System-design thinking before any doc or code: goals/non-goals, back-of-envelope numbers, components and contracts, failure modes, operability, security, trade-offs. Use for "design this system", "architecture for X", "trade-offs for X", "how should we architect", "API design", "data model for", "service boundaries", or before an ADR. Hands off to /ship:write-docs to record the decision. Not implementation planning (/ship:design — that turns a decided design into stories).
Run Ship's full production workflow from raw requirement to PR: design, dev, E2E, review, QA, refactor, and handoff. Use only for explicit /ship:auto, auto pipeline requests, or end-to-end delivery.
Plan implementation before coding: investigate the repo, write spec and plan, and validate with a peer. Use for "plan", "design approach", "scope", or any coding task needing a plan. Not system-design thinking (/ship:arch-design) or full /ship:auto.
Implement from a spec or plan: extract stories, build in safe waves, test, commit, and get peer review per story. Use for "implement", "build/code this plan", or targeted fix findings. If no plan exists, use /ship:design first.
Add durable end-to-end tests for user/API-visible behavior. Detect or scaffold the E2E framework, write tests, run the app, and store evidence. Use for E2E, Playwright/Cypress, regression tests, or quality gates. Not exploratory QA.
Ship completed work: verify locally, commit related changes, push, create or update the PR, watch CI/reviews, and fix until merge-ready or escalated. Use for "ship it", "create PR", "handoff", or finished code needing delivery.
Runtime QA of a change: start the app, test acceptance criteria and edge cases, and report evidence. Use for "test this", "QA", "does it work", exploratory checks, or post-review runtime verification. Not static code review.
Improve existing code without changing behavior: scan smells, simplify, dedupe, reuse utilities, and verify after edits. Use for refactor, cleanup, simplify, reduce duplication, extract method, dead code, or code smells. No PR.