Skill Implementer

Implementer Skill

Thin wrapper that delegates general implementation to general-implementation-agent subagent.

IMPORTANT: This skill implements the skill-internal postflight pattern. After the subagent returns, this skill handles all postflight operations (status update, artifact linking, git commit) before returning. This eliminates the "continue" prompt issue between skill return and orchestrator.

Context References

Reference (do not load eagerly):

• Path: .claude/context/formats/return-metadata-file.md - Metadata file schema
• Path: .claude/context/patterns/postflight-control.md - Marker file protocol
• Path: .claude/context/patterns/subagent-continuation-loop.md - Continuation loop pattern
• Path: .claude/context/patterns/context-exhaustion-detection.md - Context exhaustion heuristics
• Path: .claude/context/patterns/file-metadata-exchange.md - File I/O helpers
• Path: .claude/context/patterns/jq-escaping-workarounds.md - jq escaping patterns (Issue #1132)
• Path: .claude/context/contracts/phase-closure.md - depth-first phase closure: close one phase before opening the next (loaded by agent)
• Path: .claude/context/contracts/pre-edit-gate.md - per-item evidence before applying a mechanical-list edit (loaded by agent)

Note: This skill is a thin wrapper with internal postflight. Context is loaded by the delegated agent.

Trigger Conditions

This skill activates when:

• Task type is "general", "meta", or "markdown"
• /implement command is invoked
• Plan exists and task is ready for implementation

Execution Flow

Stage 1: Input Validation

Validate required inputs:

• task_number - Must be provided and exist in state.json
• Task status must allow implementation (planned, implementing, partial)

# Lookup task
task_data=$(jq -r --argjson num "$task_number" \
  '.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num)' \
  specs/state.json)

# Validate exists
if [ -z "$task_data" ]; then
  return error "Task $task_number not found"
fi

# Extract fields
task_type=$(echo "$task_data" | jq -r '.task_type // "general"')
status=$(echo "$task_data" | jq -r '.status')
project_name=$(echo "$task_data" | jq -r '.project_name')
description=$(echo "$task_data" | jq -r '.description // ""')

# Validate status (only block terminal states)
if [ "$status" = "completed" ] || [ "$status" = "abandoned" ] || [ "$status" = "expanded" ]; then
  return error "Task is in terminal state [$status]"
fi

Stage 2 + Stage 3: Preflight Status Update and Postflight Marker

Source skill-base.sh once, then follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-preflight-flow.md in full for Stage 2 (preflight status update) and Stage 3 (marker creation):

source .claude/scripts/skill-base.sh
padded_num=$(printf "%03d" "$task_number")
skill_name="skill-implementer"
operation="implement"

This skill supplies the shared block's preconditions: task_number, padded_num, project_name, session_id, operation, skill_name. Follow the shared block's ordering and failure-semantics rules exactly — do not re-inline the update-task-status.sh preflight call or the .postflight-pending heredoc here.

Note: update-task-status.sh preflight implement also updates the plan file status to [IMPLEMENTING], in addition to the state.json/TODO.md updates skill_preflight_update documents generically — this is existing update-task-status.sh behavior for the implement operation, unchanged by this conversion.

Stage 3a: Calculate Artifact Number

Read next_artifact_number from state.json and use (current-1) since summary stays in the same round as research/plan:

# Read next_artifact_number from state.json
next_num=$(jq -r --argjson num "$task_number" \
  '.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == $num) | .next_artifact_number // 1' \
  specs/state.json)

# Implement uses (current - 1) to stay in the same round as research/plan
# If next_artifact_number is 1 (no research yet), use 1
if [ "$next_num" -le 1 ]; then
  artifact_number=1
else
  artifact_number=$((next_num - 1))
fi

# Fallback for legacy tasks: count existing summary artifacts
if [ "$next_num" = "null" ] || [ -z "$next_num" ]; then
  padded_num=$(printf "%03d" "$task_number")
  count=$(ls "specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}/summaries/"*[0-9][0-9]*.md 2>/dev/null | wc -l)
  artifact_number=$((count + 1))
fi

artifact_padded=$(printf "%02d" "$artifact_number")

Note: Implement does NOT increment next_artifact_number. Only research advances the sequence.

