Eng

eng

Platform-agnostic engineering agent with three modes — --plan, --build, --review — each a distinct protocol in its own ref file, selected by the invocation flag. This file routes; the shared spine that runs for every mode is refs/protocol-core.md (Steps 0–6), and it never runs a mode's work itself.

Routing (Step 0 — full rules in refs/protocol-core.md)

Read the invocation flag and load exactly one mode protocol:

Natural-language triggers for --review: "review this change", "review my diff", "code review this branch", "adversarial review", "look for bugs in what I just wrote". Anything asking for style, naming or standards is /cook, not this mode. --quiet / --status <n>m (--build only) — heartbeat control; flag beats policy beats default (../shared/refs/status-heartbeat.md).

Exactly one mode flag must be present — zero, several, or the retired --todo hard-fail with the exact messages in refs/protocol-core.md § Step 0. Then read the active mode file fully and run the spine end-to-end:

The shared spine (refs/protocol-core.md)

• Step 1 — Input validation. PRD/exec-table source (mode flag + prd-path + rows + agent, hard-refuse on any missing) or the report=<path> alternate; more than one source is a hard failure. --review is exempt from Steps 1–4 — its input is the working diff; go straight to Step 5.
• Step 2 — Pre-flight, one pass. Orchestrated fast path works from injected scoped excerpts (full PRD only as escape hatch); standalone path reads the full PRD, verifies row ownership mechanically via script-prd-digest.py --verify-rows, and reads devkit + the row-relevant codebase in parallel.
• Step 3 — Summary + approval gate. 3–4 line summary, then AskUserQuestion (Yes / needs correction / follow-up → the Step 3a interview). Never proceed without an explicit "Yes, proceed" (pre-approved under an autonomy contract).
• Step 4 — Coding standards (--build only). Injected standards payload wins; else derive the /cook flag set and consult the persistent standards cache (script-standards-cache.py) before calling /cook (v5.6.5; ../shared/refs/session-cache.md § Consumers).
• Step 5 — Run the active mode's work per its ref, then the closing message (../shared/refs/closing-message.md) as the last chat output, doctor-logging harness incidents (../shared/refs/doctor-logging.md).
• Step 6 — Scope enforcement, continuous. Only the assigned rows; unresolvable ambiguity is surfaced as a gap (plan/review) or blocks and asks (build) — never resolved by assumption.

References

• refs/protocol-core.md — the shared spine, Steps 0–6: routing + hard-fail messages, input validation, pre-flight, approval gate + interview, standards resolution, mode dispatch, scope enforcement
• refs/plan/protocol.md — --plan: summary content, output contract, exact-identifier rule, the ## Todos — <Agent> ticket-writing spec run in the same pass, and the mechanical closing check. refs/plan/template-todo.md — the ticket schema --build reads mechanically. refs/plan/template-eng-plan.md — the two output shapes and the rule that picks between them. refs/plan/fix-plan.md — the report source for planning fixes
• refs/build/protocol.md — --build: branch contract, report source, coding-standards flag table, work steps, the Step-5a whole-change review spawn, commit/PR contract. refs/build/protocol-packet.md — the orchestrated build leaf's self-contained fast path, read instead of protocol.md and this file when a leaf is spawned by plan-em; keeps the db-touch pause and the v5.3 review artifact. refs/build/fix-build.md — report source + the finding→issue-ticket projection and kind discriminator
• refs/review/protocol.md — --review: change-set resolution, reviewer inputs, the adversarial charter + exclusion list, the A4 what-vs-how exception, severity discipline (source: eng:review), the blocker/high-before-commit-confirm rule, the JSON return contract, the subagent spawn rules. One review, whole-change, run by an agent that did not write the code
• .claude/scripts/ — script-eng-db-touch.sh (production/data guardrail; a tripped check pauses for sign-off) · script-eng-comment-scan.sh (deterministic A4 comment scan) · script-eng-commit-cap.sh (A5 commit-size measurement, advisory; the Oversize-reason: trailer pairing is not — TRAILER_MISSING, exit 3) · script-eng-plan-shape.py (the --plan closing check, eight fail-loud checks) · script-project-findings.py (the ONE finding→issue-ticket projection + issues-file validator; read-only, shared with --gui) · script-eng-fix-grade.py (the executable fix-complexity rubric + tier→model mapping; escalate simple→complex, never downgrade) · script-eng-close-loop.py (the only sanctioned write to an issues file)
• ../shared/refs/status-heartbeat.md — the --quiet/--status heartbeat contract
• Contract: the ## Engineering — <Agent> and ## Todos — <Agent> headings written by --plan (same pass) are how plan-em detects the section is ready and how --build locates its spec. Do not rename them.