enforce-development-loop

name	enforce-development-loop
description	Enforce the Product -> UI/UX -> Engineering development loop for new features. Run when starting a feature, reviewing progress, or before merging to main.

Enforce Development Loop

Purpose

Enforce the Product -> UI/UX -> Engineering development loop to ensure all user-facing features have product specs, UI/UX mocks with implementation specs, and engineering design specs before core implementation begins. This prevents engineering mismatches and ensures data layer compatibility.

Usage

Use this skill when:

• Starting a new feature.
• Reviewing a feature's progress.
• Validating a PR before merging.

Workflow

Step 1: Identify the Feature Name and Scope

1. Ask the user for the feature name (which should correspond to a directory under specs/changes/[feature-name]/).
2. If not specified, look for active directories in specs/changes/ that might be relevant.

Step 2: Validate Product Phase

1. Check if the product spec exists: specs/changes/[feature-name]/product_spec.md (or prd.md, or proposal.md with product details).
2. If it does not exist, pause and instruct the user to draft the Product Spec first.
3. Check the roadmap (specs/main/roadmap.md) to verify if the product spec is referenced.
4. If not referenced, alert the user that the feature is not currently tracked in the roadmap and must be added.

Step 3: Validate UI/UX Phase

1. Check if the UI/UX implementation spec exists: specs/changes/[feature-name]/ui_spec.md (or specs.md with UI details).
2. Verify that the UI/UX implementation spec outlines every new/modified UI element and its functionality.
3. Check if there are active UI/UX mocks or prototypes.
4. Verify that UI/UX mockup/prototype code is pushed to the next branch (or a dedicated feature branch), not main.
   • Run git branch --contains or check the current branch name.
   • If changes are on main, alert the user that UI/UX work must be isolated on next or a feature branch.

Step 4: Validate Engineering Phase

1. Check if the engineering design spec exists: specs/changes/[feature-name]/design.md.
2. Verify that the design spec outlines:
   • Required changes to the Prism backend.
   • Required changes to the results store / database schema.
3. If the UI changes require backend/schema updates and the design spec is missing, pause and instruct the user/agent to draft the Engineering Design Spec first.

Step 5: Final Compliance Check

Provide a summary table of the development loop compliance:

Phase	Artifact / Check	Status	Action Required
Product	product_spec.md / proposal.md	[Pass/Fail/Missing]
Product	Referenced in Roadmap	[Pass/Fail/Missing]
UI/UX	ui_spec.md / specs.md	[Pass/Fail/Missing]
UI/UX	Code isolated (not on main)	[Pass/Fail]
Engineering	design.md (if needed)	[Pass/Fail/Not Needed]

If any critical checks fail, do not proceed with merging implementation code to main.