Root cause observed in a real Codex session: the agent burned ~3min
on `make venv` + 4 sequential `make diagram-lookup` queries trying
to find a non-existent ref-arch (OCI PostgreSQL accessed FROM GCP
via Cross-Cloud Interconnect). The catalog has 123 entries; if two
honest queries can't surface a topology, none exists — but nothing
in the skill said "stop." Three coordinated fixes:
1) Makefile: `make venv` is now idempotent.
Marker file `.venv/.deps-installed` keyed off `requirements.txt`
mtime — the second `make venv` in a row is a 26ms no-op (was
1m53s on a Codex sandbox, paid every turn). Force a rebuild with
`rm .venv/.deps-installed`.
2) kb/architecture-center/catalog.yaml: new `known_gaps` block.
Surfaced by the lookup tool as a top-of-output banner whenever
the (synonym-expanded) query tokens match any one of a gap's
`triggers` token sets. Two gaps seeded from real engagements:
- gcp-to-oci-native-services — OCI PostgreSQL/OKE/Cache/etc.
reached FROM GCP via Cross-Cloud Interconnect (the
Database@Google Cloud entries are the OPPOSITE direction).
- newer-oci-services-without-icon — OCI Cache (Redis/Valkey)
and OCI PostgreSQL post-v24.2-toolkit; no ref-arch, no
toolkit icon, fall back to generic stencil + explicit label.
Each gap's `notice:` is a copy-paste recommended composition so
the agent doesn't have to invent a strategy.
3) tools/archcenter_pattern_lookup.py: detects + surfaces gaps.
`lookup()` now returns `{"matches": ..., "gaps": ...}`. The
text printer emits a "⚠ KNOWN GAP — <id>" banner with the
notice block ABOVE the score-based top-K, so the agent sees
the stop-and-compose signal before ever scrolling to results.
YAML output mode mirrors the same shape under `gaps:`.
4) SKILL.md (option 2 step 1) + Codex copy via sync-skill.
New explicit rule: "Lookup budget: max 2 queries — never loop."
Documents the gap banner, the closest-3-then-ask fallback, and
the prohibition against grasping at a 3rd refinement.
Verified manually:
- GCP+postgresql query → gap fires
- "redis ha multi-az" → newer-OCI gap fires
- "exadata cross region data guard" → no false-positive gap
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>
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>
