click

Click

Click is an incremental-verification runtime. In Evidence mode, the default, the host authorizes work exactly as it normally does; Click records what happened and decides which checks must run again. Do not treat a question about Click as a mutation, and do not stage a contract or ask for Click approval in Evidence mode.

What Click records on its own

• The user prompt becomes the intent lineage of the Evidence session. An in-scope or narrowing follow-up continues it; the next request after a completed session starts a fresh one. A fresh session, including a new Claude Code session of the same repository, starts from the archived receipts of the last completed one; Click requalifies them, so do not re-run a check only because the session is new.
• Every recognized file edit and every click-gate mutate advances the mutation revision, which invalidates earlier receipts.
• Every check submitted through click-gate verify gets an exact receipt bound to its argv, revision, protected tree, environment, executable, and host coverage. Supported checks also capture their inputs automatically.

None of this needs a contract, an approval, or a dependency declaration from you. Never invent one, and never create, widen, or edit .click/evidence-reuse.json or a shard map to skip a check.

Run checks through click-gate verify

Choose concrete checks from repository evidence while you work. The plain form names one check after its exact command:

click-gate verify -- python3 -m pytest -q

Its evidence id is derived from the argv, so resubmitting the same command resubmits the same check; its class is the command's own minimum; its working directory is the tool call's. Several checks in one request, an explicit id, a reporting block, or a different workdir use the JSON form:

click-gate verify '{"version":2,"workdir":"/absolute/path/to/repository","checks":[{"evidence_id":"E1","argv":["python3","-m","pytest","-q"],"class":"broad"}]}'

• class is targeted, broad, or deep. Include the absolute workdir whenever the execution tool runs outside the Hook session directory.
• After a change, resubmit the same command (or the same id and argv). For a sharded broad suite, always submit the parent id and argv, never an internal shard id. In Evidence mode a supported unittest, pytest, Vitest or Jest suite is sharded automatically: Click collects it and keeps the plan in its own state, so no .click/evidence-shards.json is needed; click-gate sharding init writes a reviewable copy into the repository when you want one.
• Use click-gate inspect for tracked read-only argv and click-gate mutate for structured mutations; ordinary file edits go through the host's editors directly. Exact forms, limits, observer, dashboard, and receipt-export controls are in the [capability protocol](references/capability-protocol.md).
• Stop when every registered check is current for the final revision and no managed service remains active.
• A request that omits reporting uses the actionable format for unittest/pytest checks: a failure arrives as a bounded summary with a local log reference, not the raw stream. Pass reporting.format: "raw" when you need the full output.

Read status

click-gate status prints at most three short lines in the dashboard language (CLICK_LANGUAGE or the POSIX locale; English unless the locale is Korean or Simplified Chinese): executed and reused counts with the estimated avoided time, the mode and revision, and the next action. Use click-gate status --json only when you need the full report with per-check decisions, reason codes, and actionable failure details.

Reuse is decided by Click

Click alone decides, at execution time, whether a submitted check runs or reuses a receipt. Report a reuse only when status output or a verification result shows it; never predict, request, or claim one, and never change an observer setting, a reporting mode, or an owner policy to obtain one. Status, the dashboard, Shadow telemetry, caller-supplied observation JSON, and any reuse_authorized: false view are not authority. Say a check is verified only when its receipt is current; Click does not prove code correctness or test sufficiency. The final receipt reports approval_bound: false and execution_authority: host.

Guarded mode

Only for @Click, $click, or click-gate default guarded: follow the [Guarded mode workflow](references/guarded-mode.md) for the approval-bound contract, staging and passing by id, and execution rules. Mode selection, resume, bypass, and cancel rules are in [operating modes](references/modes.md); bypass and cancel require the exact user-authorized first-line forms there. For code-review-only work in either mode, run click-gate review, stay read-only, and report findings without a build contract.

More, only when needed: [automatic sharding setup](references/automatic-sharding-setup.md) for a large suite without a shard policy, [verification efficiency](references/verification-efficiency.md) for reporting and failure-collection options, and [anti-loop policy](references/anti-loop-policy.md) for repeated reads.