214 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
214 lines
14 KiB
Markdown
# Playbook 07 — Features
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**Trigger.** A feature: work that changes code in one repository or several (`mesh-sdk`, `mesh-controller`,
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`mesh-catalog`, `mesh-host`, `mesh-lab`, and `hq` when a design rides along), too large to be one small fix.
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A small fix (one repository, one issue, about an hour of work) follows
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[playbook 08](08-small-fixes.md) instead.
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**Who runs it.** Anyone who writes code, engineers and agents alike. Agents follow it exactly.
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## The failures it prevents
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- **Pull requests as scratchpads.** A feature worked as one pull request per unit of thought left sixteen
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stacked pull requests unmerged, consolidated by hand afterwards. A pull request is the end of a feature,
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not a step in it.
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- **Waiting on checks mid-feature.** A feature worked as one pull request per issue into protected
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branches spent most of a day waiting for merge checks while the code was ready.
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- **Context bought again and again.** A fresh agent per small issue spends most of its run reading the
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playbook, the issue and the code before it writes a line. On 2026-10-14 an issue sized for five to ten
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minutes took forty-one.
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- **Finished work that never ships.** A feature that kept taking new issues held thirteen landed issues
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undelivered for a day: an issue done at 21:09 was still not on the machines at 15:00 the next day.
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- **Work that waits and nobody notices.** Most lost time was not work at all, but a check, a delivery plan
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or an agent waiting on something that had stopped, unseen.
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## The shape
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One feature is **one branch name**, **one worktree per repository**, **one pull request per repository**,
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opened **once**, after the review. It runs in five phases, and its time is bounded:
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| Phase | What happens | Bound |
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| 0. Prepare | the lead settles the open questions and writes one context file per repository | 15 minutes |
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| 1. Develop | one fixing agent per repository builds every issue locally, unit tests only | 1 to 2 hours |
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| 2. Review | one reviewer reads all of it; reports go both ways; at most 3 rounds | 15 minutes |
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| 3. Check | push; the forge's merge checks run the integration tests; no further review | one check run |
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| 4. Deliver | merge; the delivery plan builds, publishes and sends the whole feature | its delivery plan |
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A feature that cannot be developed in about two hours is split into **steps**. Each step runs all five
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phases on its own; the next step starts only when the previous step's delivery plan is done. A step is the
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unit that ships, so nothing finished waits for work that is not.
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**Scope is fixed at phase 0.** An issue found during a feature goes to the next step or the next feature,
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never into the running one, unless it blocks the running one.
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## Phase 0 — Prepare (the lead, larger model)
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1. **Name the feature once:** `feat/<slug>`, the same branch name in every repository it touches. The
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branch is never protected.
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2. **Make the worktrees:** one per touched repository under `.work/<slug>/<repo>`, branched off `main`
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(`git worktree add .work/<slug>/<repo> -b feat/<slug> origin/main`). The lab beds find the other
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repositories by sibling path, so add the untouched siblings the lab reads as detached worktrees on
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`main` (`git worktree add --detach .work/<slug>/mesh-tools main`), never symlinks.
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3. **Settle every open question** in the feature's issues before any agent starts: on the issue, through
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the knowledge base, or by asking the operator. A fixing agent that meets an undecided design question
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stops, and its run is spent again.
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4. **Write one context file per repository**, `.work/<slug>/<repo>.context.md`. It is what a fixing agent
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reads instead of rediscovering the code, and it is reused by every agent and every round:
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- the issues it builds, in order, each with: the files and functions it changes, the decisions it builds
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with (quoted, with where each was decided), the test to write first, done-when in one sentence;
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- the repository's map for this feature: the packages and files involved, with one line each on what they
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hold, and the patterns to copy (file:line);
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- what not to touch, and what lands beside it in other repositories;
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- the local facts: the worktree, the branch, the check commands, a temporary directory for tests outside
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the home (`TMPDIR`), a throwaway database server if the store tests need one.
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When the reading is large, a read-only agent on the smaller model answers the lead's exact questions with
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file:line, and the lead writes the file from its answers.
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5. **Move the issues to `fixing`**, `by` naming the feature's agent for that repository.
