chore(validation): clarify local validation command names

[jyaunches]

Summary

Routine pull-request validation now uses the explicit validate:pr command, custom repository checks use checks:repository, and the broad baseline remains check.

Related Issue

Fixes #7550

Changes

• Added canonical commands and non-breaking compatibility aliases.
• Updated current hook, lint, contributor, skill, and pull-request-template terminology.
• Extended package-script contract coverage across the canonical commands and compatibility aliases.

Type of Change

• Code change (feature, bug fix, or refactor)
• Code change with doc updates
• Doc only (prose changes, no code sample modifications)
• Doc only (includes code sample changes)

Quality Gates

• Tests added or updated for changed behavior — The new command-wiring contract assertion passes and npm run checks:repository passes. Four ambient trusted-fixture or timeout cases in the shared focused file remain unrelated to this diff.
• Existing tests cover changed behavior — justification:
• Tests not applicable — justification:
• Docs updated for user-facing behavior changes — Updated current contributor instructions and repository skills; no user-facing product page changed.
• Docs not applicable — justification:
• Sensitive paths changed (security, policy, credentials, preflight, onboarding, inference, runner, sandbox, or messaging)
• Sensitive-path review completed or maintainer-approved waiver recorded — reviewer/approval link/justification:
• Non-success, skipped, or missing CI check accepted by maintainer — check name, approval link, and follow-up issue:

Documentation Writer Review

• Documentation writer subagent reviewed the completed changes
• Result: docs-updated
• Evidence: Current contributor-facing references consistently distinguish routine PR, narrow repository, and broad baseline scopes.
• Agent: NemoClaw contributor validation commands
• PR: chore(validation): clarify local validation command names #7633

DGX Station Hardware Evidence

• Tested on DGX Station
• Tested commit: Not applicable
• Station profile/scenario: Not applicable
• Result: Not applicable
• Supporting evidence: Not applicable

Verification

• PR description includes a Signed-off-by: line and every commit appears as Verified in GitHub
• Normal pre-commit, commit-msg, and pre-push hooks passed, or npm run check:diff passed when hooks were skipped or unavailable — npm run validate:pr reached hook initialization after broker-controlled staging, then external sandbox policy denied cloning shellcheck-py with HTTP 403.
• Targeted behavior tests pass for the current change set, or tests are marked not applicable above — command/result or justification: The Clarify local validation command names for agentic contributors #7550 command-wiring assertion passes; npm run checks:repository passes.
• Applicable broad gate passed — npm test for broad runtime/test-harness changes; npm run check for repo-wide validation/coverage changes — command/result:
• Quality Gates section completed with required justifications or waivers
• No secrets, API keys, or credentials committed
• npm run docs builds without warnings (doc changes only)
• Doc pages follow the style guide (doc changes only)
• New doc pages include SPDX header and frontmatter (new pages only)

---

Signed-off-by: Remy the Refactoror jmyaunch@gmail.com

Summary by CodeRabbit

• Improvements

  • Introduced a dedicated pull request validation command for consistently running hook and commit checks.
  • Separated repository-focused checks from broader validation and clarified the scope of baseline checks.
  • Updated linting and validation workflows to use the appropriate check scope.

• Documentation

  • Refreshed contributor, maintainer, and pull request guidance with the new validation commands and clearer fallback instructions.

• Tests

  • Expanded workflow contract coverage to verify validation scripts, aliases, and check boundaries.

[copy-pr-bot]

This pull request requires additional validation before any workflows can run on NVIDIA's runners.

Pull request vetters can view their responsibilities here.

Contributors can view more details about this message here.

[coderabbitai]

No actionable comments were generated in the recent review. 🎉

ℹ️ Recent review info

⚙️ Run configuration

Configuration used: Path: .coderabbit.yaml

Review profile: CHILL

Plan: Enterprise

Run ID: 56368a06-413d-42b8-8b58-e636c14a5f4a

📥 Commits

Reviewing files that changed from the base of the PR and between a47ddd8 and a2c8d78.

