Scrum

/scrum — Full SDLC sprint with adversarial audit

/scrum "<goal>" orchestrates a complete SCRUM team to deliver a multi-story sprint.

The ceremonies

1. SPRINT PLANNING
   product-owner    → backlog of user stories + AC
   tech-lead        → design + risk + sequencing for each story
   scrum-master     → wave plan + agent assignments

2. WAVE EXECUTION (per parallel cluster)
   implementer agents (general-purpose / specialists, isolation: worktree)
     → work
   verifier         → runs code, captures evidence, RESULT_verifier=PASS
   aspect-panel     → confidence-weighted vote across 5 specialized verifiers
   critic           → adversarial code review

3. SPRINT REVIEW
   scrum-master     → DoD checklist per story; only closes on full evidence

4. SPRINT AUDIT (adversarial)
   sprint-auditor   → independently re-derives whether each AC was delivered
                      adversarial: looks for drift, scope creep, mocked tests,
                      DoD violations, narrow fixes, dropped ACs

5. RETROSPECTIVE
   /mine-transcripts → extract corrections + patterns from sprint
   /tune-agent       → if any agent had ≥2 verifier failures, propose patch
   retro.md          → what worked, what broke, what to change next sprint

Files written per sprint

<project>/sprints/sprint-<N>/
├── stories.md       (product-owner)
├── designs/<US>.md  (tech-lead, one per story)
├── plan.md          (scrum-master)
├── evidence/<US>/   (verifier + panel + critic outputs per story)
├── review.md        (scrum-master)
├── audit.md         (sprint-auditor)
└── retro.md         (final)

Your protocol

Phase 0: Branch / worktree isolation (mandatory pre-step)

Before invoking product-owner, ensure the sprint has its own isolated workspace.

Step 0·0 — pick a NON-COLLIDING sprint name (mandatory). Run ls <project>/sprints/ 2>/dev/null (and check docs/plans/). If sprint-<N> for your intended integer ALREADY EXISTS, do NOT reuse it — its stories.md/audit.md/review.md are a different sprint and will contaminate your Product Owner and Sprint Auditor (they'll read the stale backlog and audit the wrong thing). Use a UNIQUE name: sprints/sprint-<slug>-<YYYY-MM-DD>/ (e.g. sprint-sota-activation-2026-05-31). The branch/worktree/tag all derive from this unique name. Then COMMIT the planning artifacts (stories.md, designs/, plan.md) immediately after the PO/tech-lead/scrum-master write them — leaving them as uncommitted working-tree files lets a later implementer git op (stash/checkout/reset) silently revert them, losing your scope and re-exposing the stale committed version. Evidence: 2026-05-31 h-uman, naming a sprint sprint-1 in a repo with sprints 1–60 derailed both the PO (wrong first draft) and the auditor (spurious FAIL on a reverted backlog); only the committed CODE survived. See ~/.claude/rules memory feedback_scrum_sprint_dir_collision.md.

Step 0a — assess concurrent activity. Run bash scripts/sprint-status.sh (or equivalent: git status --short | wc -l, git for-each-ref refs/heads/sprint-*, git worktree list).

Step 0b — choose isolation level based on what you see:

Worktree isolation:

git worktree add ../human-sprint-<N> -b sprint-<N>-<slug>
cd ../human-sprint-<N>

Branch isolation:

• If git branch --show-current returns a sprint-<N>-* branch: continue.
• Otherwise: git checkout -b sprint-<N>-<slug> from a stable base (usually main or the previous sprint's tip).
• If the working tree has unstaged changes that aren't the sprint's: git stash push -m "pre-sprint-<N>" first.

Step 0c — record the choice. The sprint-master writes the chosen branch name AND the working directory (worktree path or repo path) to <project>/sprints/sprint-<N>/plan.md and surfaces it in every standup. If the branch name later changes, OR a different working directory is observed, that's a process violation — flag it.

