Workflow

A structured development cycle with five phases. Each phase has a clear purpose and handoff to the next.

Cycle

brainstorm → plan → work → review → compound
   (WHAT)    (HOW)  (DO)  (CHECK)  (LEARN)

Phase Summary

Phase Details

1. Brainstorm

Explore requirements and approaches before committing to a plan. Answer WHAT to build.

• Understand the idea through collaborative dialogue
• Explore 2-3 concrete approaches
• Capture decisions in a brainstorm document
• Apply YAGNI — prefer simpler approaches

Exit condition: Idea is clear, approach chosen, decisions documented.

Next: Plan phase auto-detects brainstorm documents.

2. Plan

Transform the brainstorm output (or a direct feature request) into a structured plan.

• Research existing codebase patterns
• Choose implementation detail level (minimal, standard, comprehensive)
• Run spec flow analysis for gap detection
• Write plan file with acceptance criteria

Exit condition: Plan written, acceptance criteria defined.

Routes to: rick-rubin for scope discipline during planning.

See plan-phase.md for detail levels and plan structure.

3. Work

Execute the plan systematically.

• Read plan and clarify ambiguities upfront
• Break plan into tasks
• Execute in priority order: implement, test, commit incrementally
• Follow existing codebase patterns

Exit condition: All tasks complete, tests pass.

Routes to: tdd for test-driven implementation, rick-rubin for scope defense.

See work-phase.md for execution workflow.

4. Review

Verify quality through multi-angle analysis.

• Run code review against the diff
• Check security, performance, architecture, quality
• Synthesize findings by severity
• Address critical findings before merge

Exit condition: No critical findings remain, PR created.

Routes to: diff-review for security-focused review, code-review-rust or code-review-ts for language-specific review.

See review-phase.md for review structure.

5. Compound

Document the solved problem to compound team knowledge.

• Capture problem symptoms, investigation steps, root cause, working solution
• Write structured documentation with searchable frontmatter
• Cross-reference related solutions

Exit condition: Solution documented in docs/solutions/.

See compound-phase.md for documentation structure.

Usage

Run phases individually as needed. Not every task requires all five phases.

Routing to Local Skills

This skill is an orchestrator. It does not duplicate the internals of:

• tdd — test-driven development logic stays in tdd
• rick-rubin — scope discipline stays in rick-rubin
• diff-review — security review stays in diff-review
• code-review-rust / code-review-ts — language review stays in those skills

Cross-link only. Do not expand those skills' responsibilities.