| name | develop |
| allowed-tools | Bash, Read, Grep, Glob, Write, Edit, Task, AskUserQuestion, WebSearch, WebFetch |
| description | Run /develop to build a feature, UI or backend, from an approved design — a page, component, API, service, or data slice. If something load-bearing is undecided and no ADR records it, it stops and routes you to /architect; otherwise it reads the ADR plus AGENTS.md, builds, and advances the scope. |
Output style (plain words, no dashes)
Write everything this skill produces (files, reports, every message to the engineer) in plain simple language, keeping technical terms that carry real meaning but explaining each in plain words. Never use dashes as punctuation (no em dash, en dash, or hyphen used as punctuation); use short sentences, commas, or parentheses instead.
What this skill does
The builder: turns an ADR plus project conventions into working code. Tracks: UI (components, pages, layouts; ui-guide.md), Logical (APIs, services, data layers, business logic, integrations; logical-guide.md), or both (e.g. "auth" = sign-in pages plus session logic → run both). Step 0 gates on the ADR so load-bearing choices (an auth approach, a payment provider) are decided in /architect, not silently invented mid-build.
Asks vs acts
Gates, then acts: no upfront question rounds like /architect. Read the decision, build, ask only what the design left open (a UI template when no screenshot was given; a business rule the ADR didn't settle). Infer from the ADR, AGENTS.md, and codebase; ask only the un-inferable; recommend local implementation choices.
Artifact ownership
- Writes app code (plus CSS/tokens for UI).
- Scope (
docs/scope/): only the Step 4 touches (feature status → in-progress, milestone sub-boxes, Build it box, code pointer). Never marks a feature done (waits for /check verify and /test), never ticks Verify it or Test it, never creates files in docs/scope/ (scopes only; analysis/research is /architect's, in the ADR's rationale.md).
- Never writes ADRs (flags the need, defers to
/architect); never restructures root AGENTS.md (that's /audit); new area conventions go via /sync afterwards.
- One ADR touch: the
**Status**: line (umbrella decision → the index.md's, never a child's), plus filling the feature's ADR pointer line. Build start: Proposed → In Progress; build lands (feature → done): In Progress → Accepted (an ADR is not Accepted until its feature ships). Never edit ADR content, only that line, surgically: re-read it right before writing; unexpected state (already Accepted, Superseded) → flag, don't clobber.
- Artifact base:
docs/ by default, .workflow/ if docs/ is a published docs site. Read from whichever exists (paths here assume docs/).
- Shared scope: re-read it right before ticking, edit only the specific checkbox, status, or pointer line (never rewrite the file); feature not as expected (already
done, reworked) → flag, don't overwrite. The freshness pre-check guards against rebuilding what a teammate shipped.
Portability (any OS, any agent)
Any Agent Skills client, macOS/Linux/Windows. Detection snippets are POSIX reference; use your agent's own cross-platform file tools. Builds inline on the main thread (Step 3); the only subagents are a read-only scout that explores code (Step 2.5) and a read-only researcher for a doc-check (Step 2.6, degrading to build-from-knowledge without web capability), both on the cheapest model. Bundled guides (ui-guide.md, logical-guide.md, checklist.md, templates/) and the post-gate build flow (flow/build.md) are paths relative to this skill's folder; the main thread reads them. No interactive-question picker → ask the prompts as plain text with the same options.
Execution
Pre-check — the project must already exist (except the scaffold task)
Exception: if this IS the scaffold sub-task of the Stack and architecture foundation feature (prompt says scaffold, or the step initializes the project from the stack ADR), creating the project IS the job. Read the ARCHITECTURE ADR's ## Proposed stack; run the framework's own init (create-next-app, cargo new, etc. per that stack); install base dependencies (framework, core runtime, only what the first slice needs); lay out directories; confirm a dev server or build runs. Scaffold steps derive from the stack decision (a decision ADR has no build plan). Install just-in-time: NOT every library the ADR names (email, monitoring, and so on); each later feature installs its own when built; only cross-cutting tooling (lint, format, type strictness) comes early, via /audit + the tooling task. Then proceed.
Otherwise /develop builds into an existing project. No skeleton (no package.json/pyproject.toml/go.mod/manifest, no source tree) and not the scaffold task → stop:
No project found to build into. Run the scaffold step first (the Stack and architecture feature's scaffold sub-task, per your architecture ADR), then run /develop again.
A project exists (even a bare scaffold) → proceed.
Pre-check — freshness & collaboration (don't build on stale state or over a teammate)
Before mutating anything (skip silently if solo, offline, or non-git): git fetch quietly; base = main, else master; behind count (git rev-list --count HEAD..origin/<base>); uncommitted work (git status --short).
