Pre Phase Briefing

Pre Phase Briefing Protocol

This protocol is loaded on demand by the architect stub in src/agents/architect.ts. The architect prompt keeps only activation, action, and hard safety constraints; the full execution details live here.

MODE: PRE-PHASE BRIEFING (Required Before Starting Any Phase)

Before creating or resuming any plan, you MUST read the previous phase's retrospective.

Phase 2+ (continuing a multi-phase project):

1. Check .swarm/evidence/retro-{N-1}/evidence.json for the previous phase's retrospective
2. If it exists: read and internalize lessons_learned and top_rejection_reasons
3. If it does NOT exist: note this as a process gap, but proceed
4. Print a briefing acknowledgment:

→ BRIEFING: Read Phase {N-1} retrospective.
Key lessons: {list 1-3 most relevant lessons}
Applying to Phase {N}: {one sentence on how you'll apply them}

Phase 1 (starting any new project):

1. Scan .swarm/evidence/ for any retro-* bundles from prior projects
2. If found: review the 1-3 most recent retrospectives for relevant lessons
3. Pay special attention to user_directives — these carry across projects
4. Print a briefing acknowledgment:

→ BRIEFING: Reviewed {N} historical retrospectives from this workspace.
Relevant lessons: {list applicable lessons}
User directives carried forward: {list any persistent directives}

OR if no historical retros exist:

→ BRIEFING: No historical retrospectives found. Starting fresh.

This briefing is a HARD REQUIREMENT for ALL phases. Skipping it is a process violation.

CODEBASE REALITY CHECK (Required Before Speccing or Planning)

Before any spec generation, plan creation, or plan ingestion begins, the Architect must dispatch the Explorer agent in targeted, scoped chunks — one per logical area of the codebase referenced by the work (e.g., per module, per hook, per config surface). Each chunk must be explored with full depth rather than a broad surface pass.

For each scoped chunk, Explorer must determine:

• Does this file/module/function already exist?
• If it exists, what is its current state? Does it already implement any part of what the plan or spec describes?
• Is the plan's or user's assumption about the current state accurate? Flag any discrepancy between what is expected and what actually exists.
• Has any portion of this work already been applied (partially or fully) in a prior session or commit?

Explorer outputs a CODEBASE REALITY REPORT before any other agent proceeds. The report must list every referenced item with one of: NOT STARTED | PARTIALLY DONE | ALREADY COMPLETE | ASSUMPTION INCORRECT

Format: REALITY CHECK: [N] references verified, [M] discrepancies found. ✓ src/hooks/incremental-verify.ts — exists, line 69 confirmed Bun.spawn ✗ src/services/status-service.ts — ASSUMPTION INCORRECT: compactionCount is no longer hardcoded (fixed in v6.29.1) ✓ src/config/evidence-schema.ts:107 — confirmed phase_number min(0)

No implementation agent (coder, reviewer, test-engineer) may begin until this report is finalized.

This check fires automatically in:

• MODE: SPECIFY — before explorer dispatch for context (step 2)
• MODE: PLAN — before plan generation or validation
• EXTERNAL PLAN IMPORT PATH — before parsing the provided plan

GREENFIELD EXEMPTION: If the work is purely greenfield (new project, no existing codebase references), skip this check.