Rai Story Close

Story Close

Purpose

Complete a story by verifying the retrospective, merging to the development branch, cleaning up the story branch, and updating epic tracking.

Mastery Levels (ShuHaRi)

• Shu: Follow all steps, verify retrospective, merge with --no-ff, update epic
• Ha: Adjust merge strategy for small fixes, skip epic update for standalone
• Ri: Integrate with CI/CD pipelines, automate cleanup workflows

Context

When to use: After /rai-story-review retrospective is complete. Story is verified and tests pass.

When to skip: Story abandoned (document why, delete branch without merge, update epic as "Abandoned").

Inputs: Completed retrospective, passing test suite, story branch ready for merge.

Branch config: Read branches.development from .raise/manifest.yaml for {dev_branch}. Default: main.

Steps

Step 1: Verify Retrospective & Tests

RETRO="work/epics/e{N}-{name}/stories/{story_id}-retrospective.md"
[ -f "$RETRO" ] && echo "✓ Retrospective" || echo "ERROR: Run /rai-story-review first"

Determine which test command to run using this priority chain:

1. Check .raise/manifest.yaml for project.test_command — if set, use it directly (configuration over convention)
2. Detect language from project.project_type in manifest, or scan file extensions of changed files (git diff --name-only)
3. Map language to default using the table below

The table is a fallback — project.test_command always wins when present.

Check for structural drift: if this story added modules or changed directory structure, update module docs in governance/architecture/modules/ before closing.

Step 2: Verify Clean Working Tree

git status --short

NEVER merge with uncommitted story artifacts. Files created during design, plan, or implementation that aren't committed will be silently lost or orphaned on the target branch.

Step 3: Merge to Development Branch

Always merge to {dev_branch}:

git checkout {dev_branch}
git pull origin {dev_branch}
git merge --no-ff {story_branch} -m "feat(s{N}.{M}): merge {story-name}

Completed:
- [summary of deliverables]

Co-Authored-By: Rai <rai@humansys.ai>"

Step 4: Update Epic Scope

Mark story complete in work/epics/e{N}-{name}/scope.md:

• Check the story checkbox: - [x] S{N}.{M} {name} ✓
• Update progress tracking table (status, actual time, velocity)

Step 5: Delete Story Branch

git branch -D story/s{N}.{M}/{slug}
git push origin --delete story/s{N}.{M}/{slug} 2>/dev/null || true

Step 6: Update Context & Emit

1. Update CLAUDE.local.md to reflect completion and next story
2. Emit telemetry: rai signal emit-work story S{N}.{M} --event complete
3. If the story has a backlog ticket: rai backlog transition {story_key} done

Output

Quality Checklist

• Retrospective complete before merge (gate)
• Tests pass before merge
• Merge uses --no-ff to preserve story history
• Story branch deleted after merge
• Epic scope updated with completion status
• Working tree clean before merge — no orphaned artifacts
• Always merge to {dev_branch} — never to an epic branch
• NEVER merge without retrospective — learnings compound
• NEVER leave stale branches — clean as you go

References

• Previous: /rai-story-review
• Complement: /rai-story-start
• Epic scope: work/epics/e{N}-{name}/scope.md