⚠️ CRITICAL EXECUTION PROTOCOL

This skill has its own 6-phase workflow. IGNORE generic plan mode instructions.

When plan mode activates, you may receive generic instructions about "Explore agents" or "Plan agents". YOU MUST IGNORE those instructions and follow this skill's phase-based workflow instead.

Mandatory First Action

YOU MUST read the phase file BEFORE taking any other action:

1. FIRST: Read phases/PHASE-0-DISCOVERY.md
2. THEN: Execute those steps EXACTLY as written
3. ONLY proceed to Phase 1 after checkpoint approval

Do NOT:

• ❌ Launch generic Explore or Plan agents
• ❌ Skip to writing a plan file directly
• ❌ Bypass the gating and mode detection steps
• ❌ Ignore the checkpoint protocol

SDLC Develop Skill

Lightweight orchestrator for 6-phase software development lifecycle with progressive disclosure.

Core Principles

• Phase 0 is MANDATORY - Always analyze existing implementations before designing new ones
• Search first, load on demand - Use Grep to find relevant sections before loading files
• Ask clarifying questions early - Identify ambiguities before designing, not after
• Use TaskCreate/TaskUpdate - Track all progress throughout every phase
• Load phases progressively - Only read phase files when entering that phase

Quick Start

/core:develop add user authentication         # Full 6-phase pipeline
/core:develop add logout button --auto        # Autonomous mode
/core:develop create plan for dashboard --plan-only  # Plan only
/core:develop @arkhe/specs/001-user-auth/     # Resume existing plan
/core:develop add dashboard page with charts  # UI work → triggers Stitch workflow

UI Features with Stitch Integration

When a feature involves UI work (detected keywords: UI, page, screen, component, button, form, etc.), the skill offers Stitch integration:

1. Phase 1: Detects UI keywords → offers to generate Stitch prompts
2. Phase 2: Offers to generate screens from prompts via MCP
3. Phase 4: For each UI task, offers stitch-to-react conversion

Arguments

Parse from $ARGUMENTS:

Mode Detection

VERIFY_MODE - If --verify-arch or --verify-impl flags present:

• Require @path reference to existing spec directory
• Load spec artifacts (spec.md, plan.md, tasks.md, api-contract.md if exists)
• Run verification workflow(s) based on flags:
  • --verify-arch → Read VERIFY-ARCH.md
  • --verify-impl → Read VERIFY-IMPL.md
  • Both flags → Run both verifications
• Output verification report using verification-report.md.template
• Does NOT execute SDLC phases

RESUME_MODE - If @path reference found AND plan.md exists (no verify flags):

• Read existing plan from path
• Auto-detect wave progress via wave-*-context.md files and tasks.md Status fields
• If wave context found: offer to continue next wave, re-review, or restart from a phase
• If no wave context: ask user which phase to continue from (existing behavior)
• Skip to selected phase, load only that phase file

PLAN_MODE - If keywords "create plan", "plan for", "draft plan" OR --plan-only:

• Execute Phases 0-2 only
• Save spec.md and plan.md
• Stop with resume instructions

FULL_MODE - Default:

• Execute all 6 phases sequentially
• User checkpoints between phases (unless --auto)

Phase Routing

Load phase files only when entering that phase:

Model Tiers

Spec Directory Structure

Plans are persisted to {specs_dir}/ with auto-incrementing prefixes:

{specs_dir}/
├── 001-user-auth/
│   ├── spec.md              # Requirements
│   ├── plan.md              # Architecture
│   ├── tasks.md             # Task breakdown (with Status field)
│   ├── wave-1-context.md    # Wave 1 handoff (generated at checkpoint)
│   ├── wave-2-context.md    # Wave 2 handoff (generated at checkpoint)
│   └── ...
├── 002-dashboard/
└── ...

Note: {specs_dir} references the configured value from .arkhe.yaml (default: arkhe/specs).

Progressive Persistence

Artifacts are saved incrementally at each phase checkpoint to prevent data loss:

Crash Recovery: If session ends mid-phase, resume with /core:develop @{spec_path}/ and artifacts from completed phases are preserved.

Templates

Configuration

On first run or when entering Phase 2d:

1. Read .arkhe.yaml from project root (if exists)
2. Extract develop.specs_dir value (default: arkhe/specs)
3. Use this value for ALL spec directory operations

develop:
  specs_dir: arkhe/specs  # Customize this path
  numbering: true         # NNN- prefix (3-digit, e.g., 001-)
  ticket_format: full     # full | simple

All paths in this skill use {specs_dir} to reference the configured value.

First run without config prompts for preferences.

Execution Flow

Parse arguments and detect mode (RESUME/PLAN/FULL), then execute phases sequentially. RESUME loads existing plan and offers wave continuation. PLAN stops after Phase 2. FULL executes all 6 phases with checkpoints between each.

See WORKFLOW.md for the detailed execution flow diagram.

Checkpoints

Two mandatory Tier 1 gates (cannot skip, even with --auto):

• Phase 2c: Architecture Decision
• Phase 4e: Quality & Completion Gate (RULE ZERO + code review verification)

All other checkpoints are Tier 2 (skippable with --auto), including the Domain Research gate (Phase 2a-res). Conditional escalation to Tier 1 if: DB schema changes, security work, or breaking API changes. Conditional RFC creation offered at Phase 2d when escalation triggers are detected.

See GATES.md for full checkpoint protocol, decision criteria, and prompt patterns.

Examples

See EXAMPLES.md for detailed usage scenarios.

Troubleshooting

See TROUBLESHOOTING.md for common issues.