phased-implement

name	phased-implement
description	Coordinator workflow for multi-phase implementation across workmux worktrees. Generates or loads a master plan, dispatches phase agents using presets, verifies sentinels, merges serially, and performs integration verification.
allowed-tools	Bash, Read, Write, Glob, Grep

Coordinate multi-phase implementation across workmux worktrees. The coordinator owns the master plan, phase dispatch, merge order, ancestry checks, final integration validation, and final summary. The coordinator does not edit source files for feature work.

Do not use Claude Code built-in worktree features. Use workmux for worktree orchestration.

Operating principles

• Coordinator never writes source. All implementation happens inside spawned worktree agents through /implement.
• workmux done is not success. A phase succeeds only when its result sentinel reports status: success and the coordinator verifies it.
• Merges are serialized. At most one /merge --keep runs at a time.
• Dependents spawn only after every dependency is merged. No exceptions.
• Drain completed handles before dispatching dependents. workmux wait --any can return after one transition while sibling phases also finished.
• Use bounded waits. Avoid tight polling and inspect workmux status on timeouts.
• Preserve failed and blocked worktrees for inspection. Remove worktrees only after merge and ancestry verification succeed.
• Treat merge conflicts as merge failures for that phase, not as reasons to destroy the worktree.
• Read the master plan YAML semantically. Do not write shell parsers for YAML.
• Keep all coordinator artifacts in one shared history/<date>-phased-<slug>/ run directory so worktrees can read prompts and write sentinels.

Argument handling

Arguments are $ARGUMENTS.

Parse these flags before starting:

• --plan <path>: load an existing master plan instead of generating one.
• --integration-branch <branch>: branch that receives phase merges. Default: current branch.
• --preset light|standard|design|strict: default preset for generated phases.
• --validation <command>: final integration validation command.
• --reviewer <selector>: consult-llm selector for optional integration review. Repeatable.
• --reviewers <selector,selector>: comma-separated reviewer selectors.
• --integration-review none|auto|full: final integration review policy. Default: auto.

Everything else is the requested multi-phase implementation.

Preset semantics:

• light: established local pattern, focused validation, no external review
• standard: bounded implementation with acceptance evidence and applicable runtime exercise
• design: meaningful ownership, API, or architecture choice, with one source-grounded technical-shape review
• strict: real trust, persistence, protocol, migration, destructive, concurrency, or FFI boundary, with boundary evidence and one final diff review

Presets increase evidence, not planning or architecture.

Required artifacts

Write coordinator artifacts under history/ using a dated run directory:

history/<YYYY-MM-DD>-phased-<slug>/
  plan.md
  prompts/
  captures/
  summary.md

Required:

• master phased plan at history/<run>/plan.md
• per-phase result sentinel at history/<run>/captures/<phase-id>.result.md
• final summary at history/<run>/summary.md

Optional:

• external review capture
• debug notes

Do not require ADRs or feedback ledgers.

Phase A: snapshot and plan

1. Record the integration branch and start commit:

   START_HEAD=$(git rev-parse HEAD)
   INTEGRATION_BRANCH=<integration-branch or current branch>
   git branch --show-current
   git rev-parse --verify "$INTEGRATION_BRANCH"
   git status --short
   

2. Stop if unrelated uncommitted changes make orchestration unsafe. The integration branch must exist and must not be a detached HEAD.

3. Pick a topic slug and create the shared run directory:

   PLAN_DIR="history/<YYYY-MM-DD>-phased-<slug>"
   mkdir -p "$PLAN_DIR/prompts" "$PLAN_DIR/captures"
   

   history/ is gitignored and shared across workmux worktrees in this repo style. Do not commit files from this directory.

4. Track phase state in coordinator memory with these statuses: pending, working, done-unverified, merging, merged, failed, blocked.

5. If --plan <path> is provided, copy or write it to $PLAN_DIR/plan.md, read it, and validate it.

6. If no plan is provided, generate a master phased plan at $PLAN_DIR/plan.md. Gather source context first with Glob, Grep, and Read. The master plan should be scheduling-focused, not code-heavy. Assign phase presets by risk:

   • light for routine mechanical phases from a clear master plan
   • standard for non-trivial phases with known approach
   • design for uncertain, cross-module, or approach-heavy phases
   • strict for public contracts, data formats, security-sensitive work, migrations, or high regression risk

Generated plans should mark non-trivial phases as at least standard.

Master plan schema

The master plan must contain one YAML block and one brief per phase.

