Return to Caller

Read this when input triage enters Return-to-Caller Mode, and read it again immediately before returning. Input triage owns and validates the invocation grammar (references/input-triage.md parses the mode token and carriers). This file defines every field of the summary you return, the evidence rule for status: complete, how a repeated run recovers without reimplementing, and the standalone work you must not do here: simplify, review, PR, CI, and babysitting.

In this mode ce-work performs implementation and local verification only — including mid-implementation Phase 2 "Simplify as You Go" — then returns a structured summary instead of running the standalone shipping tail (final simplify, review, PR, CI). It still makes the canonical commit for each completed unit, as Phase 2 directs; the caller commits only what remains. When the plan ships as several PRs, build every unit on one branch anyway; the caller splits the work into PRs, so references/multi-pr-delivery.md does not apply here. The summary is the last thing this mode writes. It ends this skill, not the turn. The caller runs in this same session, and its next step follows the summary.

Return:

• status: complete, blocked, or failed
• plan_path
• changed_files
• u_ids_attempted
• u_ids_completed
• verification_results
• verification_evidence: one entry per attempted behavior-bearing unit, plus any non-behavioral unit where tests were intentionally skipped. Each entry states the unit/task, behavior_changed, existing_tests_inspected, tests_added_or_changed, tests used unchanged, red failure or characterization observed when applicable, verification commands/results, and any exception reason. For units executed by subagents, this entry is assembled from each worker's returned evidence, not reconstructed from the diff — the red-before-implementation observation exists only in the worker's report.
• implementation_engine_binding: the resolved one-run mode, target, model, and source, or null when native execution was selected without a binding
• requested_route and actual_route: target plus harness/intermediary identity, kept separate when fallback or same-family substitution occurred
• requested_model and actual_model: the model that was requested and the model identity the route's receipt reports as served (unverified when the route supplies no trustworthy receipt)
• requested_effort: the reasoning effort requested for the external worker, or null when none was requested or execution was native
• fallback_reason: null when none, otherwise the observed route-unavailable or substitution reason
• run_id: durable external run identifier, or null for native execution
• source_kind and source_digest: what the controller recorded as the implementation source (plan plus its digest in Return-to-Caller Mode; standalone bare-prompt runs use prompt)
• unit_receipts: route, model, detached-process, integration, verification, canonical-commit, and cleanup state for each attempted unit
• plan_checkpoint: the disclosed checkpoint commit when the selected plan was the only canonical dirt, otherwise null
• blockers
• recovery_path: the run/workspace location the controller preserved and checked, when recovery remains; otherwise null
• settled_decision_conflicts: conflicts with session-settled:-labeled KTDs or Key Decisions encountered during implementation — each entry names the labeled entry, the evidence, and how it was routed (proceeded-and-flagged vs blocker); empty when none
• behavior_change: whether behavior-bearing code changed
• standalone_shipping_skipped: true

Return status: complete only when behavior-bearing work has verification evidence or a deliberate exception. Before returning it, re-open the plan and re-check its active units, Verification Contract, and Definition of Done against the diff, because context may have been compacted to a summary that dropped detail. Remove code left over from approaches that did not pan out. If a previous return-to-caller run implemented code but omitted evidence, a later same-plan return-to-caller run should use the idempotency check to inspect the existing work, complete the evidence, and return without reimplementing.

Engine selection (references/execution-engines.md) still applies in this mode, but only for implementation. Whichever engine runs must not open a PR, run the standalone shipping steps, or skip the checks the caller controls.