claude-engineering-plugin/docs/brainstorms/2026-03-27-ce-skill-prefix-rename-requirements.md

date, topic

date	topic
2026-03-27	ce-skill-prefix-rename

Consistent ce- Prefix for All Skills and Agents

Problem Frame

As the Claude Code plugin ecosystem grows, generic skill names like setup, plan, review, and frontend-design collide when users have multiple plugins installed. Typing /plan surfaces every plugin's plan skill, forcing users to scan descriptions. Agent names also collide across plugins — generic names like adversarial-reviewer or security-reviewer are common enough that multiple plugins could define them. The compound-engineering plugin currently uses an inconsistent mix: 8 core workflow skills have a ce: colon prefix, while 33 others have no prefix at all. Agents use verbose 3-segment references (compound-engineering:<category>:<agent-name>) that are cumbersome and can be simplified now that agents will have a unique ce- prefix. This creates collision risk, a confusing naming taxonomy, and unnecessarily verbose agent references.

Standardizing on a ce- hyphen prefix for all owned skills and agents eliminates collisions, creates a consistent namespace, simplifies agent references, and removes the colon character that requires filesystem sanitization on Windows.

Related: GitHub Issue #337

Requirements

When doing renames of files and folders, you are required to use git mv whenever possible for simplicity and explicit intent and history preservation. You can fallback provided you notify when it happens and why.

Naming Rules

• R1. All compound-engineering-owned skills and agents adopt a ce- hyphen prefix
• R2. Skills currently using ce: colon prefix change to ce- hyphen prefix (e.g., ce:plan -> ce-plan)
• R3. Skills and Agents currently without a prefix get ce- prepended (e.g., setup -> ce-setup, frontend-design -> ce-frontend-design, repo-research-analyst -> ce-repo-research-analyst)
• R4. git-* skills replace the git- prefix with ce- (e.g., git-commit -> ce-commit, git-worktree -> ce-worktree)
• R5. report-bug-ce normalizes to ce-report-bug (drops redundant suffix)

Exclusions

• R6. agent-browser and rclone are excluded (sourced from upstream, not our skills)
• R7. lfg and slfg are excluded from renaming (short memorable workflow entry points), but their internal skill invocations must be updated per R12

Propagation

• R8. The skill and agent frontmatter name: field must match after rename (no more colon-vs-hyphen divergence). Directories need to reflect the new names as well when applicable.
• R9. All cross-references updated: skill-to-skill invocations (/ce:plan -> /ce-plan), fully-qualified references (/compound-engineering:todo-resolve -> /compound-engineering:ce-todo-resolve), Skill("compound-engineering:...") programmatic invocations, prose mentions, skill description: frontmatter fields, and intra-skill path references (${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/<old-name>/...)
• R10. Active documentation updated: root README, plugin README, AGENTS.md. Note: the AGENTS.md "Why ce:?" rationale section (lines 53-60) needs a conceptual rewrite explaining the ce- convention, not just find-and-replace. Historical docs in docs/ (past brainstorms, plans, solutions) are left as-is -- they are records of past decisions.
• R11. Agent prompt files updated where they reference skill names.
• R11b. Skill prompt files updated where they reference Agent names.
• R11c. Agent references drop the compound-engineering: plugin prefix and keep the category. The agent name itself gets the ce- prefix. (e.g. compound-engineering:review:adversarial-reviewer -> review:ce-adversarial-reviewer)
• R12. lfg and slfg orchestration chains updated to use new skill names (lfg/slfg themselves are not renamed per R7, but their internal skill and agent invocations must reflect new names)
• R13. Converter infrastructure preserved: sanitizePathName() and colon-handling logic stays as future protection, not removed. Add a test assertion that no skill name: field contains a colon, so the sanitizer is defense-in-depth rather than a silent workaround.
• R17. Codex converter's isCanonicalCodexWorkflowSkill() and toCanonicalWorkflowSkillName() in src/converters/claude-to-codex.ts updated to match ce- prefix pattern (currently hardcodes ce: prefix check). Related test fixtures in tests/codex-converter.test.ts and tests/codex-writer.test.ts updated accordingly.

Testing

• R14. Path sanitization tests updated to reflect new naming (collision detection still works)
• R15. bun test passes after all changes
• R16. bun run release:validate passes after all changes
• R18. Converter test fixtures that hardcode ce:plan etc. updated to ce-plan where they test compound-engineering plugin behavior. Fixtures testing abstract colon-handling for other plugins may remain.
• R19. Sanity check and for every skill and agent name, grep to confirm new names are correct and old names do not persist except in historical planning, requirements, etc docs.

