Three operational shapes. Onboarding (the super-pair meets the project), Production (the canonical pipeline from idea to PR), and Full Auto (the one-shot spec-to-PR motion).
03.1
Onboarding Workflow
The onboarding sequence runs once per project (with a re-runnable refresh available later). It establishes the persistence stack, wires up the DevOps host, wires up source control, and releases the "satisfied" gate that transitions from onboarding mode to operational mode.
Phase 01
/strap-in
Codebase discovery, specialist dispatch, persistence-stack curation, project-docs authoring.
Phase 02
/connect-code-repo
Wire source control. Auth recipes per host. Branch protection capture. Code-immutability releases.
Phase 03
/connect-devops-project
Probe host, model logical-to-host work-item mapping, probe state machines + fields, persist profile.
What each phase produces
| Phase | Writes | What it enables next |
| /strap-in | project-profile.md, per-agent rules + memory, project-docs HTML companion | The 15 agents come alive against this project's specific shape |
| /connect-code-repo | code-connection.yaml with branch-protection + operation_templates | The pipeline can open PRs; the satisfied gate releases the onboarding invariant |
| /connect-devops-project | devops-connection.yaml with mapping + state asymmetries + operation_templates | Work-tracking resolves at runtime via the universal interface |
Code Immutability Invariant
Throughout onboarding, the adopter's production code is immutable. Section 6 specialists run with a read-only tools palette (Read, Grep, Glob, Bash — no Write, no Edit); the source under inspection cannot be modified during onboarding. The Section 9 project-docs production phase is a narrow exception — tech-writer writes only to configured Project docs paths, never production source. The invariant fully releases when /connect-code-repo clears its satisfied gate.
Re-runnable
/strap-refresh reads the existing persistence stack as priors, runs a shallow scan against the current codebase, detects diffs, surfaces them for CPO approval before dispatching, then applies surgical edits. CPO edits, narrative additions, and prior-refresh curation are preserved. Whole-file rewrites at refresh time are a defect, not a feature.
03.2
Production Workflow
Once onboarding is complete, the production pipeline runs through a tight set of skills. Each follows the same pattern: dev-lead owns the CPO conversation and host-side persistence; specialists are dispatched for focused work; every persisted item carries lifecycle metadata; every state transition is audited.
Authoring chain
/new-requirement · /refine-requirement · /create-spec · /refine-spec · /generate-features · /decompose-feature
req-lead drafts Requirements; spec-lead authors Specs and Feature briefs; dev-lead persists. /decompose-feature activates required domains (CPO-gated structural precondition) and dispatches active-domain specialists in parallel via CreateTeam for read-only planning, then reconciles and persists Stories + Tasks.
Mockup tier user-facing
/create-mockups · /analyze-mockups
Runs between Spec resolution and Feature generation when the Spec carries user-facing scope. /create-mockups dispatches designer to interview, build deployable mockup code, iterate (re-runnable; CPO approval at every gate), and write the Mockup Reference back to the Spec. /analyze-mockups dispatches spec-lead to audit completeness, map mockup data shapes to backend API declarations, and write the Mockup Wiring Guide. /generate-features refuses to run on user-facing Specs missing either section.
Test plan tier
/create-test-plan
Authors an end-to-end test plan for a Spec or Feature and optionally scaffolds initial test files. Dev-lead dispatches ux-test-engineer as serial-Task specialist to read the Spec, codebase, and framework conventions; produce a structured plan; and scaffold runnable tests. ux-test-engineer is the third closing-phase write-exception alongside designer and tech-writer.
Execution
/plan-sprint · /rebalance-sprint · /execute-sprint
/plan-sprint allocates into the current sprint only (hard single-sprint rule; overflow stays unallocated). /execute-sprint creates the feature branch, dispatches active-domain specialists into per-agent worktrees, reviews each task branch, runs the centralized build-and-test pass, sets completion metadata at resolution, and prepares the PR.
Bug tier
/file-bugs · /fix-bugs
/file-bugs accepts informal CPO input, dispatches an intake specialist read-only for investigation and classification. /fix-bugs is the lighter sibling of /execute-sprint for Bug + Enhancement work items — targeted fixes, no Story decomposition, same metadata round-trip at resolution.
PR feedback
/refine-pr
Reads reviewer comment threads and failed CI checks via the source-control connection profile, categorizes by domain, dispatches the relevant specialists in parallel (or serially for file-conflicting fixes), runs the centralized build-and-test pass, pushes updates to the existing feature branch. Thread resolution stays with the human reviewer.
Close ritual
/close-ceremony
The deliberate CPO ritual for transitioning Resolved work items to Closed — the only authoritative manual gate. The execution skills stop at Resolved by design; this ritual is where the CPO walks Resolved Features, Enhancements, Bugs, and lingering Stories and decides per item: close / reject with rework tag / defer with reason tag / skip.
