Read the project AGENTS.md and applicable global guidance first. Fall back to CLAUDE.md if AGENTS.md is absent. Follow the global rules for optional tools, specialist agents and Git actions.

Dependency uplift: the user request

Repo facts (modules, compile/assemble commands, catalog vs Groovy scripts, deliberate opt-outs) come from the project's AGENTS.md and its gradle-deps rule if present. Write the step 4 plan before editing dependency versions. Existing authorization to perform the uplift is sufficient.

Skills named below are optional companions. When one is missing, follow references/companions.md in the android-standards skill and continue.

1. Baseline. Clean git status on feat/<ticket>-<slug> (or the project's documented branch convention). Run the project's compile checks and ./gradlew :app:dependencies --configuration <debugVariant>RuntimeClasspath > <scratchpad>/deps-before.txt. Quote results.
2. Inventory. List the in-scope entries with current versions (version catalog, or build.gradle files in Groovy repos). Note any gradle.properties opt-outs and convention plugins the uplift touches.
3. Research. Send one android-researcher per axis from step 4, in parallel, each asking for its inventory table. Ask for the latest stable of each item, its release notes, and compatibility (AGP↔Gradle↔JDK, Kotlin↔KSP↔Compose compiler). For AGP majors also load agp-9-upgrade.
4. Plan. One commit per axis, ordered Gradle → AGP → Kotlin/KSP → Compose BOM/AndroidX → third-party. Name the variants you will build and the tests you will run. Proceed within the user-authorized scope. Ask only about unresolved scope or consequential choices.
5. Apply each axis. Edit versions only where the project declares them. Rebuild all compile checks. For AGP/Kotlin/Gradle also run one release assemble (R8 path) and one debug assemble. Run the unit tests that passed at baseline. Diff deps-after.txt against deps-before.txt and list transitive changes.
6. Runtime check when native or vendored code is involved: $android-run-app on the 16 KB AVD, then the android-verifier agent runs the baseline tests and a smoke journey and returns the evidence.
7. Review. android-reviewer. Confirm each Blocker and Major against the code first, and decline a refuted one with the counter-evidence. Fix the rest, then re-run the compile check and the affected tests. Send the same reviewer the finding IDs and their "Verified fixed when" criteria to re-review the fix delta. Stop after two re-review rounds and report anything still open.
8. Commit, only if asked. Follow the shared Git conventions. Do not push unless asked.
9. Report table: item, old, new, build result, test result, notable transitive changes, follow-ups.