Use before any creative engineering work — designing a feature, adding a component, or modifying behavior. Explores intent, constraints, and design options before implementation. Also use when the user says 'brainstorm', 'design', 'let's think through', or describes a new capability without an implementation plan.
Verify that NovaTrade live FTMO trades match the IRB v5 backtest for a given window. Pulls live deals from MetaApi, runs the same window through the backtest engine, runs the parity diff, then classifies each divergence as uptime-gap / bar-feed / price-drift / strategy-drift / real-mismatch and reports a headline. Invoke on 'parity check', 'verify this week's trades', 'are live trades matching the backtest', 'live vs backtest for [date range]', 'did we trade what we should have', or any time the operator wants to know if live execution matches the validated baseline.
Use when implementation is complete, tests pass, and you need to decide how to integrate the work. Runs pre-ship gates (tests, clean tree) then presents merge/PR/keep/discard options. Invoke on 'finish this branch', 'wrap this up', 'are we ready to ship', or before /ship on a feature branch.
Use when facing 2+ independent tasks that can be worked on without shared state or sequential dependencies. Dispatches one focused subagent per independent problem domain, concurrently, preserving the main context for coordination. Invoke on 'fan this out', 'parallelize', 'send these in parallel', or when 3+ unrelated test files are failing.
Validate tool results and skill outputs to ensure correctness, completeness, and contract compliance before finalizing a task. Enforces evidence-before-claims: no completion claim without fresh verification output.
Use when encountering any bug, test failure, or unexpected behavior, before proposing fixes. Enforces a 4-phase root-cause process with a 3-attempt escalation to architectural review. Invoke when the operator says 'debug', 'investigate', 'figure out why', or pastes an error message / failing test.
Use when implementing any feature or bugfix, before writing implementation code. Enforces red-green-refactor and the Iron Law: no production code without a failing test first. Invoke when the operator says 'add tests', 'TDD this', 'write a test for X', or is about to add new behavior to existing code.
Use when starting feature work that needs isolation from the current workspace or before executing an implementation plan. Creates an isolated git worktree with systematic directory selection, ignore-verification, dependency install, and clean test baseline. Invoke on 'worktree this', 'isolate this work', or before implementation-team picks up a risky plan.