Preflight

Pre-work safety check. Catches the recurring friction modes documented in MEMORY.md — parallel-session auto-staging, daemon drift, and environment quirks — before they compound into a wasted hour.

When to use

• First turn after /clear or a fresh /eos-session-resume
• When git status shows files you didn't touch
• Before any release work (/eos-release-public, version bumps)
• When the user says "preflight" or invokes /preflight

Process

1. Git state

git status --short
git log --oneline -5

Flag anything surprising:

• Staged files Claude didn't touch this session → ask before staging more. Another session may be active.
• Commits with timestamps inside the last 30 min that you didn't make → parallel session evidence; warn explicitly.
• Detached HEAD or unexpected branch → halt, ask.

2. Daemon health

curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" http://localhost:9000/api/health
curl -s -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}\n" http://localhost:9001/api/health   # dogfood, may be disabled

• :9000 not responding → the user's main daemon is down. Surface; do NOT try to restart it (.claude/rules/daemon-handling.md).
• :9001 connection refused with dogfood-demo plugin enabled → note it, but don't act.

3. Context Bus integrity (only if .agent-bus/ exists)

python scripts/agent_bus.py ripple --dry-run

• Workspace not initialized ([-] Context Bus not initialized…) → skip; the bus is opt-in, fresh clones don't have one.
• No changes detected → bus in sync.
• Changes detected → surface to the user. Don't auto-ripple — they may have intentionally edited a native file and need to pull it back into .agent-bus/ first. Ripple is one-way (canonical → native); blind sync would clobber.

4. Environment quick-probe

Two stable Windows quirks documented in .claude/rules/environment.md:

• Console default cp1252 — handled by the PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8 hook in .claude/settings.json. If a recent session crashed on non-ASCII output, mention it.
• Python 3.13 wheels missing for g2p_en / espeak-ng — surfaces only if the user touches pronounce/voice work.

5. Static self-audit suite (scope-gated — only the scopes the session touches)

The graduated check-*.py / *_audit.py family runs through one runner, scripts/preflight.py (the runtime home in .claude/rules/self-audit-loops.md). Pick the scope(s) for what this session actually touches — don't run everything (the audits.md false-positive trap). Pure file I/O, no daemon.

python scripts/preflight.py --list            # see the registry (check → scope → gate)
python scripts/preflight.py --scope ui        # touching themes / shared frontend / app pages
python scripts/preflight.py --scope kb        # touching KB / engineering notes
python scripts/preflight.py --scope vault     # touching vault data
python scripts/preflight.py --scope ui,kb     # combine

• exit non-zero (a ✗ FAIL row) → a hard-gate check failed (personal-data / branding leak, WCAG AA contrast). Fix before proceeding — see .claude/rules/self-audit-loops.md + audits.md.
• · warn rows → advisory. Triage, don't reflex-fix. Notably: kb_link_audit flags [[slug]]-in-related: and "(to be created)" links that are intentional (the kb app strips []); only unmarked dangling body wikilinks are real.
• Heavy/live checks (check-clickable, ui_walk_audit — need the daemon/browser) are deliberately NOT in the static runner; run them at release time.

6. Report

Write one short paragraph back. Format:

Preflight:
  git: <clean | N staged files Claude didn't touch | parallel commits detected>
  bus: <in sync | OUT OF SYNC — ripple needed>
  :9000: <ok | DOWN — user needs to run restart.bat>
  :9001: <ok | refused — dogfood plugin off>
  audits: <not run | scope=<...> clean | N FAIL / M warn>
  anomalies: <none | bullet list>

If everything is clean, one line is enough: Preflight: clean. Ready.

What this skill is NOT

• Not a daemon restart. The user owns :9000 — see .claude/rules/daemon-handling.md.
• Not a test runner. Tests are downstream of preflight, run via pytest after work starts.
• Not a CLAUDE.md audit. Run /claude-md-management:claude-md-improver for that.