Stage 4a: Memory Retrieval (Auto)

Retrieve relevant memories from the memory system to inject into the delegation context.

Skip if: clean_flag is true in the delegation context (from --clean command flag).

# Check clean_flag
if [ "$clean_flag" != "true" ]; then
  memory_context=$(bash .claude/scripts/memory-retrieve.sh "$description" "$task_type" "" 2>/dev/null) || memory_context=""
fi

# memory_context will be empty string if:
# - clean_flag is true (skipped)
# - memory-index.json missing or empty
# - no keywords matched any entries
# - script exited with error

If memory_context is non-empty, it will be injected into the Stage 5 prompt alongside the format specification from Stage 4b. If empty, no memory block is injected.

Literature Detection and Injection (Stage 4a, shared block)

Follow @.claude/context/patterns/lit-stage4a-flow.md in full to resolve --lit and set lit_context: call literature-lit-flag-resolve.sh, branch on all six directives (LIT_DISABLED, SUBINDEX_PRESENT, GLOBAL_MISSING, PROMPT_NEEDED, AUTONOMOUS_GLOBAL, SPARSE_PROMPT_NEEDED), issue the real four-option AskUserQuestion for the two interactive directives (including the "Search online to ingest" option wired to the STABLE-CONTRACT literature-ingest-online.sh bridge), apply the two-checkpoint sparse re-prompt after "Use global corpus now", and take the deterministic [lit:auto] autonomous fallback when orchestrator_mode == "true" (never calling AskUserQuestion in that case). This skill supplies the shared block's preconditions: lit_flag, description, and orchestrator_mode (read from the delegation context; default "false" when unset).

Note: lit_flag is independent of clean_flag. Using --clean --lit suppresses memory retrieval but still injects literature briefing. Literature briefing is gated solely on lit_flag == "true".

Stage 4: Prepare Delegation Context

Prepare delegation context for the subagent:

session_id here is the value received in this skill's args (see Stage 2+3's "supplied preconditions" above), passed through verbatim; never regenerated here. The sess_{timestamp}_ {random} shape below is illustrative of that value's format only, not an instruction to construct a new one at this stage.

{
  "session_id": "sess_{timestamp}_{random}",
  "delegation_depth": 1,
  "delegation_path": ["orchestrator", "implement", "skill-implementer"],
  "timeout": 7200,
  "task_context": {
    "task_number": N,
    "task_name": "{project_name}",
    "description": "{description}",
    "task_type": "{task_type}"
  },
  "artifact_number": "{artifact_number from Stage 3a}",
  "effort_flag": "{effort_flag from command, null if not set}",
  "model_flag": "{model_flag from command, null if not set}",
  "plan_path": "specs/{NNN}_{SLUG}/plans/MM_{short-slug}.md",
  "roadmap_path": "specs/ROADMAP.md",
  "metadata_file_path": "specs/{NNN}_{SLUG}/.return-meta.json"
}

Note: The artifact_number field tells the agent which sequence number to use for artifact naming (e.g., 01, 02). Summary uses the same round number as the research and plan that preceded it.

Model/Effort Flags: If model_flag is set (haiku, sonnet, opus, fable), pass it as the model parameter on the Agent tool to override the agent's frontmatter default. If effort_flag is set (fast, hard), include it as prompt context for reasoning depth guidance.

CRITICAL: No Source Reading Before Delegation -- Between preparing the delegation context (Stage 4) and spawning the sub-agent (Stage 5), the lead skill MUST NOT read, grep, glob, or analyze source files. The plan file and state.json are the only files the lead reads. All codebase exploration (reading source files, grepping for patterns, using MCP tools) is the exclusive responsibility of the sub-agent after it is spawned.