# <Feature> Master Plan

**Goal:** <one sentence>
**Integration branch:** <branch>
**Start commit:** <sha>
**Final validation:** `<command>`

```yaml
phases:
  - id: api-contract
    description: Define the public API contract for X.
    depends_on: []
    paths:
      - "src/api/**"
      - "tests/api/**"
    preset: design
    acceptance:
      - "Given a valid request, when the API is called, then it returns the new response shape."
    validation: npm test -- tests/api
```

## Phase briefs

### api-contract

**Intent:** why this phase exists
**Current problem:** what is wrong now
**Desired shape:** target behavior and boundaries
**Preserve:** behavior that must not change
**Avoid:** overreach and later-phase ownership
**Dependencies:** previous phase outputs

Required YAML fields per phase:

• id: stable slug, unique across phases
• description: one sentence
• depends_on: list of phase ids
• paths: expected owned paths or globs
• preset: light, standard, design, or strict
• acceptance: list of acceptance criteria

Optional field:

• validation: phase-specific validation command

DAG validation

Before dispatch, validate the plan:

• Every phase id is unique.
• Every dependency names an existing phase.
• The graph has no cycles.
• Every phase has a valid preset.
• Every phase has acceptance criteria.
• Phase briefs exist for every phase.
• Phase path ownership is specific enough to detect obvious overlap.
• Overlapping paths are allowed only when dependencies serialize those phases or the brief explains the boundary.
• A final validation command exists or can be inferred.

If validation fails, update the master plan directly and rerun validation.

Phase B: dispatch loop

Dispatch phases whose dependencies have succeeded and merged. Parallel phases may run at the same time when dependencies are satisfied and path ownership is safe.

Use the exact local workmux command syntax when running commands in this repo. Do not switch to Claude Code worktrees.

Loop:

1. Drain completed handles before spawning new work. Run Phase C and Phase D for every tracked handle that is already done before recomputing the ready set.

2. Compute the ready set: phases with status pending whose every dependency has status merged.

3. If the ready set is empty and no phase is working, done-unverified, or merging, proceed to final integration validation.

4. For each ready phase:

   • Resolve the preset and phase validation command.
   • Write $PLAN_DIR/prompts/<phase-id>.md.
   • Spawn a workmux worktree from the integration branch.
   • Track the workmux handle and set phase status to working.

   workmux add <phase-id> -b --base "$INTEGRATION_BRANCH" -P "$PLAN_DIR/prompts/<phase-id>.md"
   

5. Confirm newly spawned handles started with a bounded wait:

   workmux wait <handles> --status working --timeout 120
   

   On timeout, inspect workmux status. A fast phase may have moved straight to done; treat done as valid. Mark a handle failed only if it is missing, exited unexpectedly, or is stuck before it starts.

6. Recompute the live working handle set before every wait. Exclude phases that are already done-unverified, merging, merged, failed, or blocked.

7. Wait for the next transition in bounded chunks:

   workmux wait <working-handles> --any --timeout 300
   workmux status <working-handles>
   

   If timeout occurs, inspect workmux status. If any handle is waiting, capture it, mark it blocked, and halt its dependents. Otherwise continue waiting. If a handle exited unexpectedly, mark it failed.

8. Treat as unverified completion, not success. Set status to , capture output, and run Phase C.

Halt logic:

• When a phase becomes failed or blocked, stop spawning new dependent phases.
• Mark every transitive dependent as blocked with the blocker phase id.
• Let currently working phases that are not transitive dependents finish when their paths and dependencies are unaffected.
• Preserve failed and blocked worktrees for inspection.
• Continue to final summary after the loop drains or no safe progress remains.

Phase prompt template

Write one prompt file per phase:

# Phase Agent Prompt: <phase-id>

You are implementing one phase in a workmux worktree.

## Hard rules

- Work only on this phase.
- Invoke `/implement` for this phase with the resolved preset and phase context.
- Preserve the phase boundaries, acceptance criteria, and dependencies below.
- Commit successful changes in the phase worktree.
- Write the result sentinel exactly as requested.

## Invoke

Run this implementation workflow:

`/implement --preset <preset> --parent-plan <master-plan-path> --validation '<phase-validation-command>' <phase description and acceptance>`

## Phase context

- Phase id: `<phase-id>`
- Description: <description>
- Paths: <paths>
- Preset: `<preset>`
- Master plan: `<path>`
- Dependencies: <dependencies>

## Acceptance criteria

- <criterion>

## Phase brief

<brief from master plan>

## Result sentinel

Write `<plan-dir>/captures/<phase-id>.result.md`:

```markdown
# Phase Result: <phase-id>

status: success | blocked | failed
phase_id: <phase-id>
preset: light | standard | design | strict
worktree: <workmux worktree name>
base_commit: <sha>
head_commit: <sha>
commit: <sha>
validation: <command>
validation_status: passed | failed | skipped

## Summary

- <what changed>

## Acceptance

- <criterion>: met | not met | unknown

## Files changed

- <path>

## Blockers

- <blocker or none>

The phase agent should write the sentinel as its final action and treat a missing sentinel as failure.

## Phase C: result verification

When a handle transitions to `done`, capture output before deciding whether it succeeded:

```bash
workmux capture <phase-id> > "$PLAN_DIR/captures/<phase-id>.tail"

Then read $PLAN_DIR/captures/<phase-id>.result.md. For each completed phase, the coordinator verifies:

• The result sentinel exists.
• status is success.
• head_commit and commit are present.
• The phase committed its work.
• Validation passed or any skipped validation is justified.
• Files changed are within phase scope or explained by the brief.
• Acceptance criteria are marked met or have clear explanation.
• Blockers are none.