DORA governance
/dora-reconcile · /dora-collect · /dora-report
/dora-reconcile runs daily (cascades) or weekly with --auto-fix (stamps derivable hygiene). 8 reconciliation passes keep the AI-tag + lifecycle-metadata wiring honest. /dora-collect writes a JSON snapshot of work items, pipeline runs, and PRs. /dora-report renders a self-contained HTML report with embedded Chart.js. Wall-clock as primary AI Efficiency Ratio.
CPO tuning surfaces
/memory-show · /memory-refine · /revise-token-budget
/memory-show inspects per-agent memory; /memory-refine curates it under CPO direction. /revise-token-budget is the canonical surface for tuning STRAP's token budgets after /strap-in's initial setup — per-workflow per-agent and session-aggregate budgets, plus per-agent overrides. Persists with an append-only audit trail.
Single-motion path
/quick
The CPO "do now" lever. Free-form description through classification, work-item chain creation, specialist routing, implementation, centralized test pass, and draft PR — in one invocation. Five chain shapes; flags --under, --into, --mockup, --investigation, --stacked, --draft. Hard CPO approval gate after classification. Never refuses for size.
Recovery and continuation
/team-cleanup · /context-prep · /context-fetch
/team-cleanup recovers from wedged team state. /context-prep captures cross-session continuation runbooks; /context-fetch loads them as session-startup context. Multi-session and multi-developer workstreams travel through these.
03.3
Full Auto (Spec to PR)
Full Auto is STRAP's autonomy uplift. You have a Resolved Spec. You want to walk away. The dev-lead takes the Spec end-to-end — generates Features, decomposes each, allocates everything into the current sprint, executes across all Features in parallel, opens a draft PR per Feature — without asking your permission at every phase boundary. The Resolved Spec IS the contract. You already approved the intent when you Resolved the Spec; re-approving the same intent at every step adds no signal.
What does not collapse: the safety perimeter. PRs land as drafts — you merge, never the skill. security-reviewer Critical/High blocks the affected Feature. Spec mutation during the run is forbidden. New domain activation halts. These are not "settings"; they are the contract.
Entry precondition
Resolved Spec
CPO gates
1 entry contract
Features per run
N parallel
When to reach for it good fit
/execute-sprint-full-auto <spec-id>
The Spec is well-shaped — Constituent Parts are clear, acceptance criteria resolve to concrete behavior, mockups (if user-facing) are locked in, the Wiring Guide is written. The work is multi-Feature in scope but each Feature is independently executable. You trust the Spec to be the contract and you want the pipeline to run hands-off. You'll be reading the conversation as the dev-lead emits checkpoint summaries, but you don't intend to intervene unless something genuinely needs you.
When NOT to reach for it wrong tool
/quick · /execute-sprint · /refine-spec
The Spec is rough or under-defined — use /refine-spec first; do not let Full Auto paper over Spec defects. The ask is free-form ("change the timeout from 5s to 10s") — use /quick; classification is what you need, not a multi-Feature run. The work is exactly one Feature already decomposed and sprint-allocated — use /execute-sprint; Full Auto is overkill. New specialist domains are required — activate them deliberately via /decompose-feature first, not mid-Full-Auto.
The composed motion
/generate-features · /decompose-feature · /plan-sprint · /execute-sprint
Full Auto inlines four production-workflow skills. It does not invoke them as separate skills (that would reintroduce per-skill approval gates). It walks the same phases with the same primitives — spec-lead authoring, specialist parallel planning via CreateTeam, worktree mechanics, centralized test execution — and stamps the full-auto tag at every persist.
Phase 4 (decomposition) is serial across Features but parallel within each — same as today's /decompose-feature baseline. Phase 6 (execution) is parallel across Features AND parallel within each — one team, one worktree, one feature branch, one draft PR per Feature, all running concurrently. The throughput uplift lives in Phase 6.
Gates that collapse dev-lead authority
Feature briefs · Decomposition · Sprint allocation · Per-task review
Feature brief approval (per /generate-features), per-Feature decomposition approval (per /decompose-feature), sprint capacity review (per /plan-sprint) — all collapse to dev-lead authority. The dev-lead acts. You watch the checkpoints. Per-task review remains because it is a quality gate (did the specialist implement what the Task says?), not a CPO-approval gate — the dev-lead runs it inline.
The Safety Perimeter · never collapses
The dev-lead halts and surfaces to you when ANY of the following trips. These are non-negotiable invariants, not configurable behaviors:
- No auto-merge. PRs land as drafts. You convert to ready-for-review and merge.
security-reviewer Critical/High blocks. The affected Feature cannot Resolve until cleared. Other Features in the run continue independently.
- No Spec mutation during the run. The Spec is locked. Mid-run Spec edits happen only via the Ambiguity Halt "Clarify here" branch, which is explicit and audited.