Stage 4b: Read and Inject Format Specification

Read the summary format file and prepare it for injection into the subagent prompt. This ensures the subagent always has the full format specification in its context, regardless of whether it reads the file itself.

format_content=$(cat .claude/context/formats/summary-format.md)

The format content will be included as a delimited section in the Stage 5 prompt (see below).

Stage 5: Invoke Subagent

Task-lock heartbeat note: this skill is a thin wrapper that delegates the entire phase loop to general-implementation-agent in a single Agent tool call — it has no per-phase-transition point of its own to hook a task-lock.sh heartbeat call into. The heartbeat refresh lives inside general-implementation-agent.md's Stage 4D ("Mark Phase Complete"), which fires once per phase as the subagent progresses through the plan. See .claude/context/patterns/task-lock.md for the full contract.

CRITICAL: You MUST use the Agent tool to spawn the subagent.

Required Tool Invocation:

Tool: Agent (NOT Skill, NOT Plan)
Parameters:
  - subagent_type: "general-implementation-agent"
  - prompt: [Include task_context, delegation_context, plan_path, metadata_file_path,
             AND the format specification from Stage 4b as shown below]
  - description: "Execute implementation for task {N}"

Format Injection: Include the format specification from Stage 4b in the prompt as a clearly-delimited section:

<artifact-format-specification>
## CRITICAL: Summary Format Requirements

You MUST follow this format specification exactly when writing the implementation summary.
Non-compliance will be caught by postflight validation.

{format_content from Stage 4b}
</artifact-format-specification>

Place this section AFTER the delegation context JSON and BEFORE any other instructions.

Memory Context Injection: If memory_context from Stage 4a is non-empty, include it in the prompt as a separate block:

{memory_context from Stage 4a -- already wrapped in <memory-context> tags}

Place the memory context block AFTER the format specification and BEFORE the task-specific instructions. Do NOT inject an empty <memory-context> block when no memories were retrieved.

Literature Briefing Injection: If lit_context from Stage 4a is non-empty, include it in the prompt as a separate block:

{lit_context from Stage 4a -- already wrapped in <literature-briefing> tags}

Place the literature briefing block AFTER the memory context block (if any) and BEFORE the task-specific instructions. Do NOT inject an empty <literature-briefing> block when no literature briefing was generated.

DO NOT use Skill(general-implementation-agent) - this will FAIL.

The subagent will:

• Load implementation context files
• Parse plan and find resume point
• Execute phases sequentially
• Create/modify files as needed
• Create implementation summary
• Write metadata to specs/{NNN}_{SLUG}/.return-meta.json
• Return a brief text summary (NOT JSON)

Stage 5a: Validate Subagent Return Format

If the subagent's text return parses as valid JSON, log a warning (v1 pattern instead of v2 file-based pattern). Non-blocking -- continue to read metadata file regardless.

Stage 5b: Self-Execution Fallback

Follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-self-execution-fallback.md in full. This skill's success status value for that block's write obligation is "implemented".

Stage 5c: Continuation Loop Init

Initialize continuation tracking before entering the postflight loop:

continuation_count=0
max_continuations=3

# Create loop-guard file to track count across potential interruptions
task_dir="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}"
cat > "${task_dir}/.continuation-loop-guard" << EOF
{
  "session_id": "${session_id}",
  "continuation_count": 0,
  "max_continuations": 3,
  "created": "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)"
}
EOF

Note: The loop guard ensures that even if the skill is interrupted between iterations, the next invocation can read the count and enforce the limit.

Postflight (ALWAYS EXECUTE)

The following stages MUST execute after work is complete, whether the work was done by a subagent (Stage 5) or inline (Stage 5b). Do NOT skip these stages for any reason.

