discipline: paved-path file and principle placement #7589

Parent

Refs #7555. Source: PLAN Phase 21, topic poteto-review. Thread: discipline and principles.

Depends on

• config-cascade: settings resolution and convention home #7571 Settings resolution and convention home
• marketplace: pstack recheck and listing budget #7588 This marketplace (pstack recheck before placing re-mapped principle parts)

Outcome

/discipline:reuse-or-replace owns the paved-path file that plan, implement and review read; pstack's
principles live as reasoned sentences in the phase-skill steps that apply them, with no principles
plugin.

Decisions

• /discipline:reuse-or-replace owns the paved-path file; plan, implement and review read it
  automatically (D59, Q21). Origin: ours.
• lever-check gains a codemod-first migration row; lever_scope default stays deterministic (Q15,
  Q28).
• pstack's 24 principles: 36 parts placed as reasoned sentences in the phase-skill step that applies
  them, fallback when discipline is off; no standalone principle skills, no principles plugin;
  disciplines plus the standards README are the index (D58, Q174, Q175). Origin: Lauren's
  principles, placed by ours.
• /discipline:wait-what body shortened only if an eval shows equal or better (Q542).
• K39 acceptance eval: a non-engineer's one-line ticket yields paved-path code (D59, Q29).
• Rejected: the architecture lens owning paved-path entries; standalone principle skills; Lauren's
  load-each-principle-and-name-it (needs the parked citation rule, Q178); sharpen as a playbook
  chapter.
• Research tags: K39 eval and dogfood run (Q29); wait-what cut with and without eval (Q542); pstack
  recheck re-maps pstack: restate four overspecified principles as reasoning, not rules cursor/plugins#633 principles (Q557).

Key interfaces

From the design's module layout: "discipline: /discipline:reuse-or-replace owns the paved-path
file; lever-check gains a codemod-first row; pstack principles placed in phase skills, no principles
plugin. sharpen deferred."

Slices, filed when this phase starts: paved-path-and-lever-check, principle-placement,
k39-and-wait-what-evals.

Done when

• The principle-parts script's output, attached to the placement slice, reports
  unplaced parts: 0.
• The K39 and wait-what eval slices each carry a Probe result: comment.
• Every slice sub-issue is closed by a merged PR.

Out of scope

• The sharpen skill and the name-the-principle rule (parked items).

Remainder (2026-11-03)

Agent choice, not an owner answer. The principle-parts check on #12155 deferred parts 4c, 4e and 4f of principle-encode-lessons-in-structure to #7573 and /corrections:gather, but #7573's body never names them, and #9161 folded gather into /corrections:codify's note and group actions without placing them. No other issue owns them, so they stay with this issue, whose done-when counts parts, and a deferral to an issue that does not own them is not a placement. Today the count threshold (default 2, plugins/corrections/skills/codify/SKILL.md:52-63) and the group action's hand-off to codify (plugins/corrections/skills/codify/actions/group.md:50-54) do the mechanics, but no step gives the reason in a sentence. Upstream later cut these three parts from the skill (cursor/plugins#571); the quotes below are from the version decision 58 mapped (cursor/plugins at 00b14f1df3), so this issue needs nothing outside the repository.

• Part 4c ("When you catch yourself writing the same instruction a second time") is a reasoned sentence in plugins/corrections/skills/codify/actions/note.md, Consent section: an agent that writes the same instruction or correction a second time appends a note, because a second occurrence shows a prose rule did not hold.
• Part 4e ("decide if it's a one-off or a pattern. Route it ... Close the loop: don't just record; apply now or create a concrete todo") is a reasoned sentence in plugins/corrections/skills/codify/SKILL.md, section 3 (Place the lesson by scope): a one-off stays a note row, a recurring mistake gets a check, a mistake that holds for every repository becomes a team standard, and recording a lesson is not the end: it ends in a proposed check, a placed rule or a filed work item, because a lesson that is only recorded is not acted on. Codify still proposes and never builds a rung.
• Part 4f ("Acknowledging without recording", "Recording without routing") is a reasoned sentence in plugins/corrections/skills/codify/actions/note.md, opening paragraph: a correction the agent only acknowledges is lost when the session ends, and a note that group never routes to /corrections:codify changes nothing.
• docs/upstream/cursor-pstack.md's principle-parts check lists 4c, 4e and 4f as placed, with their homes, and no longer names corrections: new plugin with /corrections:codify #7573 as their owner.