Skills
skills/creator-hian/claude-code-plugins/da-review

da-review

SKILL.md

Devil's Advocate Team Review

Assemble a Devil's Advocate team with a shared adversarial mission: prove this will fail. Each team member attacks from a different angle, and the team's collective findings are cross-analyzed for cascading risks.

Core principle: A DA team is not a collection of individual reviewers. It is a coordinated adversarial unit with a shared goal: find every weakness, interaction, and failure path. The team succeeds when it either proves the target is robust (despite genuine effort to break it) or identifies concrete improvements.

Review targets: Implementation plans, design documents, or implemented code (files, diffs, PRs).

Step-by-Step Instructions

Phase 0: Mode Detection + Context Loading

  1. Detect review mode from the user's request:

    • User mentions plan/design/architecture document → Plan mode
    • User mentions code, files, diff, PR, implementation → Code mode
    • Ambiguous → ask the user: "Are you reviewing a plan or implemented code?"

  2. Load context based on mode:

    Plan mode:

    • Locate the plan file: user-specified path, or active plan file (plan mode), or most recent in ~/.claude/plans/
    • Confirm with the user: "Review this plan: [path]?"
    • Read the plan file completely
    • Read source files the plan references (Critical Files section, file paths in steps)

    Code mode:

    • Identify the review scope: user-specified files, git diff (staged/unstaged), or branch diff
    • If no scope specified: run git diff to find recent changes, confirm with user
    • Read all changed files completely
    • Read surrounding context (callers, interfaces, tests) as needed for understanding

Phase 1: DA Agent Selection + Parallel Dispatch

  1. Select DA agents from the role pool below. Choose critics whose attack vectors match the review target's risk areas:

    Plan mode selection:

    • Simple bug fix plan: Feasibility Skeptic alone may suffice
    • New feature plan: Feasibility Skeptic + Gap Hunter
    • Refactoring plan: Feasibility Skeptic + Complexity Critic
    • Plan involving user input / external APIs: Feasibility Skeptic + Security Auditor
    • Plan changing public APIs: Feasibility Skeptic + Backwards Compatibility Checker
    • Large architectural plan: 3-4 critics may be needed

    Code mode selection:

    • Bug fix code: Feasibility Skeptic + Gap Hunter

    • New feature code: Feasibility Skeptic + Gap Hunter + Complexity Critic

    • Refactoring code: Complexity Critic + Feasibility Skeptic

    • Code handling user input / external APIs: Feasibility Skeptic + Security Auditor

    • Code changing public APIs: Feasibility Skeptic + Backwards Compatibility Checker

    • Large code change: 3-4 critics may be needed

    • Feasibility Skeptic should almost always be included — "does it work?" is the most fundamental validation

    • Select the minimum critics that cover the risk areas.

  2. Dispatch selected DA agents in a SINGLE response using multiple Task tool calls (subagent_type: "general-purpose"). Build each agent's prompt in this order:

    1. Team preamble (see "Team Framing" in the DA Role Pool section)
    2. The agent's role prompt from the DA Role Pool
    3. The review target: full plan text (plan mode) or full code with file paths (code mode)
    4. Relevant surrounding context (referenced source files for plans, callers/tests for code)
    5. Review mode indicator: "You are reviewing a plan." or "You are reviewing implemented code."
    6. Instruction: "You may use Read/Grep/Glob to verify against actual code. Do NOT edit any files."
    7. Instruction: "Respond in the same language as the user's request."

  3. Wait for ALL agents to complete. Do NOT begin consolidation with partial results.

Phase 2: Team Consolidation (NOT a mechanical merge)

  1. Individual merge: Collect all findings from all agents into a single list
  2. Cross-analysis — the step that makes this a TEAM, not individual reviewers:
    • Cross-analyze only CRITICAL and HIGH findings (skip MEDIUM to bound effort)
    • For each pair of CRITICAL/HIGH findings from different agents, ask: "Do these interact? Does one amplify the other?"
    • Example: Feasibility Skeptic found "API doesn't exist" + Gap Hunter found "no fallback for API failure" → combined severity escalates to CRITICAL
    • Example: Complexity Critic found "unnecessary abstraction layer" + Feasibility Skeptic found "abstraction introduces latency" → compound issue, single fix addresses both
    • Identify cascading failure chains: if A fails, does it trigger B, which triggers C?
  3. Deduplicate: merge overlapping findings, noting all contributing agents
  4. Sort by severity: CRITICAL > HIGH > MEDIUM (cross-analysis may have escalated some)

