/develop

name: develop
description: Chorus Development workflow — claim tasks, report work, manage sessions, and integrate with Pi subagents.
license: AGPL-3.0
metadata:
  author: chorus
  version: "0.16.0"
  category: project-management
  mcp_server: chorus

Develop Skill

This skill covers the **Development** stage of the AI-DLC workflow: claiming Tasks, writing code, reporting progress, submitting for verification, and managing sessions for sub-agent observability.

---

Overview

Developer Agents take Tasks created by PM Agents (via `/proposal`) and turn them into working code. Each task follows:

claim --> in_progress --> report work --> self-check AC --> submit for verify --> Admin /review

For multi-agent parallel execution, Chorus integrates with Pi subagents (parallel workers) with full session-based observability.

---

Tools

**Task Lifecycle:**

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | `chorus_claim_task` | Claim an open task (open -> assigned) | | `chorus_release_task` | Release a claimed task (assigned -> open) | | `chorus_update_task` | Update task status (in_progress / to_verify) | | `chorus_submit_for_verify` | Submit task for admin verification with summary |

**Work Reporting:**

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | `chorus_report_work` | Report progress or completion (writes comment + records activity, with optional status update) |

**Acceptance Criteria:**

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | `chorus_report_criteria_self_check` | Report self-check results (passed/failed + optional evidence) on structured acceptance criteria |

**Session (sub-agents only — main agent skips these):**

| Tool | Purpose | |------|---------| | `chorus_session_checkin_task` | Checkin to a task before starting work | | `chorus_session_checkout_task` | Checkout from a task when work is done |

Sub-agents: always pass `sessionUuid` to `chorus_update_task` and `chorus_report_work` for attribution. Main agent / Team Lead: call these tools without `sessionUuid` — no session needed.

**Shared tools** (checkin, query, comment, search, notifications): see `/chorus`

---

Workflow

Step 1: Check In

chorus_checkin()

Review your persona, current assignments, and pending work counts.

Step 1.5: Get Your Session (Sub-Agents Only)

**Skip if you are the main agent or Team Lead.**

If you are a **sub-agent** (spawned via `subagent_spawn`), the Chorus extension automatically creates your session and injects it into your task prompt — look for a `--- Chorus session (auto-injected) ---` section containing your `Session UUID`. Keep it for all task operations.

Step 2: Find Work

chorus_get_available_tasks({ projectUuid: "<project-uuid>" })

Or check existing assignments:

chorus_get_my_assignments()

Step 3: Claim a Task

chorus_get_task({ taskUuid: "<task-uuid>" })  # Review first
chorus_claim_task({ taskUuid: "<task-uuid>" })

Check: description, acceptance criteria, priority, story points, related proposal/documents.

Step 4: Gather Context

Each task and proposal includes a `commentCount` field — use it to decide which entities have discussions worth reading.

1. **Read the task** and identify dependencies:

   chorus_get_task({ taskUuid: "<task-uuid>" })

Pay attention to `dependsOn` (upstream tasks) and `commentCount`.

2. **Read task comments** (contains previous work reports, progress, feedback):

   chorus_get_comments({ targetType: "task", targetUuid: "<task-uuid>" })

3. **Review upstream dependency tasks** — your work likely builds on theirs:

   chorus_get_task({ taskUuid: "<dependency-task-uuid>" })
   chorus_get_comments({ targetType: "task", targetUuid: "<dependency-task-uuid>" })

Look for: files created, API contracts, interfaces, trade-offs.

4. **Read the originating proposal** for design intent:

   chorus_get_proposal({ proposalUuid: "<proposal-uuid>", section: "documents" })

(`chorus_get_proposal` defaults to `section: "basic"` — just metadata + a draft index. Pass `section: "documents"` for the design docs, or `section: "full"` for docs + task drafts.)

5. **Read project documents** (PRD, tech design, ADR):

   chorus_get_documents({ projectUuid: "<project-uuid>" })

> **Document update flow (OpenSpec mode):** if the originating proposal `description` contains a line `OpenSpec change slug: <slug>`, the project's PRD / tech_design / spec Documents are **mirrors** of files under `openspec/changes/<slug>/`. To update such a Document (e.g. clarify an AC, fix a spec scenario before resubmitting), load the `openspec-aware` skill at `skills/openspec-aware/SKILL.md` and follow §3.8: edit the local `.md` file first, then mirror through the `chorus-mcp-call.sh` wrapper with `json_encode_file` and `chorus_check_response`. > > **⛔ Do not** call `chorus_pm_update_document` directly from the MCP harness with a hand-typed `content` field in OpenSpec mode. The local file is the source of truth; agent-typed content drifts and burns tokens (`openspec-aware` §2 Rule 1). > > When the LAST task of an OpenSpec idea is verified, the extension injects an archive reminder (`openspec-aware` §3.9) — run `openspec archive <slug> --yes`, then mirror each emitted `openspec/specs/<capability>/spec.md` back via §3.8. > > In the no-OpenSpec fallback (no slug line, or no `openspec` CLI), edit the Document content directly via the existing MCP tool with no wrapper, no local file step.

Step 5: Start Working

**Sub-agent**: checkin to the task first:

chorus_session_checkin_task({ sessionUuid: "<session-uuid>", taskUuid: "<task-uuid>" })

Then mark as in-progress:

# Sub-agent:
chorus_update_task({ taskUuid: "<task-uuid>", status: "in_progress", sessionUuid: "<session-uuid>" })

# Main agent:
chorus_update_task({ taskUuid: "<task-uuid>", status: "in_progress" })

> **Dependency enforcement**: If this task has unresolved dependencies (dependsOn tasks not i