lisa-implement

name	lisa-implement
description	any non-trivial request —…

Implement: $ARGUMENTS

Orchestration: agent team

Implement is a team-first flow. Bug, Build, Improve, and Investigate-Only all compose multiple specialists (Reproduce → debug → fix → review → verify). Single-agent mode is not permitted based on task complexity — the only exception is when no team creation or subagent delegation tool is available in the current runtime (see no-team fallback in the paragraph below).

You are "inside an agent team" only if you are yourself a spawned teammate or subagent — you were spawned into a team context, or your context names a team lead you report to. A lead/root session that has previously spawned subagents is still the lead: prior Agent calls in the session (e.g., an Intake cycle's bounded scan helpers) do NOT make this a nested flow, and the lead retains full authority to create this flow's team.

If you are NOT inside an agent team by that definition, the very first thing you do is establish team orchestration.

Use the team tool for the current runtime:

• Claude (Claude Code >= 2.1.178, implicit-team model): there is no TeamCreate tool — the team forms automatically the moment you spawn your first teammate with the Agent tool. That first Agent spawn MUST be the bounded input-resolver described under "Resolve the input" below — never a builder/implementer that does the whole task inline. Spawning one fat worker satisfies the team-first gate but collapses the flow into the 1-agent ad-hoc fix this skill forbids, and it skips the Roster Decision, which MUST be recorded before any lifecycle, research, implementation, review, or verification specialist is spawned. (On older Claude Code that still exposes TeamCreate, that explicit path also works: load it via ToolSearch with query: "select:TeamCreate", create the team, then spawn the input-resolver.)
• Codex: do not call TeamCreate; Codex does not expose that Claude tool. Use tool_search with a query like multi-agent tools to load multi_agent_v1, then use multi_agent_v1.spawn_agent for teammate delegation. Treat the first successful spawn_agent call as establishing team orchestration.
• Other runtimes: use the current runtime's tool-discovery mechanism to discover and call the appropriate multi-agent/team tool.

If no team creation or subagent delegation tool is available, explicitly state that team orchestration is unavailable in this runtime, continue as the lead agent, and preserve the workflow's review, verification, and task-tracking obligations locally.

Your only permitted first move is establishing orchestration by spawning the bounded input-resolver teammate (Claude: Agent; Codex: multi_agent_v1.spawn_agent), or declaring the no-team fallback. The initial Claude Agent spawn is the only pre-team exception, and for Implement it must be the bounded input-resolver rather than a builder. Apart from that single spawn, do NOT call any of: a second Agent/spawn_agent for any worker, TaskCreate, Skill (including lisa-tracker-read, lisa-jira-read-ticket, lisa-github-read-issue), MCP tools (Atlassian / Linear / GitHub / Notion), Read, Write, Edit, Bash, Grep, Glob — until the input-resolver has returned and the Roster Decision has been recorded. Reading the ticket, exploring the code, fetching context — every one of those is a task for the team, not for the lead session before orchestration exists. Doing them inline, or spawning a single worker that does the whole build, is the exact bypass path that produces a 1-agent ad-hoc fix instead of a real team flow.

Note that lisa-intake dispatching this skill is NOT the nested case: Intake is a thin dispatcher that creates no team of its own and invokes this skill via the Skill tool in the lead session precisely so this preamble fires — treat an Intake dispatch exactly like a direct invocation and run the full team-first flow above.

If you ARE already inside an agent team by the definition above (you are a teammate that was handed this skill via the Skill tool from within another flow's team), do NOT create a second team — many harnesses reject double-creates — and do NOT collapse the nested flow into a single inline worker. A nested team-first flow must still bring in the specialists it requires by adding them to the existing team, not by doing the work itself:

• Claude: teams are flat and only the lead can add named teammates, so do NOT call Agent with a name from a teammate (the harness rejects it: "Teammates cannot spawn other teammates — the team roster is flat"). Send the team lead a message naming the specialist teammate(s) this flow needs, their task assignments, and completion criteria, then coordinate through the shared task list until they finish. An anonymous subagent (Agent with name omitted) is permitted only for bounded one-shot work whose result returns directly to you — it is not a substitute for the required lifecycle specialists.
• Codex: do NOT call TeamCreate. If the lead/root agent is addressable (you were given its id/handle), send it a request to multi_agent_v1.spawn_agent the specialist agent(s), including each agent's prompt, ownership, and expected result. If no lead handle exists but spawn_agent is available to you, spawn only the bounded specialist agent(s) this flow needs, wait_agent for their results, and relay those results upward to the parent/lead.

