work

name

work

description

Implement one task from the repo's workflow/ status folders, or any small ad-hoc ask, with a minimal deliberate loop: read routed docs, brief plan, implement, validate, atomic completion commit. Use when the user says "/workflow:work", "/work", "/work 051", asks for the next task, or hands an implementation task. Requires an initialized framework (workflow/AGENTS.md exists); otherwise route to /workflow:framework-init first.

Work

One loop for task-sized and ad-hoc work. Fast over ceremonial: small mistakes caught by tests beat a process that runs 10x longer. The folder a task file sits in IS its status; the file is spec, never a phase tracker. View the board with ./workflow/status.

1. Contract: read workflow/AGENTS.md in full — validation commands, verify mapping, doc routing, local notes all come from there.
2. Select: arg = a task (find workflow/*/<id>-*.md) or a direct ask (no task needed — skip the folder steps). Without an arg, take the top Ready task: lowest priority: number in workflow/ready/, ties broken by lowest id (./workflow/status shows the queue). Only ready/ tasks are eligible; draft or blocked routes through /workflow:groom first. Don't re-prioritize while selecting.
3. Read the task file, then the doc leaf(s) the contract routes for every path you'll touch — in full, before code. Use code search to locate, not to learn behavior. Don't read done/ unless the task links a specific historical constraint.
4. Plan in chat: files to touch, approach, test targets — a few lines, not a document. Proceed immediately when the path is clear; pause only on genuinely multiple valid outcomes, conflict with stable docs, unexpected failures, destructive steps, or material scope expansion.
5. Start: git mv workflow/ready/<id>-<slug>.md workflow/in-progress/. Do not commit this move — it rides in the completion commit. An interrupted session leaves it visible as a dirty tree, which is intended.
6. Implement in small commits, each message prefixed task NNN:. Only the requested change; simple readable code over new abstractions. TDD where it fits (pure logic; bug fix = failing test first; painful test setup is design feedback). Keep surprises/follow-ups brief in the task file's Notes — never a chronological log.
7. Validate per the contract: targeted checks per meaningful chunk, the full gate once before the completion commit. Never gate a commit on a piped test run — run each check as its own step, chain the commit on its exit status. Stop on an unexpected failure: explain what failed and the options; don't weaken checks or work around missing deps without direction.
8. Verify: run the contract's verify-mapping skills for the touched paths, before the completion commit. If a required check can't run, say so and don't mark the task done.
9. Acceptance gate: spawn workflow:acceptance-verifier:acceptance-verifier with the repo path, task id, the task file path (its ## Acceptance criteria), and the diff scope (commits prefixed task NNN: plus the working tree). It adversarially checks each criterion in fresh context and returns per-criterion verdicts. not ready → fix the named gaps and re-run; only ready proceeds to the completion commit. Don't override a not ready by argument alone. If a flagged gap is not a code defect but an accepted environment constraint, a user-authorized substitution (a check can't run here, a tool was swapped on the user's instruction), or a deliberate scope narrowing from the spec, don't self-clear it — surface the verifier's finding to the user and get an explicit call before committing. Skip the gate for ad-hoc asks with no written criteria. (Codex: run this adversarial pass as its own explicit step before committing — re-read each criterion and falsify it against the diff, evidence per verdict.)
10. Docs: sync the routed doc leaves in the same commit when behavior or invariants changed (the verifier's Notes often name what's missing). Pure refactors need no spec diff; shipped behavior must not live only in the task file. Log a decision via /workflow:decision only if a future agent might plausibly flip the choice.
11. Finish — one atomic completion commit, message starting task NNN: <title>:
    • only after the acceptance gate returned ready,
    • add a done: YYYY-MM-DD line under the title and git mv the file to workflow/done/ (this also commits the in-progress move from step 5),
    • include remaining implementation, tests, and doc sync. No git tags, no phase artifacts — git history records how the implementation evolved. Report: outcome, behavior, files changed, checks run, remaining limitations. Call out anything the spec named that you did not deliver, with the reason, in the report itself — not buried only in the task file's Notes.

Delegation: subagents for bounded find/summarize, bulk mechanical edits, and batch test generation (use repo agents the contract names, e.g. a test-writer). Every dispatch carries the contract's project one-liner + the doc leaf paths + one bounded question. Decisions stay inline.

If the change balloons past ~5 files or hits a load-bearing contract you didn't expect, stop and say so instead of pushing through.

Codex: invoke as use $work; run delegated steps inline.