| name | autobahn |
| description | Ship implementation-ready goals from a northstar handoff or evidence-complete direct record, with review, CI, fail-closed merge, and cascade closure. |
| eval | autobahn |
Autobahn
Autobahn ships implementation-ready goals one PR at a time. It delegates engines,
review, merge policy, and cascade logic rather than reimplementing their loops.
Quick Start
- Gate either a northstar handoff or one direct implementation-ready goal:
bash autobahn/prereq-check.sh --root . [--goal <goal.json>].
- Select standard or legacy-safe TDD, then pick the execution engine.
- Implement one goal per PR, peer-review, gate CI, and decide merge.
- On merge, cascade-close the goal's issue with a triage status.
Prereq (fail-closed)
Autobahn requires ai-catapult-init v3 plus either a valid northstar handoff or
an evidence-complete direct goal that passes readiness-check.sh. Direct intake
is for already-understood work, not a shortcut around discovery; missing context,
root-cause evidence, solution, scope, acceptance criteria, or verification fails
closed. See modules/prereq.md and
modules/readiness.md.
Orchestration (ultragoal, one PR per goal)
Delegate durable orchestration to ultragoal and ship one PR per goal.
See modules/orchestration.md.
Engine auto-pick + override
Per goal, pick a sub-engine deterministically from the goal record's shape
(precedence qa > parallel > persistence > default): ultraqa for QA-heavy goals,
ultrawork for parallelizable goals, ralph for persistence-needing goals,
team by default. A user --engine <name> override wins over auto-pick.
Use autobahn/engine-pick.sh; see
modules/engine-pick.md.
TDD blast-radius gate
Before implementation, tdd-mode.sh selects legacy-safe TDD automatically
when coverage is under 30%. The running agent may also select it at any coverage
level when the specific change has high coupling, weak seams, or elevated blast
radius; record legacy_safe_tdd: true and legacy_risk_reason in the goal. This
changes the TDD technique, never the review or CI bar. See
modules/tdd-safety.md.
Peer-review loop
Each goal's PR runs an architect + code-reviewer + executor loop: the
executor implements, architect and reviewer review, and the loop continues until
all comments are resolved. Authoring and review stay in separate lanes — never
self-approve. See modules/review-loop.md.
CI gate
A PR is mergeable only when remote host CI AND local CI are green and every
review comment is resolved (the feedback merge protocol). A red or pending CI run
holds the merge. See modules/review-loop.md.
Merge authority (configurable, fail-closed)
Merge authority is a thin adapter over the ai-catapult-init host-policy decision:
merge-authority.sh invokes host-policy, consumes its verdict + confirmation_token,
and wraps only the fail-closed exit-code contract. Admin-bypass merges only on a
host-policy-approved verdict with a valid token; otherwise stop at
ready-for-human; a valid token the policy still rejects fails closed. The
adapter re-encodes none of host-policy's token regex / admin rule / audit format.
Authorizing a merge is the second interactive point. To authorize, supply the
host-policy verdict + token to autobahn/merge-authority.sh; with no authorized
verdict the goal stops at ready-for-human. See
modules/merge-authority.md.
Cascade issue closure
On merge, delegate to the cascade engine to close the goal's issue idempotently
across repos and apply the canonical triage status. Closure is audited and
re-runnable without creating duplicates. See
modules/cascade-closure.md.
Safety rules
- Fail closed: missing prereq, missing handoff, red CI, or unauthorized merge
stops with guidance — never silently merge or mutate.
- Direct intake must pass the evidence-complete readiness gate.
- Low coverage or agent-observed legacy risk must use legacy-safe TDD.
- Compose, never reimplement: delegate every loop, merge policy, and cascade.
- Default merge authority is ready-for-human; admin-bypass only on an
explicit, host-policy-approved, valid-token verdict.
References
