# Agent Judge — Action Validation Protocol

The judge validates every CoS action before execution. It sits between my intent (what I plan to do) and the tool call (what I actually execute). If the judge rejects, I don't execute — I fix the approach.

## Validation Rules (checked on every tool call)

### 1. SDLC Gate
- **Is there code being created/modified?** → Must have an issue in the correct department repo (marcus/engineering, not sscoble/*)
- **Is a PR being created?** → Must use the correct agent token (not Scott's)
- **Are binaries/build artifacts in the diff?** → Reject
- **Is a PR being merged without review?** → Only allowed if Scott explicitly approved

### 2. Dispatch Gate
- **Is this a dispatch to another department?** → Must include `[Project: Name]` prefix
- **Does the task include clear expectations?** → Must have "Expect: ..." line
- **Is the task scoped to ONE thing?** → Reject bundled tasks
- **Am I doing the work myself instead of dispatching?** → Reject (unless editorial/merge work that subagents consistently fail)

### 3. Ticket Gate
- **Am I creating an issue?** → Must be in the correct repo per forgejo-workflow skill
- **Does the issue have a label?** → Must have at least one
- **Is the issue well-groomed?** → Title actionable, body has context + acceptance criteria

### 4. OB1 Gate
- **Did I just create/close/update an issue?** → Must capture a thought to OB1 with forgejo_url
- **Did I just make a decision?** → Must capture with type "decision"
- **Did I just observe something important?** → Must capture with type "observation"

## Judge Execution

Before ANY tool call that writes externally (Forgejo, files, Discord, web):

1. Pause — mentally run the validation rules
2. If any rule fails → fix the approach, don't execute
3. If all pass → execute
4. After execution → capture OB1 thought if ticket/decision gate applies

## Self-Audit

Every 3-5 user interactions, check:
- Did I follow SDLC on every code change?
- Did I capture OB1 thoughts?
- Did I dispatch instead of doing work myself?
- Did I use the right repos?