Continuation Loop

The postflight stages below run inside a loop. Each iteration processes the return from one subagent execution. If the subagent returns partial with a handoff_path, a successor subagent is spawned and the loop continues (up to max_continuations).

while true; do

Stage 6: Parse Subagent Return (Read Metadata File)

Read the metadata file:

metadata_file="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}/.return-meta.json"

if [ -f "$metadata_file" ] && jq empty "$metadata_file" 2>/dev/null; then
    status=$(jq -r '.status' "$metadata_file")
    artifact_path=$(jq -r '.artifacts[0].path // ""' "$metadata_file")
    artifact_type=$(jq -r '.artifacts[0].type // ""' "$metadata_file")
    artifact_summary=$(jq -r '.artifacts[0].summary // ""' "$metadata_file")
    phases_completed=$(jq -r '.metadata.phases_completed // 0' "$metadata_file")
    phases_total=$(jq -r '.metadata.phases_total // 0' "$metadata_file")

    # Extract completion_data fields (if present)
    completion_summary=$(jq -r '.completion_data.completion_summary // ""' "$metadata_file")
    roadmap_items=$(jq -c '.completion_data.roadmap_items // []' "$metadata_file")
    memory_candidates=$(jq -c '.memory_candidates // []' "$metadata_file")

    # Extract handoff_path for continuation loop (if present)
    handoff_path=$(jq -r '.partial_progress.handoff_path // ""' "$metadata_file")
else
    echo "Error: Invalid or missing metadata file"
    status="failed"
fi

Stage 6a: Validate Artifact Content

If subagent status indicates success ("implemented" or "partial") and artifact_path is non-empty, validate the summary artifact against format requirements. This is non-blocking -- warnings are logged but do not prevent postflight from completing.

if [ "$status" = "implemented" ] || [ "$status" = "partial" ]; then
    if [ -n "$artifact_path" ] && [ -f "$artifact_path" ]; then
        echo "Validating summary artifact..."
        if ! bash .claude/scripts/validate-artifact.sh "$artifact_path" summary; then
            echo "WARNING: Summary artifact has format issues (non-blocking). Review output above."
        fi
    fi
fi

Note: Validation is non-blocking by design; failures are logged but do not block status update or git commit. --fix is deliberately not used at this call site: a TBD-placeholder auto-repair would make a non-compliant artifact look compliant to the validator while conveying nothing to the human reader the header exists to serve. A compliant summary written from the correct template must produce no warning here, so that a warning again carries signal.

Stage 6b: Commit Phase Progress (Inside Loop)

After each subagent completes (whether implemented, partial, or failed), commit the work using targeted, work-scoped staging — never stage the entire working tree. See .claude/context/standards/git-staging-scope.md for the full commit-scope contract.

Composes with, does not duplicate, per-objective green commits: general-implementation-agent already commits at every verified-green objective during its own execution (see that agent's Stage 4B-iii and .claude/rules/git-workflow.md's Commit-Per-Green-Substep Mandate). This subagent-return-level commit is coarser-grained (fires once per iteration, not per objective) and is expected to often find nothing new to stage — the commit failing with "nothing to commit" is non-blocking and normal here, not a sign the mandate was skipped. The commit itself goes through .claude/scripts/git-commit-scoped.sh, the single sanctioned implementation of path-scoped, mutex-serialized committing (see .claude/context/standards/git-staging-scope.md's "Commit-Level Path Scoping and Cross-Process Serialization" section), so a concurrently-dispatched agent's own staged-but-uncommitted work is never swept into this commit and this coarser-grained commit never races another task's simultaneous commit on index.lock:

task_dir="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}"
stage_paths=("${task_dir}/" "specs/TODO.md" "specs/state.json")

# Include the plan file explicitly (already covered by task_dir/ above; staged
# explicitly too per the contract)
plan_file=$(ls "${task_dir}"/plans/*.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
[ -n "$plan_file" ] && stage_paths+=("$plan_file")

# Agent self-reported modified_files (accumulated files_touched from this iteration's subagent)
modified_files_count=0
while IFS= read -r f; do
  if [ -n "$f" ]; then
    stage_paths+=("$f")
    modified_files_count=$((modified_files_count + 1))
  fi
done < <(jq -r '.modified_files[]? // empty' "$metadata_file" 2>/dev/null)

if [ "$modified_files_count" -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "WARNING: no modified_files reported; source-file changes NOT committed automatically. Review and commit manually."
fi

bash .claude/scripts/git-commit-scoped.sh \
  --message "task ${task_number} phase ${phases_completed}: implementation progress" \
  --session "${session_id}" \
  -- "${stage_paths[@]}" || echo "Note: Nothing to commit or commit failed (non-blocking)"

This ensures each subagent's progress is checkpointed in git before proceeding, without staging unrelated concurrent-session changes.

