Executing plans

executing-plans

Coordinate the plan in small, user-acknowledged batches. Routed to by /feature after writing-plans has produced a plan. Each batch is executed by subagent-driven-development — fresh author agent per task, spec-compliance review, quality review, fresh verification — and the user checkpoints between batches. The orchestrator never implements; it schedules and checkpoints.

Pre-flight

Read these, or STOP and surface the gap — never guess a path, a command, or a task boundary:

• {{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/plans/<slug>.md — the approved plan. The ordered task list and each task's verification command are the contract. No plan, no execution.
• {{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/specs/<slug>.md — the spec the plan implements.
• {{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/CONTEXT.md — the stage: frontmatter (the maturity value) and project context.
• {{PROJECT_DIR}}/.codearbiter/tech-stack.md — the exact verification, test, and build invocations.

Phase 1 — Batch plan · gate: BLOCK

Group the plan's tasks into small batches. Keep batches tight — three to five tasks is a ceiling, not a target. Respect the plan's ordering and dependencies: a task never lands before the task it depends on.

Resume is the normal re-entry. A task already ACCEPTED in the plan's status column was verified before an earlier interruption — exclude it from batching and say so ("resuming: T-01–T-03 already ACCEPTED"). Batch only the non-ACCEPTED tasks, starting at the first. Never re-execute an ACCEPTED task, and never restart the pipeline at brainstorming because the session died mid-plan.

For each task, confirm the plan names its exact target paths and its verification command. A task missing either is underspecified — return it to writing-plans, do not improvise the gap.

Present the batch breakdown to the user as information, not a question: which tasks land in batch 1, and what follows. Do NOT stop for a separate acknowledgment — the user approved the plan in writing-plans, and the first Phase 3 checkpoint arrives after batch 1; a breakdown objection surfaces there (or the user interrupts). Each unresolved unknown is a [CONFIRM-NN] in open-questions.md — surface it, do not guess past it.

Gate: a batch sequence exists and every task has a target path and a verification command. A [CONFIRM-NN] that blocks batch 1 is the only reason to stop here.

Phase 2 — Execute batch · gate: BLOCK

Invoke subagent-driven-development with scope = [current batch task IDs]. Pass the plan slug and spec slug so it can read its own pre-flight files. Do not implement anything here — the author agents, review chain, and verification all run inside that skill.

subagent-driven-development returns when every task in the scope is ACCEPTED (Phase 3–5 green, verification passed on a fresh run). A tdd BLOCK, a security CRITICAL finding, or an unresolved [CONFIRM-NN] surfaced inside that skill halts the loop — surface it to the user and do not proceed.

Gate: subagent-driven-development signals batch complete with all scoped tasks ACCEPTED. Any unresolved halt from inside the skill is a gate failure here.

Phase 3 — Checkpoint · gate: STOP

Every task in the batch is done and verified. STOP and checkpoint with the user before any further work:

• Landed — the tasks completed this batch, each verified by subagent-driven-development Phase 5.
• Next — the tasks in the upcoming batch.
• Open — any [NEEDS-TRIAGE] marker raised inside the batch, any [CONFIRM-NN] still blocking.

Do not begin the next batch until the user acknowledges. This gate is the point of /feature — the human checkpoint that separates it from /sprint's autonomous run.

Gate: the user has acknowledged the checkpoint. On acknowledgement, loop to Phase 2 for the next batch. When the final batch is acknowledged and the plan is fully verified, route to commit-gate — do not commit from here.

Hard rules

• MUST NOT execute tasks inline — delegate every batch to subagent-driven-development with an explicit scope.
• MUST NOT advance past a checkpoint the user has not acknowledged.
• MUST NOT call commit-gate until all batches are acknowledged and every plan task is ACCEPTED.
• MUST surface any halt from subagent-driven-development (tdd BLOCK, CRITICAL, CONFIRM-NN) to the user — do not swallow it or re-dispatch around it.
• MUST NOT absorb scope the plan does not name — mark it [NEEDS-TRIAGE].
• MUST NOT commit; route to commit-gate when the plan is fully verified.
• MUST return an underspecified task (missing path or verification command) to writing-plans — do not improvise the gap.
• MUST surface a plan-versus-code conflict via /conflict, never silently reconcile it.