Sw Do

sw-do — work an increment to done

One loop: pick a task, claim it, implement inside its Files:, prove it with a test, record the evidence. Repeat until nothing is claimable, then verify and close. State is the ledger (sw-task); the spec is the contract.

Run specweave --version: exit 0 → CLI path. Not found → manual path (same files, appended by hand — see sw-task).

Pick the increment

No id given → the single increment whose metadata.json has status: active. Several active → list them and ask which. None → run sw-increment first.

The loop

1. Next — specweave task next <inc>: the first open task whose deps are done and whose Files: no live claim holds. Manual: lowest open T-id in tasks.md with no live claim in ledger.jsonl.
2. Claim — specweave task claim T-01 <inc> (exit 3 = someone owns it, pick another · 4 = Files overlap · 6 = deps unmet). Manual: append {"t":"T-01","e":"claim","by":"<agent>","at":"<ISO>"}. Never edit before claiming.
3. Read — the task's AC: ids in spec.md and its Files:. Read the Approach section for that scope only; do not re-read the whole repo.
4. Implement — inside that task's Files: and nothing else. Need another file → claim the task that owns it, or add a task: ### T-07 Title + - AC: AC-03 | Files: src/b.ts | Test: npm test -- b.
5. Prove — run the task's Test: command. Red → fix; never continue past a failing test.
6. Commit — subject starts with the increment id: git commit -m "0042: fold the ledger".
7. Done with evidence — specweave task done T-01 <inc> --run "npm test -- a" (exit 5 = the command failed, task stays open). No Test: → --evidence "<sha> + what you ran". Manual: append {"t":"T-01","e":"done","by":"<agent>","at":"<ISO>","evidence":"npm test -- a → exit 0 / <sha>"}.
8. Stuck / not needed — task block T-01 --note "<what is missing>" or task skip T-01 --note "<why>" (skip is terminal and needs a reason).
9. Back to 1.

No CLI? Same loop, appended by hand

ledger.jsonl is the only state; append one line per event (full protocol in sw-task):

printf '%s\n' '{"t":"T-01","e":"claim","by":"codex@mbp","at":"2026-09-02T10:00:00Z"}' \
  >> .specweave/increments/0042-slug/ledger.jsonl

$L = '.specweave\increments\0042-slug\ledger.jsonl'
$line = '{"t":"T-01","e":"done","by":"codex@win","at":"2026-09-02T11:30:00Z","evidence":"npm test -- a → exit 0 / a1b2c3d"}'
[IO.File]::AppendAllText($L, $line + "`n", [Text.UTF8Encoding]::new($false))

PowerShell never uses >> here: it writes UTF-16 with a BOM and the line is unreadable to every other tool.

Finish (do not stop to ask)

When every task is done or skipped:

1. specweave verify <inc> — runs the project's test/lint/build commands (config testing.commands, else auto-detected), checks the ACs in spec.md, writes reports/verify.md + reports/verify.json. verify.json.ok is the only closure gate. Manual: run the same commands yourself and write reports/verify.md with the real output.
2. Tick the ACs you satisfied in spec.md (- [x] AC-01 …) — only the ones the evidence supports.
3. Review before shipping user-facing work: sw-review (fresh context, adversarial).
4. specweave complete <inc> — refuses without a passing verify.json unless you pass --reason "<why>".

"All tasks are complete, should I close?" is the anti-pattern. Verify, then close.

Rules

• Claim before edit; edit only the task's Files:; append-only ledger.
• One worktree per agent when others share the increment; the branch name carries the increment id: git worktree add ../0042-codex -b inc/0042-codex.
• A claim older than 2h with no done is stale and may be taken over (task claim --force).
• Stopping for any reason: specweave task release --all-mine, then sw-handoff.
• Sync between agents happens only through committed files — never assume another agent saw anything you did not commit.

Related

• sw-task — the ledger protocol and the manual (no-CLI) forms.
• sw-increment — write the spec first. · sw-review — adversarial pass before closing.