revert-on-extended-red

When stuck in red for >5 turns or >3 failed runs without progress, propose reverting the latest production-code edits to restore green and try a smaller step. Use to escape unproductive red sessions.

SKILL.md

GitHub

Revert on extended red

If the orchestrator has been in red for more than 5 turns OR more than 3 failed test runs without recovering to green, it has hit extended-red. At this point:

  1. Stop editing. More edits dig the hole deeper.
  2. Read the recent file_edits. Use turn_search({ type: "file_edit", since: "<phase-start>" }).
  3. Propose a revert. Identify the production-code edits made during this red phase and propose reverting them.
  4. Restart with a smaller step. Once green is restored, write a smaller failing test — one that asserts a less ambitious behavior — and try again.

The orchestrator records the revert decision in a hypothesis explaining why the original step was too large.

Rules

  1. Never delete tests. Reverts target production-code edits only.
  2. The revert is itself a TDD action: it requires a passing run to confirm green is restored.
  3. After reverting, decompose the goal further before retrying. The previous attempt failed because the target was too coarse.