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Run the checks

Principles in play: Track records, Review against sources, Accept independently, Control transitions, Evaluate corrections.

One request runs the project’s checks together and reports, for each of the five principles, which commits have the action recorded and which are missing a record. The report makes gaps visible; it does not establish that every required action occurred.

  1. Ask for the checks and the stats.

    Say to your agent
    Run the workflow check, render the trace stats, and tell me what you found.

    Your agent writes workflow-check.json and then TRACE-STATS.md, even when a check failed.

  2. Ask what is missing.

    Say to your agent
    Which commits since the baseline have a missing record, and for which letter?

    Each commit reads recorded, missing, not applicable or unknown for each of the five principles.

  3. Keep the run.

    Say to your agent
    Add this check to the session’s trace record.

The workflow check on the example project, after one recorded and accepted unit of work:

The workflow check
pass portable test suite
pass installed skill parity
info skill handoff
pass trace records
pass registries
info review status
info defect ledger
info governing actions
pass build configuration
info shared folder
mechanical checks passed; 12 skipped, 0 warning(s)

pass is a mechanical check that passed; info is a count that never fails the run. TRACE-STATS.md sets the same results out as tables:

Check Result Recorded detail
portable test suite pass 1325 run, 0 failures, 0 errors, 12 skipped
installed skill parity pass 10 installed copies checked; 0 mismatched
trace records pass 1 records checked for mechanical integrity
registries pass 1 acceptances, 0 intake, 0 transitions rows valid
review status info 2 unreviewed; 0 reviewed by a model; 1 accepted by a person; 0 accepted by a delegated actor
defect ledger info 0 open; 0 fixed; 0 closed; 0 verified; 0 recurred; 0 unresolved
governing actions info 3 commits since baseline; 0 with a missing record
build configuration pass Configuration checked; PDF build not measured
skill handoff info 10 skills read; 0 state no handoff to the record; the text only, not whether one was followed
shared folder info not connected on this machine; next: ask the person where the team’s shared folder is, then run connect with that path

And for each of the five principles, how many commits have the action recorded:

Principle Recorded Missing Not applicable Unknown
Track records 1 0 2 0
Review against sources 0 0 3 0
Accept independently 1 0 2 0
Control transitions 0 0 3 0
Evaluate corrections 0 0 3 0
  • Missing blocks nothing. It is a state to report; only a mechanical failure or an execution error fails the run.
  • A pass supports only what it examines. It does not establish research validity, a PDF build or human acceptance.
  • Recorded means a record exists. It does not mean the check was adequate or the accepter independent. For a recorded review, the report also says whether its checks name their sources, only a criterion, or neither.
  • Unadmitted data is information. The report lists data files and snapshots that no admitting intake record names, and a returned or refused file found in the data anyway; it refuses none of them.
What the agent runs
Terminal window
python3 scripts/check_workflow.py --out workflow-check.json # the composed check
python3 scripts/trace_stats.py --report workflow-check.json \
--out TRACE-STATS.md # the readable report, even after a failure
python3 scripts/trace_report.py # the commits with a missing record
python3 scripts/trace_record.py procedure-version trace-check # the skill version for the check row

This page describes TRACE-OS 0.1.0-rc23, a release candidate prepared on 2026-10-15.