---
name: Encode Invariant
slug: encode-invariant
category: Quality
description: Encode Invariant converts accepted repository rules into the smallest repository-native mechanical validation with positive and negative proof and precise enforcement-level reporting. Use it to enforce architecture, reliability, security, or quality boundaries and prevent documented violations from recurring.
github: "https://github.com/hoangnb24/repository-harness/tree/main/.agents/skills/encode-invariant"
language: Rust
stars: 1179
forks: 428
install: "npx degit https://github.com/hoangnb24/repository-harness/tree/main/.agents/skills/encode-invariant ~/.claude/skills/encode-invariant"
installs_to: ~/.claude/skills/encode-invariant
source_path: .agents/skills/encode-invariant/SKILL.md
collection_size: 5
category_size: 1354
collection_url: "https://dirskills.com/collections/hoangnb24/repository-harness"
added: 2026-08-20T07:55:46.219Z
last_synced: 2026-08-20T07:55:46.219Z
canonical_url: "https://dirskills.com/skills/encode-invariant"
---

# Encode Invariant

Encode Invariant converts accepted repository rules into the smallest repository-native mechanical validation with positive and negative proof and precise enforcement-level reporting. Use it to enforce architecture, reliability, security, or quality boundaries and prevent documented violations from recurring.

**Install:**

```bash
npx degit https://github.com/hoangnb24/repository-harness/tree/main/.agents/skills/encode-invariant ~/.claude/skills/encode-invariant
```

## README

# Encode Invariant

Turn an accepted rule into a focused guard without creating new product policy.

## 1. Read The Owners

Read applicable `AGENTS.md`, `docs/WORKFLOW.md`, and the complete
[encoding pattern](../../../docs/patterns/encoding-invariants.md). Locate the
repository's product or technical authority and its native validation owner.

## 2. Pass The Authority Gate

Cite the accepted source and restate the exact scope, allowed behavior,
forbidden behavior, and authorized exceptions. Stop before edits if authority
is absent or materially ambiguous.

Do not promote conventions, code patterns, tests, defaults, tool behavior, or
undocumented preferences into policy. An existing check without accepted
authority is a mismatch to report, not authority to expand.

## 3. Design The Smallest Guard

Reuse the repository's existing test, build, task, lint, scan, or validation
owner. Choose the lowest deterministic layer that sees the complete accepted
scope. Avoid a parallel framework or duplicated source of truth.

Make failures actionable: name the violating item, the broken rule, the
authority source, and a concrete compliant next action.

## 4. Implement And Prove

Implement only the authorized boundary. Add or run:

- positive proof showing a conforming case passes; and
- negative proof showing the targeted violation fails for the intended rule and
  diagnostic.

Use recoverable fixtures or test mutations for negative proof. Preserve
unrelated work and never leave a deliberate violation in product files.

## 5. Discover Enforcement Without Expanding It

Inspect the checked-in validation and CI paths. Do not install hooks, choose a
CI provider, change merge policy, or mutate external branch protection unless
the user separately authorizes that action.

Report each level independently:

- local validation command and observed result;
- optional hook availability, if any;
- CI invocation discovered or absent, plus observed run status only when
  verified; and
- branch-protection enforcement verified or unverified.

Source presence is not execution; CI presence is not a required check; a green
check is not proof of merge blocking.

## Handback

Return accepted authority, encoded scope, changed owner, actionable diagnostic,
positive and negative results, the four enforcement levels, and unresolved
risks or authority gaps.