Kickoff report schema

Overview

Kickoff reports are generated automatically when an agent finishes its task. You typically consume them via crosslink kickoff report rather than reading the JSON directly. This reference documents the schema for tooling integration and custom dashboards.

When a kickoff agent completes its work, it writes a .kickoff-report.json file to the worktree root. This file captures criteria verdicts, phase timing, metrics, and traceability data.

Schema (v1)

{
  "schema_version": 1,
  "agent_id": "driver--feature-slug",
  "issue_id": 42,
  "status": "completed",
  "started_at": "2026-03-03T12:00:00Z",
  "completed_at": "2026-03-03T13:30:00Z",
  "validated_at": "2026-03-03T13:25:00Z",
  "phases": {
    "exploration": { "duration_s": 120, "files_read": 34 },
    "planning": { "duration_s": 60, "comments_added": 2 },
    "implementation": { "duration_s": 480, "files_modified": 8, "lines_added": 340, "lines_removed": 45 },
    "testing": { "duration_s": 90, "tests_run": 146, "tests_passed": 146, "tests_failed": 0 },
    "validation": { "duration_s": 30, "criteria_checked": 5 },
    "review": { "duration_s": 45, "issues_found": 1, "issues_fixed": 1 }
  },
  "criteria": [
    { "id": "AC-1", "verdict": "pass", "evidence": "test_upload passes with 100MB file" },
    { "id": "AC-2", "verdict": "partial", "evidence": "HTTP only, not WebSocket" }
  ],
  "summary": {
    "total": 2, "pass": 1, "fail": 0, "partial": 1,
    "not_applicable": 0, "needs_clarification": 0
  },
  "unresolved_questions": ["Should we cap the maximum backoff at 30 seconds?"],
  "commits": ["abc1234", "def5678"],
  "files_changed": ["src/retry.rs", "src/batch.rs"]
}

Field reference

Required fields

Field	Type	Description
`validated_at`	string (ISO-8601)	Timestamp when validation completed
`criteria`	array	Per-criterion verdicts (see below)
`summary`	object	Verdict count totals

Optional fields (Phase 4)

Field	Type	Description
`schema_version`	integer	Schema version (currently `1`)
`agent_id`	string	Agent identifier, e.g. `driver--batch-retry`
`issue_id`	integer	Crosslink issue number
`status`	string	`completed`, `failed`, or `partial`
`started_at`	string (ISO-8601)	When the agent started work
`completed_at`	string (ISO-8601)	When the agent finished
`phases`	object	Phase-level timing breakdown
`unresolved_questions`	array of strings	Open questions from the design doc
`commits`	array of strings	Commit SHAs produced
`files_changed`	array of strings	Files modified during implementation

Criterion verdict

Field	Type	Values
`id`	string	e.g. `AC-1`
`verdict`	string	`pass`, `fail`, `partial`, `not_applicable`, `needs_clarification`
`evidence`	string	Justification for the verdict

Phase timing

Each phase object has a required duration_s (seconds) and optional metric fields relevant to that phase:

Phase	Typical Metrics
`exploration`	`files_read`
`planning`	`comments_added`
`implementation`	`files_modified`, `lines_added`, `lines_removed`
`testing`	`tests_run`, `tests_passed`, `tests_failed`
`validation`	`criteria_checked`
`review`	`issues_found`, `issues_fixed`

Backward compatibility

Reports from Phase 3 (containing only validated_at, criteria, and summary) are fully supported. All Phase 4 fields default to null when absent.

Viewing reports

crosslink kickoff report <agent-id>           # table view
crosslink kickoff report <agent-id> --json    # raw JSON
crosslink kickoff report <agent-id> --markdown # PR-ready format
crosslink kickoff report --all                # aggregate all agents