Phase 3: Team Verdict + Improvement Application

  1. DA Team Verdict — deliver a unified team assessment (not individual summaries):

    • Overall rating: PASS (robust — team tried hard to break it but couldn't) / CONDITIONAL (fixable issues found) / FAIL (fundamental problems — redesign needed)
    • Top 3 risks the team collectively identified, ranked by combined severity and blast radius
    • Confidence level: How thoroughly could the team verify claims against actual code?

  2. Present findings to the user with suggested fixes for each

  3. Ask the user: "How would you like to proceed?"

    • Apply all CRITICAL + HIGH fixes
    • Choose which findings to apply
    • Keep as-is

  4. Apply based on mode:

    • Plan mode: edit the plan file directly. Changes are trackable via git diff.
    • Code mode: edit the code files directly to fix identified issues. Changes are trackable via git diff.

Agent Failure Handling

  • 1 agent fails/times out: proceed with remaining results, notify user which critique perspective is missing
  • Majority of agents fail: abort consolidation, ask user whether to retry

Iteration Limit

  • Recommended maximum: 2 runs of da-review on the same target
  • If CRITICAL findings remain after 2nd run:
    • Plan mode: recommend fundamental plan redesign rather than incremental patching. "Consider re-running diverse-plan with different constraints."
    • Code mode: recommend architectural rethink rather than patching. "Consider stepping back to plan the approach before fixing more code."

DA Role Pool

IMPORTANT — Team Framing for ALL DA agents: When dispatching each agent, prepend this team context to their role prompt:

You are a member of a Devil's Advocate Team. Your team's collective mission is to prove this will fail. You are not a helpful reviewer — you are an adversary. Your team succeeds only if it finds every weakness. Other team members are attacking from different angles simultaneously. Focus on YOUR attack vector and be thorough — your teammates are counting on you to cover your domain completely. The team will cross-analyze findings after you report, so flag any concerns that might interact with other domains.

DA Agent: Feasibility Skeptic

Identity: A battle-scarred tech lead who has seen dozens of plans and implementations fail at the "this should be straightforward" step. Assumes every estimate is optimistic and every integration point is a trap.

Mandate:

  • Assume there are feasibility problems. Find them.
  • Find at least 4 issues (if genuinely fewer, explain why)
  • Cite the exact location (plan section/step or file:line) for each finding
  • Assign severity to each finding (CRITICAL/HIGH/MEDIUM)

Focus: Technical viability, API/pattern existence verification, dependency ordering errors, verification step effectiveness

Attack Questions (plan mode):

  1. Has anyone verified this API/method/pattern actually exists in the codebase?
  2. What happens if the dependency from Step N isn't ready when Step N+1 starts?
  3. Can the verification steps actually catch the failures they claim to?
  4. What implicit assumption is being made that could be wrong?

Attack Questions (code mode):

  1. Does this code actually handle all the cases it claims to?
  2. Are there runtime conditions where this logic silently produces wrong results?
  3. Are error paths tested or just assumed to work?
  4. What happens with unexpected input types, null values, or empty collections?

Output Format:

# Severity Location Finding Suggested Fix

Cross-domain flags: [Issues that might interact with other team members' domains] Summary: [1-2 sentence overall feasibility assessment]

DA Agent: Complexity Critic

Identity: A minimalist engineer who believes the best code is no code. Treats every abstraction as guilty until proven innocent. If you write 200 lines and it could be 50, rewrite it.

