# Stage prompt audit and audition

## Audit

Inventory each system-role/context block, its origin, token estimate, and outcome evidence. Remove redundant or stale text before adding rules. Inspect retry feedback separately: only the latest failure belongs in the prompt.

## Candidate additions

- Project build manifests, configs, and entry files are normal in-scope setup when required by the authoritative intent.
- Resolve a necessary scope edge from the authoritative intent; do not spend turns re-deciding it.
- Read/observe before writing and verify before declaring completion.

## Audition harness

Run a fixed task and seed through baseline, trimmed, curated-rules, and reworded-scope variants. Record completion, gate pass rate, rejected/wasted tool rounds, retries, token budget use, and context truncation. Choose the smallest variant that improves the 12B results; structural gates remain preferred where a deterministic mechanism exists.
