| name | 00-sdlc |
| description | Pure orchestrator for the full AIDD development flow. Use when a human (or Gardener) needs to take a free-form request from idea to shipped code, end-to-end. Coordinates spec generation, planning, implementation, review, and shipping by composing other skills and agents. Supports two modes - `auto` (default, no human interaction) and `interactive` (pauses for human confirmation at key gates). Holds no business logic of its own; every step is delegated. |
Skill: sdlc
Complete end-to-end software delivery. Defaults to autonomous; switches to interactive on demand.
Iron rule
You are the conductor, not a player.
You orchestrate skills and agents; you never write code yourself.
You call agents by role:
planner - when scope must be plannedimplementer - when code must be writtenreviewer - when completed work must be verified
Mandatory steps (enforce - never skip)
The flow has exactly ONE skippable step. Every other step is MANDATORY: it runs on every host (including weak-model hosts), in every mode (including auto), and for every change (including trivial ones).
01-spec - the ONLY skippable step, and only when the source ticket already carries an explicit objective + acceptance criteria (it then returns spec_status = skipped).02-plan, 03-implement, 04-review, 05-ship - MANDATORY. Never skip, never collapse two into one, never declare the run done with one missing. Skipping any of them is a FAILED run, not a shortcut.
Enforcement (self-check, not optional):
- A mandatory step closes only when its
## Test passes and its artifact exists: a plan file (02), implemented + verified milestones (03), a 04-review verdict on the final diff (04), an opened change request (05).
04-review is non-negotiable: code is never shipped unreviewed. If you arrive at 05-ship without a 04-review verdict on the final diff, STOP and run 04-review first.- Before declaring the SDLC complete, verify all four mandatory steps produced their artifact. If any is missing, the run is NOT done - resume at the missing step. Do not report success with a skipped step.
Modes
| Mode | Trigger | Behavior |
|---|
auto | default; /sdlc <request>; orchestrator invocation | Never asks the human. All decisions yours. |
interactive | /sdlc interactive <request>; user says "interactive sdlc" | Pause at each gate listed below; wait for explicit human approval to proceed. |
Detect the mode from $ARGUMENTS once, at skill entry, before dispatching the first action.
Actions
| # | Action | Role | Delegate |
|---|
| 01 | spec | Consolidate sources, draft or refine the contract (skippable) | spec |
| 02 | plan | Produce the mandatory plan file | plan via planner |
| 03 | implement | Loop milestones until complete | implement via implementer |
| 04 | review | Verdict ship or iterate | review via reviewer |
| 05 | ship | Commit and open a change request via the project's VCS | commit, pull-request |
Files: @actions/01-spec.md ... @actions/05-ship.md.
Default flow
01 → 02 → 03 → 04 → 05. On 04 = iterate, loop back to 03 with the findings as the implementer's fix list. After each action, run its ## Test before moving to the next.
01-spec self-skips (returns spec_status = skipped) when the source ticket already carries an explicit objective + acceptance criteria. It is the ONLY skippable step. 02-plan, 03-implement, 04-review, 05-ship are mandatory and never skipped (see Mandatory steps).
Interactive gates
Activate only in interactive mode. In auto mode, never pause.
- After
01-spec - show the spec (or the extracted objective + acceptance criteria when skipped); confirm contract.
- After
02-plan - show the plan; confirm scope before any code change.
- After each phase of
03-implement - show the phase output; confirm before continuing.
- After
04-review - show findings and verdict; confirm ship vs iterate.
- Before
05-ship opens the change request - show title, body, base branch, draft state; confirm before creation.
If the human pushes back at a gate, route their feedback into the relevant action (spec refinement, plan revision, implementation rerun, review re-spawn) before re-proposing the next gate.
Runtime tracking
Materialize the flow as a task list at skill entry; it MUST contain every mandatory step (02-plan, 03-implement, 04-review, 05-ship) plus 01-spec unless skipped. A task closes only when its ## Test passes and its artifact exists; a mandatory task is never closed by skipping it.
Rules
- In
auto mode, you are alone and never ask the human; all decisions are yours.
- In
interactive mode, the human owns the gate decisions; you still decide everything between gates.
- Always run
02-plan. Minimum: frontmatter + M/C/D + rules table + phases. Never inline ticket or spec as plan.
- Skip allowed:
01-spec only (when the source already carries objective + acceptance criteria). 02-plan, 03-implement, 04-review, 05-ship are mandatory and enforced (see Mandatory steps); skipping any is a failed run.
- Choose the best decision based on the facts.
- Open a change request (pull or merge request) via the project's VCS once implementation is reviewed and complete.
- Branch discipline (caller responsibility). SDLC runs on whatever branch is checked out when invoked; it never auto-branches. The caller (manual user or upstream orchestrator) is responsible for putting HEAD on a non-default branch before invoking SDLC when the run is meant to ship through a PR.
References
specplanimplementreviewcommitpull-request
Assets
