Structured feature development lifecycle with phases for research, specification, planning, implementation, review, and completion. Use when user says "/cortex-core:lifecycle", "start a lifecycle", "lifecycle research/specify/plan/implement/review/complete", "start a feature lifecycle", or wants to build a non-trivial feature with structured phases.
Development entry point that analyzes requests and routes to the appropriate workflow. Use when user says "/cortex-core:dev", "what should I work on", "start working on", "dev hub", "where do I start", "next task", "what's next", or describes a feature without naming a specific skill.
Prepare a backlog item for execution by running it through Clarify → Research → Spec. Use when user says "/cortex-core:refine", "refine backlog item", "prepare for overnight", or "prepare feature for execution". Produces cortex/lifecycle/{slug}/research.md and cortex/lifecycle/{slug}/spec.md, then sets status:refined on the backlog item.
Parallel research orchestrator. Use when the user says "/cortex-core:research", "research this topic", "investigate this feature", or when /cortex-core:refine delegates its research phase. Dispatches 3–10 parallel agents across independent angles, synthesizes into research.md or conversation output.
Create git commits with consistent, well-formatted messages. Use when user says "commit", "/cortex-core:commit", "make a commit", "commit these changes", or asks to save/checkpoint their work as a git commit.
Guide the user through the morning report after an overnight session. Walks Executive Summary and report sections, collects answers to deferred questions, advances completed lifecycles to Complete, and auto-closes backlog tickets. Use when the user says "/morning-review", "morning review", or "what happened overnight".
Parallel adversarial review — dispatches reviewer agents on distinct challenge angles, then synthesizes findings with an Opus agent. Use when user says "critical review", "pressure test", "adversarial review", or "challenge from multiple angles". Auto-triggers in the lifecycle for Complex + medium/high/critical features before spec approval.
Ideation research for topics not ready for implementation — checks aim, investigates the problem space, then decomposes findings into backlog tickets grouped by epic. Use when user says "/cortex-core:discovery", "discover this", "break this down into tickets", "decompose into backlog", or wants to understand a topic before committing to build. Requires a topic argument; for "what should I work on" or "next task" routing without a specific topic, use /cortex-core:dev instead.