Treat the first successful lead-spawn request (or, on the Codex fallback, the first specialist spawn) as preserving team orchestration. Never satisfy a team-first lifecycle flow by doing all the work inline.

Resolve the input (first task assigned to the team)

$ARGUMENTS is either a url to a ticket containing the request, a pointer to a file containing the request, or the request in text format.

The team lead does NOT read the input directly. The first task on the team's plan is "resolve the input" — assigned to a bounded input-resolver teammate, which then:

• If it's a ticket, calls lisa-tracker-read (preferred — vendor-agnostic; dispatches per .lisa.config.json tracker). Mismatch guard: if the ticket format doesn't match the configured tracker (e.g., a GitHub URL when tracker is jira), tracker-read stops and reports the error — never auto-translates vendors:
  • JIRA ticket → lisa-tracker-read → lisa-jira-read-ticket
  • GitHub Issue → lisa-tracker-read → lisa-github-read-issue
  • Linear identifier or project URL → lisa-tracker-read → lisa-linear-read-issue
  • Captures comments and metadata, not just the description.
• If it's a file, reads the entire file without offset or limit.
• If it's a plain-text request, uses the provided text verbatim as the resolved input.
• Returns the resolved input to the team lead, who then proceeds to roster selection.

The input resolver is the only teammate that may be spawned before the Roster Decision exists. After it returns the resolved input, do not spawn any lifecycle, research, implementation, review, verification, or learning teammate until the Roster Decision has been recorded.

Select the agent roster

Before spawning any teammate beyond the bounded input resolver, record a Roster Decision artifact. It must enumerate every agent or specialist type exposed by the current runtime's delegation tool and record one line per type:

INCLUDE|EXCLUDE - <agent type> - <one-sentence reason>

Review all available agent types listed in the current runtime's delegation options. In Claude, this includes the Task tool's subagent_type options: built-in agents such as Explore and general-purpose, custom agents from .claude/agents/, and plugin agents from enabled plugins. In Codex, Cursor, Copilot, agy, OpenCode, or another runtime, use that runtime's tool-discovery and delegation surfaces to enumerate the equivalent available specialists. If the runtime exposes no specialist list, record that explicitly in the Roster Decision and justify the fallback agent type you will use.

Persist the Roster Decision where the flow can be audited later. Prefer task-list metadata metadata.roster when a task list exists; otherwise write ${LISA_PROJECT_DIR:-${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}}/.lisa/roster.md or post the Roster Decision in the plan/tracker artifact the flow is already updating. The later verification/evidence step must reference the recorded artifact; absence of the artifact is a workflow failure.

Inclusion is the default. You MUST justify excluding an agent. Every team must include the Explore agent, or the runtime's nearest read-only search/research equivalent; if no equivalent exists, record that gap in the Roster Decision.

Do not spawn a teammate whose agent type is not included in the recorded Roster Decision. general-purpose is a fallback, not a default: using it requires an explicit INCLUDE line explaining why no more specific specialist fits or why the runtime exposes no specialist type. If the task changes enough that a different specialist is needed, update the Roster Decision before spawning that teammate.

When deciding the agents to use, consider:

• Before any task is implemented, the agent team must explore the codebase for relevant research (documentation, code, git history, etc) and update each task's metadata.relevant_documentation with the findings.
• Each task must be reviewed by the team to make sure their verification passes.
• Each task must have their learnings reviewed by the learner subagent.

Using the general-purpose agent in Team Lead session, Determine the name of this plan

Using the general-purpose agent in Team Lead session, determine the base branch from the ticket's target environment, then sync the working branch onto the latest of it before any work — so implementation always builds on current target-environment code:

