development

name	development
description	Workflow and guidelines for full-cycle software development — from requirements gathering and system design through deployment, monitoring, and iteration. Focuses on building and shipping working software that delivers user and business value. You MUST load this skill when building features or acting as an autonomous developer responsible for end-to-end product delivery.
license	MIT

development

A comprehensive workflow for delivering complete, usable software that solves real needs. Covers the entire product lifecycle: understanding user needs, designing solutions, building, deploying, monitoring, and iterating.

WHEN TO USE

• When developing end-to-end features that span multiple layers (frontend, backend, data).
• When responsible for the full lifecycle: requirements → design → build → deploy → maintain.
• When shipping software that must deliver user or business value, not just correct code.
• When coordinating across technical and product concerns to make architectural trade-offs.

WHEN NOT TO USE

• For implementing well-defined, isolated specs without system design concerns (use coding).
• For algorithmic or data-structure focused tasks without product context (use programming).
• For tasks that are purely about writing tests (use tdd) or debugging.

Anti-Patterns

• Requirements Bypass: Implementing without validating understanding of the user need.
• Operational Blindness: Delivering code that works locally but fails in production due to missing monitoring, logging, metrics, or deployment considerations.
• Rollout Neglect: Shipping without a rollback plan, feature flags, or incremental rollout strategy.
• Stakeholder Silence: Making technical decisions in isolation that conflict with product priorities or timelines.
• Scope Creep: Adding unrequested features that delay delivery of the core value.
• Pattern Invention: Ignoring existing architectural conventions in favor of personal preference.

Core Process

1. Understand Requirements: Analyze the user or business need. Clarify scope, priorities, and success criteria with stakeholders. If stakeholders are unavailable, document assumptions explicitly, proceed with the most conservative interpretation, and flag assumptions for review.
2. Architecture & Design: Choose technical approaches considering scalability, maintainability, and fit with existing systems.
3. Implementation Strategy: Break down the feature into small, independently shippable increments.
4. Build & Integrate: Write clean, production-grade code. Integrate with existing systems safely.
5. Testing & Quality: Ensure comprehensive test coverage, CI/CD pipeline validation, and security review.
6. Deployment & Release: Handle rollout, feature flags, and monitoring setup. Plan for rollback if needed.
7. Post-Release Iteration: Monitor production metrics, gather feedback, and plan follow-up improvements.

Core Principles

• End-to-End Ownership: Take responsibility from idea to production and beyond.
• Product-First Thinking: Understand why a feature exists and how it creates value for users.
• Incremental Delivery: Ship small, verifiable increments rather than large batches.
• Operational Awareness: Design for observability, deployability, and recoverability from day one.
• Stakeholder Communication: Keep relevant parties informed about progress, trade-offs, and risks.

Autonomous Execution Directive

Execute multi-step workflows autonomously to completion, continuously looping and self-correcting until all success criteria are met. If a phase fails after 3 iterations or is blocked by an external dependency, stop execution, report the blocker, and request guidance.

Execution Model

while not workflow_complete:
    for phase in workflow_phases:
        result = execute_phase(phase)
        if result.needs_iteration:
            result = iterate_until_success_or_max_retries(phase, max_retries=3)
        if result.is_blocked:
            report_blocker_and_stop()
            workflow_complete = True
            break
    if workflow_complete:
        break
    workflow_complete = check_completion_criteria()

Related Skills

• tdd: You MUST also follow the tdd skill guidelines when practicing Test-Driven Development for reliability and regression prevention.