discovery

/discovery - Dense Discovery Phase Adapter

YOU MUST EXECUTE THIS WORKFLOW. Do not just describe it.

Loop position: move 1 (shape intent as BDD) plus the seed for move 3

(slice candidates) of the [operating loop](../../docs/architecture/operating-loop.md).

Discovery turns a goal plus delegated child artifacts into one dense execution

packet for /crank and /validation.

Strict Delegation Contract (default)

Discovery delegates to /brainstorm (conditional), /design (conditional), /research, /plan, and /pre-mortem via declared skill invocations. Strict delegation is the default.

Anti-pattern to reject: inlining /research work (grep + read + synthesize), collapsing /plan into an inline decomposition, skipping /pre-mortem. See [../shared/references/strict-delegation-contract.md](../shared/references/strict-delegation-contract.md) for the full contract and supported compression escapes (--quick, --skip-brainstorm, --interactive/--auto, --no-scaffold).

See [docs/learnings/orchestrator-compression-anti-pattern.md](../../docs/learnings/orchestrator-compression-anti-pattern.md) for the live compression signature. See [references/isolation-contract.md](references/isolation-contract.md) for the mechanical four-lever model and the compression patterns flagged by scripts/check-skill-isolation.sh. See [references/best-practices.md](references/best-practices.md) for the lifecycle principle + anti-pattern citation table.

Narrow Waist

Discovery does not carry raw child-skill output forward. It records artifact paths, verdicts, the hexagon: boundary block from [docs/architecture/intent-to-loop-hexagon.md](../../docs/architecture/intent-to-loop-hexagon.md), and the six Context Density Rule fields:

| Field | Meaning | |-------|---------| | intent | Behavior or capability to produce | | boundary | Bounded context, non-goals, write scope | | evidence | Acceptance examples, tests, gates, verdicts | | decision | Why this plan shape was chosen | | constraint | Safety, runtime, token, and process limits | | next_action | Exact /crank or follow-up command |

Everything else stays in child artifacts and is linked by path.

Discovery To Plan Port

Use the [Skill Ports and Adapters](../../docs/contracts/skill-ports-and-adapters.md) vocabulary and the [Intent-to-Loop Hexagon](../../docs/architecture/intent-to-loop-hexagon.md) for the boundary between Discovery and Plan:

| Boundary piece | Discovery contract | |---|---| | Inbound port | shape_intent from operator goal or BDD intent | | Outbound port | plan_slices into /plan | | Driving adapter | /discovery skill invocation | | Driven adapter | /plan skill invocation plus bd/file persistence | | Context packet | density block, artifact links, acceptance examples, non-goals, constraints | | Guard adapter | /pre-mortem verdict before packet handoff |

Executable acceptance: [references/discovery.feature](references/discovery.feature) — Discovery hands dense intent across the plan_slices port (promoted from inline; soc-qk4b.2).

Open-Ended Path (generate-winnow → operationalize → refine)

Additive to the default flow — it does not replace the strict-delegation contract or the artifact-first DAG. This path activates for open-ended "improve the project"-style goals ("improve the project", "what should we build next", "make X more robust") OR when --ideate is passed. For a specific goal, the default flow (brainstorm-clarify → research → plan → pre-mortem) is unchanged.

On the open-ended path, Discovery prepends the generate-winnow methodology before research/plan and adds two steps after planning. Full detail lives in [../brainstorm/references/bead-operationalization.md](../brainstorm/references/bead-operationalization.md) and [../brainstorm/references/ideation-mode.md](../brainstorm/references/ideation-mode.md).

1. Ideate (delegate to /brainstorm --ideate). Invoke /brainstorm in ideation mode (a real skill invocation — strict delegation still applies; do NOT inline the 30-idea generation). It returns a ranked portfolio of 15 ideas (top 5 + next 10) with how/perceive/implement notes, rubric scores, and red-team findings.
2. Research + Plan + Pre-mortem. Run the normal artifact-first DAG over the selected portfolio, scoped to the winnowed ideas rather than a single goal.
3. Operationalize. Turn the ranked portfolio into a comprehensive, granular set of self-documenting bd beads — tasks, subtasks, dependency structure (bd dep add), and explicit test tasks (unit + e2e with detailed logging). Each bead carries what/why/how/risks/success so the original plan markdown never needs to be consulted again. Overlap-check against existing beads (bd list --json) before creating — merge, don't duplicate.
4. Refine in plan space (4-5 passes). Before handing the packet to /crank, run 4-5 refinement passes over the bead set. Each pass: re-read AGENTS.md (especially after compaction), check every bead for sense and optimality, and DO NOT OVERSIMPLIFY / DO NOT LOSE FEATURES OR FUNCTIONALITY. Validate between passes (no dependency cycles; every leaf actionable via bd ready).

Tracking is bd, never br/bv — this is AgentOps. The operationalize and refine steps consume /brainstorm's ideation output; see [../brainstorm/references/bead-operationalization.md](../brainstorm/references/bead-operationalization.md).

Executable acceptance for this path: [references/discovery.feature](references/discovery.feature) (ideation/operationalize/refine scenarios, ag-yw0).

Execution

Run the artifact-first DAG in [references/dag.md](references/dag.md). That file owns the executable workflow, state shape, gate detail, per-step detail, and the acceptance-criteria YAML contract.

Flags

| Flag | Default | Description | |------|---------|-------------| | --auto | on | Fully autonomous (no human gates). Inverse of --interactive. Passed through to /research and /plan. | | --interactive | off | Human gates in research and plan (STEP 3, STEP 4). Does NOT affect pre-mortem gate. | | --skip-brainstorm | auto | Skip STEP 1 brainstorm when goal is already specific | | --ideate | auto | Force the open-ended generate-winnow path: delegate to /brainstorm --ideate (30→5→15), then operationalize into self-documenting bd beads and refine 4-5x in plan space. Auto-on for open-ended goals. See [Open-Ended Path](#open-ended-path-generate-winnow--operationalize--refine). | | --complexity=<level> | auto | Force complexity level (fast / standard / full) | | --no-budget | off | Disable phase time budgets | | --no-scaffold | off | Skip scaffold auto-invocation in STEP 4.5 |

Quick Start

/discovery "add user authentication"              # full discovery
/discovery --interactive "refactor payment module" # human gates in research + plan
/discovery --skip-brainstorm "fix login bug"       # skip brainstorm for specific goals
/discovery --complexity=full "migrate to v2 API"   # force full council ceremony

Output Specification

Format: compact markdown phase summary to stdout plus JSON execution packet on disk.

Files written:

• .agents/research/<topic-slug>.md - research artifact path only
• .agents/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-<goal-slug>.md - plan document path only
• .agents/council/YYYY-MM-DD-pre-mortem-<topic>.md - pre-mortem verdict path only
• .agents/rpi/execution-packet.json - latest dense packet
• .agents/rpi/runs/<run-id>/execution-packet.json - per-run archive when run_id is set
• .agents/rpi/phase-1-summary-YYYY-MM-DD-<goal-slug>.md - compact discovery summary

Exit signal: completion marker (<promise>DONE</promise> or <promise>BLOCKED</promise>) — see Completion Markers below.

Completion Markers

<promise>DONE</promise>      # Discovery complete, epic-id + execution-packet ready
<promise>BLOCKED</promise