Why this matters: Sprint 1 ran on a shared feat/* branch and was wiped twice by concurrent git reset --hard HEAD. Sprint 2b discovered that even with a dedicated branch, a concurrent agent later renamed the branch tip to point at unrelated work — only because Sprint 2b's commits stayed reachable as detached objects (and git rev-parse <sha> recovered them) did the audit trail survive. A worktree gives you a separate working directory the other agents can't touch even if they git reset the branch ref.

Phase 1: Plan

1. Spawn product-owner agent with the goal. It returns RESULT_product-owner=READY|NEEDS_CLARIFICATION|NEEDS_DESCOPE.
   • If NEEDS_CLARIFICATION: surface to user, wait, retry.
   • If NEEDS_DESCOPE: split goal across multiple sprints; user picks first.
2. For each story (parallel where possible), spawn tech-lead to author design + risk.
3. Spawn scrum-master with the stories + designs to write the wave plan. The wave plan MUST cite the sprint branch name from Phase 0.

Phase 2: Execute

For each wave in plan:

1. Read scrum-master's plan; identify the agents to spawn.
2. Spawn parallel implementer agents (Agent tool with isolation: worktree). Each implementer prompt MUST include:
   • "Commit your work to <sprint-branch> with git add <paths> && git commit -m \"...\" BEFORE reporting DONE. Working-tree-only DONE reports will be rejected."
   • Mandatory closing-line contract: Your final report MUST have this exact format, with exit codes from a FRESH subprocess (not cached state):

     RESULT_implementer-<story>=DONE|PARTIAL|BLOCKED
       commits=<int>
       build-exit=<int>        # from fresh `cmake --build` AFTER all edits
       test-exit=<int>         # from fresh `./build/human_tests` AFTER all edits
       test-summary="<paste verbatim from test output — Results: N/M passed —"
       git-log-evidence="<paste of git log <sprint-base>..HEAD --oneline>"
       asan=CLEAN|HAS_ERRORS
     

     • DONE requires: build-exit=0 AND test-exit=0 AND asan=CLEAN AND test-summary showing actual counts (not hallucinated).
     • PARTIAL is acceptable: include completed=<list> and remaining=<list>. Stubs asserting only HU_ASSERT_TRUE(1) do NOT count toward test counts.
     • Do NOT report DONE if exit codes are non-zero. Honest PARTIAL beats fabricated DONE.
3. After each implementer reports done:
   • Verify the closing-line format first. If it lacks proper exit codes or asserts DONE with build-exit≠0, reject immediately: "exit codes missing or DONE claimed with non-zero build. Re-run fresh cmake/tests and resubmit."
   • Verify the commit landed: git log <sprint-branch> ^<sprint-base> --oneline MUST show the implementer's commit. If not, reject the DONE report and re-dispatch.
   • Spawn /verify for that story (verifier agent runs the code)
   • If verifier PASS: spawn critic immediately for adversarial review (per-story, not batched)
   • If critic flags HAS_FINDINGS at HIGH/CRITICAL severity: re-open the story with the finding inline; do NOT advance to aspect-panel.
   • If critic CLEAN: spawn /aspect-panel for orthogonal coverage
   • If panel returns ESCALATE: surface to user; do not auto-resolve
   • Mark story DONE in TodoWrite only when commit + verifier + critic + panel all pass

Phase 3: Review

Spawn scrum-master Phase 5 (Sprint Review). It writes review.md with the DoD checklist per story.

Phase 4: Audit (mandatory — never skip)

Spawn sprint-auditor with paths to stories.md and review.md. It returns one of:

• RESULT_sprint-auditor=PASS → sprint closes
• RESULT_sprint-auditor=PASS_WITH_NOTES → sprint closes; notes go to retro
• RESULT_sprint-auditor=FAIL → DO NOT CLOSE. Re-open the failing stories. Re-execute.
• RESULT_sprint-auditor=INCONCLUSIVE → surface to user; ask for missing access

Phase 5: Retro

1. Run /mine-transcripts --since <sprint-start> over this sprint's session window.
2. Read agent-tuning candidates. If any agent appears ≥2 times: recommend /tune-agent <name>.
3. Write retro.md with: what worked, what broke, what changed next sprint, any tuning candidates.

