fix: verify every claim the compiler makes about its targets

[singhharsh1708]

A verification pass over all eleven adapters — every claimed path and loading mode checked against that client's own source or documentation, since the last two releases each found a confident comment nobody had tested.

Headline: the benchmark stands

All eleven loading modes are correct. The 14×–47× standing-cost figure the project leads with is intact. Three claims around it were not.

Aider — the one that was in the published numbers

Aider does not read CONVENTIONS.md on its own. Its docs are explicit: it's loaded with aider --read CONVENTIONS.md or a read: entry in .aider.conf.yml. There is no auto-discovery.

Aider is one of only two eager targets, so reporting a standing cost beside a file that is never in context charged a cost nobody was paying. compile now distinguishes three cases:

ℹ aider: CONVENTIONS.md is written, but aider does not read it automatically —
  run "aider --read CONVENTIONS.md", or add "read: CONVENTIONS.md" to
  .aider.conf.yml. Until then the file costs nothing and does nothing.

…a distinct message when a conf exists but doesn't read it, and silence once wired up. The benchmark and README carry the same caveat. Measured numbers unchanged; what they mean is now stated correctly.

README drift, eliminated rather than fixed

The status line still said v0.15.0 at v0.23.0 — eight releases — and had omitted import since 0.16.0, because nothing checked either.

The version is now stamped into the README by site/build.mjs from the same package.json everything else reads, so CI's existing --check gate catches it. Three tests additionally hold the paragraph to the real command surface. Each test was verified to fail on the exact drift it guards before being committed.

A false green, twice

The benchmark crashed after a docs edit whose backticks closed its template literal — and the failure hid behind npm run bench >/dev/null && git diff --exit-code, which reads "the script never ran" as "output unchanged." That's the second time this pattern produced a false green in this repo. Fixed, and the gate now checks exit codes explicitly.

Findings recorded instead of assumed

• .windsurf/rules/ is the legacy Devin path — .devin/rules/ supersedes it and wins where both exist. Still written deliberately: it's the form that works on current Devin and on unmigrated Windsurf.
• Claude Code merged custom commands into skills; the .claude/commands/ shim is inert on current versions (the skill wins the name) and kept only for older ones.
• trigger: model_decision is confirmed lazy — which makes a rule with an empty description inert.

Silent-skill-loss invariant

A test now pins that an emitted skill's frontmatter name equals its directory name. Cline drops a mismatch with a silent return null; Zed rejects it outright. The invariant already held — nothing enforced it.

12 new tests. Typecheck, suite, bench and site --check all verified by exit code. Ships as 0.24.0.

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Project	Deployment	Actions	Updated (UTC)
kitbash	Ready	Preview	Aug 15, 2026 7:34pm