Ash Guide

Quick reference for all Rune plugin agents, their roles, and invocation patterns.

Invocation Models

Direct Invocation (standalone tasks, custom workflows)

All Rune agents are plugin agents. Invoke with the rune: namespace prefix:

Agent rune:review:ward-sentinel("Review these files for security")
Agent rune:review:ember-oracle("Check performance bottlenecks")
Agent rune:utility:runebinder("Aggregate review findings")

Common mistake: Using agent name without namespace prefix.

# WRONG - agent not found
Agent ward-sentinel(...)

# CORRECT - full namespace
Agent rune:review:ward-sentinel(...)

Composite Ash Invocation (review/audit workflows)

The /rune:appraise and /rune:audit commands use general-purpose subagents with composite Ash prompt templates from agents/. Each Ash embeds multiple agent perspectives into a single teammate. This is intentional — composite Ashes don't map 1:1 to individual agent files.

Agent({ subagent_type: "general-purpose", team_name: teamName, name: "ash-name", prompt: /* from ../../agents/{category}/{role}.md */ })

The agent file allowed-tools are not enforced at runtime for composite Ashes. Tool restriction is enforced via prompt instructions (defense-in-depth).

Note: Agents listed below with rune:review:*, rune:testing:*, or rune:utility:* types may live in registry/ rather than agents/. Registry agents cannot be spawned directly via Agent({ subagent_type: "rune:review:blight-seer" }) — the plugin-namespaced type won't resolve. Instead, use subagent_type: "general-purpose" and inject the agent body via the agent_detail(name) MCP call or Read("registry/{category}/{name}.md"). Agents in agents/ (e.g., ward-sentinel, ember-oracle, flaw-hunter) ARE directly spawnable via their listed type names.

Review Agents

35 specialized reviewers that form Ash teams:

Agent	Role	Perspective
rune:review:ward-sentinel	Security review	Vulnerabilities, auth, injection, OWASP, prompt injection
rune:review:ember-oracle	Performance review	Bottlenecks, N+1 queries, async patterns, memory
rune:review:rune-architect	Architecture review	Layer violations, DDD, dependency direction
rune:review:simplicity-warden	Simplicity review	YAGNI, over-engineering, premature abstraction
rune:review:flaw-hunter	Logic review	Edge cases, race conditions, null handling, off-by-one
rune:review:mimic-detector	Duplication review	DRY violations, copy-paste code, similar patterns
rune:review:pattern-seer	Pattern review	Naming consistency, convention adherence
rune:review:void-analyzer	Completeness review	Missing error handling, incomplete implementations
rune:review:wraith-finder	Dead code & unwired code review	Unused functions, DI wiring gaps, orphaned routes/handlers, AI orphan detection
rune:review:phantom-checker	Dynamic reference check	Reflection, string-based imports, meta-programming
rune:review:type-warden	Type safety review	Type hints, mypy strict, Python idioms, async correctness
rune:review:trial-oracle	TDD compliance review	Test-first order, coverage gaps, assertion quality
rune:review:depth-seer	Missing logic review	Error handling gaps, state machines, complexity hotspots
rune:review:blight-seer	Design anti-pattern review	God Service, leaky abstractions, temporal coupling, observability
rune:review:forge-keeper	Data integrity review	Migration safety, reversibility, lock analysis, transaction boundaries, PII
rune:review:tide-watcher	Async/concurrency review	Waterfall awaits, unbounded concurrency, cancellation, race conditions
rune:review:refactor-guardian	Refactoring completeness review	Orphaned callers, incomplete extractions, missing dependency moves, stale test refs
rune:review:reference-validator	Reference integrity review	Import paths, config-to-source refs, frontmatter schema, version sync
rune:review:reality-arbiter	Production viability truth-telling	Integration honesty, production readiness, data reality, error path honesty
rune:review:assumption-slayer	Premise validation truth-telling	Problem-solution fit, cargo cult detection, complexity justification
rune:review:entropy-prophet	Long-term consequence truth-telling	Complexity compounding, dependency trajectory, lock-in, maintenance burden
rune:review:design-system-compliance-reviewer	Design system compliance review	Token usage, variant patterns, import paths, class merge utilities, dark mode implementation
rune:review:ux-heuristic-reviewer	UX heuristic evaluation	Nielsen Norman 10 heuristics at code level, 50+ checklist items (UXH-). Conditional: ux.enabled + frontend files
rune:review:ux-flow-validator	User flow completeness	Loading states, error boundaries, empty states, confirmation dialogs, undo, graceful degradation (UXF-). Conditional: ux.enabled + frontend files
rune:review:ux-interaction-auditor	Micro-interaction audit	Hover/focus states, keyboard accessibility, touch targets (44px), animation, prefers-reduced-motion (UXI-). Conditional: ux.enabled + frontend files
rune:review:ux-cognitive-walker	Cognitive walkthrough	First-time user simulation, discoverability, learnability, error recovery, progressive disclosure (UXC-). Conditional: ux.enabled + cognitive_walkthrough: true

