity-bearing items shows HIGH/CRITICAL + deferred inline, with a count-and-reference for the rest.

  2. Phase Breakdown – a table showing skill name, duration, token count, and result per pipeline step. Duration uses elapsed_ms from the audit trail. Token counts from the token-log JSONL.

  3. Artifacts – file paths for spec, verification report, QA findings, audit trail, and PR URL.

New Audit Trail Event (R-005)

artifact_validation_failed event type added (total: 8 event types). Includes phase, expected_artifact, and validation_error fields.

Spec Reference

Full spec: .correctless/specs/auto-ux-improvements.md (7 rules)