the-startup

Create and validate solution design documents (SDD). Use when designing architecture, defining interfaces, documenting technical decisions, analyzing system components, or working on solution-design.md files in docs/specs/. Includes validation checklist, consistency verification, and overlap detection.

Apply scientific debugging methodology through conversational investigation. Use when investigating bugs, forming hypotheses, tracing error causes, performing root cause analysis, or systematically diagnosing issues. Includes progressive disclosure patterns, observable actions principle, and user-controlled dialogue flow.

Coordinate multi-agent code review with specialized perspectives. Use when conducting code reviews, analyzing PRs, evaluating staged changes, or reviewing specific files. Handles security, performance, quality, and test coverage analysis with confidence scoring and actionable recommendations.

Discover patterns, rules, and interfaces through iterative analysis cycles. Use when analyzing business rules, technical patterns, security, performance, integration points, or domain-specific areas. Includes cycle pattern for discovery to documentation to review workflow.

Create and validate project constitutions through discovery-based rule generation. Use when creating governance rules, validating code against constitutional rules, or checking constitution compliance during implementation and review.

Detect divergence between specifications and implementation during development. Use during implementation phases to identify scope creep, missing features, contradictions, or extra work not in spec. Logs drift decisions to spec README.

Manage git operations for spec-driven development. Use when creating branches for specs/features, generating commits, or creating PRs. Provides consistent git workflow across specify, implement, and refactor commands. Handles branch naming, commit messages, and PR descriptions based on spec context.

Create and validate implementation plans (PLAN). Use when planning implementation phases, defining tasks, sequencing work, analyzing dependencies, or working on implementation-plan.md files in docs/specs/. Includes TDD phase structure and specification compliance gates.

Validate implementation against specifications (PRD/SDD/PLAN). Use when verifying specification compliance, checking interface contracts, validating architecture decisions, detecting deviations, or ensuring implementations match documented requirements. Provides structured compliance reporting.

Document business rules, technical patterns, and service interfaces discovered during analysis or implementation. Use when you find reusable patterns, external integrations, domain-specific rules, or API contracts. Always check existing documentation before creating new files. Handles deduplication and proper categorization.

Create and validate product requirements documents (PRD). Use when writing requirements, defining user stories, specifying acceptance criteria, analyzing user needs, or working on product-requirements.md files in docs/specs/. Includes validation checklist, iterative cycle pattern, and multi-angle review process.

Systematic code refactoring while preserving all external behavior. Use when identifying code smells, planning refactoring sequences, executing safe structural improvements, or validating behavior preservation. Includes code smell catalog (reference.md) and refactoring execution protocol.

Initialize and manage specification directories with auto-incrementing IDs. Use when creating new specs, checking spec status, tracking user decisions, or managing the docs/specs/ directory structure. Maintains README.md in each spec to record decisions (e.g., PRD skipped), context, and progress. Orchestrates the specification workflow across PRD, SDD, and PLAN phases.

Generate structured agent prompts with FOCUS/EXCLUDE templates for task delegation. Use when breaking down complex tasks, launching parallel specialists, coordinating multiple agents, creating agent instructions, determining execution strategy, or preventing file path collisions. Handles task decomposition, parallel vs sequential logic, scope validation, and retry strategies.