fix(agents): mode cards load their mode-protocol skill at kickoff (#989)

[aarontrowbridge]

Important

Problem — Both director mode cards said "First action (kickoff or resume): invoke the director-core skill and follow it" and never named the mode's own protocol skill. The spine is engine-neutral and explicitly "never a replacement" for the mode's binding — the spec-gate mechanics, roles table, probe/experiment boundary, and checkout-registry rules live in the mode skill. Observed failure (2026-09-10, a research-mode pickup): the director loaded director-core only, treated the spine as sufficient, and skipped the mode protocol.

Approach — Each card's directive now requires invoking BOTH skills (the spine first, then the mode skill — research for research mode, autodev for dev mode) before acting on the loop, and a new mode-cards floor test pins the pairing per card so the suite is the contract.

Acceptance Criteria

• Each mode card's first-action directive names both director-core and its own mode skill, as required first actions before acting on the loop
• The mode-cards test asserts the pairing per card (research → research, dev → autodev)
• CI green

Verification

• npx vitest run test/mode_cards.test.ts — 19/19 pass locally (17 existing + 2 new pairing tests)
• pnpm --filter amicode test — the mode-cards suite is green; the branch carries pre-existing red in the overlay/auth/wiring files (verified identical failures with this PR's changes stashed — overlay_known_fixes_964, editable_diffs_wiring, prompt_input_design_placeholder_964, auth-mode seams). Not addressed here; flagged in the issue.

Closes #989

[coderabbitai]

Important

Draft PR not reviewed

Draft PRs are not automatically reviewed by default.

• Trigger a manual review

To automatically review draft PRs, update your CodeRabbit configuration:

reviews:
  auto_review:
    drafts: true

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands.}