subagent-driven-development

Files (14)

• SKILL.md
• implementer-prompt.md
• re-review-prompt.md
• batching.md · references/
• cannot-verify.md · references/
• final-review.md · references/
• fix-loop.md · references/
• handling-reports.md · references/
• preflight.md · references/
• resuming.md · references/
• review-package · scripts/
• sdd-workspace · scripts/
• task-brief · scripts/
• task-reviewer-prompt.md

SKILL.md (first lines)

# Subagent-Driven Development

Execute plan by dispatching a fresh implementer subagent per task, a task review (spec compliance + code quality) after each, and a broad whole-branch review at the end.

**Why subagents:** You delegate tasks to specialized agents with isolated context. By precisely crafting their instructions and context, you ensure they stay focused and succeed at their task. They should never inherit your session's context or history — you construct exactly what they need. This also preserves your own context for coordination work.

**Core principle:** Fresh subagent per task + task review (spec + quality) + broad final review = high quality, fast iteration

**Narration:** between tool calls, narrate at most one short line — the
ledger and the tool results carry the record.

**Continuous execution:** Do not pause to check in with your human partner between tasks. Execute all tasks from the plan without stopping. The only reasons to stop are the four named below, or all tasks complete. "Should I continue?" prompts and progress summaries waste their time — they asked you to execute the plan, so execute it.

**Rulings, not stalls.** A running plan does not wait on a human. Conflicts,
ambiguities, plan defects, a cap you would have asked to exceed — decide
them. The spec is the binding authority, the plan is its argument, and your
judgment settles what neither answers. Record every decision in the ledger as
`Ruling: <what you decided> — <why> — <what it costs if wrong>`, and keep
going. A wrong ruling costs rework your human partner can see and undo; a
session parked on a question costs their whole day and buys nothing.

Four things stop you, and only these: an irreversible or destructive
operation; a security-sensitive action; a side effect outside this worktree
that norms say you ask about first (a merge, a push to a shared branch, a
publish); and a plan so broken that every path forward is a guess. For those,
stop and ask.

## When to Use

```dot
digraph when_to_use {
    "Have implementation plan?" [shape=diamond];
    "Tasks mostly independent?" [shape=diamond];
    "Partner chose inline, or no subagent tool?" [shape=diamond];
    "subagent-driven-development" [shape=box];
    "executing-plans" [shape=box];
    "Manual execution or brainstorm first" [shape=box];

    "Have implementation plan?" -> "Tasks mostly independent?" [label="yes"];
    "Have implementation plan?" -> "Manual execution or brainstorm first" [label="no"];
    "Tasks mostly independent?" -> "Partner chose inline, or no subagent tool?" [label="yes"];
    "Tasks mostly independent?" -> "Manual execution or brainstorm first" [label="no - tightly coupled"];
    "Partner chose inline, or no subagent tool?" -> "executing-plans" [label="yes"];
    "Partner chose inline, or no subagent tool?" -> "subagent-driven-development" [label="no"];
}
```

**vs. Executing Plans (inline):**
- Fresh subagent per task (no context pollution) instead of one context doing every task
- Review after each task (spec compliance + code quality) instead of only at the end
- Costs a fresh context per task and per review; inline costs one context plus one final reviewer
- Both run in this session, share the same plan workspace and ledger, and never pause between tasks

## The Process

```dot
digraph process {
    rankdir=TB;

    subgraph cluster_per_task {
        label="Per Task";
        "Dispatch implementer subagent (./implementer-prompt.md)" [shape=box];
        "Implementer asks questions?" [shape=diamond];
        "Answer questions, provide context" [shape=box];
        "Implementer implements, tests, commits, self-reviews" [shape=box];
        "Generate review package, dispatch task reviewer (./task-reviewer-prompt.md)" [shape=box];
        "Spec ✅ and quality approved?" [shape=diamond];
        "Fix loop: read references/fix-loop.md before every round" [shape=box];
        "Append completion to ledger, mark todo complete" [shape=box];
    }

    "Setup: worktree, ledger check, read plan, pre-flight review" [shape=box];
    "More tasks remain?" [shape=diamond];
    "Final review and finish: read references/final-review.md" [shape=box];
    "Final review clean: delete this plan's workspace" [shape=box];
    "Use superpowers:finishing-a-development-branch" [shape=box style=filled fillcolor=lightgreen];

    "Setup: worktree, ledger check, read plan, pre-flight review" -> "Dispatch implementer subagent (./implementer-prompt.md)";
    "Dispatch implementer subagent (./implementer-prompt.md)" -> "Implementer asks questions?";
    "Implementer asks questions?" -> "Answer questions, provide context" [label="yes"];
    "Answer questions, provide context" -> "Implementer implements, tests, commits, self-reviews";
    "Implementer asks questions?" -> "Implementer implements, tests, commits, self-reviews" [label="no"];
    "Implementer implements, tests, commits, self-reviews" -> "Generate review package, dispatch task reviewer (./task-reviewer-prompt.md)";
    "Generate review package, dispatch task reviewer (./task-reviewer-prompt.md)" -> "Spec ✅ and quality approved?";
    "Spec ✅ and quality approved?" -> "Append completion to ledger, mark todo complete" [label="yes"];
    "Spec ✅ and quality approved?" -> "Fix loop: read references/fix-loop.md before every round" [label="no"];
    "Fix loop: read references/fix-loop.md before every round" -> "Append completion to ledger, mark todo complete" [label="addressed, or parked at the cap"];
    "Append completion to ledger, mark todo complete" -> "More tasks remain?";
    "More tasks remain?" -> "Dispatch implementer subagent (./implementer-prompt.md)" [label="yes"];
    "More tasks remain?" -> "Final review and finish: read references/final-review.md" [label="no"];
    "Final review and finish: read references/final-review.md" -> "Final review clean: delete this plan's workspace";
    "Final review clean: delete this plan's workspace" -> "Use superpowers:finishing-a-development-branch";
}
```

## Setup

Ensure the work happens in an isolated workspace: use
superpowers:using-git-worktrees to create one or verify the existing one.
Never start implementation on a main/master branch without your human
partner's explicit consent.

Conversation memory does not survive compaction. In real sessions,
controllers that lost their place have re-dispatched entire completed task
sequences — the single most expensive failure observed. Track progress in
a ledger file, not only in todos.

- Each plan owns a workspace: at skill start, run this skill's
  `bash scripts/sdd-workspace PLAN_FILE` — it prints the plan's git-ignored
  directory (under `<repo-root>/.superpowers/sdd/`), home to
  every artifact for THIS plan: ledger, briefs, reports, review packages.
  Another plan's directory is never yours to read or write.
- Check for this plan's ledger at `<workspace>/progress.md`. If one exists,
  read [references/resuming.md](references/resuming.md) before anything
  else: it says whose ledger it is and where to resume.
- Create the ledger with its identity as the first line:
  `# SDD ledger — plan: <plan file path>`.
- The ledger is your recovery map: the commits it names exist in git even
  when your context no longer remembers creating them. After compaction,

From obra/superpowers, MIT.

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