Wolf Archetypes Skill

This skill provides Wolf's behavioral archetype system that automatically adapts agent behavior based on work type. The system includes 11 core archetypes and 4 overlay lenses, refined over 50+ phases of development.

When to Use This Skill

• REQUIRED at the start of any new work item
• When GitHub issue labels change
• For work type classification and prioritization
• When determining evidence requirements
• For applying specialized quality gates

The 11 Behavioral Archetypes

1. product-implementer

Triggers: feature, enhancement, user-story Priorities: Delivery speed, user value, completeness Evidence Required: Acceptance criteria met, tests pass, documentation updated Use When: Building new features or enhancing existing functionality

2. security-hardener

Triggers: security, auth, crypto, vulnerability Priorities: Threat reduction, defense-in-depth, least privilege Evidence Required: Threat model, security scan results, penetration test outcomes Use When: Security-sensitive work requiring specialized threat analysis

3. perf-optimizer

Triggers: perf, performance, optimization, slow Priorities: Latency reduction, throughput increase, resource efficiency Evidence Required: Baseline metrics, post-change metrics, performance budgets Use When: Performance work requiring measurement-driven approach

4. reliability-fixer

Triggers: bug, regression, hotfix, incident Priorities: Root cause analysis, prevention, stability Evidence Required: Root cause documented, tests prevent recurrence, monitoring added Use When: Bug fixes requiring systematic analysis and prevention

5. research-prototyper

Triggers: spike, research, explore, prototype Priorities: Learning, hypothesis validation, risk reduction Evidence Required: Findings documented, recommendations provided, risks identified Use When: Exploration work needing timeboxing and validation

6. repository-hygienist

Triggers: hygiene, cleanup, dependencies, gitignore Priorities: Maintainability, consistency, prevention Evidence Required: Before/after metrics, automation added, recurrence prevented Use When: Repository maintenance requiring systematic cleanup

7. accessibility-champion

Triggers: a11y, accessibility, wcag, inclusive-design Priorities: WCAG compliance, inclusive design, usability Evidence Required: WCAG audit results, screen reader validation, keyboard navigation tests Use When: Accessibility work requiring domain expertise

8. data-contract-steward

Triggers: schema, migration, api, contract, breaking-change Priorities: Backward compatibility, safe migration, version management Evidence Required: Migration plan, compatibility matrix, rollback procedure Use When: Contract changes requiring compatibility planning

9. platform-gardener

Triggers: infrastructure, ci-cd, build-system, platform Priorities: Developer productivity, system reliability, automation Evidence Required: Productivity metrics, uptime stats, automation coverage Use When: Platform work affecting team productivity

10. maintainability-refactorer

Triggers: refactor, tech-debt, code-quality, patterns Priorities: Code clarity, pattern consistency, future-proofing Evidence Required: Complexity reduction metrics, test coverage maintained, behavior unchanged Use When: Refactoring requiring discipline to avoid behavior changes

11. ai-assist-conductor

Triggers: ai-assist, prompt-engineering, model-coordination Priorities: Human oversight, validation, prompt optimization Evidence Required: Human review completed, outputs validated, prompts documented Use When: AI-assisted work requiring human validation

The 4 Overlay Lenses

Lenses can be applied on top of any archetype to add specialized requirements:

🎯 Performance Lens

Requirements:

• Measurement before and after changes
• Performance budgets defined
• Benchmarks documented

Evidence:

• Baseline metrics captured
• Post-change metrics validated
• p95 latency targets met

Apply When: Work impacts system performance or has latency requirements

🔒 Security Lens

Requirements:

• Threat modeling completed
• Security validation performed
• Defense-in-depth applied

Evidence:

• Threat analysis documented
• Security scan results clean
• Penetration test passed

Apply When: Work touches authentication, authorization, data protection, or crypto

♿ Accessibility Lens

Requirements:

• WCAG compliance checked
• Inclusive design principles followed
• Screen reader support verified

Evidence:

• WCAG audit results documented
• Keyboard navigation tested
• Screen reader validation completed

Apply When: Work involves UI/UX or user-facing features

📊 Observability Lens

Requirements:

• Logging implemented
• Metrics collected
• Distributed tracing enabled

Evidence:

• Log coverage adequate
• Metric dashboards created
• Trace examples provided

Apply When: Work involves distributed systems or debugging requirements

Archetype Selection Process

1. Primary Selection: Based on GitHub issue labels (first match wins)

   • Security labels → security-hardener
   • Performance labels → perf-optimizer
   • Bug labels → reliability-fixer
   • Feature labels → product-implementer (default)

2. File-Based Triggers: Secondary selection based on files modified

   • **/auth/** → security-hardener
   • **/benchmark/** → perf-optimizer
   • .github/workflows/** → platform-gardener

3. Confidence Overrides:

   • Low confidence (<5/10) → Force research-prototyper
   • High risk (multiple risk labels) → Upgrade to reliability-fixer

4. Lens Application: Stack lenses based on additional requirements

   • Can combine multiple lenses (e.g., security + performance)
   • Lenses add requirements, don't replace archetype

How to Use Archetypes

Automatic Selection

// Based on GitHub labels
const labels = ['feature', 'security', 'performance'];
const archetype = selectArchetype(labels);
// Returns: 'security-hardener' (security takes precedence)

Manual Override

// Force specific archetype for special cases
const archetype = forceArchetype('research-prototyper', 'Unknown territory');

With Lenses

// Apply multiple lenses to an archetype
const profile = {
  archetype: 'product-implementer',
  lenses: ['performance', 'accessibility']
};

Archetype Combinations

When multiple labels are present:

• Security + Performance: Primary = security-hardener, add performance evidence
• Bug + Performance: Primary = reliability-fixer, add performance checks
• Refactor + Features: Reject - should be separate PRs

Good/Bad Examples: Archetype Selection

Example 1: Feature Development

Sequential skill chain - DO NOT skip steps