---

Complete Rename Map

Excluded (no change) - 4 skills

Current Name	Reason
agent-browser	External/upstream
rclone	External/upstream
lfg	Exception (memorable name)
slfg	Exception (memorable name)

ce: -> ce- (frontmatter only, dirs already match) - 8 skills

Current Name	New Name	Dir Rename?
ce:brainstorm	ce-brainstorm	No
ce:compound	ce-compound	No
ce:compound-refresh	ce-compound-refresh	No
ce:ideate	ce-ideate	No
ce:plan	ce-plan	No
ce:review	ce-review	No
ce:work	ce-work	No
ce:work-beta	ce-work-beta	No

git-* -> ce-* (replace prefix) - 4 skills

Current Name	New Name	Dir Rename
git-clean-gone-branches	ce-clean-gone-branches	git-clean-gone-branches/ -> ce-clean-gone-branches/
git-commit	ce-commit	git-commit/ -> ce-commit/
git-commit-push-pr	ce-commit-push-pr	git-commit-push-pr/ -> ce-commit-push-pr/
git-worktree	ce-worktree	git-worktree/ -> ce-worktree/

Special normalization - 1 skill

Current Name	New Name	Dir Rename
report-bug-ce	ce-report-bug	report-bug-ce/ -> ce-report-bug/

Standard prefix addition - 24 skills

Current Name	New Name	Dir Rename
agent-native-architecture	ce-agent-native-architecture	agent-native-architecture/ -> ce-agent-native-architecture/
agent-native-audit	ce-agent-native-audit	agent-native-audit/ -> ce-agent-native-audit/
andrew-kane-gem-writer	ce-andrew-kane-gem-writer	andrew-kane-gem-writer/ -> ce-andrew-kane-gem-writer/
changelog	ce-changelog	changelog/ -> ce-changelog/
claude-permissions-optimizer	ce-claude-permissions-optimizer	claude-permissions-optimizer/ -> ce-claude-permissions-optimizer/
deploy-docs	ce-deploy-docs	deploy-docs/ -> ce-deploy-docs/
dhh-rails-style	ce-dhh-rails-style	dhh-rails-style/ -> ce-dhh-rails-style/
document-review	ce-document-review	document-review/ -> ce-document-review/
dspy-ruby	ce-dspy-ruby	dspy-ruby/ -> ce-dspy-ruby/
every-style-editor	ce-every-style-editor	every-style-editor/ -> ce-every-style-editor/
feature-video	ce-feature-video	feature-video/ -> ce-feature-video/
frontend-design	ce-frontend-design	frontend-design/ -> ce-frontend-design/
gemini-imagegen	ce-gemini-imagegen	gemini-imagegen/ -> ce-gemini-imagegen/
onboarding	ce-onboarding	onboarding/ -> ce-onboarding/
orchestrating-swarms	ce-orchestrating-swarms	orchestrating-swarms/ -> ce-orchestrating-swarms/
proof	ce-proof	proof/ -> ce-proof/
reproduce-bug	ce-reproduce-bug	reproduce-bug/ -> ce-reproduce-bug/
resolve-pr-feedback	ce-resolve-pr-feedback	resolve-pr-feedback/ -> ce-resolve-pr-feedback/
setup	ce-setup	setup/ -> ce-setup/
test-browser	ce-test-browser	test-browser/ -> ce-test-browser/
test-xcode	ce-test-xcode	test-xcode/ -> ce-test-xcode/
todo-create	ce-todo-create	todo-create/ -> ce-todo-create/
todo-resolve	ce-todo-resolve	todo-resolve/ -> ce-todo-resolve/
todo-triage	ce-todo-triage	todo-triage/ -> ce-todo-triage/

Total: 37 skills renamed, 4 excluded (41 skills total)

Agent renames - 49 agents

All agents are renamed with ce- prefix within their existing category subdirs. The compound-engineering: plugin prefix is dropped from references, keeping the <category>:ce-<agent-name> format. Category subdirs are preserved for organization.

