Vertical Slice

Before you start: read this whole install prompt, tell me in a few lines what this skill does and what installing it involves, and wait for my go-ahead before you do anything else. Prerequisites — INTEGRATED SYSTEM FIRST: this skill is one piece of the complete "Claude Code Game Studios" template (49 agents, 74 skills, studio templates and a studio CLAUDE.md, per the repository README). Each skill assumes that template is installed, with its conventions, its project.yaml / project.local.yaml configuration, its .claude/docs/ mode documents, its hooks (for example hooks/yaml-helper.sh, outside this skill's folder) and its .claude/scripts/ helpers. Installing this listing alone copies only this skill's folder, without the rest of the system: the skill may reference template agents, files, hooks or scripts that are absent outside the full template, and it may not run as designed on its own. No account, no key and no payment are needed to copy the files, and nothing is run during installation. Install "Vertical Slice" for me. Installing this listing alone copies only this skill's folder, without the rest of the system: the skill may reference template agents, files, hooks or scripts that are absent outside the full template, and it may not run as designed on its own. The skill itself runs a pre-production validation: after the GDDs, architecture and UX specs, it defines a falsifiable validation question and a 3-5 minute slice scope with the user, plans the build, and then implements a real, near-production-quality playable build of one complete loop (start, challenge, resolution) in prototypes/[concept-name]-vertical-slice/, with every file headed 'VERTICAL SLICE - NOT FOR PRODUCTION'. Disclosed writes, each after asking: the session checkpoint at production/session-state/active.md (asked at plan confirmation, then updated at the end of each build day), the slice code files themselves (directory creation asked first), the report at prototypes/[concept-name]-vertical-slice/REPORT.md plus its row in prototypes/index.md, and, on PIVOT or KILL outcomes, a PIVOT-NOTE.md or an entry in prototypes/GRAVEYARD.md. The user runs the build and playtests it; the debrief verdict is PROCEED, PIVOT, KILL or NOT ASSESSED (an unplayed slice is never recorded as PROCEED, and PROCEED is unavailable when any validation answer is no). In full review mode it also spawns the template's creative-director agent through the Agent tool to run the CD-PLAYTEST gate from the template's .claude/docs/director-gates/ files. Hard constraints in the text: slice code is never refactored into production and production code never imports from prototypes/; its effort target is 1-3 weeks with a day-3 sunk-cost checkpoint; and a local slice cannot validate the feel of networked mechanics. It resolves review_mode, automation and workflow by running the template's hooks/yaml-helper.sh, outside this folder. Repository: https://github.com/Donchitos/Claude-Code-Game-Studios (the skill is the whole .claude/skills/vertical-slice/ folder at the pinned commit: 1 files in total) Pinned version: install the code at commit 05ad7c8a5b8aa2aa86bbd3439ae7cf7295cac418 exactly. Do not substitute a newer version. If this commit is unreachable, stop and tell me. 1. Clone https://github.com/Donchitos/Claude-Code-Game-Studios into a temporary folder, check out commit 05ad7c8a5b8aa2aa86bbd3439ae7cf7295cac418, and copy the .claude/skills/vertical-slice/ folder from that checkout. Then compare every file in the folder with the fingerprints recorded for this listing on 2026-10-22: [FINGERPRINTS] - SKILL.md: SHA-256 e7d48f49119cf1ea8c18b13a6cf5857e7d9e11bb91b8c76b12cc322103021aa5 If a file does not match, it changed since the listing was prepared: do not install it yet, tell me what you found and let me decide. 2. Read SKILL.md in full, and tell me in plain words: what the skill does when used, what it connects to, whether it reads or sends any personal information or credentials, and anything that seems unusual. Stop on any red flag and tell me before going further. Confirm these points from the files: - The skill folder holds 1 file only: SKILL.md. Nothing in the folder is a program; it is instructions the agent follows at use time (the code it later writes lives in the user's prototypes/ folder, not in this folder). - Nothing is sent anywhere during installation itself; the only download at install time is the skill folder from GitHub at the pinned commit, and no project of mine is built or modified. - Integrated-system reality, from the files: at use time the skill resolves configuration by running the template's hooks/yaml-helper.sh (outside this skill's folder, absent standalone), reads the template's CLAUDE.md, GDDs, architecture and control manifest, and in full review mode spawns the template's creative-director agent using gate files under .claude/docs/director-gates/. All local; no network service is named. - At use time it writes real build code and records, each after asking: the prototypes/[concept-name]-vertical-slice/ directory and its files, the session checkpoint production/session-state/active.md (then updated at each build day's end), REPORT.md and the prototypes/index.md row, and on PIVOT/KILL a PIVOT-NOTE.md or a GRAVEYARD.md entry. Slice code is never promoted into production. - Do not build anything, do not run any template hook or agent, and do not use the skill in any way during this install: using it is a separate step that only starts when I ask for it later. 3. When I say "yes, install", install it as a skill: copy the whole vertical-slice folder into the agent's skills directory, in a folder named exactly "vertical-slice", keeping its 1 files in their original relative layout (SKILL.md at its root). 4. Verify with no network calls: frontmatter valid (name: vertical-slice), the 1 files in place with matching fingerprints. Do not run anything from the folder and do not use the skill to verify. 5. Report what was installed, where, and what I still need to do myself (for example: that it belongs to the full Claude Code Game Studios template and may not run standalone, and what it does inside the template). GitHub is optional: if I have a GitHub account or the gh CLI, you may use it; otherwise public access is fine. Never require it unless it's in the prerequisites above. Rules: don't touch anything outside the temp folder and the install target. If anything looks off, stop and ask me.