---

name: Dev10x:afk description: > Walk-away mode — compose the walk-away gate policy so long-running sessions do not stall on re-strategy or confirmation gates. Writes gate_preset: adaptive and gate_overlays: [afk] to .claude/Dev10x/config.yaml (durable prefs, GH-774); the resolve_gate resolver reads those keys and auto-advances the pipeline while routing deferred decisions to the PR description. TRIGGER when: starting a long-running unattended session (e.g., bundle work, fanout swarm, overnight implementation), or user says "walk away" / "afk" / "headless" / "no more questions". DO NOT TRIGGER when: actively pair-programming, scoping a new ticket (use Dev10x:ticket-scope), or session is already complete. user-invocable: true invocation-name: Dev10x:afk allowed-tools:

• Read(.claude/Dev10x/config.yaml)
• Edit(.claude/Dev10x/config.yaml)
• Read(.claude/Dev10x/session.yaml)

---

Dev10x:afk — Walk-Away Mode

Announce: "Using Dev10x:afk to compose the walk-away gate policy for this session."

Sets the session gate policy to the walk-away posture so the agent does not re-litigate a decision the supervisor already made. It does this the ADR-0016 way — by composing a preset with an overlay, not by hardcoding modes:

gate_preset: adaptive        # walk-away base (merges included, ADR-0016 D-9)
gate_overlays: [afk]         # session_adoption: auto-advance + doubt_sink: pr-description

Skills are policy-ignorant: they call the resolve_gate tool, which reads these keys and decides whether each gate fires, auto-advances, or is skipped. This skill's only job is to write the policy; it never re-implements gate behavior in prose.

Two effects follow from the composed policy:

1. Gates auto-advance to their (Recommended) option unless a safety floor fires (secret access, destructive+irreversible, cross-author push, privacy disclosure, hard upstream blocker). Those floors are the resolver's concern, not this skill's.
2. The afk overlay sets session_adoption: auto-advance (trust the persisted session even when stale) and doubt_sink: pr-description, so a mid-flight doubt is appended to the PR body instead of pausing.

See references/friction-levels.md and references/walk-away.md for the resolver contract downstream skills consult.

Orchestration

REQUIRED: Create a task at invocation. Execute at startup:

1. TaskCreate(subject="Enable walk-away mode", activeForm="Enabling walk-away")

Mark completed when the session config write returns (or is skipped because the policy already matches).

When to Use

Invoke this skill at the start of a session where the supervisor will be unavailable for hours. Typical entry points:

• Dev10x:afk then Dev10x:work-on bundle <milestone-url>
• Dev10x:afk then Dev10x:fanout over a queue of tickets
• Resuming an unattended run after compaction — the policy survives in session.yaml and is re-read on the next Phase 0

Instructions

Step 1: Read existing config

Read .claude/Dev10x/config.yaml if it exists — the durable prefs home (GH-774). Capture the new-style keys gate_preset, gate_overlays, gate_overrides. Also read a pre-split .claude/Dev10x/session.yaml for the legacy keys friction_level, active_modes, walk_away (durable keys lived there before the GH-774 split); these are migration inputs. If both are missing, treat all keys as unset.

Step 2: Compute desired state

The walk-away policy composes the adaptive base preset with the afk overlay:

gate_preset: adaptive
gate_overlays: [afk]

Overlay resolution rules:

1. Compose, do not append modes. Start from any existing gate_overlays; add afk if absent. Never write active_modes: [solo-maintainer] — walk-away autonomy and solo-maintainer merge autonomy are orthogonal overlays (afk never implies auto-merge; the adaptive base already decides the merge posture per ADR-0016 D-9).
2. Reconcile conflicting oversight config. If the session carries structural oversight modes that force checkpoints (supervised, pair-review) in active_modes or as overlays, drop them — they oppose walk-away and would keep gates firing.
3. Preserve a pre-existing solo-maintainer overlay. If the user already opted into solo-maintainer, keep it in the union (gate_overlays: [afk, solo-maintainer]); just do not add it.
4. Migrate legacy keys. If the file only has the legacy shape (friction_level / active_modes / walk_away), replace it with the new-style keys above. A pre-existing walk_away: true is subsumed by the afk overlay; a pre-existing solo-maintainer in active_modes becomes the solo-maintainer overlay (rule 3).

doubt_sink and session_adoption come from the afk overlay — do not write them as top-level session keys.

