approve

# Approve — the critic-before-commitment gate The **approve** gate, composed by `/spec critique` in `AGENTS.md § The Workflow` — the `approve|deny` decision point. It answers one question: *do the critic findings clear this spec to build, or must it go back to planning?* — and emits exactly one verdict the `/autopilot` runner routes on. **Core principle: gate the spec before anything is committed.** This embodies critic-before-commitment: the cheapest thing to revise is the spec itself, so the gate runs while ONLY local artifacts exist (`.oh/tasks/<slug>/prd.md`, `prd.json`, `critique.md`) — **before** the GitHub issue, branch, or PR. A `DENIED` is therefore fully reversible (`rm -rf .oh/tasks/<slug>/`); no GitHub-side state is created until after `APPROVED`. (Mirrors `/ship-spec` Stage 4, which encodes the same HALT gate inline; this node makes it a reusable decision.) This is the **decision** half of the pair. The `critique` node runs the critics and writes `critique.md`; `/approve` only *reads* that artifact and decides. It does not run the critics itself — if `critique.md` is absent, the gate cannot decide (see *Honest exits* below). --- ## Inputs | Arg | Meaning | |-----|---------| | `<slug>` | The task slug — locates `.oh/tasks/<slug>/critique.md` (the critic findings) and `.oh/tasks/<slug>/prd.md`. Required. | | `--auto` | Unattended mode (e.g. under `/autopilot`): never prompt a human; the SEVERITY auto-gate alone decides. Without it, a borderline finding may su...