If the sentinel is missing, reports blocked or failed, or fails verification, do not merge that phase. Capture the workmux output, mark the phase failed or blocked, preserve the worktree, and halt dependents.

Phase D: merge workflow

Merge successful phases serially into the integration branch. Before each merge, ensure the integration branch is checked out and current.

Use the existing merge skill in the phase worktree:

/merge --keep

At a high level:

1. Capture the phase tip from the sentinel before merge for diagnostics: head_commit.

2. Send /merge --keep to the phase worktree agent with workmux.

3. Wait for merge completion in bounded chunks so conflicts or prompts are detected:

   workmux send <phase-id> "/merge --keep"
   workmux wait <phase-id> --timeout 60
   workmux status <phase-id>
   

   Repeat the wait/status cycle until the merge finishes, a bounded timeout is reached, or the handle enters waiting. If it enters waiting, capture output to $PLAN_DIR/captures/<phase-id>.merge.tail, keep the worktree, mark the phase blocked, and stop merging dependents.

4. Because /merge may rebase the phase before merging, read the worktree tip after /merge --keep returns. The pre-merge head_commit from the sentinel is not a stable ancestry token.

5. Verify the post-merge worktree tip is an ancestor of the integration branch:

   POST_MERGE_TIP=$(workmux run <phase-id> -- git rev-parse HEAD)
   git merge-base --is-ancestor "$POST_MERGE_TIP" <integration-branch>
   

6. If ancestry verification passes, record POST_MERGE_TIP as the merged phase commit and remove the workmux worktree:

   workmux remove <phase-id>
   

7. If ancestry verification fails, capture output, keep the worktree, stop merging, and report the phase as blocked.

Do not use workmux remove before the merge and post-merge ancestry verification succeed. The sentinel's pre-merge head_commit is for diagnostics only, not ancestry verification.

Phase E: continue the DAG

After each successful merge:

• Mark the phase as merged.
• Recompute ready phases.
• Dispatch newly unblocked phases.
• Continue until every phase is merged or no progress can be made.

If a phase fails, keep unrelated ready phases running only when their dependencies and paths are unaffected. Otherwise stop and summarize.

Phase F: final integration validation

When all phases merge:

1. Run the final integration validation command from the master plan or --validation.
2. Inspect the integration diff and phase summaries.
3. Confirm that acceptance criteria across phases are covered.
4. Confirm there is no obvious cross-phase drift or conflict.

Final integration review policy:

• none: skip external integration review.
• auto: run full external integration review when any phase used design or strict, or when multiple phases changed shared contracts. Otherwise skip.
• full: always run full external integration review.

For final integration review, load the consult-llm skill before calling consult-llm. Attach the master plan, phase sentinels, and relevant diffs or files. Use --task review, supplied reviewer selectors if present, quoted heredoc terminator __CONSULT_LLM_END__, and Bash timeout 600000.

Prompt shape:

Review the integrated result of this multi-phase implementation.

Check whether the merged phases satisfy the master plan acceptance criteria. Focus on cross-phase compatibility, public contracts, regression risk, edge cases, validation adequacy, and security where relevant.

Return only actionable must-fix or should-fix issues. If the result is acceptable, say so directly.

Only auto-fix localized must-fix issues with one clear answer. If review finds design or scope issues, stop and summarize them.

Final summary

Write a final summary under history/ and print it:

# Phased Implementation Summary: <feature>

status: success | blocked | failed
integration_branch: <branch>
start_commit: <sha>
end_commit: <sha>
master_plan: <path>
final_validation: <command>
final_validation_status: passed | failed | skipped
integration_review: none | skipped | passed | failed

## Phases

| Phase | Preset | Status | Commit | Sentinel |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| <id> | <preset> | merged | <sha> | <path> |

## Acceptance

- <criterion>: met | not met | unknown

## Merges

- <phase>: merged and ancestry verified against post-merge tip `<post-merge-tip>`

## Blockers

- <blocker or none>

## Artifacts

- Prompts: `<plan-dir>/prompts/`
- Captures: `<plan-dir>/captures/`



 

If phases failed or blocked, list preserved worktrees and the capture files to inspect. Report the final validation result, integration review result, merged phase commits, and blockers. If all phases merged and validation passed, state success plainly.