/navigate

name: navigate
description: 'Pick the next wave on a bead graph and keep the graph honest toward frozen acceptance. Use when: a goal starts a wave, or you ask what is next on an epic.'
practices: [lean-startup, bdd-gherkin, ddd-bounded-context]
hexagonal_role: supporting
consumes: [outer-goal-prompt, goal-acceptance, native-work-state, validation-result]
produces: [native-handoffs]
context_rel: [{kind: customer-of, with: craft-goal}, {kind: supplier-to, with: orchestrate}]
skill_api_version: 1
user-invocable: true
metadata:
  tier: execution
  dependencies: []
  capabilities: [observe_work_graph, select_next_wave, ratchet_work_graph, report_graph_hygiene]
  effects: [update_native_graph]
  canonical_status: canonical
  disposition: keep_strategy
  stability: experimental
output_contract: 'wave checkpoint in the existing handoff or root epic: acceptance matrix, frontier, wave and reasons, ratchets and churn, budget, helper use and native state, next thesis, open decisions; a single pass returns it with hygiene findings and writes nothing'

Navigate

A crafted goal runs many RPIs over one bead graph: the root epic holds frozen acceptance and each child bead is one experiment with one RPI. A running goal applies Navigate each wave to pick beads and write results back; a person can run [one pass](#one-pass-without-a-goal). It never edits acceptance, dispatches, judges or closes: Craft Goal owns the prompt and HOLD, [Plan](../plan/SKILL.md) shapes a bead, [Orchestrate](../orchestrate/SKILL.md) dispatches, RPI runs, [Validate](../validate/SKILL.md) judges.

Speak the domain

• **BDD:** each criterion is a Given/When/Then example with an observable

result. Each bead names the example it moves; a bead that lacks one gets Plan first inside its RPI. A criterion with no observable result is an open decision for the caller, who can settle it with Interview: report it, never rewrite it.

• **DDD:** the root epic defines each domain term once, in one line. Titles,

examples, code and tests reuse that exact word. A synonym is a hygiene finding; [Domain](../domain/SKILL.md) settles disputes.

• Write a bead as its title, then its id: `Redelivery test (ag-12)`.

Bead graph contract

Root epic: outcome, acceptance examples, non-goals, authority, domain terms. Child bead: the question and the criterion or uncertainty it serves; method, expected observation, falsifier, scope, non-goals; notes enough to resume after compaction; verdict, evidence refs, learning.

Edges: `parent-child` for membership, `blocks` only for real ordering, `related` for alternatives, `discovered-from` for provenance. A requested retrospective never `blocks` code judgment; both stay required.

The tracker owns status and closing. BD is the example; any tracker with status, dependencies and notes fits. With BD, run `bd context --json` before any write; BR is a different tool, never a fallback or alias for BD. `bv` rank is advice; live BD beats it and any saved plan.

1. Observe

bd context --json                   # verify the destination first
bd show <epic>                      # outcome, acceptance, domain terms
bd children <epic>                  # direct children only; recurse into child epics
bd ready --parent <epic> --json     # ready frontier across descendants
bd blocked --parent <epic>          # blocked work
bd show <bead>; bd comments <bead>  # prior verdicts and evidence refs

Build the acceptance matrix (criterion, evidence, status); note in-flight beads and any result limit you hit. Only a cited Validate PASS proves a row; closed status proves nothing. A closed bead with missing or stale bytes is not usable readiness: report it. An empty ready list does not prove completion. Done when every criterion has a row and every open row names its bead, blocker or gap.

2. Pick the wave

When every row is proven, or no ready bead serves an open row, pick nothing, say which, and go to step 4. Otherwise pick the smallest set of ready beads with the most decision-relevant information. Each serves an open row or a named blocking uncertainty, has write and generated scopes disjoint from the rest and from in-flight beads, and fits the declared wave budget; no budget means one bead. Prefer an early falsifier.

Hand each bead to one RPI. When delegation is authorized, hand it to Orchestrate or Agent Native to dispatch, one bead per worker; otherwise the caller's runtime runs it. Each candidate gets one fresh, author-distinct Validate. Done when each picked bead has a one-line reason and a named handoff.

3. Ratchet the graph

Record each verdict unchanged on its bead, for example `bd update <id> --append-notes "verdict: FAIL; evidence: <refs>; learned: <decision it changes>"`. Update its matrix row, then classify each discovery:

| Discovery | Action | |---|---| | Needed for frozen acceptance, within authority and budget | `bd create "<title>" --parent <epic> --deps discovered-from:<id> --acceptance "<example it serves>"` | | Useful later | note or link it outside the epic; never run it in this goal | | Changes acceptance, exceeds authority or budget | HOLD; the goal's breaker takes over |

A result ratchets when it proves part of acceptance, falsifies a live hypothesis with discriminating evidence, or resolves an uncertainty so the next experiment differs; FAIL and NOT_PROVEN can ratchet. Commits, counts, digests, rewritten plans and red with no new information are churn. Split old defects from regressions by before/after reproduction or equivalent causal evidence under the same acceptance; counts, timestamps and new ids prove no cause. Unknown cause, a reopened finding or recurrence of a closed finding class is HOLD, not proof the design is wrong. Keep necessary findings necessary; nothing resets a total. Done when every verdict sits on its bead and every discovery has a class.

4. Checkpoint

Append this block to the existing handoff or root epic notes; no new artifact. Stop after appe