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## Phase 1 — Develop (one fixing agent per repository, smaller model)
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- **One agent per repository, kept for the whole feature.** It reads its context file once and builds the
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issues one after another, committing each locally with a message naming the issue ("Keep the assignments
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on the bus (issue 652)"). It is not replaced per issue: the lead continues the same agent (by its id) with
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the next instruction, so its context is paid for once.
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- **Unit tests only.** Each issue's first test fails before its change and passes after; `gofmt`, `go vet`
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and the repository's unit tests stay green. The integration tests (`merge-check.sh` with the store and the
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bus) wait for phase 3.
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- **Nothing is pushed** and no pull request is opened in this phase. Never land on a red check: run the
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checks, read the result, then land in a separate step.
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- **The fixing agent's brief** (the lead gives it with the context file): name your issue in every step and
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message ("issue 805: landing in mesh-catalog"); reach the mesh only through the mesh MCP server, never ssh;
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never push, open, merge or close a pull request; never write to a store's database by hand, a schema change
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is a numbered migration and the consolidated schema; Go only unless the context file says otherwise; never
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move another issue. Report back in under 150 words: commits, tests added and that they failed first, the
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check results, anything you stopped on.
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- **An agent that finds the code differs from its context file stops and reports** (file:line); the lead
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settles it, updates the context file, and continues the agent.
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- **Two repositories that depend on each other** keep their order in the context files: the reader before the
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writer, the controller's new manifest word before the catalogue manifest that uses it.
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- **Several agents in one repository** (only for a large repository with independent areas): each works on a
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local branch of its own from the feature branch's head and lands by fast-forward under a lock
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(`flock <feature worktree>.lock git -C <feature worktree> merge --ff-only <its branch>`), after its unit
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tests pass; if another landed first, it merges again and repeats. In a shared clone, fetch the feature
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branch by name before branching from it. Never resolve a conflict with a blind `git merge-file --union`.
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## Phase 2 — Review (one reviewer, larger model; at most 3 rounds, about 15 minutes)
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1. **Bring every feature branch up to the current trunk** (fetch by name, then merge), so the reviewed tree is
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the tree that is pushed.
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2. **One reviewer reads every repository's local commits** together, against the context files and the
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decisions. Its report is per repository: each finding as file:line, the failure it causes, and the fix.
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It says which round it is in ("round 1 of at most 3").
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3. **The report goes to the same fixing agents** that wrote the code, continued by their ids, so they fix
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with the context they already hold. Each answers the reviewer: what it changed, per finding, or why not.
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4. **The reviewer reads the answers and the new commits**, and approves or reports again. From round 2 it
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asks changes only for a finding that makes the feature wrong; smaller points become issues of their own.
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After round 3 the lead stops and brings the operator what is left, with a recommendation.
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## Phase 3 — Check (no review)
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1. **Push every feature branch and open one pull request per repository, together.** Pull requests in two or
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more repositories that share the branch name are one delivery group (ADR 0239 §2).
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Where a session pushes through the forge tool `gitea_commit` (one commit on the forge's current base), the
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reviewer first confirms that commit's tree equals the reviewed one.
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2. **The forge's merge checks run the integration tests once** (`mesh/merge-gate`, `mesh/repo-check`). No
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second review: phase 2 reviewed this tree.
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3. **A check that fails** goes back to the reviewer with the failure, for **one more cycle** of phase 2 with
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the same fixing agents; then push once again.
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4. **Mark each pull request ready** (`mesh/ready` and a comment `ready at <full sha>`) once the operator's word
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for the feature is given; mesh-delivery merges it when its checks pass (ADR 0364).
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**One exception: a catalogue change that uses a new manifest word.** The catalogue's merge check reads
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manifests with the controller the mesh runs, so the controller's pull request is merged and delivered first;
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then `mesh-delivery.recheck` the catalogue's and merge it on the new verdict. Plan such a feature as two steps.
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## Phase 4 — Deliver
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The merge starts the delivery plan: build, publish, send. The lead follows it to done
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(`mesh-controller.plans` with `wait` and `until: done`), then resolves the feature's issues with `fixed-by`
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naming its pull requests, and removes what is left: no `feat/<slug>` branch and no `.work/<slug>` worktree
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survive.
