The Codex session showed why the workload-driven mode is the wrong
default. Codex authored a spec under
``tenancy → regions → compartments → services`` (the documented
"workload-driven" mode), generated two .drawio files, and reported
success. The output was unusable: services rendered as colored
rectangles with text instead of OCI icon stencils, connector text
went into the edge value (forbidden by the connector-label rule),
and the spec validator never ran because it only fires on
``absolute_layout`` blocks.
Diego: "los drawio son horribles, por que sucede eso?".
Three persistent fixes:
1. SKILL.md option 2 now says ``absolute_layout`` is REQUIRED for
step 3, calls out workload-driven explicitly as forbidden, and
explains *why* (no stencils, no validator).
2. docs/skill/output-formats.md § Diagram modes is rewritten — mode
1 is ``absolute_layout`` (REQUIRED), mode 2 is workload-driven
(DEPRECATED, back-compat only). Removes the "two acceptable
shapes" framing that let Codex pick the wrong one.
3. ``oci_diagram_gen.py`` now prints a loud stderr WARNING when a
spec takes the workload-driven path, naming the procedure docs.
Catches any agent that skipped reading SKILL.md before generating.
Codex copy synced via ``make sync-skill``.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
A Codex session showed the gap: option 2's prose asked the user to
describe the architecture but only mentioned the output formats in
passing ("if you want X / if you want Y"), so the agent never asked
which format(s). Codex also skipped the reference-architecture lookup
and went straight to grepping ``examples/`` for pre-existing specs —
``examples/`` is previous user output, not the authoritative Oracle
catalog.
Two persistent fixes for any agent (Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, …):
1. Option 2 now asks two explicit questions in one message and waits
for both answers before doing anything: (1) describe / paste spec,
(2) pick output format(s) — drawio, native PPTX, or both.
2. The procedure is restated as a numbered list directly under
option 2 (no longer a single-sentence reference to
docs/skill/output-formats.md). Step 1 explicitly says use
``archcenter_pattern_lookup.py`` against the catalog and explicitly
forbids using ``examples/`` as a reference source.
Synced to the Codex copy at .agents/skills/oci-deal-accelerator/SKILL.md
via ``make sync-skill`` so both agents see the same instructions.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
The diagram path now follows a documented standard procedure (lookup
the closest Oracle Architecture Center reference → confirm components
→ author absolute_layout → spec validator → render → visually verify)
and ships persistent guardrails so layout regressions can't recur.
Persistent procedure changes (apply to all users, all sessions):
- tools/diagram_spec_validator.py — geometry checks (CONTAINER_TOO_THIN,
CONTAINER_PADDING_VIOLATION, LABEL_OVERFLOW_PARENT) run BEFORE either
renderer (drawio + PPTX). Catches the subnet-collapse / label-overflow
bugs that the post-render drawio validator missed.
- tools/oci_diagram_gen.py + tools/oci_pptx_diagram_gen.py — call the
spec validator before emitting any output. Adds mysql / mysql_heatwave
type aliases.
- tools/archcenter_pattern_lookup.py — scores against cached page
descriptions (not just the 1-line summary), supports --queries for
multi-fragment composition, and applies synonym expansion via
kb/architecture-center/synonyms.yaml so "LB HA cross AD" matches
"load balancer high availability availability domain".
- kb/architecture-center/synonyms.yaml — canonical synonym table
(load balancer, autonomous database, data guard, …) used by the
lookup scorer.
KB enrichment:
- tools/archcenter_description_fetcher.py + 121 cached _description.md
under kb/diagram/assets/archcenter-refs/<slug>/. Removes the runtime
dependency on docs.oracle.com when authoring specs and feeds the
pattern-lookup scorer.
- 110+ cached .drawio / .svg / .png references for offline reuse,
plus the OCI Toolkit v24.2 import (kb/diagram/assets/oci-toolkit-drawio).
Documentation:
- docs/skill/output-formats.md — new "Standard diagram-generation
procedure (MANDATORY)" + geometry rules + the new validator entry.
- SKILL.md option 2 — references the mandatory procedure.
- README.md — describes the spec validator, archcenter_pattern_lookup
and description fetcher, and updates the KB-health table.
Tooling that backs the procedure (cumulative across recent sessions):
tools/archcenter_case_runner.py, archcenter_batch_driver.py,
archcenter_zip_downloader.py, drawio_visual_validator.py,
drawio_fidelity_eval.py, harvest_drawio_icon.py, import_oci_library.py,
oci_pptx_diagram_gen.py, oci_pptx_render.py, refresh_pptx_icon_index.py.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Codex sessions burn 10+ tool calls grepping kb/field-knowledge and the SKU
catalog to map standard requirements (ExaCS X11M BYOL, ADB-D, ADB-S + block
+ FastConnect) to the 4-5 SKUs the MCP BOM tools need. Bake the recipes
into docs/bom-cookbook.md so the LLM can skip the exploration loop for
well-known patterns, and link it from SKILL.md between Output Generation
and Knowledge Base (same progressive-disclosure pattern the other docs use).
Recipe 2 (ADB-Dedicated) explicitly calls out the infra-SKU overlap with
ExaCS — one of the specific traps the exploration loop keeps hitting.
Catalog-fallback note keeps the cookbook honest when a requirement does
not match.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.7 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Codex users hit `python: command not found` on the welcome-flow
pre-flight because SKILL.md called `python tools/kb_freshness.py`
directly. Any hardcoded version (python/python3/python3.12) breaks
for somebody — users have 3.8, 3.10, 3.11, 3.12 in the wild.
Fix: channel all skill-initiated Python calls through `make` targets
so the Makefile's single $(PYTHON) variable (auto-detected venv >
3.12 > 3.11 > 3.10 > python3) is the only place Python resolution
lives.
