cristianmartinez Feature Lifecycle
Guide one feature through:
Define → Architect → Plan → Implement
The coordinator owns cross-phase state and sequencing; installed companions own the phase workflows. Read each companion only while its phase is active:
Define product-definition
Architect solution-architecture
Plan feature-planning
Implement feature-implementation
If a required companion is unavailable, identify it and stop at that boundary. External installation requires user authorization.
1. Establish terminal scope
Infer the requested stopping point from the user's words:
- “Explore,” “shape,” or “define” ends after Definition.
- “Design” or “architect” ends after Architecture.
- “Plan” ends after Planning.
- “Build,” “implement,” “complete,” or an explicit end-to-end request includes Implementation.
Ask only when the intended stopping point materially changes whether repository mutations are authorized. Repository edits require an implementation-scoped request.
2. Create the feature ledger
Read references/feature-ledger.md. Keep one compact lifecycle ledger with:
Decision status confirmed | rejected | unresolved | inferred | superseded
Phase status not-started | active | gated | stale | complete
Provenance user | evidence | repository | delegated analysis
Dependency upstream decisions and downstream artifacts affected
The ledger prevents repeated questions and silent reinterpretation. Accept compact answers, prose, partial replies, corrections, and unsolicited constraints at every interactive phase. Preserve conditions attached to answers.
3. Resume instead of restarting
Inspect available conversation artifacts and repository evidence. Start at the first phase that is incomplete or whose inputs are stale. Preserve a completed phase when its decisions remain valid, regardless of document format.
A correction to an upstream decision supersedes the old entry. Mark only dependent downstream decisions, artifacts, tasks, or implementation slices stale; reopen those branches and preserve unaffected work.
4. Run one phase authority at a time
| Phase | Authority | Gate |
|---|---|---|
| Define | product-definition |
Its Product Definition completion criteria pass |
| Architect | solution-architecture |
Its architecture decision completion criteria pass |
| Plan | feature-planning |
Its executable plan completion criteria pass |
| Implement | feature-implementation |
Its delivery completion criteria pass |
Load only the active companion and the references that companion selects. The phase authority owns its research, question strategy, complexity routing, delegation, artifact, and completion criteria; the umbrella owns ordering, lifecycle scope, and cross-phase state.
At each gate, reconcile the companion's output into the lifecycle ledger. Resolve consequential decisions or defer them with a consequence and forcing event. A confirmed gate advances within the already authorized terminal scope without repeating the authorization question; it never broadens that scope. Run Implementation only when the terminal scope authorizes repository changes.
Definition, Architecture, and Planning remain proposition-led decision sessions. Accept compact choices, prose, qualifiers, corrections, and unsolicited constraints. Implementation acts within the approved contracts and reopens an upstream phase when evidence changes product meaning, architecture, scope, risk, permissions, or external effects.
When routing or delegation is supported and authorized, let each phase authority apply its own complexity rules. The lifecycle coordinator retains the ledger, phase gates, shared decisions, and contradiction resolution. Otherwise use the current permitted model and perform unavailable roles locally.
5. Close the lifecycle
At the requested stopping point, report:
Outcome What is now defined, designed, planned, or delivered
Decisions Consequential confirmed choices and explicit deferrals
Evidence Research, repository paths, proofs, and verification
Artifacts Definition, architecture, plan, and changed code as applicable
Residual Stale branches, risks, missing permissions, or none known
Next gate The next phase, or completion
For an implementation-scoped request, lifecycle completion requires delivered behavior rather than documents alone. Deployment, publication, merging, commits, and external mutations require explicit request or separate authorization.