1. Resolve the target environment from the resolved work item — its ## Target Backend Environment section (the field the *-write-* / *-add-journey skills record). For bug work, the environment named in the report is authoritative: if the title/body/reproduction steps mention bare env names (dev, staging, prod, production) or env-bearing URLs (staging.<domain>, gql.staging.*, dev.<domain>), that reported environment wins over a generic autofill default.
2. Map the environment to a base branch via .lisa.config.json deploy.branches (e.g. staging → staging, production → main) — the forward direction of the same map the env-keyed done resolution uses in reverse (see the config-resolution rule). If the work item names no environment, the base branch is the remote default branch (gh repo view --json defaultBranchRef -q .defaultBranchRef.name, or git remote set-head origin -a then read origin/HEAD), and record that fallback assumption in the plan/tracker artifact before proceeding. If the reported environment is absent from deploy.branches, or its branch does not exist on the remote, stop and report — never guess a base and never silently fall back to the default/integration branch.
3. Establish the feature branch off the latest base, conflict-free:
   • git fetch origin.
   • Already on a feature branch with an open PR → reuse it. If the PR's base ≠ the resolved base branch, surface the mismatch and re-target only with confirmation — the ticket's environment is the source of truth.
   • Already on a feature branch with no open PR → reuse it; its PR base will be the resolved base branch (do not ask the human — the environment determines it).
   • On an environment / default branch → check out a feature branch named for this plan (with the work-item ref prefix, per the linkage rules below) from origin/<base>.
   • Rebase the feature branch onto origin/<base> and resolve any merge conflicts BEFORE starting work. If the conflicts cannot be resolved cleanly and safely, create a fix task for the agent team (with the conflicting file list and current merge state) and resolve it before implementation begins — never start work on stale or conflicted code.

When the request came from a tracker work item, preserve its native identifier for development linkage:

• Capture tracker_provider and work_item_ref from the resolved input before creating or reusing a branch. Examples: github + CodySwannGT/lisa#614, linear + ENG-123, jira + ENG-123.
• If a new branch is needed and the provider can link branches by identifier, include the identifier in the branch name before the human-readable slug. Linear and JIRA integrations commonly link from branch names; GitHub issue linkage is PR-body driven, but including the issue number in the branch name is still useful. Keep branch names URL-safe, for example codex/ENG-123-add-checkout-copy or codex/614-add-checkout-copy.
• Pass the work-item ref and target branch to lisa-git-submit-pr when opening or updating the PR, for example work_item_ref=CodySwannGT/lisa#614 target_branch=<base resolved from the ticket's environment above> (not hardcoded main). The PR workflow owns provider-specific body text and must decide whether to use a closing keyword or a non-closing reference.
• After lisa-git-submit-pr returns a PR URL, ensure the reverse backlink is present on the source work item by running lisa-tracker-sync <work_item_ref> pr-ready pr_url=<url> tracker_provider=<provider>. The sync path must prefer native provider linkage and fall back to one managed [lisa-pr-link] comment when native linkage is unavailable or cannot be verified.
• If the provider has no native branch or PR development-linkage surface, continue without linkage and mention that the provider was skipped.

Using the general-purpose agent in Team Lead session, Determine which flow applies:

1. Research -- needs a PRD (no specification exists)
2. Plan -- needs decomposition (specification exists but no work items)
3. Implement -- has a well-defined work item
4. Verify -- has code ready to ship

If Implement, determine the work type:

1. Build (feature, story, task)
2. Fix (bug -- mandatory Reproduce sub-flow before investigation)
3. Improve (refactoring, optimization, coverage improvement)
4. Investigate Only (spike -- no code changes, just findings)

Run the readiness gate check for the selected flow as defined in the intent-routing rule (loaded via the lisa plugin). If the gate fails, stop and report what is missing.

IF it is a Fix (bug), execute the Reproduce sub-flow FIRST:

1. Write a failing test that demonstrates the bug (preferred)
2. If a failing test is not possible, write a minimal reproduction script
3. Verify the reproduction is reliable (consistent failure)
4. The reproduction MUST succeed before any investigation or fix attempt begins
5. Examples of reproduction methods:
   1. Write a simple API client and call the offending API
   2. Start the server on localhost and use the Playwright CLI or Chrome DevTools

For any Fix flow, and for any Build flow that changes user-visible behavior, regression coverage is a required deliverable at the highest practical observation level for the reported surface. If the project has a browser, device, or end-to-end harness for that platform (for example Playwright, Maestro, Detox, Cypress, or an equivalent runtime), the task plan and definition of done MUST include a deterministic regression spec against the reported surface, using mocked or seeded data where needed. This is alongside unit or integration coverage, not a substitute for it.

The team lead may not waive, defer, demote, or phrase this regression spec as "optional", "if cheap", "nice to have", or equivalent. The only permitted exits are:

1. The project genuinely has no end-to-end harness for the affected platform; record the checked locations and that absence in the task metadata, PR, and work-item evidence.
2. A genuine technical blocker prevents adding or executing the spec in this PR; before merge, create a linked build-ready follow-up ticket, reference it from the PR and source work item, and keep the current item blocked or explicitly non-terminal until that follow-up is accepted.