Phase 6: Close

1. Mark all sprint TodoWrite items completed.
2. Tag the close commit immutably. Run scripts/tag-sprint-close.sh sprint-<N> from the repo root. Annotated tags don't move under branch hijacks or push-force; the tag becomes the canonical reference for any future cherry-pick, regression-hunter, or sprint-auditor invocation that needs to resolve "where did sprint-N actually end". Sprint 2c's branch-hijacking incident is the failure mode this prevents — by the time a future agent runs git log sprint-2b-personal-model-honesty, the branch tip may have been moved by an unrelated workstream; the tag v-sprint-2b-close cannot move silently.
3. Print summary to user.

Hard rules

• No story closes without verifier PASS + panel PASS/CLEAN. Hold the line even when implementer is confident.
• Audit is mandatory. Never skip Phase 4.
• Audit FAIL re-opens stories. Don't quietly accept partial deliveries.
• No scope creep without explicit PO sign-off. sprint-auditor catches this; respect it.
• Retro happens even on perfect sprints. Even green-on-everything has lessons.
• Sprint runs on a dedicated branch from planning. At Phase 1, the scrum-master MUST create or check out sprint-<N>-<slug> (a branch or worktree dedicated to this sprint) before dispatching any implementer. Sprints MUST NOT run on a shared feature branch where other workstreams are landing concurrently. Sprint 1's wiped-tree event (concurrent git reset --hard HEAD from another agent) is the failure mode this rule prevents.
• Implementer commits before handoff. Each implementer's last action MUST be git add + git commit to the sprint-isolated branch. A "DONE" report whose work is only in the working tree is NOT done — the next implementer's git reset or rebase will wipe it. The scrum-master rejects DONE reports unless git log <sprint-branch> ^<sprint-base> shows the implementer's commit. This is not optional, even for tiny stories.
• Critic runs immediately after each story closes, not at sprint end. Batched critic-at-close is how Sprint 1 shipped a regex bug into the production publish path; per-story critic catches it before the next implementer builds on top.

Cost discipline

A typical 3-story sprint costs:

• product-owner: ~$0.30 (Sonnet, 1 invocation)
• tech-lead: 3 × ~$0.50 (Opus, 1 per story)
• implementer: 3 × ~$1.00-2.00 (sonnet/opus, varies)
• verifier: 3 × ~$0.20
• aspect-panel: 3 × ~$0.50 (5 verifiers each, sonnet)
• critic: 3 × ~$0.20
• sprint-auditor: 1 × ~$0.80 (Opus, careful read)
• mine-transcripts retro: ~$0.50

Total per sprint: ~$8-15. Verify against --max-budget-usd 20 per sprint by default.

When NOT to use /scrum

• Single-line fix (just edit it; the ceremony costs more than the work)
• Exploratory spike (use /spec for design-first; use plain /team for implementation if it pans out)
• No clear acceptance criteria possible (PO will refuse; surface to user first)
• Test infrastructure missing (verifier can't run; auditor will be INCONCLUSIVE)

Anti-patterns to refuse

• Closing a sprint without sprint-auditor running
• Treating audit FAIL as advisory (it is HARD)
• Skipping retro
• Letting the scrum-master write code (orchestration only)
• Letting sprint-auditor trust the team's claims (independent verification only)
• Running stories sequentially when they're independent (use waves)
• Running stories in parallel when they share state (don't)

Last line

When the sprint closes successfully:

RESULT_scrum=SPRINT_CLOSED N=<sprint-num> stories=<n>/<m> audit=PASS retro=<path>

When the sprint cannot close:

RESULT_scrum=BLOCKED reason=<audit-fail|inconclusive|user-input-needed>