Quality Gates

This skill teaches agents how to assess task complexity, enforce quality gates, and prevent wasted work on incomplete or poorly-defined tasks.

Key Principle: Stop and clarify before proceeding with incomplete information. Better to ask questions than to waste cycles on the wrong solution.

Overview

Auto-Activate Triggers

• Receiving a new task assignment
• Starting a complex feature implementation
• Before allocating work in Squad mode
• When requirements seem unclear or incomplete
• After 3 failed attempts at the same task
• When blocked by dependencies

Manual Activation

• User asks for complexity assessment
• Planning a multi-step project
• Before committing to a timeline

Core Concepts

Complexity Scoring (1-5 Scale)

See: references/complexity-scoring.md for detailed examples and assessment formulas.

Blocking Thresholds

WARNING Conditions (proceed with caution):

• Level 3 complexity
• 1-2 unanswered questions
• 1-2 failed attempts

See: references/blocking-thresholds.md for escalation protocols and decision logic.

References

Complexity Scoring

See: references/complexity-scoring.md

Key topics covered:

• Detailed Level 1-5 characteristics and examples
• Quick assessment formula
• Assessment checklist

Blocking Thresholds & Escalation

See: references/blocking-thresholds.md

Key topics covered:

• BLOCKING vs WARNING conditions
• Escalation protocol and message templates
• Gate decision logic
• Attempt tracking

Quality Gate Workflows

See: references/workflows.md

Key topics covered:

• Pre-task gate validation workflow
• Stuck detection and escalation workflow
• Complexity breakdown workflow (Level 4-5)
• Requirements completeness check

Gate Patterns

See: references/gate-patterns.md

Key topics covered:

• Gate validation process templates
• Integration with context system
• Common pitfalls

LLM Quality Validation

See: references/llm-quality-validation.md

Key topics covered:

• LLM-as-judge patterns
• Quality aspects (relevance, depth, coherence, accuracy, completeness)
• Fail-open vs fail-closed strategies
• Graceful degradation patterns
• Triple-consumer artifact design

Quick Reference

Gate Decision Flow

1. Assess complexity (1-5)
2. Count critical questions unanswered
3. Check dependencies blocked
4. Check attempt count

if (questions > 3 || deps blocked || attempts >= 3) -> BLOCK
else if (complexity >= 4 && no plan) -> BLOCK
else if (complexity == 3 || questions 1-2) -> WARNING
else -> PASS

Gate Check Template

## Quality Gate: [Task Name]

**Complexity:** Level [1-5]
**Unanswered Critical Questions:** [Count]
**Blocked Dependencies:** [List or None]
**Failed Attempts:** [Count]

**Status:** PASS / WARNING / BLOCKED
**Can Proceed:** Yes / No

Escalation Template

## Escalation: Task Blocked

**Task:** [Description]
**Block Type:** [Critical Questions / Dependencies / Stuck / Evidence]
**Attempts:** [Count]

### What Was Tried
1. [Approach 1] - Failed: [Reason]
2. [Approach 2] - Failed: [Reason]

### Need Guidance On
- [Specific question]

**Recommendation:** [Suggested action]

Integration with Context System

// Add gate check to context
context.quality_gates = context.quality_gates || [];
context.quality_gates.push({
  task_id: taskId,
  timestamp: new Date().toISOString(),
  complexity_score: 3,
  gate_status: 'pass', // pass, warning, blocked
  critical_questions_count: 1,
  unanswered_questions: 1,
  dependencies_blocked: 0,
  attempt_count: 0,
  can_proceed: true
});

Integration with Evidence System

// Before marking task complete
const evidence = context.quality_evidence;
const hasPassingEvidence = (
  evidence?.tests?.exit_code === 0 ||
  evidence?.build?.exit_code === 0
);

if (!hasPassingEvidence) {
  return { gate_status: 'blocked', reason: 'no_passing_evidence' };
}

Common Pitfalls

Version History

v1.1.0 – Added LLM-as-judge quality validation, retry logic, graceful degradation, triple-consumer artifact design

v1.0.0 – Initial release with complexity scoring, blocking thresholds, stuck detection, requirements checks

Remember: Quality gates prevent wasted work. Better to ask questions upfront than to build the wrong solution. When in doubt, BLOCK and escalate.

Related Skills

• test-standards-enforcer – Enforce testing standards as part of quality gates
• llm-evaluation – LLM-as-judge patterns for quality validation
• golden-dataset-validation – Validate datasets meet quality thresholds

Key Decisions

Capability Details

complexity-scoring

Keywords: complexity, score, difficulty, estimate, sizing, 1-5 scale Solves: How complex is this task? Score task complexity on 1-5 scale, assess implementation difficulty

blocking-thresholds

Keywords: blocking, threshold, gate, stop, escalate, cannot proceed Solves: When should I block progress? >3 critical questions = BLOCK, Missing dependencies = BLOCK

critical-questions

Keywords: critical questions, unanswered, unknowns, clarify Solves: What are critical questions? Count unanswered, block if >3

stuck-detection

Keywords: stuck, failed attempts, retry, 3 attempts, escalate Solves: How do I detect when stuck? After 3 failed attempts, escalate

gate-validation

Keywords: validate, gate check, pass, fail, gate status Solves: How do I validate quality gates? Run pre-task gate validation

pre-task-gate-check

Keywords: pre-task, before starting, can proceed Solves: How do I check gates before starting? Assess complexity, identify blockers

complexity-breakdown

Keywords: breakdown, decompose, subtasks, split task Solves: How do I break down complex tasks? Split Level 4-5 into Level 1-3 subtasks

requirements-completeness

Keywords: requirements, incomplete, acceptance criteria Solves: Are requirements complete enough? Check functional/technical requirements

escalation-protocol

Keywords: escalate, ask user, need help, human guidance Solves: When and how to escalate? Escalate after 3 failed attempts

llm-as-judge

Keywords: llm as judge, g-eval, aspect scoring, quality validation Solves: How do I use LLM-as-judge? Evaluate relevance, depth, coherence with thresholds