Current File	New File	Old Reference	New Reference
agents/design/design-implementation-reviewer.md	agents/design/ce-design-implementation-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:design:design-implementation-reviewer	design:ce-design-implementation-reviewer
agents/design/design-iterator.md	agents/design/ce-design-iterator.md	compound-engineering:design:design-iterator	design:ce-design-iterator
agents/design/figma-design-sync.md	agents/design/ce-figma-design-sync.md	compound-engineering:design:figma-design-sync	design:ce-figma-design-sync
agents/docs/ankane-readme-writer.md	agents/docs/ce-ankane-readme-writer.md	compound-engineering:docs:ankane-readme-writer	docs:ce-ankane-readme-writer
agents/document-review/adversarial-document-reviewer.md	agents/document-review/ce-adversarial-document-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:document-review:adversarial-document-reviewer	document-review:ce-adversarial-document-reviewer
agents/document-review/coherence-reviewer.md	agents/document-review/ce-coherence-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:document-review:coherence-reviewer	document-review:ce-coherence-reviewer
agents/document-review/design-lens-reviewer.md	agents/document-review/ce-design-lens-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:document-review:design-lens-reviewer	document-review:ce-design-lens-reviewer
agents/document-review/feasibility-reviewer.md	agents/document-review/ce-feasibility-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:document-review:feasibility-reviewer	document-review:ce-feasibility-reviewer
agents/document-review/product-lens-reviewer.md	agents/document-review/ce-product-lens-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:document-review:product-lens-reviewer	document-review:ce-product-lens-reviewer
agents/document-review/scope-guardian-reviewer.md	agents/document-review/ce-scope-guardian-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:document-review:scope-guardian-reviewer	document-review:ce-scope-guardian-reviewer
agents/document-review/security-lens-reviewer.md	agents/document-review/ce-security-lens-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:document-review:security-lens-reviewer	document-review:ce-security-lens-reviewer
agents/research/best-practices-researcher.md	agents/research/ce-best-practices-researcher.md	compound-engineering:research:best-practices-researcher	research:ce-best-practices-researcher
agents/research/framework-docs-researcher.md	agents/research/ce-framework-docs-researcher.md	compound-engineering:research:framework-docs-researcher	research:ce-framework-docs-researcher
agents/research/git-history-analyzer.md	agents/research/ce-git-history-analyzer.md	compound-engineering:research:git-history-analyzer	research:ce-git-history-analyzer
agents/research/issue-intelligence-analyst.md	agents/research/ce-issue-intelligence-analyst.md	compound-engineering:research:issue-intelligence-analyst	research:ce-issue-intelligence-analyst
agents/research/learnings-researcher.md	agents/research/ce-learnings-researcher.md	compound-engineering:research:learnings-researcher	research:ce-learnings-researcher
agents/research/repo-research-analyst.md	agents/research/ce-repo-research-analyst.md	compound-engineering:research:repo-research-analyst	research:ce-repo-research-analyst
agents/review/adversarial-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-adversarial-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:adversarial-reviewer	review:ce-adversarial-reviewer
agents/review/agent-native-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-agent-native-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:agent-native-reviewer	review:ce-agent-native-reviewer
agents/review/api-contract-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-api-contract-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:api-contract-reviewer	review:ce-api-contract-reviewer
agents/review/architecture-strategist.md	agents/review/ce-architecture-strategist.md	compound-engineering:review:architecture-strategist	review:ce-architecture-strategist
agents/review/cli-agent-readiness-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-cli-agent-readiness-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:cli-agent-readiness-reviewer	review:ce-cli-agent-readiness-reviewer
agents/review/cli-readiness-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-cli-readiness-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:cli-readiness-reviewer	review:ce-cli-readiness-reviewer
agents/review/code-simplicity-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-code-simplicity-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:code-simplicity-reviewer	review:ce-code-simplicity-reviewer
agents/review/correctness-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-correctness-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:correctness-reviewer	review:ce-correctness-reviewer
agents/review/data-integrity-guardian.md	agents/review/ce-data-integrity-guardian.md	compound-engineering:review:data-integrity-guardian	review:ce-data-integrity-guardian
agents/review/data-migration-expert.md	agents/review/ce-data-migration-expert.md	compound-engineering:review:data-migration-expert	review:ce-data-migration-expert
agents/review/data-migrations-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-data-migrations-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:data-migrations-reviewer	review:ce-data-migrations-reviewer
agents/review/deployment-verification-agent.md	agents/review/ce-deployment-verification-agent.md	compound-engineering:review:deployment-verification-agent	review:ce-deployment-verification-agent
agents/review/dhh-rails-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-dhh-rails-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:dhh-rails-reviewer	review:ce-dhh-rails-reviewer
agents/review/julik-frontend-races-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-julik-frontend-races-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:julik-frontend-races-reviewer	review:ce-julik-frontend-races-reviewer
agents/review/kieran-python-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-kieran-python-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:kieran-python-reviewer	review:ce-kieran-python-reviewer
agents/review/kieran-rails-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-kieran-rails-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:kieran-rails-reviewer	review:ce-kieran-rails-reviewer
agents/review/kieran-typescript-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-kieran-typescript-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:kieran-typescript-reviewer	review:ce-kieran-typescript-reviewer
agents/review/maintainability-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-maintainability-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:maintainability-reviewer	review:ce-maintainability-reviewer
agents/review/pattern-recognition-specialist.md	agents/review/ce-pattern-recognition-specialist.md	compound-engineering:review:pattern-recognition-specialist	review:ce-pattern-recognition-specialist
agents/review/performance-oracle.md	agents/review/ce-performance-oracle.md	compound-engineering:review:performance-oracle	review:ce-performance-oracle
agents/review/performance-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-performance-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:performance-reviewer	review:ce-performance-reviewer
agents/review/previous-comments-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-previous-comments-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:previous-comments-reviewer	review:ce-previous-comments-reviewer
agents/review/project-standards-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-project-standards-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:project-standards-reviewer	review:ce-project-standards-reviewer
agents/review/reliability-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-reliability-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:reliability-reviewer	review:ce-reliability-reviewer
agents/review/schema-drift-detector.md	agents/review/ce-schema-drift-detector.md	compound-engineering:review:schema-drift-detector	review:ce-schema-drift-detector
agents/review/security-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-security-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:security-reviewer	review:ce-security-reviewer
agents/review/security-sentinel.md	agents/review/ce-security-sentinel.md	compound-engineering:review:security-sentinel	review:ce-security-sentinel
agents/review/testing-reviewer.md	agents/review/ce-testing-reviewer.md	compound-engineering:review:testing-reviewer	review:ce-testing-reviewer
agents/workflow/bug-reproduction-validator.md	agents/workflow/ce-bug-reproduction-validator.md	compound-engineering:workflow:bug-reproduction-validator	workflow:ce-bug-reproduction-validator
agents/workflow/lint.md	agents/workflow/ce-lint.md	compound-engineering:workflow:lint	workflow:ce-lint
agents/workflow/pr-comment-resolver.md	agents/workflow/ce-pr-comment-resolver.md	compound-engineering:workflow:pr-comment-resolver	workflow:ce-pr-comment-resolver
agents/workflow/spec-flow-analyzer.md	agents/workflow/ce-spec-flow-analyzer.md	compound-engineering:workflow:spec-flow-analyzer	workflow:ce-spec-flow-analyzer

