CANON Drift Scan

VerifiedCaution

Scans registered project adapters for CANON classification changes and writes a timestamped JSON drift report to .agent/drift_reports/.

Sby Skills Guide Bot
DevOpsIntermediate
11/3/2026
Claude Code
#drift-detection#governance#monitoring#canon#reporting

Recommended for

Automated summary

Scans every registered project adapter for CANON classification changes and records detected drift in a timestamped JSON report.

Strengths

  • Auto-discovers projects from adapters/*.md, so no project list has to be maintained in code
  • Produces a timestamped JSON report with a documented schema (old and new classification, ISO 8601 timestamp)
  • Updates .agent/last_drift_scan.txt on every run, enabling cron triggering and threshold checks
  • Read-only scope is explicit: only the drift report and last-scan marker are written

Limitations

  • Requires the gsigmad Python package and its layout (gsigmad.governance.compiler) to be installed and importable from the project root
  • Only tracks CANON classification changes, not changes to document content
  • Takes no parameters or CLI options; all configuration comes from adapters/*.md files
  • Projects with has_canon=false are skipped silently, so a clean run can also mean some projects were never examined
When to use it

Use it for a scheduled drift check or to investigate a suspected CANON reclassification in projects already registered through gsigmad adapters.

When not to use it

Avoid it when the gsigmad package or adapters/ directory is missing, or when you need to track anything other than CANON classification.

Security analysis

Caution
Quality score82/100

The skill uses Bash to run a Python script that reads local adapter files and writes drift reports. This is a legitimate but powerful local-code execution pattern, so it warrants caution rather than being classified safe. There are no clear destructive or exfiltration behaviors.

Findings
  • •Executes local Python code by inserting the current directory into sys.path and importing gsigmad modules, so a malicious or compromised local package could run with the user's privileges.
  • •Writes files under .agent/drift_reports/ and updates .agent/last_drift_scan.txt; these writes are described and appear intentional.
  • •No network access, secret exfiltration, destructive commands, obfuscated payloads, or safety-disabling instructions were observed.
  • •Uses Bash to execute an inline Python program that imports and runs project-local code from the `gsigmad` package; only run this in a trusted working tree with a trusted package installation.
  • •Automatically reads `adapters/*.md` and writes files under `.agent/drift_reports/` plus `.agent/last_drift_scan.txt`; file operations are scoped, but the skill should be reviewed if run against untrusted repositories.
  • •No network access, credential handling, destructive commands, obfuscation, or safety-disabling behavior was found.
How this analysis is made

Examples

Scheduled drift check
Run gsigmad-drift-scan across all registered project adapters and tell me whether any CANON classification drift was detected.
Investigate a suspected reclassification
I think example-project moved from EXPLORATORY to CONFIRMATORY — run the drift scan and show me the drift events and the report path.
Check last scan freshness
Look at .agent/last_drift_scan.txt and tell me when the last drift scan ran and whether it found any classification changes.

name: gsigmad-drift-scan description: "Scan all registered project adapters for CANON classification changes. Use when running scheduled drift detection or investigating a suspected CANON change. Loads adapters/*.md automatically and writes a drift report to .agent/drift_reports/." disable-model-invocation: true allowed-tools: [Read, Bash]

Drift Scan ($canon-drift-detection)

Scan all registered project adapters for CANON classification changes. Reads adapter metadata automatically from adapters/*.md (template at examples/adapters/example-project.md) — no manual project list needed. Writes a timestamped JSON drift report when classification changes are detected.

Usage

gsigmad-drift-scan

No parameters. All configuration is sourced from adapters/*.md automatically (per D-08, WIRE-03). Public release ships an example template at examples/adapters/example-project.md; copy to adapters/<your-project>.md to register a project for drift scanning.

Execution

Run the following Python block and display the result:

import sys
sys.path.insert(0, '.')
from gsigmad.governance.compiler.adapter_loader import load_project_registry
from gsigmad.governance.compiler.drift_scanner import scan_all_projects

# Load all registered project adapters from adapters/*.md (per D-08, WIRE-03)
project_registry = load_project_registry('.')

result = scan_all_projects(gsd_root='.', project_registry=project_registry)

print(f"Scan timestamp: {result['scan_timestamp']}")
print(f"Projects scanned: {result['projects_scanned']}")

if result['drift_detected']:
    print(f"\nDRIFT DETECTED -- {len(result['drift_events'])} event(s):")
    for event in result['drift_events']:
        print(f"  {event['project']}: {event['invariant_changed']} changed")
        print(f"    {event['old_classification']} -> {event['new_classification']}")
    print(f"\nFull report: {result['report_path']}")
else:
    print("No drift detected -- all CANON classifications stable.")

Output

  • Summary to stdout: scan timestamp, projects scanned count, drift status.
  • Full JSON report: written to .agent/drift_reports/DRIFT-{timestamp}.json only when drift is detected.
  • Last scan marker: .agent/last_drift_scan.txt is always updated after every run (enables 24-hour cron trigger and threshold checks in drift_check.py).

Drift Report Schema

When drift is detected, the full report at .agent/drift_reports/DRIFT-{timestamp}.json follows this schema:

{
  "scan_timestamp": "2026-04-01T14:32:00Z",
  "projects_scanned": 8,
  "drift_detected": true,
  "drift_events": [
    {
      "project": "example-project",
      "invariant_changed": "classification",
      "old_classification": "EXPLORATORY",
      "new_classification": "CONFIRMATORY",
      "detected_timestamp": "2026-04-01T14:32:00Z"
    }
  ],
  "report_path": ".agent/drift_reports/DRIFT-20260401T143200Z.json"
}

Fields in each drift event:

  • project: project name from the adapter registry
  • invariant_changed: which CANON invariant classification changed
  • old_classification: classification recorded in the previous snapshot
  • new_classification: classification found in the current CANON.md scan
  • detected_timestamp: ISO 8601 UTC timestamp when the drift was detected

Non-Negotiables

  • Do NOT manually construct project_registry; always call load_project_registry() so that adapter file changes propagate automatically without code edits.
  • Projects with has_canon=false are silently skipped by scan_all_projects() — this is correct behaviour, not an error. Projects without a CANON.md cannot experience classification drift.
  • Do NOT suppress or modify drift events; display them verbatim from the result dict. The raw output is the audit record.
  • This command is read-only except for writing the DRIFT JSON report and updating last_drift_scan.txt. It does not modify any CANON.md, experiment record, or KG document.

From the file to a first result

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1. Download the file

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Claude Code
test -f '.skill-downloads/canon-drift-scan-mvg6txmb/SKILL.md' && test -s '.skill-downloads/canon-drift-scan-mvg6txmb/SKILL.md' && mkdir -p '.claude/skills' && test ! -e '.claude/skills/gsigmad-drift-scan' && cp -R '.skill-downloads/canon-drift-scan-mvg6txmb' '.claude/skills/gsigmad-drift-scan'

OpenSkills

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