Constraint Skills Reference

In the OS model, constraint skills are drivers — loaded into kernel space via the skills: field. Source of truth lives in docs/drivers/.

All Drivers

Driver	Source	Activated
archon-code-quality	/drivers/code-quality	Every code change
archon-test-sync	/drivers/test-sync	Every code change
archon-async-loading	/drivers/async-loading	UI component edits
archon-error-handling	/drivers/error-handling	API/component edits
archon-handoff	/drivers/handoff	Cross-boundary changes

Quick Summary

archon-code-quality

File size limits, type safety, pure logic extraction, universal prohibitions.

Key prohibitions:

• ❌ any type — use real type or unknown
• ❌ Empty catch {} — at minimum log or rethrow
• ❌ Direct state mutation — return new objects
• ❌ Magic numbers/strings — extract to named constants

Full reference →

archon-test-sync

Tests must follow code changes. Structural scan tests for CI.

Key prohibitions:

• ❌ Changed signature without searching for .test. files
• ❌ Added .skip to a failing test
• ❌ Marked task complete while tests show FAIL

Full reference →

archon-async-loading

Skeleton screens, 3-state display, error retry, viewport lazy loading.

Key prohibitions:

• ❌ Single API failure crashes entire page
• ❌ Showing 0 while actually loading
• ❌ Firing all API calls on mount

Full reference →

archon-error-handling

Structured errors server-side, translated errors client-side.

Key prohibitions:

• ❌ Empty catch {}
• ❌ alert(error.message) — use toast
• ❌ Exposing internal details to client

Full reference →

archon-handoff

Interface contracts for cross-boundary work.

Key prohibitions:

• ❌ Changing API shape without updating handoff doc first
• ❌ Implementing without a handoff document
• ❌ Leaving open questions unresolved

Full reference →

Framework-Specific Drivers (Optional)

Deployed by /archon-init when a matching framework is detected. Templates in templates/constraints/.

Template	Framework	Covers
archon-nextjs-ssr	Next.js	Server Components, hydration safety, auth state patterns
archon-react-hydration	React, Next.js	State initialization, conditional rendering, mutation sequencing