feat: stack development in three phases - stack-dev (design), stack-build, stack-close, handed over through tracker states (#168)
stack-build and stack-close carry disable-model-invocation, so each phase change is the operator's slash command; no skill offers a mid-session /model or /effort switch. Mode rules and the phase table move to instructions/dev/stack-mode.md, publish and CI waiting to instructions/dev/publish-and-ci.md, the ready definition to issue-tracking.md. Files changed: - AGENTS.md - CHANGES.md - DEVELOPMENT.md - README.md - VERSION - docs/model-and-effort-selection.md - instructions/CONTRACT.md - instructions/dev/commonplace-kb.md - instructions/dev/dev-setup.md - instructions/dev/doc-pull-through.md - instructions/dev/issue-tracking.md - instructions/dev/publish-and-ci.md - instructions/dev/stack-build/SKILL.md - instructions/dev/stack-close/SKILL.md - instructions/dev/stack-dev/SKILL.md - instructions/dev/stack-mode.md - instructions/dev/testing-conventions.md - instructions/dev/version-parts.md - tools/chemenu/commands/git_publish.py - tools/chemenu/tests/test_git_publish.py - tools/chemenu/tests/test_instructions_cmd.py Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01SnAJ7Z3CpVD3PRbN73QtU2
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@@ -14,11 +14,23 @@ one more round. Work behind nothing but a session reading prose does not surface
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ships, and stays until someone happens to notice. That asymmetry, not task size, is what the
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phase guide below is built on.
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<!-- wikitool:toc -->
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## Contents
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- [Phase guide](#phase-guide)
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- [Model per session, not per phase](#model-per-session-not-per-phase)
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- [Subagent models](#subagent-models)
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- [`/code-review` effort](#code-review-effort)
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- [When it's unclear](#when-its-unclear)
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- [Scope](#scope)
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<!-- /wikitool:toc -->
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## Phase guide
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<!-- dist:strip-start -->
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This repo's own stack-development work splits the axis into three phases, one per switch point
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in its `stack-dev`/`stack-close` skills:
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This repo's own stack-development work splits the axis into three phases, one skill each -
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`stack-dev` (design), `stack-build` (build) and `stack-close` (closing) - handed over through
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states in the issue tracker rather than inside one session:
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<!-- dist:strip-end -->
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| Phase / task | What would catch a mistake | Suggested model | Effort |
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@@ -27,20 +39,48 @@ in its `stack-dev`/`stack-close` skills:
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| `wiki-lint` | `lint` itself is the check | Sonnet | default |
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| `wiki-ingest`, `wiki-manage`, judgment-heavy `wiki-query` | `lint` and `docs verify`, partly | Sonnet | high |
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| Stack dev: design, the version part, a boundary-crossing judgment | nothing mechanical | Opus | high |
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| Stack dev: code, tests, mechanical doc sync | `pytest`, `docs verify`, `instructions verify`, CI | Sonnet | high |
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| Stack dev: code, tests, mechanical doc sync, waiting for CI | `pytest`, `docs verify`, `instructions verify`, CI | Opus (open - see below) | high; medium for a small change |
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| Stack dev: closing an issue, `docs/` staleness, changelog prose | nothing, by construction | Opus | high |
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The middle stack-dev row is where the tokens are and where the checks are, so it is the one worth
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running cheaper. The two rows around it are short - minutes, not hours - so keeping them on the
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stronger model costs little and protects the only work in the session that fails silently.
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The two unchecked rows are short - minutes, not hours - so keeping them on the strongest model
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costs little and protects the only work that fails silently. The checked middle row is where the
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tokens are, which makes it the tempting one to run cheaper. It is also the row with the least
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settled answer: a build phase of this stack reads a lot of the tree, and a smaller context window
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does not hold it - it runs into compaction, which costs more than the cheaper model saves. Sonnet
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at high effort remains possible, but only as a session of its own (below). Which default the
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middle row should have is left to the record: every closed work package names the model, effort
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and session shape of each phase, and the table follows that evidence rather than the other way
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round.
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**Effort is the cheaper lever than the model.** A reduced effort level is what gives up
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multi-file consistency first, so `high` is a reasonable floor for anything touching more than one
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file or a contract; `default` suits a single-file mechanical edit with a test behind it.
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file or a contract; `default` or `medium` suits a small mechanical change with a test behind it.
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A session cannot switch its own model - that is the user's `/model` - so this table only pays off
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if someone offers the switch at the moment a phase changes, once, without turning it into a
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debate.
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## Model per session, not per phase
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A session cannot switch its own model - that is the user's `/model` - and it should not be asked
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to mid-flow either. Two reasons:
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- **A switch throws away the prompt cache.** A cache entry belongs to the model that wrote it,
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so a new model starts the session's whole history from cold. The same holds for effort: changing it always invalidates
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the cached message history - by far the largest part of a long session - and, on some models,
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the tool and system prefix too (Anthropic's prompt-caching documentation lists effort and the
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thinking configuration among what invalidates the cache). A switch from one effort to another
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costs the same re-read of the whole session as a switch of model.
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- **An offered switch is rarely taken.** A sentence in the output at the moment a phase changes
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is easy to read past - for the agent writing it and for the user reading it - and the session
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just carries on in whatever it started as.
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So the choice is made once, when a session starts, and phases that want different models or
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effort levels are separated by a session boundary instead: `/clear`, then the next phase in a
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session started the right way. That is only cheap if the next phase does not depend on the
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previous session's context - which is why the handover has to live somewhere outside the session
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(an issue body, a page) and be kept current at fixed points, not reconstructed at the end.
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<!-- dist:strip-start -->
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In this repo the handover points are a ready issue body (design → build) and a green CI run with
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the body updated (build → closing); the two later skills can only be started by the user's slash
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command, so each phase change is a real stop at which that choice is made.
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<!-- dist:strip-end -->
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## Subagent models
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@@ -70,9 +110,10 @@ choice a session *can* make on its own:
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reflexively over-provisioning is a standing cost every session pays.
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- Not sure whether a phase is checked: treat it as unchecked - a needless Opus phase costs money
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once, an unchecked Sonnet phase can ship something nobody looks at again.
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- Mid-session and the phase changed but nobody switched: keep working - never block a publish or
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an issue close on a model the session cannot change itself. Naming which model ran which phase
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in the handover keeps the gap visible instead of silent.
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- The phase changed and the session runs on a model or effort the table would not pick: keep
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working, and cut the session at the next handover rather than switching mid-flow - never block a
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publish or an issue close on a choice the session cannot make itself. Naming which model and
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effort ran which phase in the handover keeps the gap visible instead of silent.
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## Scope
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Reference in new issue
Block a user