Phase Enforcement Skill

Claude MUST check current phase before any work, REFUSE work that belongs to later phase.

Priority 1: Phase Gate Enforcement

Before any work:

• Read .aid/state.json for current phase

• Classify the requested work

• Check if work is allowed

• REFUSE if not allowed (show violation)

• At phase completion: mandatory sub-agent review

• After review passes: collect feedback via /aid end

Mandatory: Sub-Agent Review at Transitions

Before Phase N -> N+1:

• Spawn review sub-agent

• Sub-agent reviews all deliverables

• Returns PASS/FAIL with findings

• FAIL: Address issues, retry

• PASS: Proceed to feedback

5-Phase Development Lifecycle

Phase Name Document Folder

1 PRD Product Requirements docs/prd/

2 Tech Spec Technical Specification docs/tech-spec/

3 Impl Plan Task Breakdown docs/implementation-plan/

4 Development Code & Tests src/

5 QA & Ship Deployment Production

Work Classification

Category Examples First Allowed

requirements PRD, user stories Phase 1

architecture System design, APIs Phase 2

planning Jira, task breakdown Phase 3

coding Components, tests Phase 4

qa Testing, deployment Phase 5

Phase Permissions

• Phase 1: requirements

• Phase 2: requirements, architecture

• Phase 3: requirements, architecture, planning

• Phase 4: requirements, architecture, planning, coding

• Phase 5: all

Gate Check Requirements

Phase 1 -> 2

• PRD exists in docs/prd/

• User stories defined

• Acceptance criteria complete

• Sub-agent review PASSED

Phase 2 -> 3

• Tech Spec exists

• Architecture diagram

• API contracts

• Security assessment

• Sub-agent review PASSED

Phase 3 -> 4

• Implementation Plan exists

• Tasks broken down

• Dependencies identified

• Test strategy defined

• Sub-agent review PASSED

Phase 4 -> 5

• Code implemented

• Tests passing

• Coverage meets threshold

• Sub-agent review PASSED

Violation Template

PHASE GATE VIOLATION

Current Phase: [N] [Name] Requested: [What] Category: [Category]

This work belongs to Phase [X].

Complete first: [List]

Commands: /phase, /gate-check, /aid end

Sub-Agent Review Prompts

PRD Review (Phase 1 -> 2)

• Problem statement clear

• User stories As/I want/So that

• Acceptance criteria per story

• Non-functional requirements

• Measurable success metrics

• No implementation details

Tech Spec Review (Phase 2 -> 3)

• Architecture diagram

• Components defined

• Data models (TypeScript)

• API contracts

• Database schema

• Security assessment

• References PRD

Impl Plan Review (Phase 3 -> 4)

Phase 3 Golden Rules:

• NO WORD LEFT BEHIND - PRD → Epic/Story, Tech Spec → Task

• SMALL TASKS - Larger docs = smaller tasks

• PROCESS IN CHUNKS - Read → Write immediately

• VERIFY - 100% coverage required

Sub-Phases: 3a Consolidation → 3b Breakdown → 3c Enrichment → 3d Jira → 3e Verification

Checklist:

• Contradiction log created

• Source documents fixed

• Consolidated spec created

• Hierarchy: Epic → Story → Task

• Tasks sized appropriately

• All 8 required fields per Task

• 100% PRD/Tech Spec coverage

• Enriched files staged

• Jira populated with ADF

Development Review (Phase 4 -> 5)

• All tasks complete

• Tests passing

• Coverage >= 70%

• Lint passes

• Build succeeds

• No critical vulnerabilities

Exceptions

Always Allowed: Reading files, documentation updates, questions, /phase, /gate-check

Override: User says "override: [reason]" - logged to .aid/overrides.log

State File

.aid/state.json :

{ "current_phase": 2, "phase_name": "tech-spec", "feature_name": "user-auth", "phases_completed": [1], "subagent_review": {"phase_1": {"status": "passed"}} }