Ash Roles (Consolidated Teammates)

In /rune:appraise, agents are grouped into 7 built-in Ashes (extensible via talisman.yml):

Ash	Agents Embedded	Scope
Forge Warden	rune-architect, ember-oracle, flaw-hunter, mimic-detector, type-warden, depth-seer, blight-seer, forge-keeper	Backend code (.py, .go, .rs, .rb, .java)
Ward Sentinel	ward-sentinel	ALL files (security always)
Veil Piercer	reality-arbiter, assumption-slayer, entropy-prophet	ALL files (truth-telling always)
Pattern Weaver	simplicity-warden, pattern-seer, wraith-finder, phantom-checker, void-analyzer, trial-oracle, tide-watcher, refactor-guardian, reference-validator	ALL files (quality patterns)
Glyph Scribe	Inline perspectives (TypeScript safety, React performance, accessibility)	Frontend code (.ts, .tsx, .js, .jsx)
Knowledge Keeper	Inline perspectives (accuracy, completeness, consistency)	Docs (.md files, conditional)
Codex Oracle	Inline perspectives (cross-model security, logic, quality via codex exec)	ALL files (when codex CLI available)

Note: Forge Warden, Ward Sentinel, Veil Piercer, and Pattern Weaver embed dedicated review agent files. Glyph Scribe, Knowledge Keeper, and Codex Oracle use inline perspective definitions in their Ash prompts (no dedicated agent files). Codex Oracle is CLI-gated and wraps the external codex exec command.

Utility Agents

Agent	Role
rune:utility:runebinder	Aggregates review/audit outputs → writes TOME.md
rune:utility:truthseer-validator	Audit coverage validation (Phase 5.5)
rune:utility:flow-seer	Spec flow analysis
rune:utility:scroll-reviewer	Document quality review
rune:utility:decree-arbiter	Technical soundness review for plans
rune:utility:mend-fixer	Parallel code fixer for /rune:mend findings
rune:utility:knowledge-keeper	Documentation coverage reviewer for plans
rune:utility:veil-piercer-plan	Plan-level truth-teller (Phase 4C plan review)
rune:utility:ux-pattern-analyzer	Codebase UX maturity assessment — inventories loading, error, form, navigation, empty state, confirmation/undo patterns (devise Phase 0.3)

Research Agents

Agent	Role
rune:research:practice-seeker	External best practices research
rune:research:repo-surveyor	Codebase/repo exploration
rune:research:lore-scholar	Framework documentation research
rune:research:echo-reader	Reads Rune Echoes (past learnings)
rune:research:git-miner	Git history archaeology

Work Agents

Agent	Role
rune:work:rune-smith	Code implementation (TDD-aware)
rune:work:trial-forger	Test generation

Testing Agents

Agent	Role
rune:testing:unit-test-runner	Diff-scoped unit test execution (Sonnet)
rune:testing:integration-test-runner	Integration test execution with service management (Sonnet)
rune:testing:e2e-browser-tester	E2E browser testing via agent-browser (Sonnet)
rune:testing:test-failure-analyst	Read-only failure analysis and fix suggestions (Opus inherit)

Ash Selection Logic

The /rune:appraise command selects Ash based on file extensions (Rune Gaze):

File Pattern	Ash Selected
**/*.py	Forge Warden + Ward Sentinel + Pattern Weaver + Veil Piercer
**/*.{ts,tsx,js,jsx}	Glyph Scribe + Ward Sentinel + Pattern Weaver + Veil Piercer
**/*.md (>= 10 lines changed)	Knowledge Keeper (conditional)
Mixed code + docs	All applicable Ash

Ward Sentinel, Pattern Weaver, and Veil Piercer are selected for every review regardless of file types.

See roundtable-circle skill for full Ash architecture and prompts.