Orchestrate Project

Orchestrate

> HARD GATE — HARD GATE — Do NOT invoke orchestrate-project unless you have a clear multi-phase workflow. Single-skill tasks should use dedicated skills instead. Orchestrate is for complex, multi-stage work that requires coordination across phases.

The orchestrate skill coordinates projects through a prescriptive 6-phase core loop with hard gates, ensuring consistent quality and preventing scope creep.

Quick Start

# Start a new project (initializes specs/ YAML cockpit and begins discover phase)
claude /orchestrate --mode standard

# Or resume an existing project at the current phase
claude /orchestrate --mode standard --resume

# For low-risk scenarios (hotfixes, refactors on well-tested code)
claude /orchestrate --mode fast-track

The 6-Phase Core Loop

1. DISCOVER (3-6 hours): Understand problem. Deliverables: requirements/VISION_LATEST.yaml, requirements/SCOPE_LATEST.yaml, plans/TECH_STACK_LATEST.md.
2. ELABORATE (3-6 hours): Research solutions. Deliverables: Prior art in scope YAML, ADRs in specs/adr/.
3. PLAN (2-4 hours): Write verifiable plan. Deliverables: release-plan.yaml, epics/eNN-*.yaml with verify: per task.
4. BUILD (1-8 hours): Execute plan. Runs build-epic once per story in WSJF order. Deliverables: Code; update execution-status.yaml.
5. VERIFY (1-3 hours): Validate success criteria. Deliverables: UAT evidence, specs/EVALS-*.md if used.
6. RELEASE (30 min - 2 hours): Ship to production. Deliverables: Release tag (vX.Y.Z), state.yaml release.last_tag.

Checkpoint / resume

Track progress via specs/state.yaml project_cycle:

• project_cycle.current_phase: current phase (1–6)
• project_cycle.completed_phases: completed phase numbers
• handoff.next_skill: skill for the current phase
• On resume, read project_cycle.current_phase and continue from there

See [REFERENCE.md](REFERENCE.md) for detailed phase specifications and gate types.

How Orchestrate Works

1. Maintains state.yaml — Tracks current phase, active_epic, active_flow, decisions, risks.
2. Spawns appropriate skills — Routes by model: frontmatter. Decisions pass only via specs/state.yaml handoff between spawns.
3. Methodology lenses — If specs/tech-architecture/test.md or ADRs exist, apply at phase gates.
4. Enforces gates — Hard stops if success criteria not met.
5. The Gatekeeper — Between stories in BUILD: read specs/execution-status.yaml; previous story must be done before starting the next; use build-epic for the 8-step epic cycle.
6. Pauses for confirmation — After each phase, asks "Ready to proceed?".
7. Snapshots — bash scripts/bp-yaml-snapshot.sh before major release cuts.

Orchestration Modes

• Standard: Enforce all gates. Use for new features and major refactors.
• Fast-Track: Skip negotiable gates. Use for hotfixes and minor improvements.
• Ad-Hoc: Warnings only. Use for prototyping and spikes (non-production).

See [REFERENCE.md](REFERENCE.md) for full mode behaviors.

Verification

All phases complete with artifacts:

verify: test -f specs/state.yaml && test -f specs/release-plan.yaml && test -f specs/product/SCOPE_LATEST.yaml && ls specs/epics/*.yaml 1>/dev/null && echo "✅ All phases complete"

---

Orchestrate Reference: Phases, Modes, and Workflows

Detailed documentation for the orchestrate-project meta-skill.

The 6-Phase Core Loop

PHASE 1: DISCOVER

• Goal: Understand the problem completely and map existing context.
• Deliverables: requirements/VISION_LATEST.yaml, requirements/SCOPE_LATEST.yaml, plans/TECH_STACK_LATEST.md.
• Skills: survey-context, elaborate-spec, grill-me.
• Gate: Confirm ("Is the problem clear?").

PHASE 2: ELABORATE

• Goal: Research solutions and lock architectural design.
• Deliverables: Prior art in scope YAML, ADRs in specs/adr/.
• Skills: grill-me, model-domain, define-language, deepen-architecture, design-interface.
• Gate: Quality ≥94% (via request-review) + Confirm ("Are decisions locked?").