Step 3: Read-before-write gate (GH-846)

Skip the write entirely if gate_preset and the resolved gate_overlays set already match the on-disk values. This avoids spurious permission prompts and prevents clobbering co-edited entries.

Only when the preset or the overlay set differs, write the merged config to .claude/Dev10x/config.yaml using the Write tool (durable prefs live there since GH-774, so the worktree hook copies them to every worktree). When migrating a pre-split session.yaml, drop the superseded friction_level / active_modes / walk_away keys from it in a separate write — do not leave durable keys in the ephemeral file.

Step 4: Report

Print a one-line summary of what changed:

• gate_preset: adaptive — walk-away base selected
• gate_overlays: + afk — overlay composed
• gate_overlays: already [afk] — no-op, surface as confirmation
• reconciled: dropped supervised/pair-review — when structural oversight modes were removed
• migrated: legacy walk_away/active_modes → preset+overlays — when a pre-rewrite file was upgraded

Do not emit an AskUserQuestion confirmation. The invocation itself is the confirmation; firing a gate here would violate the policy this skill is meant to enforce.

Contract for Downstream Skills

Downstream skills do not read gate_preset / gate_overlays themselves and they do not re-derive gate behavior from walk_away. They call resolve_gate(gate=..., context=...) and honor the returned effect (ask / auto-advance / skip). The resolver composes this skill's preset + overlays, applies project and per-gate overrides, then enforces the safety floors.

That means walk-away autonomy is expressed once — here, as policy — and every gate-emitting skill inherits it uniformly. See references/friction-levels.md for the resolver contract and the per-gate toggle table.

Relationship to Presets and Overlays

afk is an overlay, not a friction level. It patches two toggles on top of whichever base preset the session runs:

| Toggle | afk overlay value | Effect | |--------|---------------------|--------| | session_adoption | auto-advance | Adopt the persisted session even when stale — no "is this session still valid?" prompt | | doubt_sink | pr-description | Append mid-flight doubts to the PR body instead of pausing |

The base preset decides the rest, including merge:

• gate_preset: adaptive (this skill's default) — full walk-away, merges included.
• gate_preset: guided — light-AFK: auto-advance the mechanical pipeline through self-review, but merge stays a human action (merge: skip). Compose afk onto guided when you want walk-away autonomy that still stops short of auto-merge.

To keep auto-merge off on a team repo, run with gate_preset: guided

• gate_overlays: [afk]; the adaptive default is for genuinely solo / auto-merge-approved contexts.

Anti-Patterns

• Calling Dev10x:afk mid-flight to silence an active prompt — this skill sets session policy, it does not retroactively cancel a pending AskUserQuestion. Answer the prompt first, then invoke Dev10x:afk to change how the next gate resolves.
• Adding solo-maintainer to make afk "more autonomous" — afk and solo-maintainer are orthogonal. If you want auto-merge, that is the adaptive base or the solo-maintainer overlay, chosen deliberately — not a side effect of walking away.
• Using on a session where the supervisor is actively reviewing — walk-away auto-advances informational gates too, removing the ability to inject mid-session steering. Reserve for genuinely unattended runs.

Reverting

To exit walk-away mode mid-session, edit .claude/Dev10x/config.yaml and remove afk from gate_overlays (and reset gate_preset to guided or strict if desired). The next gate-emitting skill reads the updated policy via resolve_gate and resumes normal behavior.