Stage 7: Update Task Status (Postflight)

If status is "implemented":

Step 1: Run the centralized status update script to update state.json (status -> "completed", timestamps), TODO.md ([IMPLEMENTING] -> [COMPLETED] in task entry + Task Order), and plan file (status -> [COMPLETED]).

--phase-check=refuse engages the script-side phase-accounting backstop. This skill previously had no phase gate at all: phases_completed/phases_total are read from the agent's .return-meta.json one stage earlier for the commit message, but were never consulted before this call. The backstop is deliberately independent of those values — the script resolves the task's own plan file and counts its ### Phase N: ... [STATUS] headings itself, exiting 4 without writing anything if any phase is not [COMPLETED]:

postflight_rc=0
bash .claude/scripts/update-task-status.sh postflight "$task_number" implement "$session_id" --phase-check=refuse || postflight_rc=$?

Step 1a (refusal branch): If postflight_rc is 4 the backstop refused — no state.json write and no plan-file stamp occurred. Treat this exactly like the status == "partial" branch below: keep the task at implementing, record a resume point, and let the next /implement invocation resume from the first incomplete phase. Do NOT retry without the flag, and do NOT hand-edit state.json to completed. Skip Steps 2-3 (completion_summary and roadmap_items are completion metadata and the task is not complete); Step 4's memory-candidate propagation may still run.

if [ "$postflight_rc" -eq 4 ]; then
    echo "[implementer] Phase-accounting backstop refused completion for task $task_number: the plan file shows incomplete phases. Task stays [IMPLEMENTING]; re-run /implement to resume." >&2
    bash .claude/scripts/state-write.sh \
      '(.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == '$task_number')) |= . + {
        last_updated: $ts,
        resume_phase: ($phase + 1)
      }' \
      --session-id "$session_id" \
      --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" --argjson phase "$phases_completed"
elif [ "$postflight_rc" -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "WARNING: update-task-status.sh exited $postflight_rc — manual correction may be needed" >&2
fi

Steps 2-3: Propagate completion_summary and roadmap_items to state.json via the shared writer (skill_propagate_completion_summary in scripts/skill-base.sh), which implements the same guarded write both steps used to duplicate inline (non-empty-guarded completion_summary; task_type != "meta" AND non-empty/non-"[]"-guarded roadmap_items) — this is one of six call sites that converge on that single function (skill-base.sh is already sourced once at Stage 2 + Stage 3 above, so it is not re-sourced here):

skill_propagate_completion_summary "$task_number" "$completion_summary" "$roadmap_items" "$task_type"

Step 4: Propagate memory candidates (if any) via the shared function (Stage 7a in the skill-postflight-flow.md skeleton — folded into this Step 4 rather than a separate heading, since this skill's postflight status update is itself embedded inside the continuation loop's per-status branches, not a standalone Stage 7):

skill_propagate_memory_candidates "$task_number" "$memory_candidates" "$session_id"

Note: Append semantics (never overwrite) so research candidates (from skill-researcher) and implementation candidates coexist on the same task entry.

Break loop — proceed to Stage 8 (Link Artifacts).

If status is "partial":

Keep status as "implementing" but update resume point. This path remains inline because the centralized update-task-status.sh maps postflight:implement to "completed" only -- it has no "partial" mapping.

bash .claude/scripts/state-write.sh \
  '(.active_projects[] | select(.project_number == '$task_number')) |= . + {
    last_updated: $ts,
    resume_phase: ($phase + 1)
  }' \
  --session-id "$session_id" \
  --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" --argjson phase "$phases_completed"

TODO.md stays as [IMPLEMENTING].

