Build Epic

Build Epic

Scope: one story. Called by orchestrate-project Phase 4. Not a replacement for orchestrate-project.

Orchestrates the build flow for a single epic: survey → plan tasks → kickoff → TDD → verify → audit → commit → release.

> HARD GATE — Set specs/state.yaml active_flow: build_epic and active_epic: eNN before starting. > > HARD GATE — Not on main/master before step 3 (kickoff-branch).

Nine steps (epic_cycle in state.yaml)

| Step | Skill / action | |------|----------------| | 0 | security-review — threat-model epic scope → specs/security/epics//THREAT_MODEL.md | | 1 | survey-context — confirm epic + story | | 2 | plan-work — flesh out story tasks[] in specs/epics/eNN-slug/epic.yaml | | 3 | kickoff-branch — feature branch + clean baseline | | 4 | develop-tdd — red-green per task | | 5 | verify-work — UAT + mechanical gates | | 6 | audit-code — non-optional gate (pass/fail; fail → loop back to step 4) | | 7 | commit-message — Conventional Commits draft | | 8 | release-branch — PR or solo land (supports --squash-state) | |

Process

1. Read specs/state.yaml, specs/execution-status.yaml, specs/release-plan.yaml, active specs/epics/eNN-slug/epic.yaml.
2. Step 0 — Threat Model: Run security-review against the epic's scope (read from the epic capsule). Output specs/security/epics//THREAT_MODEL.md with surface area, vulnerability categories, risk level, and mitigation guidance.
3. Assess Impact (Step 2): Before writing tasks, run assess-impact --lightweight on the proposed change. If the risk score exceeds 7, gate — require a grill-me session. Write the impact report to specs/IMPACT--.md. For net-new code with no existing dependents, skip.
4. BCP Tracking (Step 2): After plan-work completes, read the bcps: count (Business Complexity Points story size) from the epic capsule and carry it into state.yaml as epic_cycle.story_bcps = N.
5. If epic_cycle.step missing, set to 1.
6. Run only the current step (resume mode) unless user asked for full auto-run.
7. After step verify passes, increment epic_cycle.step in state.yaml (or bash scripts/bp-yaml-set.sh if available).
8. On story complete, set execution-status.yaml story key to done; run bash scripts/sync-status-from-epics.sh.

Step 6 — audit-code gate (non-optional)

After step 5 (verify-work) completes successfully, step 6 runs audit-code automatically in --gate mode:

1. Run audit: Invoke audit-code --gate on the complete diff for this story.
2. Pass (exit 0): All checklist sections pass → advance to step 7 (commit-message). Record epic_cycle.audit_result: pass in state.yaml.
3. Fail (exit 1): One or more checklist sections fail → reset epic_cycle.current_step to 4 (develop-tdd) and add the failing section IDs to completed_steps as "1,2,3,4,5,6(fail: ...)". Record epic_cycle.audit_result: fail in state.yaml. Do NOT advance past step 6 until audit passes.
4. Audit artifact: Full audit report saved to specs/verifications/AUDIT--.md regardless of pass/fail, for reviewer traceability.
5. Enforce F.I.R.S.T: After audit-code passes, run enforce-first --quick on new/modified tests. Append F.I.R.S.T violations (if any) to the audit report. Failing F.I.R.S.T criteria trigger the same loop-back to step 4.

--fast mode

Coalesces read-and-report steps to reduce token overhead. Activate with build-epic --fast.

| Normal | --fast | Change | |--------|--------|--------| | Step 1 (survey-context) | 1+2 together | survey + plan in one invocation | | Step 2 (plan-work) | (absorbed into 1) | — | | Step 3 (kickoff-branch) | Step 2 | unchanged, sequential | | Step 4 (develop-tdd) | Step 3 | unchanged, sequential | | Step 5 (verify-work) | Step 4 | unchanged, sequential | | Step 6 (audit-code) | 5+6 together | audit + commit-message in one invocation | | Step 7 (commit-message) | (absorbed into 6) | — | | Step 8 (release-branch) | Step 7 | unchanged, sequential |

Total invocations: 8 → 6 per story.

Rules:

• Steps 3/4/5/8 (kickoff, develop, verify, release) still run sequentially — they require user interaction or branch state.
• --fast does NOT skip any checklist items; it only coalesces steps that are pure read-and-report.
• Record epic_cycle.fast_mode: true in state.yaml when this flag is active.

Handoff

Write handoff.next_skill and handoff.context in state.yaml when pausing mid-epic.

Verify

→ verify: grep -q 'active_flow: build_epic' specs/state.yaml && test -f specs/epics/*/epic.yaml

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: danielvm-git
• Source: danielvm-git/bigpowers
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://github.com/danielvm-git/bigpowers

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.