// Guardian Driven Development orchestrator. Detects active roles and modes, delegates to appropriate practice and mode skills. Use when starting development work in the yggdrasil ecosystem.
[HINT] Download the complete skill directory including SKILL.md and all related files
| name | gdd |
| description | Guardian Driven Development orchestrator. Detects active roles and modes, delegates to appropriate practice and mode skills. Use when starting development work in the yggdrasil ecosystem. |
GDD is a methodology for human-AI collaboration that wraps existing development practices in structured guidance adapting to who's working, what role they fill, and how much time they have. AI agents and newer contributors need similar things: clear boundaries, incremental tasks, safety rails, and enough context to be productive.
Full design: docs/plans/2026-03-12-gdd-design.md
This skill is the top-level entry point. After orientation (@gdd-orientation) has established the session context, the orchestrator uses mode + role + task to select appropriate practice and mode skills.
gdd-orientation (always runs first)
↓
gdd (this orchestrator)
↓
delegates to mode skill + practice skill
Roles describe what someone is focused on in a given session. They are not skill levels — a first-time contributor and a 20-year veteran can both be in the Developer role.
| Role | Focus | Typical Activities |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | Writing and shipping code | Implementation, tests, CRs, code review |
| Designer | Defining behavior | Writing feature files, scenarios, specs |
| Reviewer | Quality and safety | Code review, scenario review, testing |
| Scribe | Note-taking and vault work | PARA layout, frontmatter, daily notes, capture-process-organize loop |
| AI Agent | Guided work | Any of the above, bounded by permissions |
The Scribe role auto-loads .agent/skills/scribe/SKILL.md. Other roles can dip into the scribe skill on capture-intent keywords without switching role.
Modes modify how the framework behaves, regardless of role. Modes compose — a learning contributor might use Mentoring + Quick on a busy day.
Mentoring — explain decisions, teach practices in context, offer more scaffolding. Not tied to seniority; anyone can request it. See @gdd-mentoring.
Quick — minimal ceremony for short time windows. Suggest appropriately-sized tasks, recover context fast, skip inferrable questions. See @gdd-quick.
Zen — deep single-topic focus. Full ceremony for the topic at hand, but defer distractions, housekeeping, and tangents until the deep work reaches a natural completion point. The agent protects focus. See @gdd-zen.
Flow — productive drift across multiple topics. Adaptive ceremony, incorporate tangents, live Thalamus collaboration. May be the natural default when no mode is set. The agent matches the human's rhythm. See @gdd-flow.
| Activity | Quick | Zen | Flow | Mentoring |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Orientation | Brief | Full for topic, skip unrelated | Brief, what's on your mind? | Explain what orientation does |
| Brainstorming | Skip if scope is clear | Full for the focus topic | Adaptive per topic | Explain each step |
| Code review | Focus on blockers only | Comprehensive | Proportional to task | Explain review reasoning |
| Commits | Minimal messages OK | Detailed messages | Standard | Explain commit practices |
| Housekeeping | Defer unless critical | Defer until asked or done | Continuous light triage | Explain the process |
| Side items | Defer | Capture, don't pursue | Welcome, weave in | Explain, then decide |
| Thalamus | Minimal | Input-only during deep work | Live collaboration surface | Explain what's captured |
The orchestrator selects skills based on what the user is doing:
| Skill | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
TDD (superpowers:test-driven-development) | Requires Superpowers plugin | Red-green-refactor cycle |
| Workflow Auditor (@workflow-auditor) | Exists | Detect repeated manual workarounds |
| Topic Branch Workflow (@topic-branch-workflow) | Exists | Git discipline |
| Creating GitHub Issues (@creating-github-issues) | Exists | Issue filing pipeline |
| KUTTL Testing (@kuttl-testing) | Exists | Infrastructure BDD |
| BDD (@bdd) | Exists | Gherkin scenarios, step definitions, runner integration |
| Skill | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Orientation (@gdd-orientation) | Exists | Session startup, Thalamus, trust verification |
| Housekeeping (@gdd-housekeeping) | Exists | Audit, prune, promote Thalamus content |
| Review Triage (@gdd-review-triage) | Exists | Multi-reviewer CR coordination |