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## Models
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| Who | Model | Why |
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| The lead (phase 0 decisions, the context files, following and reporting) | larger | judgement |
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| Read-only questions about the code for the context files | smaller | reading, answered with file:line |
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| Fixing agents (phase 1, and the fixing in phases 2 and 3) | smaller | building to a written context |
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| The reviewer (phase 2, and the extra cycle in phase 3) | larger | judgement, once per round |
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| Decision records | larger | judgement |
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Every agent the mesh runs draws on one weekly allowance shared by every session, and the larger model
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spends it many times faster. Up to five agents on the smaller model at once, at most two subagents on the
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larger one (the lead not counted).
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## Following and reporting
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Most lost time is waiting nobody saw. The lead therefore keeps a **wait list**: everything the feature waits
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on, with when it started and its bound.
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| Waiting on | Bound | Past the bound |
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| a fixing agent's issue | 30 minutes | ask it where it stands; split or take over |
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| the review | 15 minutes a round | ask the reviewer; stop at round 3 |
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| a merge check | 15 minutes | read the build queue (`mesh-controller.queue`) and the check's log |
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| a merge after ready | 5 minutes after the checks pass | read `mesh-delivery.show` for the delivery |
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| a delivery plan | its class's budget (`mesh-delivery.times`), at most 30 minutes | read `mesh-controller.plans`, then `mesh-delivery.stalled` |
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**Every ten minutes, and at once when something lands, stops or needs the operator,** the lead reports, in
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one of the two layouts below. Times are local and absolute; every number has its unit and its bound or
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baseline; an issue is named by its number and a few words, never by its number alone.
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**The full layout** (in the session), the issues as a tree: grouped by repository, each issue under the one it
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waits for, marked ✓ landed, ▶ fixing, ⏸ waiting, ✗ stopped:
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```
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Feature <slug> · step <n> of <m> · phase <name>, <minutes used> of <bound> min
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Issues: <landed> of <total> landed · <fixing> fixing · <waiting> waiting
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mesh-controller (agent: fixing, 2 of 3 landed)
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├── ✓ 652 assignments on the bus landed 14:02
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├── ▶ 736 placement words leave the layers fixing since 13:51, 23 of 30 min
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│ └── ⏸ 751 config keys named (mesh-catalog) waits for 736
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└── ✓ 654 a file names its template landed 13:20
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mesh-catalog (agent: waiting)
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└── ⏸ 751 (above, under 736)
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Past its bound: <the wait, how long, what is being done> — or "none"
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Needs you: <one line per question, with my recommendation> — or "nothing"
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Allowance: week <n> % (<+d> since the last report), session <n> %
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Next: <the next action, one line>
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```
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**The short layout** (on a channel such as Telegram, or when nothing changed but time):
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```
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<slug> step <n>/<m> · <phase> <used>/<bound> min · <landed>/<total> landed · past bound: <none | what> · needs you: <nothing | what> · week <n> %
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```
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A report says what changed since the last one first; an unchanged table is not repeated, the short layout
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says it instead.
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## The context of the lead's own session
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At the end of each phase, and whenever the session's context grows large or spread over unrelated work, the
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lead prepares a `/clear` as the mesh's instruction "prepare before clear" says: a save point with the
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feature's phase, its branches and heads, the context files' paths, the agents' ids, the wait list and the
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next action; then the prompt the operator pastes. The context files make the feature resumable after a clear.
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## How it is checked
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- A feature's issues show their commits on the feature branch (`git log --grep 'issue <n>'`), and no pull
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request into a feature branch exists. A pull request per issue, or an agent waiting on a merge check in
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phase 1, is the failure this playbook prevents.
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- A context file exists per touched repository under `.work/<slug>/` while the feature runs.
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- After a feature's delivery, `git branch -r | grep feat/<slug>` and `git worktree list` return nothing for it.
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- More than one open pull request in a repository that share no feature name, or a feature step whose issues
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stay in `fixing` for more than a working day, is the smell: stop and bring it to the operator.
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- A bed run from `.work/<slug>/mesh-lab` that fails naming a `.work/<slug>/<repo>/…` path it cannot find is a
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missing sibling worktree, not a mesh fault.
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When this playbook meets a problem, the lesson is added here, so the next feature avoids it.
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