shared-failure-to-skill

Failure → Skill — stop the same problem from recurring

Overview

When the owner has to fix the same thing twice, the build has failed to learn. This skill turns every recurring failure into a durable skill/article plus a mechanical gate so the failure cannot happen again.

When to Use

• The owner says "this keeps happening", "I already fixed this", "same problem as last time", or expresses anger about repeated failures.
• A governor/audit report shows the same error class, collision type, or owner-restatement count recurring.
• You find yourself about to apply the same fix more than once.

Core Pattern

Verify failure exists → Fix root cause → Add mechanical gate → Write skill → Verify counts drop

1. Verify the failure with fresh evidence. Do not trust a summary that says "done". Run the governor, read the ledger, or reproduce the failure yourself.
2. Fix the root cause, not the symptom. One fix. If the fix touches shared files, claim them first.
3. Add a mechanical gate so the failure is blocked automatically:

• Code pattern failures → pre-commit check or protected-feature check.
• Owner-restatement failures → shared-rule-capture skill + governor detector.
• Write collisions → shared-write-law + FILE_CLAIM enforcement.
• Published garbage → cleanup script + check.

1. Write the skill that encodes the detection + fix + gate. The skill is the article. It must load automatically for every future agent.
2. Verify the failure count drops before declaring anything fixed. Evidence only.

Rules

• Do not ask permission to fix a failure. The owner asked you to fix it. Fix it.
• Do not bring new problems. A fix that creates a new failure mode is not a fix.
• A skill without a gate is half-done. Abstract advice does not stop recurrence; code does.
• Verify before declaring. Run the governor, run the checks, look at the ledger. Numbers must move.
• Capture the owner's meta-rules in the same turn. If the owner states a principle ("don't use my name", "convert failures to skills"), write a skill for it immediately.

Red Flags

• "I can just patch this now and document later."
• "The owner can approve the skill after I write it."
• "This is a one-time issue, no need for a skill."
• "The fix is obvious, I don't need to verify."
• Declaring work complete while checks still fail or counts haven't dropped.

Verify

Before saying a failure is fixed:

• The mechanical gate runs and blocks the failure mode.
• The skill is written and placed where all agents load it.
• Governor/ledger evidence shows the recurrence count dropped.