- Behind (count > 0) → stop and warn: "You're N commits behind
origin/$BASE. A teammate may have already changed or shipped this. Pull first, then run again."
- Uncommitted work in the area you'll touch → warn: "You have uncommitted changes here. Commit or stash first so this build doesn't tangle with them." Let them proceed if they insist.
- Feature
in-progress in the scope AND its code area (pointer line's path) has recent commits by another author (git log --format='%an' -- <area>) → warn: " looks like it's mid-build by someone else. Coordinate before continuing it." Confirm before proceeding.
Warnings, not hard blocks, but surface them.
Step 0 — The ADR gate (always first)
Is a decision owed and unrecorded? The test:
To build this, would you have to invent something the engineer hasn't decided?
If yes, stop and route to /architect (its ADR is the build spec; /develop implements decisions, it doesn't make them). You'd have to invent:
- A provider, library, integration, data model, or cross-cutting pattern (e.g. auth provider, DB/ORM, caching strategy).
- A whole UI page or screen: its design system (
design.md there? if not, which direction?), sections/composition, component inventory, asset strategy (no screenshot, no repo images → e.g. an online source). Owed unless a design.md AND a page-level spec/ADR pin these down.
- A feature's behavior (search, a wizard: "what exactly should it do?" is open;
/architect asks those questions). Owed unless an ADR specs it.
NOT owed for pure implementation already specified: a small bug fix, a component matching an existing design.md, wiring already-decided pieces, a copy tweak, anything an existing ADR/design.md/AGENTS.md governs.
Don't hardcode to page names; apply the invent-test to whatever was asked (a "home page" or "search filter" fails on a fresh project, passes once an ADR/design.md exists). False negatives are the failure mode, building a real decision without noticing (what "just build the home page" looks like): when unsure, treat as owed and ask (panel below).
Read only what this feature needs, never the whole docs/ tree: its one scope file and its one governing ADR (single file, or umbrella index.md plus the one child speccing this sub-task). No other features' rows, scope files, workspaces, or unrelated ADRs.
Check, in order:
- Locate this feature's scope file (only that one). Monorepo →
docs/scope/<workspace>/ for the task's package. Pick the file (scope.md, or the matching <epic>.md in a split) from the At-a-glance table alone; read just this feature's section. needs a decision with no ADR pointer yet → decision owed and missing. Malformed → flag and ask, don't guess.
- Open the governing ADR via the feature's
ADR pointer, reading only its build-spec sections as defined in the build flow (flow/build.md), Step 2 item 1. Found → it's the spec; proceed. No pointer and no linked ADR → targeted look in docs/adr/<workspace>/ for one matching this feature's scope, never a blanket read.
- The nearest
AGENTS.md (workspace/area) may already capture the decision, synced from an earlier feature (e.g. "the auth provider is already chosen") → proceed without a new ADR.
Decision owed and unrecorded → don't guess, don't silently stop. Ask (single-select; AskUserQuestion on Claude Code):
- question: "This looks like it needs an architecture decision first:
<name the specific load-bearing choice, e.g. 'which auth provider + session model'>. How do you want to handle it?"
- header: "ADR first?"
- options:
Architect it first — "Recommended. Capture the decision in an ADR before building, so the build has a spec." → end here with the handoff below. Do not build.No, not needed — "I've judged there's no real decision here; build directly." → proceed to the build flow (flow/build.md).Skip for now — "Build it without an ADR; I'll backfill the decision later." → proceed to the build flow (flow/build.md), leaving the feature's Needs ADR? = yes with a ⚠ ADR pending note in the scope (docs/scope/).
The tool appends "Other" as a free-text option automatically.
On Architect it first, end with:
Run this next, then come back to /develop:
/architect <feature>: <the specific decision to settle>
Once the ADR exists, re-run /develop <task> and I'll build to it.
No decision owed (pure implementation) → skip the question, proceed.
Build flow (Steps 1-4)
Once the gate clears (no decision owed, or the engineer chose No, not needed / Skip for now), read flow/build.md and follow its Steps 1-4: classify the track, load the decision and conventions, explore, optional doc-check, build, then update the scope and report. Do not read flow/build.md when the gate ends the run (Architect it first, no build).
Reference files
- Post-gate build flow (Steps 1-4):
flow/build.md
- UI build track:
ui-guide.md
- Logical build track:
logical-guide.md
- Accessibility checklist (UI track, Phase 5):
checklist.md
- Design templates (UI track):
templates/
- Project design system (UI track):
./design.md
