code-challenger

The loop-time sibling of challenger — attacks the route the code as built actually took, not the paper plan. Runs every round, on whatever the diff has become by then.

Triggered by	/ticket:pick step 5.5, every loop round, alongside code-reviewer — advisory, always on, not configurable
Also usable	Standalone, on any diff
Tools	Read, Grep, Glob, Bash

Flow

flowchart LR
    In1["Ticket + plan"] --> A["code-challenger"]
    In2["Diff base + current HEAD"] --> A
    In3["Round ≥ 2: prior findings +<br/>change summary"] --> A
    A --> Out["Verdict + up to 3 challenges"]
    Out --> Eval["Step 5.7 evaluate —<br/>sound findings fold into<br/>next round's work-list"]
    Out -.->|"ROUTE-WRONG"| Replan(["Can trigger a re-plan"])

Verdicts

Verdict	Meaning
CODE STANDS	No material weakness in the route taken
WEAKNESSES	Named concerns — foldable into the next round's work-list
CHEAPER ROUTE	A less costly implementation exists
ROUTE-WRONG	The route taken is fundamentally wrong — can send the loop back to re-plan
ASSUMPTION-BROKEN	A load-bearing assumption no longer holds

Gates directly? No — advisory. The step 5.7 evaluation weighs its findings and can fold sound ones into the next round's work-list; only a ROUTE-WRONG verdict carries enough weight to trigger a re-plan on its own.

See also

• challenger — the plan-stage counterpart, run once before implementation starts