# Cdev > Use when the user invokes /cdev (with or without arguments) in a repo conditioned for continuous autonomous development, or asks to run the active sprint, "follow the plan", "sigue el plan", or overnight/unattended work — starts the single execution loop, adapted through the role profile the repo resolves to. - Skill: `elmayii/cdev` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add elmayii/cdev` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/elmayii/cdev/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: elmayii (https://skillmd.com/u/elmayii) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/elmayii/cdev --- # CDev — the execution loop Single entry point, single loop. Invoking it is the **elevated autonomy** mandate: work proactively assuming what the project needs and stop **only at real blockages** — never to ask what to do next. The repo is the memory: `SPRINTS.md` = plan · `AGENT_PROGRESS.md` = handoff · git = state. The repo's specifics live in its `docs/develop/AGENT_EXECUTION_PROTOCOL.md`; the role's specifics live in a **role profile**; this skill is the generic operating system and the autonomy threshold. If the repo's protocol is stricter about *when to stop and ask*, this explicit invocation elevates it; on safety gates the strictest always wins. ## Resolve the role Read the repo guide (`AGENTS.md`; hosts with their own filename read it through a pointer, e.g. `CLAUDE.md`) and `docs/develop/` (RECOGNITION document if present, protocol). Then load the matching profile from this package's `profiles/` directory: resolve this skill's base directory to its **real path first** (dereference junctions/symlinks), then go to `../../profiles/`: - **Backend** (API/services/own schema, no UI) → `profiles/backend.md`. - **Frontend** (consumes an external backend) → `profiles/frontend.md`. - **Fullstack/other** → no profile ships: the repo's own protocol must supply the four things a profile would (what "verified" means, what "evidence" means, the hardest gate, the self-chosen work order). Same loop, same contract. When in doubt, what the repo declares wins. A profile supplies **exactly those four things** and can never alter the loop, the stop conditions, the autonomy threshold or the gate policy. **Not conditioned** (no `docs/develop/` with SPRINTS/protocol) → do not improvise the loop: propose the `bootstrap` skill and stop there. ## Start (every invocation/resumption) Read in order: the repo guide (`AGENTS.md`) → protocol → `SPRINTS.md` → `AGENT_PROGRESS.md` (latest entry) → `git status` + recent commits. If the repo declares an upstream contract (a consumed producer's published report), read it **before** starting the sprint: it is the contract — never invent fields, and record divergence from deployed reality as a blocker/decision, not a guess. Resume from there; do not re-derive what was already decided. If git shows real work the plan does not know about (commits/WIP with no batch or progress entry), **reconcile first**: reflect it in `SPRINTS.md` + `AGENT_PROGRESS.md` before continuing — repo-as-memory does not function while plan and code disagree. **No argument** = resume the plan's pending work. **With argument** = same loop scoped to that focus (e.g. `/cdev sprint 09`). ## Loop (repeat until a real blockage) 1. **Select:** first `READY`/`IN_PROGRESS` batch of the `ACTIVE` sprint, in strict declared order. Mark it `IN_PROGRESS`. Working branch per the repo's convention; default when the repo declares none: `cdev/sprint--batch-`, numbering matching the plan's own. A batch depending on an unmerged predecessor branches from that predecessor's branch (merging is a human gate, so stacking is the only way to see its work). Never a shared branch. 2. **Implement only that batch.** Reuse before writing; smallest correct diff; additive by default so live contracts do not break. 3. **Verify** with the real sequence — the profile defines what "verified" means for the role, the protocol fixes the exact commands. If a declared check turns out not to be a real gate (it passes while checking nothing), record it as pass-with-caveat and raise a blocker to fix the gate — a gate that lies is worse than none. Steps whose blast radius exceeds the working branch are prepared, never executed (§ gates). 4. **On failure, diagnose before fixing:** exact error quoted, find every caller, fix the root cause once where they all route through, re-run the failed command and then the full sequence. Never silence a check to make a step pass. 5. **Record** in `AGENT_PROGRESS.md`, in the ordering the protocol declares: honest status, what was done, files, verification **pass/fail/not-run per check**, blockers each naming the minimum human decision, next. Incomplete is never `DONE`. 6. **Commit the whole batch** on its branch, unit in the message; useful-but-unfinished → `wip(...)`. Never push. 7. **Close:** `DONE` only when acceptance is met with recorded evidence — evidence as the profile defines it. Next batch. ## Auto-advance - **Batch done** → next batch of the sprint. - **Batch blocked (non-quota)** → `BLOCKED` with reason + the minimum human decision, then *blocked-but-not-idle*: next batch whose dependencies are met; if none, the next independent sprint. Blocked work is never quietly closed. - **Sprint done** → if the repository has downstream consumers, publish the contract delta where they look (the repo's report convention) as part of closing; mark `DONE`, promote the next `PENDING` to `ACTIVE`, continue. - **Plan exhausted** → derive the next work yourself in the profile's self-chosen order, staying inside DEFINED/PARTIAL areas of the clarity map (`PRODUCT.md`; if the repo has no map yet, approximate — defined = existing source doc + contract — and note it in `docs/develop/DECISIONS.md`). A next-phase draft is written as `PROPOSAL`, never self-activated; continue with the other work meanwhile. Record what was self-chosen and why. ## It only stops when - No ungated work remains anywhere — say exactly which approvals would unblock what. - A safety gate requires human action and everything else depends on it. - Contradictory docs, or an `ABSENT` area without which it cannot continue (open question recorded; inventing product is forbidden). - The repo is in an unsafe state. - Usage/quota limit: save everything, update `AGENT_PROGRESS.md`, commit what is safe (`wip` if needed), exit cleanly. Resumption reads the repo, never conversational memory. ## Safety gates (never elevated) The shape is core: **blast radius beyond the working branch** (push to shared branches, merge, PRs, deploy, history rewriting) · **irreversible on shared state** (remote schema apply, destructive data operations) · **real money and live credentials**. The repo's protocol lists its own gates; the profile lists the role's typical ones; the union applies and the strictest wins. Prepare, don't execute: draft + blocker naming the decision. A past authorization recorded in the repo is never a present one. ## Optional composition (host bindings) If available in the host, compose: a minimal-diff discipline at every step, test-driven work on domain logic, systematic debugging on failures, a verification pass before claiming done. The rules above stand on their own without any of them.