Shipping Methodology

What it does

When your agent uses it

• Running claudikins-kernel:ship
• Writing changelogs
• Deciding merge strategy
• Handling CI failures — enforces GRFP-style iterative approval

Example prompts

• “/shipping-methodology”

Requirements

• Pre-approved tools (allowed-tools): Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Edit, AskUserQuestion, Skill, mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__search_tools, mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__get_tool_schema, mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__execute_code

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

1. 1Pre-Ship Review
2. 2Commit Strategy
3. 3Documentation (git-perfectionist)
4. 4PR Creation
5. 5Final Merge

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 8b626a4. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves these tools, so the agent can use them without asking each time:

  • Read
  • Grep
  • Glob
  • Bash
  • Edit
  • AskUserQuestion
  • Skill
  • mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__search_tools
  • mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__get_tool_schema
  • mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__execute_code

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

  • jq
  • git

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md. Its commands use git, which can reach the network depending on how they are called.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Shipping Methodology loads about 3.2k tokens when it runs, and up to ~17k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 59 tokens; SKILL.md has 773 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~59

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~3.2k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~17k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

• NotePre-approves every shell command (allowed-tools: Bash)SKILL.md

  allowed-tools: Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Edit, AskUserQuestion, Skill, mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-exec

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from povvo/claudikins-kernel at commit 8b626a4, republished under its MIT licence (© povvo). 773 words, ~3,215 tokens.

name

shipping-methodology

description

Use when running claudikins-kernel:ship, preparing PRs, writing changelogs, deciding merge strategy, or handling CI failures — enforces GRFP-style iterative approval, code integrity validation, and human-gated merges

allowed-tools

Read, Grep, Glob, Bash, Edit, AskUserQuestion, Skill, mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__search_tools, mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__get_tool_schema, mcp__plugin_claudikins-tool-executor_tool-executor__execute_code

Ready to ship?

Verified: ✓ All checks passed
Branches: 3 branches to merge
Changes: +450 / -120 lines

[Continue] [Back to Verify] [Abort]

How should we commit?

[Squash into single commit] [Preserve commit history]

Commit message:

feat(auth): Add authentication middleware

- JWT token validation
- Role-based access control
- Session management

Closes #42

[Accept] [Revise] [Back]

Documentation updates:

README.md:
- Added: Authentication section
- Updated: Installation (new deps)

CHANGELOG.md:
- Added: v1.2.0 entry

Version: 1.1.0 → 1.2.0 (minor)

[Accept] [Revise] [Skip]

feat(scope): Short description

## Summary

[2-3 bullet points of what changed]

## Changes

[Detailed breakdown]

## Testing

[How it was verified]

## Screenshots

[If applicable]

PR ready to create:

Title: feat(auth): Add authentication middleware

Body:
## Summary
- Added JWT token validation
- Implemented role-based access control
...

[Create PR] [Revise] [Back]

CI Status: ⏳ Running...

[Wait for CI] [View logs] [Merge anyway]

CI Status: ✓ All checks passed

Ready to merge PR #42 to main?

[Merge] [Request review first] [Cancel]

Done! Shipped to main.

PR #42 merged ✓
Branches cleaned up ✓
Version: 1.1.0 → 1.2.0

Nice work!

# 1. Verify state exists
if [ ! -f "$VERIFY_STATE" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: claudikins-kernel:verify has not been run"
  exit 2
fi

# 2. Unlock flag is set
UNLOCK=$(jq -r '.unlock_ship // false' "$VERIFY_STATE")
if [ "$UNLOCK" != "true" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: claudikins-kernel:verify did not pass or was not approved"
  exit 2
fi

# C-5: Commit hash validation
VERIFY_COMMIT=$(jq -r '.verified_commit_sha' "$VERIFY_STATE")
CURRENT_COMMIT=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
if [ "$VERIFY_COMMIT" != "$CURRENT_COMMIT" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: Code changed since verification"
  exit 2
fi

# C-7: File manifest validation
VERIFIED_MANIFEST=$(jq -r '.verified_manifest' "$VERIFY_STATE")
CURRENT_MANIFEST=$(sha256sum "$MANIFEST_FILE" | cut -d' ' -f1)
if [ "$VERIFIED_MANIFEST" != "$CURRENT_MANIFEST" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: Source files changed after verification"
  exit 2
fi

Code has changed since verification.

Verified commit: abc123
Current commit:  def456

[Re-run claudikins-kernel:verify] [Abort]

feat(scope): Short description

- Bullet point of what changed
- Another change

Closes #123

fix(scope): Short description

Root cause: What was wrong
Fix: What we did

Fixes #456

feat(scope)!: Short description

BREAKING CHANGE: What breaks and migration path

- Change 1
- Change 2

chore(scope): Short description

- Internal refactor
- Dependency update

## [Unreleased]

## [1.2.0] - 2026-01-17

### Added

- Authentication middleware with JWT support (#42)

### Changed

- Updated error messages for clarity

### Fixed

- Token refresh race condition (#38)

## [1.1.0] - 2026-01-10

...

PR creation failed.

Error: GitHub API returned 503

Retry 1/3...

GitHub API unavailable after 3 retries.

[Try again] [Save as draft PR] [Manual merge]

CI failed.

Failed checks:
- lint: 2 errors
- test: 1 failure

[View logs] [Fix and retry] [Skip CI] [Abort]

# Check if target is protected
PROTECTED_BRANCHES="main master release"
if echo "$PROTECTED_BRANCHES" | grep -q "$TARGET"; then
  if [ "$FORCE" = "true" ]; then
    echo "ERROR: Cannot force push to $TARGET"
    exit 2
  fi
fi

Breaking change detected!

- Removed: authenticate() function
- Changed: login() now requires email

This requires a MAJOR version bump.

[Acknowledge and continue] [Abort]

{
  "session_id": "ship-2026-01-17-1130",
  "verify_session_id": "verify-2026-01-17-1100",
  "target": "main",
  "phases": {
    "pre_ship_review": { "status": "APPROVED" },
    "commit_strategy": { "status": "APPROVED", "strategy": "squash" },
    "documentation": {
      "status": "APPROVED",
      "files_updated": ["README.md", "CHANGELOG.md"]
    },
    "pr_creation": { "status": "CREATED", "pr_number": 42 },
    "merge": { "status": "MERGED", "sha": "abc123" }
  },
  "cleanup": {
    "branches_deleted": ["execute/task-1-auth", "execute/task-2-routes"]
  },
  "shipped_at": "2026-01-17T11:46:00Z"
}

© povvo, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 10 other files (references) in skills/shipping-methodology of povvo/claudikins-kernel.

• SKILL.md
• references/breaking-change-detection.md
• references/changelog-merge-strategy.md
• references/ci-failure-handling.md
• references/commit-message-patterns.md
• references/deployment-checklist.md
• references/force-push-protection.md
• references/gate-failure-recovery.md
• references/grfp-checklist.md
• references/message-generation-fallback.md
• references/pr-creation-strategy.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 8b626a4