Specgate Work Delivery

Delivering Work

Apply the SpecGate operating contract. Implement the approved contract, stop at the next actor, and never approve an artifact or make a human delivery decision.

1. Load the exact contract

Use the mode from doctor. Local: read scope, criteria, verification contract, document index, and status together:

specgate work resume "$WORK_REF" --json

Use data.status. Read pinned documents, including scope and non-goals:

specgate work context "$WORK_REF" --document "$DOCUMENT_PATH" --role "$ROLE" --json

Copy path/role from data.documents. Reuse only matching-digest content; the index cannot replace it. Quick work uses persisted scope/criteria.

Full mode: read these; status is change status.data:

specgate work context "$WORK_REF" --json
specgate change status "$WORK_REF" --json

Stop before editing when approval is absent, the Context Pack is stale, or criteria are missing/placeholders. Hand artifact-backed work missing its approved version to the human or specgate-work-preparation.

Reuse results until state changes; avoid duplicate reads. Follow status:

• If data.next_actor is not implementing_agent, hand off without editing.
• For review_pending, accept only one specgate next_command without shell operators; else hand off. Run it verbatim before sections 2–5. On failure, go to section 7. On success, reread Change status; stop if still review_pending.
• For rework_requested, carry guidance and missing through: focused fix, affected checks, updated evidence, submit, fresh status. Never submit old evidence first.
• Otherwise record missing and guidance, then follow next_command's named section or stop if none matches.

Every change/check must map to a criterion or required repository-doc update.

Completion criterion: submitted evidence contains an observed result for every required check, or its explicit skip reason.

2. Resume safely

For next_actor=implementing_agent in implementation or rework_requested, inspect edits, rerun checks, submit fresh evidence. Otherwise require freshness; stop if unavailable.

3. Check artifact drift

Skip when no artifact exists. Otherwise dispatch tasks, locate spec_repo_drift, and follow its frozen skill_content:

specgate gates tasks dispatch "$ARTIFACT_ID" --json
specgate gates tasks list "$ARTIFACT_ID" --json
specgate gates tasks submit-result <task-id> \
  --file .specgate/work/gate-<task-id>.json --json

tasks list returns skill_content and both digests; never call tasks show. Copy digests exactly. Put examined_docs and repo_commit under evidence; keep findings top-level. Report out-of-scope drift without editing it.

4. Implement and verify

Implement approved scope and preserve non-goals. Record required tests, lint, type checks, builds, and every skip reason. Never mutate an approved snapshot; a new artifact version belongs to specgate-work-preparation.

For a pull or merge request, include <!-- specgate-work-ref: $WORK_REF --> in its description. Never infer work identity from branches, titles, commits, filenames, headings, or keywords.

5. Report criterion evidence

Create the CLI-owned scaffold:

specgate delivery report "$WORK_REF" --init --json

Keep returned data.path verbatim as $COMPLETION_PATH. Reuse an existing regular scaffold's exact error.details.path only when its change_request_id matches the Context Pack or status work ID and any context_digest matches the Context Pack. Never overwrite automatically; stop when attribution is unsafe.

Fill agent.name, summary, affected_files, checks[], and exactly one criteria[] entry per canonical criterion. Each claim must be independently reviewable. Anchor evidence with line or a verbatim heading; a path is unanchored, and a missing heading is heading_not_found. Neither has an excerpt. A command name alone is not evidence. Set every check to pass, fail, or skipped, or leave it pending with a runnable command and use --run-checks for observation. Evidence paths must exist. satisfied cannot depend on a failed, missing, or skipped required check. Every non-skipped checks[].command must be non-interactive and valid for sh -c.

Review its shell commands, then submit:

specgate change submit "$WORK_REF" \
  --file "$COMPLETION_PATH" --run-checks --yes --json

change submit returns the same status payload; use its data, never refetch. --run-checks replaces self-reported results with observed results. Fix failures.

6. Follow the authoritative actor

Use the latest authoritative status. For implementing_agent, complete missing, run the supplied next_command at its named step, then reread status. A scaffold command does not complete work.

Hand off next_command verbatim.

For human_reviewer, maintainer, or none, stop. awaiting_review belongs to the human reviewer. SpecGate requires no subagent solely for this lifecycle. Run peer review only when the human explicitly requests it; use a different review-only agent:

specgate delivery peer-review "$WORK_REF" --init --json
specgate delivery peer-review "$WORK_REF" \
  --file "$PEER_REVIEW_PATH" --json

Keep data.path as $PEER_REVIEW_PATH; same existing-file rule.

A pass means ready for human review, not accepted. The implementing agent never runs a human-decision command.

Export a teammate-readable review request only when the human requests one:

specgate delivery handoff export "$WORK_REF" --json

Report data.path to commit, and data.git_ignored when true — an ignored bundle never reaches the reviewer. Never commit or decide.

7. Show the delivery handoff

Use the latest status payload. If an action returns none, run specgate change status "$WORK_REF" --json. For awaiting_acceptance, render:

SpecGate delivery receipt — <title> (<ref>)
Evidence: <evidence>
Assurance: <assurance>
Decision: <decision>
Receipt: <receipt>
Freshness: <freshness>
Acceptance criteria: <total> total · <met> met · <unmet> unmet · <unclear> unclear
[<verdict>] <criterion text> — <why>   (one line per data.criteria entry)
[Stale: <stale_reason> — only when stale]
Next (<next_actor>): <next_command>

Count data.criteria verdicts. If empty, list canonical Context Pack criteria as Acceptance criteria: <total> total · <total> not reviewed followed by [not reviewed] <criterion text>. unclear and unreviewed are never unmet.

Preserve values verbatim, including every criterion line. Stale is a warning, not a state override. For any other state, show a SpecGate delivery handoff with state, missing, next_actor, next_command, and the same acceptance-criteria summary and lines; never success wording. Report a failed status as failure. Echo accepted without claiming this agent accepted it.

Full mode: use the URL from specgate open "$WORK_REF" --print --json. In Local mode, never call open. Never reread the completion file, call stats or audit, or claim cleanup eligibility, bugs prevented, time saved, accepted, or delivered without authoritative status.