Promote Fact Checker to active roster; declare dual operating mode

[tamirdresher]

What

Promotes the existing fact-checker agent (stub charter, never on roster) to a full team member with FAO-inspired charter, claim-verification methodology, and hard rules against fabrication.

Adds the Pre-Ship Fact Check ceremony so any user-facing artifact gets a claim-by-claim verification pass before it ships.

Updates identity/now.md (12 weeks stale from v0.9.1) to reflect:

• Current v0.10.0 release status
• Dual operating mode: Brady's upstream maintenance + Tamir's framework R&D (shared roster, shared decisions ledger)
• The 7 governance/MCP findings from the 2026-06-09 investigation session (docs: state-backends upgrade flow misses pre-commit hook, file reappearance, and recovery #1226, feat: conditional .gitignore for two-layer/orphan state files (defense-in-depth) #1228, docs(skills): docs say .squad/skills/ but code writes to .copilot/skills/ — pick one and clarify #1241–Workspace-only squad_state MCP not loaded in copilot -p mode → agents forge audit-log entries #1247)
• Two new state-tool gaps discovered while writing the new now.md itself (will be filed separately)

Why

The 2026-06-09 forged-audit-entry incident showed concretely why an explicit Verification + Devil's Advocate role matters. The team was already substantially staffed but lacked someone whose job is to challenge claims with evidence.

The existing fact-checker/charter.md already named the role correctly: "Devil's advocate and verification agent — validates claims, detects hallucinations, and runs counter-hypotheses." This PR makes that real: full charter, on the roster, on routing, owning a ceremony.

Charter highlights

• 5-step verification methodology (Restate → Source → Counter-hypothesis → Test → Verdict)
• Hard rules against fabrication; every verdict needs a citation a human can re-check
• Tier policy: Lightweight (manual invocation) / Standard (Pre-Ship) / Full (multi-claim batch)
• Apollo FAO inspiration — "What if?" is the question that saved Apollo 13

Known gap NOT addressed here

Rai 🛡️ (RAI Reviewer) is missing from this team's roster despite being required by squad.agent.md governance. The .squad/agents/Rai/ directory exists. This is migration drift from the team predating Rai's introduction.

Deliberately deferred for a separate PR with Brady's review since it's a different concern.

Files

File	Change
.squad/agents/fact-checker/charter.md	Stub (522B) → full charter (4,685B)
.squad/team.md	+ Fact Checker row (🔍 Reviewer)
.squad/routing.md	+ work-type row "Claim verification & devil's advocate"
.squad/ceremonies.md	+ Pre-Ship Fact Check ceremony
.squad/identity/now.md	Rewritten (was 12 weeks stale)

No code changes. Build passes locally (npm run build clean in 16.4s).

Related

• Memory MCP investigation: docs(skills): docs say .squad/skills/ but code writes to .copilot/skills/ — pick one and clarify #1241–Workspace-only squad_state MCP not loaded in copilot -p mode → agents forge audit-log entries #1247
• Workaround skill (external): tamirdresher/squad-skills@a9a13c9

[github-actions]

🟢 Impact Analysis — PR #1254

Risk tier: 🟢 LOW

📊 Summary

Metric	Count
Files changed	5
Files added	1
Files modified	4
Files deleted	0
Modules touched	1

🎯 Risk Factors

• 5 files changed (≤5 → LOW)
• 1 module(s) touched (≤1 → LOW)

📦 Modules Affected

squad-state (5 files)

• .squad/agents/fact-checker/charter.md
• .squad/ceremonies.md
• .squad/identity/now.md
• .squad/routing.md
• .squad/team.md

---

This report is generated automatically for every PR. See #733 for details.

[github-actions]

🛫 PR Readiness Check

ℹ️ This comment updates on each push. Last checked: commit 04f9f99

PR Scope: 🔧 Infrastructure

⚠️ 2 item(s) to address before review

Status	Check	Details
✅	Single commit	1 commit — clean history
✅	Not in draft	Ready for review
✅	Branch up to date	Up to date with dev
❌	Copilot review	No Copilot review yet — it may still be processing
✅	Changeset present	No source files changed — changeset not required
✅	Scope clean	⚠️ PR includes 5 .squad/ file(s) — ensure these are intentional
✅	No merge conflicts	No merge conflicts
✅	Copilot threads resolved	No Copilot review threads
❌	CI passing	4 check(s) still running

Files Changed (5 files, +180 −111)

File	+/−
.squad/agents/fact-checker/charter.md	+93 −0
.squad/ceremonies.md	+20 −0
.squad/identity/now.md	+65 −111
.squad/routing.md	+1 −0
.squad/team.md	+1 −0

Total: +180 −111

---

This check runs automatically on every push. Fix any ❌ items and push again.
See CONTRIBUTING.md and PR Requirements for details.

[github-actions]

⚠️ Squad File Leakage Detected

The following .squad/ files were modified in this PR:

• .squad/agents/fact-checker/charter.md
• .squad/ceremonies.md
• .squad/identity/now.md
• .squad/routing.md
• .squad/team.md

These files affect team routing, agent charters, and decisions.
If intentional, ensure approval from the team lead.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Promotes the existing fact-checker agent from a stub to an active, rostered reviewer role, and updates team process/identity docs to formalize claim verification as part of the workflow.

Changes:

• Add Fact Checker to the team roster and routing rules as the verification/devil’s-advocate specialist.
• Introduce a Pre-Ship Fact Check ceremony to ensure user-facing artifacts get claim-by-claim verification.
• Rewrite .squad/identity/now.md to reflect current operating context, active workstreams, and recent governance/MCP findings.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 5 changed files in this pull request and generated 1 comment.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
.squad/agents/fact-checker/charter.md	Adds a full charter with methodology, responsibilities, and hard rules for evidence-based verification.
.squad/team.md	Adds Fact Checker to the roster as a reviewer role.
.squad/routing.md	Adds routing entry for claim verification & devil’s-advocate work to Fact Checker.
.squad/ceremonies.md	Adds the Pre-Ship Fact Check ceremony definition.
.squad/identity/now.md	Updates the “current focus” document to v0.10.0+ context and dual operating mode.