Boundary Discipline

Portability (required)

This skill is part of the portable pstack pack.

1. Read the pstack capability contract and the adapter for the active coding agent before any helper delegation.
2. Prefer capability verbs (explore, implement, review, parallel, ask_user, verify, model_role) over vendor tool names.
3. Resolve models through model_role. Never require a vendor-specific model identifier.
4. When helper spawning is unavailable, run the work on the lead agent and state that fan-out was collapsed.

Place validation, type narrowing, and error handling at system boundaries. Trust internal code unconditionally. Business logic lives in pure functions; the shell is thin and mechanical.

Why: Scattered validation is noisy, redundant, and gives a false sense of safety. Validate data once at the boundary. Keep logic out of framework wiring so it can be tested without the framework.

The pattern:

• At boundaries (CLI args, config files, external APIs, network protocols): validate, return errors, handle defensively.
• Inside the system: typed data, error propagation, no re-validation. Trust the types.
• Across the boundary. Expose domain concepts, not the boundary's private representation. Keep general-purpose mechanism inside and special-purpose policy at the edge.