---
name: engineering-task-contract
description: "Turn a software request into a bounded task with acceptance examples, constraints, evidence, and stopping conditions. Use before implementation or a feasibility experiment; do not use as permission to execute or release work."
metadata:
  author: Vibe Haus
  version: "1.0"
---

# Engineering task contract

## Inputs
Read the user's requested outcome, applicable repository guidance, relevant current code, and existing authorization. Preserve decisions already made. Do not ask again for information available in those sources.

## Procedure
- Identify the user-visible behavior and the person or role accountable for accepting it.
- Inspect the relevant implementation before proposing file-level scope. Record the actual base revision when available; label missing evidence.
- Separate observed facts, assumptions, and unresolved decisions. For uncertain R&D, define a question, experiment, and decision artifact rather than promising production software.
- Write positive and negative acceptance examples. Include the relevant permission, data, failure, accessibility, or compatibility boundary; avoid unrelated checklists.
- Name excluded work, dependencies, and the smallest useful verification path. Describe evidence to capture, not checks claimed to have passed.
- Record the existing execution and release authority. This skill grants neither. Use the project's actual budget or agree one when essential; do not invent a binding commercial commitment.
- If a missing decision prevents safe implementation, present the concrete decision and continue only independent authorized work.

## Output
A concise contract containing: outcome; relevant revision and sources; acceptance examples; constraints; exclusions; unknowns; planned evidence; owner; and stop or escalation conditions. If the request is already precise, summarize the contract instead of creating unnecessary ceremony.

## Completion boundary
The contract is complete when another engineer can explain what success and failure would look like. Do not report implementation, tests, or release as completed merely because the plan exists.

## Reuse

You may use and adapt this original Vibe Haus template with attribution. Review it before installation and adapt it to your repository's actual policies.