Aegis

Use when defining new features, product behavior, UI/component design, architecture choices, contract changes, or ambiguous medium/high-complexity work before implementation, or when the user asks to grill or pressure-test a plan or design.

Use when executing implementation plans with independent tasks in the current session

Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes

Use when the user explicitly requests strict or test-first TDD, or when the current conversation already contains an explicit `TDD Route: strict` decision from another Aegis workflow.

Use when starting a turn or checking Aegis skill routing.

Use when you have a spec or requirements for a multi-step task, before touching code

Use when creating new skills, editing existing skills, or verifying skills work before deployment

Use when explicitly requesting an independent code review, after subagent-driven implementation slices, before merging high-risk work, or when verification finds evidence, baseline, architecture, compatibility, or retirement uncertainty that needs reviewer scrutiny.

Use when about to claim work is complete, fixed, passing, verified, release-ready, or ready to commit, merge, publish, or hand off.

Use when retiring old logic, collapsing duplicate owners, removing fallbacks, or touching schema, persistence, or source-of-truth boundaries while deciding whether to delete old paths, retain compatibility, or stop for confirmation.

Use when you have a written implementation plan to execute in a separate session with review checkpoints

Use when a task is multi-step, may span context resets or sessions, uses subagents, or risks losing state before completion.

Use when the user says `aegis:update`, asks to update or upgrade an installed Aegis method-pack, wants the latest Aegis version, or asks whether Aegis is current on this host.

Use when the user explicitly asks for first principles, first-principles review, Occam's razor, or when a complex decision has ambiguous goals, competing constraints, repeated fixes, fallback growth, duplicate owners, or architecture/product direction risk.

Use when the user explicitly sets an Aegis goal with /aegis-goal, Aegis goal:, or asks to define goal, success evidence, stop condition, or task boundaries before work.

Use when the user asks to create, write, update, amend, supersede, or evaluate an ADR, architecture decision record, durable architecture decision, decision log, or baseline sync after architecture-changing work.

Use when the user asks for caveman mode, fewer tokens, brief responses, compressed communication, or otherwise explicitly requests a much shorter answer.

Use when entering a project for the first time, or when the user asks to establish shared language, define domain terms, or create a project glossary.

Use when implementation is complete, verification has passed, and the user needs to choose merge, PR, branch cleanup, or follow-up integration handling.

Use when receiving code review feedback before implementing suggestions, especially when feedback is unclear, risky, disputed, or technically questionable.

Use when starting feature work that needs isolation from the current workspace, or when an implementation plan should run outside the active working tree.