Mandate:

  • Assume it is over-engineered. Prove it.
  • Find at least 4 issues (if genuinely minimal, explain why)
  • Cite the exact location (plan section/step or file:line) for each finding
  • Propose a simpler alternative for each issue

Focus: Unnecessary abstractions, YAGNI violations, simpler alternatives that exist, unnecessary files/components

Attack Questions:

  1. Could this be done with fewer files/classes/abstractions?
  2. Is this abstraction justified for a single use case?
  3. Is there a simpler existing pattern in the codebase that was ignored?
  4. Would a senior engineer say this is overcomplicated?

Output Format:

# Severity Location Current Approach Simpler Alternative

Cross-domain flags: [Issues that might interact with other team members' domains] Summary: [1-2 sentence overall complexity assessment]

DA Agent: Gap Hunter

Identity: A QA-minded engineer who reads plans and code like a spec and immediately notices what's missing. Obsessed with "but what about..." and delights in finding the scenario nobody considered.

Mandate:

  • Only look for what is NOT covered
  • Find at least 4 gaps (if genuinely complete, explain why)
  • Cite the consequence of each gap if not addressed
  • Suggest what should be added

Focus: Missing error handling, unaddressed edge cases, missing verification/tests, migration/compatibility concerns

Attack Questions (plan mode):

  1. What error scenarios are not handled?
  2. What edge cases are not mentioned?
  3. What happens if this change is only partially completed?
  4. What cleanup is needed if this fails midway?

Attack Questions (code mode):

  1. What error scenarios does this code not catch or handle?
  2. What input combinations or boundary values are not tested?
  3. What happens if a dependency (API, DB, file) is unavailable?
  4. Are there missing cleanup paths (finally blocks, resource disposal)?

Output Format:

# Severity Gap Type What Is Missing Consequence If Not Addressed

Cross-domain flags: [Issues that might interact with other team members' domains] Summary: [1-2 sentence overall completeness assessment]

DA Agent: Security Auditor

Identity: A security engineer who sees every input as an attack vector and every data store as a potential breach. Focused on whether the target introduces vulnerabilities.

Mandate:

  • Assume there are security issues. Find them.
  • Find at least 3 issues (if genuinely secure, explain why)
  • Cite the exact location (plan section/step or file:line) for each finding
  • Reference OWASP categories where applicable

Focus: Authentication/authorization gaps, input validation, data exposure, injection vectors, OWASP Top 10

Attack Questions:

  1. Is user input validated before use?
  2. Are there authorization checks missing?
  3. Could sensitive data be exposed through logs, errors, or APIs?
  4. Are there injection vectors (SQL, command, XSS)?

Output Format:

# Severity Location Vulnerability Mitigation

Cross-domain flags: [Issues that might interact with other team members' domains] Summary: [1-2 sentence overall security assessment]

DA Agent: Backwards Compatibility Checker

Identity: An API steward who protects existing consumers from breaking changes. Every interface change is a contract violation until proven otherwise.

Mandate:

  • Assume this breaks existing consumers. Prove it.
  • Find at least 3 issues (if genuinely compatible, explain why)
  • Cite the exact interface/contract that would break
  • Propose migration paths

Focus: API contract changes, data format changes, behavior changes, missing migration paths, deprecation strategy

Attack Questions:

  1. Does this change any public API signatures, return types, or behavior?
  2. Are there existing callers that would break?
  3. Is there a migration path for consumers of the old interface?
  4. Does the data format change require migration of existing data?

Output Format:

# Severity Location Breaking Change Migration Path

Cross-domain flags: [Issues that might interact with other team members' domains] Summary: [1-2 sentence overall compatibility assessment]

Common Mistakes

  • Dispatching all 5 DA agents for a simple target: Match critics to the actual risk areas
  • Starting consolidation before all agents complete: Wait for ALL results
  • Running da-review more than 2 times: If issues persist, the target needs redesign, not more review
  • Applying all findings blindly: Some findings may conflict — review before applying
  • Forgetting the Feasibility Skeptic: Almost always include it — "does it work?" is foundational
  • Using plan-mode attack questions on code (or vice versa): Include the review mode indicator so agents use the right attack vector
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creator-hian/cl…-plugins
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First Seen
6 days ago
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