Niko preflight

Preflight Phase - Pre-Build Plan Validation

This command validates the implementation plan against codebase reality before any code is written. It catches design oversights, convention conflicts, TDD violations, and integration issues that would otherwise surface during or after the build.

Step 1: Load Memory Bank Files

Read:

• memory-bank/active/tasks.md
• memory-bank/active/projectbrief.md
• memory-bank/systemPatterns.md
• memory-bank/techContext.md
• memory-bank/active/creative/**/*.md (if any exist)

Step 2: Preflight Workflow

1. Verify Prerequisites

   • Check memory-bank/active/tasks.md for planning completion
   • For Level 3-4: Verify creative phase documents exist (if creative phases were flagged)
   • Read implementation plan and design decisions

2. TDD Plan Encoding (blocking)

   • The test-first process lives in .cursor/rules/shared/always-tdd.mdc
   • For each implementable unit of work (function, slice, milestone — whatever granularity the plan uses), confirm the ordered substeps place test-writing before production code, explicitly enough that a reasonable implementer cannot follow the plan by coding first
   • FAIL when numbered steps are implementation-only under a "we follow TDD" disclaimer; when any step explicitly orders implementation before tests; or when TDD ordering lives only in the plan's preamble rather than per-unit

3. Convention Compliance

   • Verify the plan's proposed file locations, naming conventions, and patterns align with established codebase conventions documented in memory-bank/systemPatterns.md
   • Cross-reference proposed module structure against existing project organization
   • Flag any deviation from established patterns with specific recommendations

4. Dependency Impact

   • Trace the plan's touchpoints through the dependency graph
   • Identify modules, consumers, or tests that will be affected but aren't accounted for in the plan
   • Verify that all downstream impacts are documented and addressed

5. Conflict Detection

   • Search for existing implementations, utilities, or patterns that overlap with or contradict the plan's approach
   • Identify duplication-in-waiting - cases where the plan proposes building something the codebase already provides
   • Flag any proposed changes that would break public contracts or published interfaces — internal restructuring that preserves the public API surface is not a conflict

6. Completeness Precheck

   • Verify the plan addresses all stated requirements with concrete implementation steps mapped to each one - not aspirationally, but with specific files, functions, and approaches identified
   • Flag any requirements that are acknowledged but lack a clear implementation path
   • Verify test coverage is planned for all new behavior

7. Radical Innovation (advisory - not blocking)

   • What's the single smartest and most radically innovative and accretive and useful and compelling change you could make to the plan at this point?
   • Describe the change concretely - not as a vague suggestion, but as a specific structural sketch the operator can evaluate against the cost of redesign.
   • If the change can be made within the current workflow's complexity level and within the current Project Brief's scope, make the change to the plan.
   • If the change would change the complexity level of the task or if the change would significantly deviate from the current Project Brief's scope, flag it as an advisory finding for operator consideration but do not make the change.

8. Generate Preflight Report

   • Create comprehensive findings report
   • Write validation status to memory-bank/active/.preflight-status
   • Update memory-bank/active/tasks.md with any plan amendments or findings

9. Handle Results

   • On PASS: Good job!
   • On PASS with ADVISORY: Allow transition to /niko-build, but document advisory findings for the operator's consideration
   • On FAIL (rearchitect needed): Operator decision required.
   • On FAIL (conflict/convention): Provide specific fix instructions, block /niko-build; Operator decision required.
   • On FAIL (TDD plan encoding): Block /niko-build; cite the unit(s) that lack explicit test-before-code ordering and re-run /niko-plan to restructure them.

Step 3: Log Progress

🚨 Printing this notice is NOT the end of this phase. After printing, continue immediately to the next step - do not stop.

Update memory-bank/active/progress.md to record completion of the preflight phase.

Print the appropriate block:

PASS

# Preflight Result

✅ PASS

## Findings

1. **Findings** - bulleted list of each finding with severity
2. **Advisory items** (if any) - concrete recommendations the operator can evaluate

FAIL

# Preflight Result

❌ FAIL

## Findings

1. **Findings** - bulleted list of each finding with severity
2. **Advisory items** (if any) - concrete recommendations the operator can evaluate

## Next Steps

- **On FAIL (rearchitect)**: Run `/niko-plan` when ready to revise the approach.
- **On FAIL (fixable)**: Address the findings and re-run `/niko-preflight`.

Step 4: Phase Transition

• If operator input is required: stop and wait for them.
• If operator input is not required: load the appropriate complexity level-specific Niko workflow file, then use its Phase Mappings to execute the next phase.