Update plan file (if exists): Update the Status field to [PARTIAL]:

.claude/scripts/update-plan-status.sh "$task_number" "$project_name" "PARTIAL"

Continuation decision:

if [ -n "$handoff_path" ] && [ -f "$handoff_path" ] && [ "$continuation_count" -lt "$max_continuations" ]; then
    # Increment counter and update loop guard
    continuation_count=$((continuation_count + 1))
    jq --argjson count "$continuation_count" \
       --arg ts "$(date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ)" \
      '.continuation_count = $count | .last_updated = $ts' \
      "${task_dir}/.continuation-loop-guard" > "${task_dir}/.continuation-loop-guard.tmp" \
      && mv "${task_dir}/.continuation-loop-guard.tmp" "${task_dir}/.continuation-loop-guard"

    # Log handoff for visibility
    echo "Spawning successor subagent (continuation $continuation_count/$max_continuations)"
    echo "Handoff: $handoff_path"

    # Prepare successor delegation context (see Stage 5 for base context)
    # Injected fields:
    # - delegation_depth: incremented by 1
    # - continuation_context: { is_successor: true, continuation_number: N, handoff_path: ..., progress_path: ..., previous_phases_completed: N }

    # Spawn successor subagent via Agent tool with updated context
    # (Same as Stage 5, but with continuation_context injected into delegation context JSON)

    # Continue loop — next iteration reads successor's metadata
    continue
else
    if [ -z "$handoff_path" ]; then
        echo "Partial return with no handoff_path. User must re-run /implement to resume."
    else
        echo "Max continuations ($max_continuations) reached. Returning partial."
    fi
    # Break loop — proceed to Stage 8
    break
fi

If no handoff_path: Break loop, report partial (user must resume). If continuation_count >= max_continuations: Break loop, report partial (max reached).

If status is "failed":

Keep status as "implementing" for retry. Do not update plan file (leave as [IMPLEMENTING] for retry).

Break loop — proceed to Stage 8.

done  # End Continuation Loop

Stage 8: Link Artifacts

Follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-postflight-flow.md's Stage 8 (artifact linking):

field_name='**Summary**'
next_field='**Description**'
skill_link_artifacts "$task_number" "$artifact_path" "$artifact_type" "$artifact_summary" \
  "$field_name" "$next_field" "$session_id"

Performs the two-step jq pattern internally (Issue #1132-safe) and regenerates TODO.md when artifact_path is non-empty — do not re-inline that pattern here.

Stage 8a: Lifecycle TTS Notification

Follow @.claude/context/patterns/skill-postflight-flow.md's Stage 8a (TTS notify):

skill_lifecycle_notify "$status"

Non-blocking: called in background after artifacts are linked. Speaks "Tab N STATUS" (e.g., "Tab 3 completed") to announce the lifecycle transition.

Stage 9: Git Commit

Commit changes with session ID, using targeted staging (never stage the entire working tree) via .claude/scripts/git-commit-scoped.sh, the single sanctioned implementation of path-scoped, mutex-serialized committing, per .claude/context/standards/git-staging-scope.md:

task_dir="specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}"
stage_paths=("${task_dir}/" "specs/TODO.md" "specs/state.json")

# Include the plan file explicitly (already covered by task_dir/ above)
plan_file=$(ls "${task_dir}"/plans/*.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
[ -n "$plan_file" ] && stage_paths+=("$plan_file")

