/hydraia

name: hydraia
description: Use whenever the user asks to build, add, implement, or change a feature or functionality — or brings a user story or ticket to analyze, reports a bug or unexpected behavior, asks for a branch review, or wants a new app or service designed from scratch. Phase -1 triages the intent and routes it. Runs the complete non-negotiable development pipeline end to end — deep analysis and planning, sub-agent execution, and a double code-review loop — without asking the user which model, skill, or step to use. This is the default way features get built.

Hydraia — Agentic Development Pipeline

This skill defines the ONLY approved way to build a feature. Run every phase, in order, automatically. **Never ask the user which model, skill, or reviewer to use — those decisions are already made here.** Never skip a phase. Never pause for "should I continue?" between phases.

Announce once at the start: "Running the Hydraia pipeline." Then proceed silently through the phases, narrating at most one short line per phase.

Step-file architecture (how to run this pipeline)

The pipeline body lives in `phases/*.md`, loaded just-in-time. **Read one phase file fully, execute it, then load the next only when its `## NEXT` directs you.**

• **NEVER load two phase files at once.** Do not skip, reorder, or pre-load phases.
• Follow each phase file exactly, the way you would a step file.
• `phases/model-policy.md` and `phases/token-discipline.md` are always-on

reference (summarized below), not sequential steps — consult them as needed.

Always-loaded facts (carry these for the whole run)

• **Route → phases** (decided in Phase -1 triage):

`feature` 0–6 (full) · `plan` 0–3 then stop · `story` -1–3 (PO-first) · `perf`/`db` -1–6 (measurement-first) · `architect` -1–6 (greenfield) · `review` 5–6 · `graph` codegraph only. Ambiguous route → `AskUserQuestion`.

• **Autonomy tiers (S/M/L):** derived in Phase -1 from files-touched, `gate.yaml`

risk overlap, new-logic-vs-mechanical, and UI presence → maps to review depth and ceremony. `autoTier=off` → always Tier M. **Never removes the security floor.**

• **Work modes (Quick / Plan / Agile):** a layer over the route, chosen in Phase -1.

Quick = trimmed ceremony for a tiny change; Plan = today's full single-goal pipeline; **Agile** = epic-sized / multi-goal / phased work → decompose into Epic→Stories→Tasks→ Subtasks+QA, optional one-way Jira sync, then autonomous stage-by-stage execution gated by autonomy tier (mechanical stories run solo, tier-L/risky pause). Agile branches through `phases/phase-2a-decompose.md` → `phases/agile-orchestrator.md`. Forced by `/hydraia:agile` or `customize.toml` `[agile].mode`.

• **Model policy (summary):** this orchestrator session stays **Opus 4.8** for

judgment (triage, design, plan, both reviews). Execution delegates to the Phase-4 executor — **Sonnet 5 by default, overridable via `customize.toml`**. Full policy in `phases/model-policy.md`.

• **Execution routing:** Phase 3's picker asks the user how Phase-4 tasks run —

**Balanced** (Sonnet all), **Economy** (Haiku for mechanical + Sonnet for logic/ui), **Max quality** (Opus for logic/ui), or **Hand-off** (freeze the plan, execute later on a cheap external runtime). The picker shows a computed recommendation and what each option costs/gets. Each plan task carries an `Exec class` (mechanical/logic/ui/qa) that Phase 4 maps to a model. `customize.toml` `[executor].routing` can pin a choice and make the run non-interactive.

• **Customization:** an optional `customize.toml` overrides the executor routing /

per-class model / dispatch recipe (read in Phase 4) and the Phase-5 pass-2 reviewer panel (read in Phase 5). Precedence: repo `<artifacts-base>/custom/hydraia.toml` > global `~/.config/hydraia/custom/hydraia.toml` > shipped `skills/hydraia/customize.toml`. Unparseable override → warn and fall back to shipped defaults. **The always-on security gate is NOT customizable.**

• **Token discipline** is background and always on (summary in

`phases/token-discipline.md`): the `caveman` skill compresses internal comms only — never code, specs, or plans.

FIRST STEP

Read fully and follow `phases/phase--1-triage.md` to begin the pipeline.