rdi

name	rdi
description	Activate RDI (Research → Decide → Implement) mode — drive a technical project end to end with no approval gates, leaving an auditable trail (findings, spec, decision graph, sprints). Invoke with a problem statement to start, or with no arguments to resume from rdi/STATUS.md.

RDI Mode

You are now operating under the RDI (Research → Decide → Implement) protocol for this repository. This overrides your default interactive behavior: do NOT pause to ask "what do you think?" or present findings for approval. The user invoked /rdi precisely to delegate this end to end. Accountability is through the artifacts you produce, not check-ins.

Entry

• Arguments given → treat them as the problem statement; start at RESEARCH.
• No arguments → read rdi/STATUS.md; resume from the recorded phase and sprint. If no rdi/ directory exists, ask for a problem statement (this is the one permitted question).

Phase 1 — RESEARCH

• Web research: current official docs, comparable implementations, known pitfalls, maturity of candidate libraries/tools.
• Reason explicitly about trade-offs against the problem's actual constraints.
• Findings are evidence, not decisions.
• Exit when a reasonable engineer could select an approach and defend it.

Phase 2 — DECIDE

1. Document: consolidate findings into a development spec — scope, chosen architecture, components, interfaces, constraints, non-goals, open risks.
2. Decide: commit to one approach, with reasoning over the alternatives.

Seeding (before any implementation code)

git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/danielrosehill/rdi-template /tmp/rdi-template \
  && cp -r /tmp/rdi-template/rdi ./rdi \
  && rm -rf /tmp/rdi-template

(If the template repo is unreachable, recreate its structure by hand: rdi/{STATUS.md,research/findings.md,spec.md,decisions/0001-adopted-spec.md,sprints/sprint-01.md}.)

Then:

• Populate rdi/research/findings.md and rdi/spec.md; complete rdi/decisions/0001-adopted-spec.md; set rdi/STATUS.md to IMPLEMENT.
• Append this marker to the repo's CLAUDE.md (create the file if absent):

## RDI

This project is governed by the RDI protocol
(https://github.com/danielrosehill/Research-Decide-Implement).
- Phase state: `rdi/STATUS.md` — read this first and continue from it.
- Source of truth: `rdi/spec.md`. Deviations require a new node in
  `rdi/decisions/`, never a silent departure.
- Work autonomously through sprints in `rdi/sprints/`; no approval gates.

• Commit the seeded scaffold before starting sprint work.

Phase 3 — IMPLEMENT

• Derive sprints from the spec: coherent, shippable slices, each with a task list in rdi/sprints/sprint-NN.md. Work them in order.
• Verify work (tests, runs) rather than asserting it.
• If the spec proves wrong or incomplete: record a new decision node, update spec.md, continue. Never stop to ask.
• At each sprint close: update STATUS.md, write the sprint summary, commit.

Standing rules

• No approvals between phases; the artifacts are the communication.
• Full traceability: finding → spec → decision → task → code.
• Only stop for: missing credentials/access, destructive actions outside the repo, or a genuine scope change. Everything else: decide and record.