Total: 49 agents renamed in place (category subdirs preserved)

---

Success Criteria

• Every owned skill (except the 4 exclusions) has a ce- prefix in both directory name and frontmatter
• Every agent has a ce- prefix in filename and frontmatter within its category subdir
• All cross-references across skills, agents, docs, and orchestration chains use new names
• All 3-segment agent references (compound-engineering:<category>:<agent>) simplified to <category>:ce-<agent>
• bun test and bun run release:validate pass
• No colon characters remain in any skill name: field (though sanitization infra is preserved)
• Slash command invocations work with new names (e.g., /ce-plan)
• lfg and slfg orchestration chains reference new skill and agent names (R12)
• Grep sanity check confirms no old names persist in active code (R19)

Scope Boundaries

• Not removing sanitization infrastructure — sanitizePathName() stays as future protection for any colons
• Not adding backward-compatibility aliases — No alias mechanism exists; this is a clean break
• Not renaming external skills — agent-browser and rclone are upstream
• Not renaming lfg/slfg — Kept as memorable exceptions
• Historical docs are not updated — Past brainstorms, plans, and solutions in docs/ reference old names; this is expected and acceptable (they're historical records). R10 applies only to active docs (README, AGENTS.md), not historical docs.

Key Decisions

• Hyphen over colon: ce- not ce: — eliminates filesystem sanitization divergence and is more portable
• git- replaces prefix*: git-commit -> ce-commit rather than ce-git-commit — avoids verbose double-prefix
• report-bug-ce normalizes: Drops redundant -ce suffix -> ce-report-bug
• Agents renamed in place: Category subdirs preserved for organization. Agent files get ce- prefix within their category dir. 3-segment refs drop plugin prefix: compound-engineering:review:adversarial-reviewer -> review:ce-adversarial-reviewer.
• Major version bump: This is a breaking change; plugin version will bump the major version to signal it.
• Clean break, no aliases: Users learn new names immediately; the old names stop working
• Preserve sanitization: Keep colon-handling code even though no skills currently use colons — future-proofing
• git mv required: All renames use git mv for history preservation. Fallback only with notification.

Dependencies / Assumptions

• Skill directory renames via git mv preserve git history. Commit strategy (single vs multiple commits) deferred to planning.
• lfg/slfg reference other skills both by short name (/ce:plan) and fully-qualified (/compound-engineering:todo-resolve) — both patterns need updating
• README may contain stale skill references (e.g., /sync) — clean up during R10 documentation pass

Outstanding Questions

Deferred to Planning

• [Affects R9][Needs research] Exact inventory of every cross-reference in every SKILL.md, agent file, and doc that needs updating — planner should grep comprehensively
• [Affects R8][Technical] Should directory renames be done via git mv in a single commit or spread across multiple commits for reviewability?
• [Affects R14, R18][Technical] What specific test assertions reference skill names and need updating? Which test fixtures test compound-engineering behavior (should update) vs abstract colon-handling (may keep)?

Next Steps

-> /ce:plan for structured implementation planning (will itself be renamed to /ce-plan as part of this work)