# Agent self-reported modified_files
modified_files_count=0
while IFS= read -r f; do
  if [ -n "$f" ]; then
    stage_paths+=("$f")
    modified_files_count=$((modified_files_count + 1))
  fi
done < <(jq -r '.modified_files[]? // empty' "$metadata_file" 2>/dev/null)

if [ "$modified_files_count" -eq 0 ]; then
  echo "WARNING: no modified_files reported; source-file changes NOT committed automatically. Review and commit manually."
fi

bash .claude/scripts/git-commit-scoped.sh \
  --message "task ${task_number}: complete implementation" \
  --session "${session_id}" \
  --honest-index-rows "${task_number}" \
  -- "${stage_paths[@]}"

Note: This inline commit and orchestrator-postflight.sh Stage 9 both exist in the pipeline (this skill runs its own postflight inline rather than delegating to the shared script); both now invoke the identical git-commit-scoped.sh helper documented in .claude/context/standards/git-staging-scope.md, so their behavior — not just their staging description — no longer diverges.

Stage 10: Cleanup

Cleanup runs after the continuation loop exits. The .postflight-pending marker persists across loop iterations to ensure the SubagentStop hook fires correctly.

Remove marker and metadata files via the shared function (skill-postflight-flow.md's Stage 9), then remove the implementer-specific continuation-loop guard separately — skill_cleanup stays a 2-arg function shared by every importer and does not know about this implementer-only file:

skill_cleanup "$padded_num" "$project_name"
rm -f "specs/${padded_num}_${project_name}/.continuation-loop-guard"

Stage 11: Return Brief Summary

Return a brief text summary (NOT JSON). Example:

Implementation completed for task {N}:
- All {phases_total} phases executed successfully
- Key changes: {summary of changes}
- Created summary at specs/{NNN}_{SLUG}/summaries/MM_{short-slug}-summary.md
- Status updated to [COMPLETED]
- Changes committed

Error Handling

See rules/error-handling.md for general patterns. Skill-specific behaviors:

• Input validation errors: Return immediately with error message
• Metadata file missing: Keep status as "implementing", do not cleanup marker, report to user
• Git commit failure: Non-blocking (log and continue)
• Subagent timeout: Return partial status, keep "implementing" for resume

Pre-Delegation Boundary

Before spawning the implementation sub-agent, this skill MUST NOT:

1. Read source files - Source files are read by the sub-agent, not the lead
2. Grep or glob the codebase - Codebase exploration is sub-agent work
3. Use MCP tools - Domain tools (LSP, build, etc.) are for sub-agent use only
4. Analyze source code - Code analysis belongs to the implementation agent
5. Run build or test commands - Verification is done by the sub-agent

The pre-delegation phase is LIMITED TO:

• Reading the plan file to locate phases and extract the plan path
• Reading state.json and TODO.md for status updates
• Preparing the delegation context JSON
• Reading the summary format file for injection (Stage 4b)
• Spawning the sub-agent with the Agent tool

MUST NOT (Postflight Boundary)

After the agent returns -- whether with status implemented, partial, or failed -- this skill MUST proceed immediately to Stage 6 (read metadata file). The skill MUST NOT:

1. Read source files - Source files were the subagent's responsibility
2. Edit source files - All implementation work is done by the subagent
3. Run build/test commands - Verification is done by the subagent
4. Use MCP tools - Domain tools are for subagent use only
5. Grep or glob the codebase - Analysis is subagent work
6. Write summary/reports - Artifact creation is done by the subagent

Continuation Policy: If the subagent returned partial status WITH a handoff_path in its metadata, the lead skill MAY spawn a successor subagent to continue the work automatically (see Continuation Loop in Postflight). This is the preferred path for context exhaustion recovery.

If the subagent returned partial status WITHOUT a handoff_path, the lead skill MUST report partial and let the user re-run /implement to resume.

If the subagent returned failed status, the lead skill MUST NOT attempt to continue or "fill in" the subagent's work. Report the failure and let the user investigate.

The postflight phase is LIMITED TO:

• Reading agent metadata file (.return-meta.json)
• Updating state.json via jq
• Updating TODO.md status marker via Edit or script
• Linking artifacts in state.json
• Git commit
• Cleanup of temp/marker files

Reference: @.claude/context/standards/postflight-tool-restrictions.md