Slate AR Ship

Handle $ARGUMENTS.

Use this when the user wants Slate v2 AR work made reviewable or shippable. This is not a synonym for "commit everything" unless the user explicitly asks for a commit.

Contract

Load slate-ar and slate-ar-finalize.

Plain slate-ar-ship is the primary command. Do not make the user remember current-tree, review, or commit current-tree parameters for the normal flow.

Default no-arg path:

1. run slate-ar-finalize preview behavior first;
2. decide whether kept AR evidence or current-tree review is the honest unit;
3. if current-tree is the honest unit and dirty state blocks finalization, run the pre-commit review path instead of stopping at "dirty";
4. report the recommended review unit;
5. run proof gates when the user asked to ship, review, commit, or when dirty current-tree code needs pre-commit confidence;
6. run autoreview on the uncommitted current tree before any commit/PR when meaningful code changed;
7. pause with READY TO COMMIT only when proof/review is clean enough or explicitly blocked with accepted residual risk;
8. ask for commit approval in plain language. Do not ask the user to rerun the skill with parameters.

Plain slate-ar-ship is allowed to run non-mutating readiness work (finalize-preview, finalize-current-tree preview, focused gates, autoreview) because that is the point of ship readiness. It is not allowed to commit, branch, clean, push, or open a PR unless the user explicitly asks for that mutation.

Plain slate-ar-ship must keep the operator on the source branch, normally v2. It must not create autoresearch-review/* branches. Review branches are an opt-in expert action, not part of the default ship flow.

After a READY TO COMMIT pause, a short confirmation like "yes", "go", "commit", or "ok" is explicit approval to continue the same slate-ar-ship flow. Do not require parameters. That approval covers committing the reviewed current-tree work and rerunning current-tree readiness previews. It does not approve review-branch creation, push, PR, branch cleanup, or destructive cleanup.

Current Tree

Use current-tree finalization when:

• useful work was bundled, corrected, or reverted outside kept AR packets;
• the branch has many unkept commits that are intentionally part of the review;
• kept-packet finalization would hide the real review unit.

Do not pretend current-tree finalization is a commit. It is review-shape and evidence preparation.

For the default flow, "current-tree finalization" means finalize-current-tree --exclude-session-artifacts preview/readiness only. Do not run finalize-autoresearch.mjs <plan> unless the user explicitly asks to create review branches.

Pre-Commit Current-Tree Review

When current-tree finalization is the honest review unit but blocks on a dirty tree, do not tell the user to commit first and review later. That is backwards.

Run this pre-commit path:

1. keep the review unit as current-tree;
2. run the narrowest relevant slate-ar-gate proof when editor behavior, browser behavior, perf, or public package behavior changed;
3. run autoreview against the uncommitted .tmp/slate-v2 diff when non-trivial code changed;
4. fix accepted P0/P1 findings that are in scope, then rerun the focused proof;
5. only after review/proof is clean or blocked with accepted residual risk, print READY TO COMMIT and pause;
6. after confirmation, delegate commit mechanics to git-commit;
7. after commit, rerun slate-ar-finalize current-tree as a preview only so readiness sees a clean, exact HEAD.

slate-ar-ship commit current-tree is still valid, but it is not the preferred DX. Treat it the same as a post-pause commit confirmation.

Review And Commit

• Use autoreview as closeout for non-trivial code changes before committing, not after.
• Use focused gates from slate-ar-gate when editor behavior changed.
• Before committing, classify dirty files into review-unit files and AR session artifacts (autoresearch.*, autoresearch.research/**, dashboard exports, generated finalization scratch). Finalization excludes session artifacts by default.
• Delegate actual commit mechanics to git-commit after the user confirms.
• Commit the reviewed current-tree work. Do not include AR session artifacts unless the user explicitly asks to include session artifacts.
• If uncommitted session artifacts would keep the source branch dirty after the review-unit commit, stash them before rerunning current-tree finalization and report that stash. Do not delete them.
• Do not create autoresearch-review/* review branches after commit unless the user explicitly asks for review branches. A clean current-tree preview is enough for the default handoff.
• Push and PR still require explicit user approval after finalization.

Handoff

Report:

• recommended review unit;
• finalization warnings;
• gates and autoreview status;
• READY TO COMMIT when the next step is commit approval;
• after commit/readiness preview, whether push/PR approval is still needed;
• blockers or residual risks.