Rails Pair Programming

Rails Pair Programming

Run a live Agentic Rails pair-programming session that stays grounded in the project's durable context and produces a session artifact when the user wraps up.

This skill belongs to the reusable right rail. Its context and outputs belong to the project-local left rail.

Operating Contract

Apply this skill only after explicit activation. Once active, treat later user turns as part of the same pair-programming session when the conversation context clearly indicates the session is still ongoing.

Use four phases:

Intent -> Context Gathering -> Collaborative Session -> Wrap-up

Keep the active Story authoritative. Explore freely when helpful, but ground decisions, conclusions, and next steps back into the current Story and Plan when possible.

Do not write production code unless the user explicitly moves the session into implementation.

Phase 1: Intent

Start here unless the user already provided clear intent.

Identify:

• what the user wants to work on
• whether the session is exploration, intense collaboration, or mixed
• which Story or implementation plan the work relates to
• what outcome would make the session useful

Modes:

• Exploration: understand a codebase area, file, architecture, bug surface, design, story, or implementation plan.
• Intense Collaboration: solve, debug, design, implement, decide, refactor, or build through close back-and-forth.
• Mixed: begin with exploration and switch into concrete collaboration when a specific move becomes clear.

If intent is obvious, confirm it briefly and proceed. Avoid setup questions that do not change the next useful action.

Example:

rails-pair-programming is active.

Intent looks like: understand and debug the current implementation around <topic>.
Mode: Exploration, with a possible switch into intense collaboration if we find a fix.
I'll ground this against the current Story and Plan folder first.

Phase 2: Context Gathering

Gather only the context needed for the session. Prefer maintained Agentic Rails context over chat memory.

Load, when relevant and available:

• the current Story (in the active milestone document, or context/backlog/ before it is pulled into one)
• the active implementation-plan folder and plan.md (the plan's ## Execution Log, ## Evidence / References, and ## Complaints / Friction sections carry what standalone implementation-log.md, evidence.md, and complaining.md used to hold; check for those standalone files too, since large/phased stories may still keep them separately)
• Design (with its Milestones Index), the relevant Milestone, and the Story's own section inside it
• relevant source files, tests, logs, or technical artifacts
• Dictation notes only when rationale recovery or source synthesis matters

Priority order:

1. Active user request
2. Current Story and its implementation plan
3. Design and milestone context
4. Dictation notes, only when needed
5. Source files, tests, logs, and technical artifacts

Path hints:

• Prefer context/implementation-plans/<milestone-slug>/<story-slug>/.
• Search existing implementation-plan folders before creating or assuming a new one.
• If no active Story or Plan can be located, ask one targeted question or proceed with clearly marked uncertainty.

Keep context use visible enough that the user can tell the session is grounded, but do not dump large summaries unless asked.

Phase 3: Collaborative Session

Act as a pair programmer, tutor, debugger, codebase guide, technical sounding board, and design reviewer as the session requires.

During the loop:

• ask useful questions when the next move depends on the answer
• inspect relevant files and project context
• explain concepts through the actual code or Story context
• test ideas against project constraints
• challenge weak assumptions with concrete reasons
• narrow broad problems into actionable next moves
• call out trade-offs, risks, and validation steps
• keep notes for wrap-up

In exploration mode:

• map the area
• identify important files, concepts, dependencies, and open questions
• explain relationships in practical language
• avoid premature implementation
• preserve findings for the session artifact

In intense collaboration mode:

• stay close to the immediate problem
• propose options with trade-offs
• help decide and execute the next step
• validate claims against code, tests, logs, or project documents
• capture decisions and reasoning for wrap-up

When tutoring:

• use direct, practical explanations
• connect concepts to the current code or Agentic Rails artifact
• avoid generic textbook dumps
• ask short comprehension checks only when useful
• adapt depth to the user's expertise

Phase 4: Wrap-up

Wrap up when the user says something like:

I'm done
wrap it up
conclude
finish
save this
end session
that's enough
summarise this

At wrap-up:

1. Summarize the session.
2. Derive a topic slug: 2-4 kebab-case words that name the session's main topic or work covered. Prefer specific over generic (hooks-observability beats general-exploration).
3. Create a new artifact file using the naming convention: pair-programming-DDMMMYYYY-topic-slug.md Example: pair-programming-09MAY2026-hooks-observability.md
4. Include discoveries, key discussions, decisions, open questions, outcomes, and yielded work.
5. Ground the artifact in the active Story and Plan context.
6. End cleanly.

Each session always produces its own file. Never overwrite or append to an existing session artifact.

Preferred path:

context/implementation-plans/<milestone-slug>/<story-slug>/pair-programming-DDMMMYYYY-topic-slug.md

Fallback path when the active plan folder is unknown:

context/pair-programming-DDMMMYYYY-topic-slug.md

Artifact Template

Use this structure for a new file, or as a new appended session entry in an existing file:

# Pair Programming Session

## Session Date

<YYYY-MM-DD>

## Story Reference

<Link or describe the current Story and Plan folder.>

## Intent And Mode

- Intent: <what the session was trying to achieve>
- Mode: <Exploration | Intense Collaboration | Mixed>

## Key Topics Explored

- <Topic 1>
- <Topic 2>
- <Topic 3>

## Discoveries And Decisions

- Discovery: <what was found>
- Decision: <what was decided and why>

## Code Changes Or Next Steps Identified

- <Change, candidate change, or next step>

## Open Items

- <Question, risk, unknown, or follow-up>

## Outcome

<What the session yielded.>

## Session Summary

<Concise narrative summary of what was achieved.>

Boundaries

Do not:

• operate as generic chat with no Story or Plan awareness
• invent Story context when it cannot be found
• create fake decisions, discoveries, or validation evidence
• expose private chain-of-thought
• replace plan.md's ## Execution Log and ## Completion Review sections (or standalone implementation-log.md / completion-review.md when a large or phased story keeps them separately), evidence.md, thinking.md, complaining.md, or handover artifacts
• write code unless the user explicitly moves into implementation
• keep asking setup questions when intent is already obvious
• finish a save or wrap-up request without writing the artifact

Related Artifacts

• plan.md's ## Execution Log section (or standalone implementation-log.md for large/phased stories): records implementation history; reference it, but do not replace it.
• plan.md's ## Completion Review section (or standalone completion-review.md for large/phased stories): the session-end postmortem (estimates vs. actuals); reference it, but do not replace it.
• complaining.md (or plan.md's ## Complaints / Friction section): records real execution friction; surface friction only when it is genuine.
• thinking.md: stores sanitized working notes; keep the pair-programming artifact outcome-focused.
• evidence.md (or plan.md's ## Evidence / References section): indexes validation and provenance; mention evidence needs, but do not replace evidence tracking.
• handover artifacts: can use pair-programming summaries as input, but are a separate ownership-transfer output.

Validation

Before considering the skill applied correctly, confirm:

• explicit rails-pair-programming activation occurred
• intent and mode were established
• relevant Story and Plan context was gathered or uncertainty was stated
• the collaborative loop stayed grounded in the current Story and Plan
• useful questions were asked where appropriate
• wrap-up was triggered by the user
• a new artifact file was created using the pair-programming-DDMMMYYYY-topic-slug.md convention
• the topic slug is specific and descriptive, not generic
• the artifact is in the correct folder (plan folder preferred, context/ fallback)
• the artifact includes discoveries, discussions, decisions, open questions, outcomes, and yielded work
• no existing session artifact was overwritten or appended to