July modernisation: commands, skills and migration

The July 2026 modernisation removed obsolete commands, cleared duplicate command definitions and simplified review and completion. If you are returning from an older GuardKit installation or video, use this page to translate that workflow.

Verified 17 October 2026 against GuardKit 23d99208. The tables distinguish implemented changes from accepted plans. They describe the interactive coding harness; the Software Factory has its own execution and delivery lifecycle.

Retired commands and what to use instead

The current distribution manifest records six retired command filenames. These commands are removed, rather than deprecated commands that still work.

Old command	Removed	Current guidance
/impact-analysis	2 July	Its Graphiti implementation was removed. Ask /task-review "Assess the impact of …" to review the actual repository and record findings. This is a review workflow, not a replacement graph-query API.
/system-overview	2 July	Read the repository's architecture and context documents; use /system-plan "…" for a focused architecture planning question. There is no same-name replacement command.
/task-refine	9 July	Re-run /task-work TASK-<id> with the requested changes, or use /task-review's [I]mplement flow for review findings. The claimed refinement_handler.py implementation never existed.
/figma-to-react	10 July	The stack-specific command was removed. The retirement decision points toward the orchestrator's design_url path; see the integration limit below.
/zeplin-to-maui	10 July	Removed with the same design-tool consolidation. There is no supported same-name replacement.
/mcp-zeplin	10 July	Removed; its documented Zeplin integration was not implemented.

Sources: memory-related retirements, architecture command rewrite, task-refine decision and design-tool retirement decision.

Design integration limit: the retirement decision does not establish a working /task-create design: → /task-work integration. Its non-goals explicitly say that command-level feature was not delivered by the retirement. The inspected design extractor also leaves its Figma and Zeplin MCP call methods as NotImplementedError. Treat design_url as the documented integration direction, not a ready-to-run substitute or a verified design-to-code demonstration.

For an existing task needing changes, the normal interactive route is:

/task-work TASK-<id>

For a review that should create its own durable record:

/task-review "Assess the validation changes and recommend any fixes" --mode=code-quality

Choose [I]mplement if you want the resulting findings turned into implementation work. Neither route needs /task-refine.

Changed, retained and still planned

Area	What is implemented in the inspected source
Review entry	/task-review "description" creates a TASK-REV-* record before reviewing. You can still pass an existing task ID. The preliminary /task-create step is optional.
Completion	/task-complete remains installed as a wrapper around guardkit task complete. The shared routine owns completion instead of each caller implementing its own file move.
Completion during work	/task-work … --complete opts into Phase 6. It is off by default; ordinary green work ends at IN_REVIEW. --pause preserves that checkpoint. AutoBuild mode and operator_handoff tasks do not use this automatic completion path.
Final retirement of /task-complete	Planned as the last consolidation phase; not implemented. Do not remove it from current command guidance.
Smaller command instructions	/task-work has core instructions plus phase/reference files. /task-review, /agent-validate and /template-create also have extended reference files loaded as needed. This is progressive disclosure, not retirement of those commands.
Architecture/design consolidation	The proposed reduction from five commands to at most three has not shipped: /arch-refine, /design-refine, /system-arch, /system-design and /system-plan remain in the manifest.
Template creation	/template-create remains. No /create-template-task command was added. The accepted simplification direction does not mean the checkpoint/resume agent bridge was removed; it remains in the inspected command.
Command distribution	Command content ships with the Python package. A manifest records provenance and retired names; the installer and doctor use it to detect drift and obsolete installed copies.
Memory	The July Graphiti removal moved the current memory surface to fleet-memory and guardkit memory commands. Old Graphiti setup instructions no longer describe the active backend.

Compare the July consolidation decision with the current task-work, task-review, task-complete and template-create definitions. The decision records intent; the installed files and runtime establish what shipped.

Why some skills disappeared or stopped appearing twice

On 8 July, GuardKit removed its own stale .claude/commands/ fork. Commands such as /task-work, /feature-spec and /context-switch still exist in the canonical installer/core/commands/ source. Removing their repository-local duplicates was not retirement of the commands themselves.

That cleanup also removed six never-canonical require-kit copies from GuardKit's repository: execute-tests, formalize-ears, gather-requirements, generate-bdd, task-work-specification and update-state. This is a GuardKit fork cleanup, not a claim that require-kit retired those capabilities. Fork disposition

The later Pi adapter generates /skill:<command> entries from the installed command definitions. It is a separate packaging mechanism, not evidence that July renamed every Claude command into a universal skill. See installed harness support.

Refresh an older installation

Inspect local customisations before refreshing: the installer recopies its managed command definitions, whereas init --update preserves and reports edited command files unless --force is explicitly requested.

1. Update the GuardKit source/package you intend to use. Follow the installation guide for the documented source snapshot and dependencies. init --update does not download a newer package.
2. From that GuardKit source checkout, re-run ./installer/scripts/install.sh. It prunes exact manifest-declared retired names from ~/.agentecflow/commands. For Pi, include --pi to regenerate the GuardKit-owned skill directory.
3. From your application repository, run guardkit-py doctor. For command files reported as stale, run guardkit init --update, then inspect the report again.
4. Check any independent project-local .claude/commands/ copies and custom skill wrappers. Remove confirmed obsolete GuardKit copies after reviewing local edits, then start a fresh coding-agent session.

Pruning has a boundary. The installer does not sweep every project's command directory. init --update refreshes tracked files but does not delete retired names. Doctor examines recognised command surfaces and can skip a project directory containing only retired or untracked files. An old command still appearing in your agent can therefore be a local shadow; it does not establish current support. Installer · Update implementation · Doctor

init --update is a later improvement, added in August. It is included here as current upgrade guidance, not as a July deliverable.

Use this in a presentation or team handover

Show three examples: /task-refine removed, /task-review made easier to start, and /task-complete retained while sharing its implementation. Then show the manifest and one installed command. The transferable lesson is that fewer entry points, versioned instructions and explicit migration support reduce ambiguity for both developers and agents. A design decision alone is not evidence that a migration finished.

Keep the timeline clear: the automatic Gherkin @task: tagging and executed-BDD oracle retirement happened in August, not as part of these July command removals. The current harness guide describes that later behaviour.