| name | dte-arc-work |
| description | The full cycle for a task, bug, area, or a whole plan index — review, plan, do the work, then verify — with quality gates and progress reporting throughout. Composes dte-arc-review (or a light scan), dte-arc-plan, ce-work, ce-simplify-code/ponytail, and dte-deep-reviewer + dte-test-auditor to verify. Loops over a list of tasks/bugs OR over a dte-arc-plan INDEX worklist to complete many plans (one branch + gate + report each). Use when the user says "fix this", "do the work", "implement this plan", "work through these plans/tasks", or "handle this end to end". Stops for review after each item by default; --ship to auto commit/PR. --quick for a small bug, --deep for a real change. Not for a pure root-cause bug hunt (use dte-debug), a full-stack feature with UI (use dte-feature), an upgrade/data migration (use dte-migrate), or setting up an autonomous batch loop (use dte-loop). |
dte-arc-work — review → plan → work → verify (looping, gated, reported)
Read ../../references/conventions.md first — especially "Progress: report every phase",
"Runnable gate", and "Decomposition". This skill changes code. Default: stop for the
user's review after each item; only commit/PR if --ship.
Input
- A single target (task/bug/area), or a list, or a
docs/plans/INDEX-<topic>.md worklist from
dte-arc-plan (the "complete many plans" path).
- Read the project
CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md; honor interactors-not-services + the project's test framework.
Establish the gate FIRST (before any change)
Derive the project's runnable gate and confirm it's green on the current tree. Detect from: the
plan/INDEX's stated gate, CI config, bin/rails/bin/rake tasks. If none, use test suite + a
boot/eager-load check (e.g. zeitwerk:check, CI=1). This gate runs before every commit. A red
gate is revert-the-phase, never patch-around. The gate is the only real safety net — especially if
deploys are not test-gated.
Cycle (per item / phase)
- Branch. Meaningful name (
fix/..., feat/...). Never the default branch.
- Review.
--deep: dte-arc-review on the affected slice. --quick: focused read + /ce-debug to
the root cause (fix the cause, grep all callers first). If the item already has a validated plan
(INDEX/docs/plans), skip to step 4.
- Plan.
dte-arc-plan → a validated plan (ce-plan + ie-validate-plan; gaps resolved).
- Work.
/ce-work the plan. Follow existing patterns; write/update tests as you go.
- Elegant.
/ce-simplify-code + ponytail over the diff — the ladder, not just "less code".
- Verify.
dte-deep-reviewer on the diff + dte-test-auditor on changed code. Feed 🔴/🟠 back into
step 4 (bounded: ≤2 fix passes, then surface what remains).
- Gate. Run the project gate. Green → (commit + tick the worklist box + report this phase) or, if
--ship, /ce-commit-push-pr. Red → revert this phase, log why, stop.
- Report + pause. Print a phase report — what changed, verify verdict, gate result, branch, what's
next — and pause for go-ahead (default cadence). Never advance silently.
Completing MANY plans (an INDEX worklist)
Treat it like the proven loop: read INDEX-<topic>.md → take the first unchecked, dependency-ready
plan → run steps 1/4–8 for it (each plan already validated by dte-arc-plan) → on green, tick its box +
update the pointer + report + pause → next. One branch per plan unless the INDEX says otherwise. Maintain
an iteration log. Serial by default for a shared codebase (avoid index/merge races).
Guardrails
- Stop-and-ask before anything irreversible/outward-facing (push, PR, deploy) unless
--ship.
- High-severity findings still open after 2 passes → not done; surface them.
- Trace the whole problem before picking a fix; a small diff in the wrong place is a second bug.
Done when
Each item/plan is implemented on a branch, simplified, verified, and gate-green, with the
worklist updated and a phase report given. Shipped only if --ship.
