The Framework

Seven phases. Clear gates. Every feature follows the same disciplined path from idea to production.

Core Principles

Human at Every Gate

Agents propose, humans approve. Nothing ships without your explicit sign-off.

Artifacts Over Memory

Every phase produces a document. Context is written down, not remembered.

Pipeline Gets Smarter

Each retrospective feeds learnings back into the process. Your pipeline evolves.

Stack Agnostic

The phases work with any tech stack. The discipline is universal.

Small Batches

Features are scoped small. Ship often, learn fast, compound improvements.

Zero-Touch Deploy

Merge the PR. Deployment, monitoring, and docs update happen automatically.

Discovery

Challenge assumptions, define success criteria, set scope boundaries.

Inputs

Idea, problem statement, or GitHub Issue

Outputs

Problem Brief with scope, success criteria, and constraints

Gate

Human reviews and approves the brief before moving forward.

Architecture

Read the codebase, produce a Technical Design Document that fits what exists.

Inputs

Problem Brief + current codebase

Outputs

Technical Design Document (TDD) with schema, API, and component specs

Gate

Human reviews the TDD for alignment with project direction.

Planning

Decompose the design into small, verifiable code prompts with failure recovery.

Inputs

Technical Design Document

Outputs

Ordered list of code prompts with verification steps

Gate

Human reviews prompt plan for completeness.

Build

Execute prompts, write code, run checks, commit — all automated.

Inputs

Code prompts + codebase

Outputs

Working code with passing checks, committed to a feature branch

Gate

Compliance agent validates each prompt execution.

Verification

Type checks, lint, tests, security review. Bugs die before they ship.

Inputs

Built feature branch

Outputs

QA report with test results, security findings, and compliance audit

Gate

All checks pass. Human reviews the QA report.

Ship

Merge the PR and walk away. Deployment is zero-touch.

Inputs

Verified feature branch + QA report

Outputs

Merged PR, deployed to production, CLAUDE.md updated

Gate

Production health check confirms successful deployment.

Retrospective

Identify patterns, improve the process. Your pipeline gets smarter every cycle.

Inputs

Completed feature cycle

Outputs

Retro report, updated patterns, tech debt backlog items

Gate

Learnings captured and applied to CLAUDE.md and skills.