Rpi

rpi — Brainstorm, Plan, Evaluate, Implement

Unified entry point for the brainstorm-plan-evaluate-implement workflow.

Workflow

brainstorm (optional) → plan → evaluate → implement
        ↓                    ↓
   Uses research        Uses research

• brainstorm — explore approaches, make a decision. Embeds research (codebase + web). Optional — skip for simple changes.
• plan — TDD-structured implementation plan with RED/GREEN/CHECK tasks. Embeds research. Includes branch & commit strategy.
• evaluate — assess artifacts across quality dimensions with concrete upgrade paths.
• implement — execute a plan phase by phase through vertical RED/GREEN cycles.

Keyword Reference

Keyword	Syntax	What it does
brainstorm	brainstorm <topic>	Explore approaches for an idea (optional — skip for simple changes)
plan	plan <description or .thoughts doc path>	Create a TDD-structured implementation plan
evaluate	evaluate <description>	Evaluate an artifact across multiple quality dimensions with scoring and upgrade paths
handoff	handoff [description of next session]	Summarize the current conversation into a handoff doc for another agent
pickup	pickup [path to handoff]	Resume work from a handoff document
implement all	implement all [plan path]	Implement all phases from a plan
implement phase N	implement phase N [plan path]	Implement a specific phase from a plan
write	write	Save the most recent output to .thoughts/

Doc Context

Any keyword can accept a path to an existing .thoughts/ document as context:

• plan .thoughts/brainstorms/2026-04-25-my-idea.md — plan from an existing brainstorm
• evaluate .thoughts/plans/2026-04-25-my-plan.md — evaluate a plan
• implement all .thoughts/plans/2026-04-25-my-plan.md — implement from a specific plan
• pickup .thoughts/handoffs/2026-05-24-auth-refactor.md — resume from a specific handoff

For implement with no explicit path, find the most recent .thoughts/plans/*.md file and confirm with the user before proceeding. If no plan files exist, tell the user and suggest running rpi plan first.

Dispatch

Parse the first word of the input as the keyword. For implement, parse all or phase N.

Keyword	Reference
brainstorm	brainstorming
plan	planning
evaluate	evaluating
implement	implementing
handoff	handoff
pickup	handoff
write	writing-documentation

Research files (researching-codebase, researching-web) are internal to brainstorm and plan — not standalone keywords.

Document conventions across all workflows follow writing-documentation.

Writing Output

Most workflows save nothing automatically. Run rpi write when ready to persist. The implement workflow prompts you at completion — for all others, use write explicitly. The handoff workflow is the exception: it writes immediately.

See writing-documentation for naming and auto-detection conventions.

Unknown or Missing Keyword

If invoked with no keyword or an unrecognized keyword, show the keyword reference table above and ask the user what they'd like to do.