📒 Files selected for processing (13)

• .agents/skills/nemoclaw-contributor-create-pr/SKILL.md
• .agents/skills/nemoclaw-contributor-onboard-messaging-channel/SKILL.md
• .agents/skills/nemoclaw-maintainer-day/SALVAGE-PR.md
• .agents/skills/nemoclaw-maintainer-day/TEST-GAPS.md
• .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md
• .pre-commit-config.yaml
• AGENTS.md
• CONTRIBUTING.md
• docs/AGENTS.md
• docs/CONTRIBUTING.md
• fern/AGENTS.md
• package.json
• test/pr-workflow-contract.test.ts

---

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

This change introduces npm run validate:pr and npm run checks:repository, updates script and hook wiring, expands command-contract tests, and revises contributor, agent, maintainer, and pull request guidance.

Changes

Validation command workflow

Layer / File(s)	Summary
Validation scripts and command contracts package.json, test/pr-workflow-contract.test.ts, .pre-commit-config.yaml	Adds canonical PR and repository-check scripts, updates aliases and lint commands, and verifies command wiring and hook entries.
Hook and contributor guidance AGENTS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, .agents/..., docs/..., fern/..., .github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md, .pre-commit-config.yaml	Replaces check:diff fallback guidance with validate:pr and clarifies command scopes.
Broad validation descriptions .agents/skills/nemoclaw-maintainer-day/*	Describes npm run check as a broad pre-commit and coverage baseline.

Estimated code review effort: 2 (Simple) | ~10 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• NVIDIA/NemoClaw#6270: Introduced the earlier check:diff-based local hook fallback that this change replaces with validate:pr.

Suggested labels: area: policy

Suggested reviewers: brandonpelfrey, cv

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title clearly describes the main change: clarifying local validation command names.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The changes implement the canonical validate:pr and checks:repository commands, update docs/hooks/templates, and add contract tests as required by #7550.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	The touched files and script/test changes all align with validation-command clarification and documentation updates, with no obvious unrelated additions.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

✨ Finishing Touches

📝 Generate docstrings

• Create stacked PR
• Commit on current branch

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Commit unit tests in branch agent/issue-7550-validation-command-names

---

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

[github-code-quality]

Code Coverage Overview

Languages: TypeScript

TypeScript / code-coverage/plugin

The overall coverage in commit a2c8d78 in the agent/issue-7550-val... branch remains at 96%, unchanged from commit d9836f8 in the main branch.

TypeScript / code-coverage/cli

The overall coverage in commit a2c8d78 in the agent/issue-7550-val... branch remains at 81%, unchanged from commit a47ddd8 in the main branch.

Show a code coverage summary of the most impacted files.

File	main a47ddd8	agent/issue-7550-val... a2c8d78	+/-
src/lib/onboard...box-prebuild.ts	92%	74%	-18%
src/lib/actions...ocker-health.ts	82%	65%	-17%
src/lib/actions...confirmation.ts	79%	69%	-10%
src/lib/actions...-add-restart.ts	19%	10%	-9%
src/lib/actions...lution-probe.ts	95%	88%	-7%
src/lib/actions...x/mcp-bridge.ts	41%	35%	-6%
src/lib/actions...e-validation.ts	84%	81%	-3%
src/lib/shields/index.ts	67%	71%	+4%
src/lib/onboard/docker-cdi.ts	70%	80%	+10%
src/lib/onboard...y-management.ts	82%	96%	+14%

---

_{Updated July 27, 2026 13:37 UTC}

[github-actions]

🌿 Preview your docs: https://nvidia-preview-pr-7633.docs.buildwithfern.com/nemoclaw

[github-actions]

PR Review Advisor — No blocking findings reported

Advisor assessment: No blocking advisor findings reported
Next action: No advisor follow-up needed.
Findings: 0 blockers · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions

Model lanes

• GPT-5.6 Terra (primary): Completed · medium confidence · 0 blockers · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions
• Nemotron 3 Ultra (second opinion): Completed · high confidence · 0 blockers · 0 warnings · 0 suggestions
• Model comparison: normalized findings match; normalized E2E selections match; severity counts match.

Nemotron output stays in workflow artifacts and does not change the assessment above.

E2E guidance

Advisory only. E2E / PR Gate selects and runs jobs independently.

Recommended E2E: cloud-inference, cloud-onboard, security-posture

Workflow run details

This automated review informs maintainers. Warnings and suggestions do not require a response. A maintainer decides whether to merge.

[jyaunches]

Replaced by #7836 with the same reviewed validation-command change on a fresh branch whose commits are signed and GitHub Verified. The published history on this PR cannot be repaired because force-push is disabled.