Completion evidence for the regression spec must prove execution, not mere existence. A green CI run is insufficient unless the PR evidence includes a CI log line, reporter output, or equivalent record naming the new spec and showing that it ran and passed. Guard explicitly against test.skip, suite-level environment gates, shard filters, and "0 tests" passes.

If the required regression spec is still in flight on an auto-merge-enabled PR, pause auto-merge or use an equivalent merge gate until the spec commit is pushed and its execution proof is available. The flow must not allow the PR to merge before this non-demotable deliverable is satisfied or formally blocked through the linked follow-up path above.

Using the general-purpose agent in Team Lead session, determine how you will know that the task is fully complete. Write this as an effective completion condition — one an independent verifier could confirm from observed output alone, not from your assertion that it works. A strong condition has:

• One measurable end state — a status code, an exit code, a row count, an observable UI state, an empty queue. Not "it looks right" or "the code is correct".
• A stated proof command that surfaces the evidence — exactly how the running system is exercised so the result is observable (e.g. curl … returns 200 with {…}, "the Playwright run reaches the dashboard", "SELECT … returns the new row"). Quality gates (test/typecheck/lint) do NOT count — they are prerequisites.
• Constraints that must hold — anything that must not change on the way there (e.g. "no other endpoint's response changes", "no migration is dropped").

This condition is the contract the Verify flow proves and records in the verification verdict (below); it is what the completion gate checks before the flow may stop.

1. Examples
   1. Direct deploy the changes to dev and then Write a simple API client and call the offending API
   2. Start the server on localhost and then Use the Playwright CLI or Chrome DevTools

Using the general-purpose agent in Team Lead session, create tasks needed to complete the request.

Every task MUST include this JSON metadata block. Do NOT omit skills (use [] if none), learnings (use [] if none) or verification.

{
  "plan": "<plan-name>",
  "type": "spike|bug|task|epic|story",
  "acceptance_criteria": ["..."],
  "relevant_documentation": "",
  "testing_requirements": ["..."],
  "skills": ["..."],
  "learnings": ["..."],
  "verification": {
    "type": "ui-recording|api-test|cli-test|database-check|manual-check|documentation",
    "command": "the proof command — must run the actual system and surface its result in the transcript (NOT test/typecheck/lint, those are quality gates). Phrase it so an independent verifier sees the evidence, e.g. `curl -s localhost:3000/health` not `check that health works`",
    "expected": "the single measurable end state that proves success — observable system behavior (status code, response body, row count, UI state), not a subjective judgement"
  

Before any task is implemented, the agent team must explore the codebase for relevant research (documentation, code, git history, etc) and update each task's metadata.relevant_documentation with the findings.

For Fix tasks and user-visible Build tasks, testing_requirements must include the highest-practical-observation regression requirement above, including the selected harness or the recorded absence/blocker path. The completion condition must include the proof command and the required CI execution evidence for the new spec.

Each task must be reviewed by the team to make sure their verification passes. Each task must have their learnings reviewed by the learner subagent.

Before shutting down the team, execute the Verify flow:

1. Run quality gates: lint, typecheck, tests — all must pass. These are prerequisites, NOT verification.

2. verification-specialist: verify locally by running the actual system and observing results (empirical proof that the change works). This is the real verification step. For UI-surface bugs, the proof must observe the UI surface with browser/device automation against the target environment whenever such a harness exists; unit-level or API-only proof cannot satisfy the empirical verification contract for a UI-surface defect. 2a. Record the verification verdict — the independent, machine-readable proof that gates completion. The verification-specialist writes ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR:-.}/.lisa/verification-status.json with one entry per acceptance criterion, each carrying the proof command's observed evidence:

   {
     "plan": "<plan-name>",
     "status": "pass | fail | blocked | in_progress",
     "criteria": [
       { "task": "<task id or title>", "criterion": "<the completion condition>", "status": "pass | fail", "evidence": "<the proof command run and the observed result>" }
     ],
     "updated_at": "<ISO8601 UTC>"
   }
   

   Set status: "pass" only when every criterion is pass with real evidence (output from running the system, not a claim). The verdict must be judged by an agent that did NOT implement the change (the ), never self-certified by the implementer. This is runtime scratch — it is gitignored and MUST NOT be committed (treat it like the secrets exclusion in the commit step).