PHASE 3: PLAN

• Goal: Write a verifiable implementation plan with success criteria.
• Deliverables: release-plan.yaml, epics/eNN-*.yaml with verify: per task.
• Skills: scope-work, slice-tasks, define-success, plan-work.
• Gate: Quality (request-review ≥94%) + slopcheck [SUS]/[SLOP].

PHASE 4: BUILD

• Goal: Execute the plan story-by-story using the 8-step build-epic cycle with TDD and vertical slices.
• Deliverables: Code; execution-status.yaml updated per story; specs/metrics/cycle-times.yaml row per story.
• Skills: build-epic (conductor) → per-story: survey-context, plan-work, kickoff-branch, develop-tdd, verify-work, audit-code, commit-message, release-branch.
• BCP tracking: plan-release sizes each story in Business Complexity Points (BCP) before the build queue; plan-work confirms and writes the size to state.yaml as epic_cycle.story_bcps. See docs/references/bcp.md for the canonical sizing method.
• Timestamps: survey-context stamps metrics.story_start; release-branch stamps metrics.story_end and writes BCP/hr to specs/metrics/cycle-times.yaml.
• next_skill: Each critical-path skill writes handoff.next_skill to state.yaml. Agents resume by reading state.yaml — no guessing.
• Dashboard: npm run dashboard (TUI) or npm run dashboard:web (browser, port 7742) shows live pipeline, epic queue, BCP metrics, and cycle-time ledger.
• Gate: Integration tests PASS; all 8 build-epic steps completed per story.

PHASE 5: VERIFY

• Goal: Validate success criteria and ensure production readiness.
• Deliverables: UAT evidence, eval results.
• Skills: run-evals, verify-work, audit-code, request-review (optional).
• Gate: Verification Script confirmed; verify-work not on main/master.

PHASE 6: RELEASE (Integrate)

• Goal: Ship to main with full traceability.
• Deliverables: Release tag (vX.Y.Z), release notes via semantic-release.
• Skills: commit-message, release-branch.
• Git arc:

1. Plan on main (Discover / Plan)
2. kickoff-branch → worktree + feature branch + clean baseline
3. Build / Verify / Review on feature branch
4. Integrate: solo-local (scripts/land-branch.sh) or team-pr (gh pr create → squash merge)
5. Cleanup worktree; end on main in primary repo root

• Gate: Safety ("About to land on main. Confirm?").

---

Orchestration Modes

Mode 1: Standard (Enforce All Gates)

Use Case: New features, major refactors, architectural changes. Behavior:

• All Confirm gates require explicit user approval.
• All Quality gates are hard stops if threshold is not met.
• No shortcuts or phase skipping.

Mode 2: Fast-Track (Skip Negotiable Gates)

Use Case: Hotfixes, minor improvements, refactors on well-tested code. Behavior:

• Skip Discover if requirements/SCOPE_LATEST.yaml exists.
• Skip Elaborate if design decisions are already locked.
• Skip Verify if coverage ≥95% + all tests PASS.
• Soft gates auto-approve if baseline conditions are met.

Mode 3: Ad-Hoc (Legacy, Warnings Only)

Use Case: Exploration, prototyping, spikes (NOT for production). Behavior:

• Gates emit warnings but do not block execution.
• User can manually skip any phase.
• No enforced quality thresholds.

---

Gate & Checkpoint Types

See docs/references/gates.md and docs/references/checkpoints.md for full specs.

• Confirm: Requires human "yes/no" decision.
• Quality: Automated threshold check (e.g., coverage, audit score).
• Safety: Destructive actions require risk acknowledgment.
• Transition: Mandatory artifact presence check.
• slopcheck: Identification of [SUS] (Suspicious) or [SLOP] (High-risk) packages.

---

Error Recovery & State

Orchestrate maintains specs/state.yaml to track:

• Current flow / epic: active_flow, active_epic_id, epic_cycle.
• Handoff: last_step_completed, open_decisions, required_reading, next_skill.
• Git: branch, hash for session continuity.
• Progress: Story status lives in execution-status.yaml only.

In the event of a crash or exit, run claude /orchestrate --resume to pick up exactly where the session left off.

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.