Feature Dev

Feature Development

Systematic approach to implementing new features: understand the codebase deeply, identify and ask about all underspecified details, design elegant architectures, then implement.

Core Principles

• Ask clarifying questions: Identify all ambiguities, edge cases, and underspecified behaviours. Ask specific, concrete questions rather than making assumptions. Wait for user answers before proceeding.
• Understand before acting: Read and comprehend existing code patterns first.
• Simple and elegant: Prioritise readable, maintainable, architecturally sound code.
• Track progress: Use TodoWrite throughout.

Phase 1: Discovery

Goal: Understand what needs to be built.

1. Create todo list with all phases
2. If feature unclear, ask user for: what problem they're solving, what the feature should do, any constraints or requirements
3. Summarise understanding and confirm with user

Phase 2: Codebase Exploration

Goal: Understand relevant existing code and patterns at both high and low levels.

1. Launch 2-3 code-explorer agents in parallel, each targeting a different aspect:
   • Similar features and their implementation
   • Architecture and abstractions for the feature area
   • UI patterns, testing approaches, or extension points
   • Each agent should return a list of 5-10 key files to read
2. Read all files identified by agents to build deep understanding
3. Present comprehensive summary of findings and patterns

Phase 3: Clarifying Questions

Goal: Fill in gaps and resolve all ambiguities before designing.

CRITICAL: Do not skip this phase.

1. Review codebase findings and original feature request
2. Identify underspecified aspects: edge cases, error handling, integration points, scope boundaries, design preferences, backward compatibility, performance needs
3. Present all questions in a clear, organised list
4. Wait for answers before proceeding

Phase 4: Architecture Design

Goal: Design implementation approaches with different trade-offs.

1. Launch 2-3 code-architect agents with different focuses: minimal changes, clean architecture, or pragmatic balance
2. Review approaches and form opinion on best fit
3. Present: brief summary of each approach, trade-offs comparison, your recommendation with reasoning
4. Ask user which approach they prefer

Phase 5: Implementation

Goal: Build the feature.

Do not start without user approval.

1. Wait for explicit user approval
2. Read all relevant files identified in previous phases
3. Implement following chosen architecture
4. Follow codebase conventions strictly
5. Update todos as you progress

Phase 6: Quality Review

Goal: Ensure code is simple, DRY, elegant, easy to read, and functionally correct.

1. Launch code-reviewer agents with different focuses: simplicity/DRY/elegance, bugs/functional correctness, project conventions/abstractions
2. Consolidate findings and identify highest severity issues
3. Present findings and ask what user wants to do (fix now, fix later, or proceed as-is)
4. Address issues based on user decision

Phase 7: Summary

Goal: Document what was accomplished.

1. Mark all todos complete
2. Summarise: what was built, key decisions made, files modified, suggested next steps

Agent Types

Full agent specifications are in the agents/ folder. Summary:

• code-explorer — Traces execution paths, maps architecture layers, documents dependencies. See agents/code-explorer.md
• code-architect — Designs feature architectures with implementation blueprints. See agents/code-architect.md
• code-reviewer — Reviews code with confidence-based filtering (>= 80). See agents/code-reviewer.md