- Makefile: add `kb-check` target emitting JSON for the skill pre-flight
- SKILL.md + .agents/skills/.../SKILL.md: call `make kb-check` and
`make freshness-refresh` instead of bare `python tools/...`
- CLAUDE.md: same fix in the Welcome Flow instructions
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Fixes two issues: (1) diagrams adding unrequested components (EBS, WAF, Vault,
Monitoring, etc.) by replacing vague "implied dependencies" with a closed
whitelist of 6 technical dependencies and making pre-generation review mandatory
with 3 sections (REQUESTED/TECHNICAL/OPTIONAL). (2) Unstructured data consumption
by adding mandatory Extraction Receipt (CONFIRMED/INFERRED/MISSING), source
tracking in workload profiles, and completeness gate per engagement tier.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Why this set of changes:
- KB pricing was drifting silently — domain files (database.yaml,
storage.yaml, etc.) had prices 30-800% off the live Oracle API and
nobody read them. The skill was auditing as stale on every check
with no path to fix it.
- The skill itself violated Anthropic's spec (`name` field had
uppercase/spaces) and was over the 500-line guideline (647 lines),
hurting discovery and load performance.
- Welcome flow occasionally improvised the menu instead of reading
SKILL.md, missing options.
Pricing — single source of truth, fully automated:
- Extend tools/refresh_sku_catalog.py with --refresh-domain compute,
pulls shape-level prices from the Oracle public pricing API
(apexapps.oracle.com), preserves manual fields (notes, GPU specs,
free-tier annotations, estimation_helpers), recomputes derived
monthly values, and protects $0 free-tier prices from overwrite.
- Delete 12 redundant pricing/<domain>.yaml files. They duplicated
oci-sku-catalog.yaml with worse abstractions and were nobody's
source of truth (no tool consumed them).
- Migrate the genuinely valuable knowledge from those 12 files
(billing models, BYOL rules, free-tier rules, ECPU vs OCPU,
X11M elastic model, hyperscaler comparisons, service nuances)
into kb/field-knowledge/pricing-knowledge.yaml — non-numeric,
no refresh needed.
- Result: pricing freshness check goes from 13 stale files to 0.
KB freshness automation:
- Add tools/kb_freshness.py — wrapper around kb_linter.check_freshness()
with --check, --auto-refresh, --json, --quiet modes. Bridges stale
files to their refresh tools (SKU catalog, compute domain, arch
center). Wired into the welcome flow as a pre-flight banner that
asks the user before refreshing.
- Fix pre-existing kb_linter bug: it crashed on the 45 multi-doc
YAML files (frontmatter + body pattern) because it used safe_load
instead of safe_load_all. Freshness check was effectively dead.
- Standardize timestamp field: linter now accepts last_verified,
last_updated, and last_refreshed; refresh_arch_catalog writes
last_verified instead of last_refreshed.
- Add make freshness / make freshness-refresh targets.
Skill alignment with Anthropic Agent Skills best practices:
- Rename `name: OCI Deal Accelerator` to `oci-deal-accelerator`
to comply with the [a-z0-9-]{1,64} spec.
- Refactor SKILL.md from 674 to 445 lines via progressive disclosure:
extract WA review output format, ECAL readiness format, and output
conventions into docs/skill/*.md referenced from the main file.
- Add scripts/sync-skill.py + make sync-skill: source of truth is
root SKILL.md, .agents/skills/oci-deal-accelerator/SKILL.md is
auto-generated. make lint validates sync.
- Add evaluations/ with 3 manual baseline scenarios (welcome-flow,
full-proposal, wa-review) per the Anthropic best-practices guidance
to "build evaluations first."
Welcome flow hardening:
- Tighten CLAUDE.md to MANDATE reading SKILL.md before showing the
menu (no improvising), and document the freshness pre-flight check
with the ask-before-refresh user flow.
- Update SKILL.md welcome flow to instruct: parse kb_freshness JSON,
show banner with stale count + oldest file, prompt user to refresh
(only when an automated tool exists), fall back silently on errors.
Linter hygiene (zero remaining issues):
- Expand config/kb-tags.yaml taxonomy with features, operations,
metrics, limitations sections covering 31 previously-unknown tags
used in field findings (rac, ecpu, refreshable-clone, hnsw, etc.).
- Assign owners for kb/compatibility/, kb/competitive/,
kb/well-architected/ (Diego Cabrera as default until team grows);
kb/pricing/ marked as "Auto-refreshed" since it no longer needs
human ownership.
- kb_linter accepts top-level `date` as fallback for contributor
block; migrate FF-202603-008 from legacy `reported_by` to
contributor block.
- Result: linter goes from 45 issues to 0.
Other:
- Recompute estimation_helpers monthly values in compute.yaml after
the price refresh (they were derived from the old E5/A1 numbers).
- Add kb/README.md — contributor guide (directory map, frontmatter
spec, refresh tooling, review cadence).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.6 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
- New tools/oci_bom_gen.py: generates .xlsx BOM from YAML spec with
Oracle Redwood styling, Excel formulas, and Oracle disclaimer.
Supports standard BOM (--output) and AppCA import format (--appca)
- New tools/refresh_sku_catalog.py: refreshes SKU catalog prices from
Oracle's public pricing API (apexapps.oracle.com)
- New kb/pricing/oci-sku-catalog.yaml: ~160 OCI SKUs across 14
categories, validated against Oracle API
- New templates/bom-spec.yaml: input spec template for BOM generation
- Add SA TOOLS section to SKILL.md (options 13-14)
- Register BOM generator in oci_output.py
