Ca Spike Agent Skill
Exploratory spike on a throwaway branch — answer a named question with disposable code. Never merges; exits to a findings note or $ca-feature.
Install
one command, takes just this skill from the repositorynpx skills add https://github.com/arbiterForge/codeArbiter --skill ca-spikeThe instruction itself
4 sections, as written by the author$ca-spike — exploratory spike
The sanctioned lane for "I need to write code to find out." Spike code is disposable by contract:
it never merges, never PRs, and never becomes the implementation. What survives a spike is the
*answer*, written down — the code is burned.
Flow
- Name the question — a spike without a falsifiable question is just freelancing. Restate
$ARGUMENTS as the question the spike answers and the timebox (default: one session). STOP for
the user's confirmation.
- Branch — create
spike/<slug>from the current branch. All spike work stays on it. - Explore — no
tdd, no plan, no review fleet. Two rules survive even here: no secret leaves
the approved store, and no irreversible operation (prod data, destructive migration) runs from a
spike.
- Exit — exactly one of:
- Answered → write the findings to
<project-root>/.codearbiter/spikes/<slug>.md
(the question, what was tried, the answer, what it implies), then delete the branch. If the
answer warrants building, hand the findings to $ca-feature — the spike file seeds
brainstorming; the spike code is reference material, never the implementation.
- Timebox expired, no answer → record that too (a dead end is a finding), delete the branch.
Hard gate
MUST NOT merge or PR a spike/* branch — its only exits are a findings file and deletion. MUST NOT
copy spike code into an implementation branch wholesale; implementation re-enters through
$ca-feature and tdd. Secret-handling and irreversibility rules hold even in a spike. Commits on
a spike/* branch are exempt from commit-gate — the exemption is safe precisely because nothing
on the branch can ever land.
When NOT to use
- You already know what to build →
$ca-feature. - Diagnosing a defect →
$ca-debug(investigation with a structured exit). - A question answerable by reading code or docs →
$ca-btw.
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How to use it
Take arbiterforge/ca-spike from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal
use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.
The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the
same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.