- No silent new-domain activation. A Spec requiring an inactive specialist domain is a structural change to the project; the run refuses Phase 1 and surfaces.
- No skip of centralized test execution. Build + tests run per Feature; failures halt that Feature before its PR opens.
- No bypass of the per-task dev-lead review. Quality gate stays; specialists do not auto-land work without review.
Spec-Ambiguity Halt — the contract-protection interrupt
Clarify here · Pause to /refine-spec · Proceed with logged assumption
The most important non-obvious behavior in Full Auto. A "well-scoped Resolved Spec" is the contract, but decomposition or execution may surface gaps the Spec author did not anticipate. When a specialist flags ambiguity, incompleteness, or contradiction in its finishing report, the dev-lead halts the affected scope and asks you to choose: edit the Spec inline (additive amendment with audit comment; Spec stays Resolved), pause Full Auto and return to manual /refine-spec (the partial chain is preserved tagged full-auto-partial), or proceed with the dev-lead's best-judgment assumption (logged verbatim in the affected Feature description).
Three-strikes rule: if three Spec-Ambiguity Halts fire in one run, the dev-lead escalates and recommends cancelling + running /refine-spec. The Spec is likely not Full-Auto-ready; clarifying it to death mid-run is the wrong outcome.
Async observability — checkpoints without breaking flow
Phase boundaries · Per-Feature completion · Token consumption
The dev-lead emits structured checkpoint summaries at every phase boundary — Run Contract drafted, Features generated, each Feature decomposed (one per Feature in Phase 4), sprint allocated, each Feature executed (one per Feature in Phase 6 as they complete in arrival order, not creation order), PRs opened. Each checkpoint lists items created, branches, tokens consumed, time elapsed, what comes next.
Checkpoints are conversation output only. They do not gate. They do not require acknowledgment. You read them in real-time if you want; you ignore them if the run is going clean. Per-Feature granularity is the default — per-Task checkpoints would drown the conversation on a 50-Task run.
Worked example · single small Spec
~2-3 Features · ~6-15 Tasks · one repo
You Resolved a Spec for a self-contained UI enhancement: refactor the audit-log filter chrome and add tenant-id scoping. Two Constituent Parts (client-ui for the chrome, api for the tenant-scoped query). Full Auto generates two Features, decomposes them in sequence (~4 minutes each), allocates 8 Tasks into the current sprint, then runs Phase 6 with two teams in parallel. ~25 minutes wall-clock end-to-end. Two draft PRs land in the source-control profile, each with the Run Manifest in its description and acceptance criteria mapped to specific commits + tests.
Worked example · medium multi-Feature Spec
~5 Features · ~30 Tasks · one repo · multiple domains
You Resolved a Spec for a billing-pipeline overhaul: new invoice schema, migration, API surface, frontend display, observability. Five Constituent Parts; backend-engineer, database-engineer, frontend-engineer, devops-lead, and security-reviewer all active. Full Auto generates five Features, decomposes them serially in Phase 4 (~25 minutes), then runs Phase 6 with five teams in parallel. The 60% session-aggregate budget checkpoint fires around the third Feature's execution — the dev-lead surfaces, runs /context-prep, you /clear and resume with /context-fetch. Five draft PRs land. Total wall-clock ~90 minutes across two sessions.
Worked example · polyrepo umbrella Spec
~4 Features · ~20 Tasks · 3 sub-repos · cluster manifest
You Resolved a Spec on a polyrepo umbrella with three sub-repos (shared-types, api-backend, web-frontend). One Feature is cross-sub-repo (a new type defined in shared-types, consumed by both downstream sub-repos); three Features are single-sub-repo. Full Auto's Phase 1 builds the cluster manifest with the F6 dependency graph (shared-types first, then the two downstream sub-repos in parallel). Phase 4 decomposes each Feature against the right sub-repo's specialists. Phase 6 runs four teams in parallel; the cross-sub-repo Feature opens three coordinated PRs with cluster-manifest cross-references; the single-sub-repo Features open one each. Total: seven draft PRs. The dev-lead enforces merge-order at PR-merge time per the F6 graph — you merge shared-types first, then the others.
When the dev-lead surfaces
You will see the conversation pause and a structured question land in one of three categories: safety-perimeter halt (security finding, new-domain activation, profile mutation), Spec-ambiguity halt (three options to resolve the gap), or budget checkpoint at 60% (recommendation to /context-prep + /clear + resume). Anything else is a checkpoint summary — output-only, no action needed.
Force Multiplier
Full Auto is where STRAP earns the 5x-10x velocity claim. Not because it skips work — the same Features get generated, the same Tasks get implemented, the same tests get written, the same PRs get opened. The multiplier is in the orchestration: parallel-across-Features execution, collapsed approval-gate ceremony, and a dev-lead acting on Spec-as-contract authority. The CPO is still the deliberate gatekeeper — just at the entry and at PR-merge time, not at every phase boundary in between.