The Governed Loop

The skills chain into a single governed development loop. This page shows how they connect end to end, where checkpoints halt for approval, and what binds them together.

The loop

How the skills chain

Phase	Skill / Agent	What happens	Output
Bootstrap	/init	Load rules, compile registry, parallel context reads	initialized: summary
Plan	architect	Decompose the task, validate against specs, produce a plan	Plan document
Gather context	explorer	Trace dependencies, understand existing code	Context report
Implement	implementer (via /implement-plan)	Execute the plan step by step with verification	Modified files, checked-off plan
Validate	/validate-and-fix	Run the local CI loop, fix issues in severity order	Clean CI pass
Review	/code-review	Decorrelated finders plus adversarial verification	Findings + evidence line
Commit	/commit	Conventional commit with an impact-focused message	Git commit
Ship	/ship	Gate, review, commit, and PR creation	Open PR

The loop ends at /ship. Post-merge shepherding (rerunning CI, triaging review comments, enqueueing, verifying the merge) is wired to a specific PR/queue setup and is not shipped with the kit; recreate it for your flow if you need it.

Checkpoint discipline

Checkpoints are real stops where a skill halts and waits for user confirmation:

1. /implement-plan task-list approval: before implementation begins.
2. /implement-plan midpoint: a status check around 50% progress.
3. /ship waiver approval: if the coupling gate fails and a waiver is chosen.
4. /ship PR creation: before pushing and opening the PR (outward-facing).

An agent that blows past a checkpoint violates orchestrator-rules.

Halting rules

The loop stops, reports full context, and does not improvise when:

• a local CI failure is not mechanically fixable;
• the coupling gate fails and neither fixing the coupling nor a waiver is appropriate;
• a spec edit would retroactively justify a contradicting action (the coherence guard, see adversarial-prompt-refusal);
• any step cannot proceed without improvising outside the playbook.

Key dependencies

Dependency	Skills that require it
spec-spine CLI	/init, /setup, /ship
a local CI command (e.g. make ci)	/validate-and-fix
a pre-PR gate (coupling + index freshness)	/ship
orchestrator-rules	every orchestrated skill
governed-artifact-reads	every .derived/ read
gh CLI	/ship