Develop

Develop Skill

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

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, the main agent uses Codex's spawn_agent tool to launch worker sub-agents.

Tools

Task Lifecycle:

Work Reporting:

Acceptance Criteria:

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 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 ~/.codex/skills/openspec-aware/SKILL.md and follow §3.8: edit the local .md file first, then mirror it — prefer chorus mcp call … --arg-file content=<file>, falling back to the chorus-mcp-call.sh wrapper with json_encode_file when chorus is not on PATH — with chorus_check_response halting on error.

⛔ Do not call chorus_pm_update_document directly from Codex's 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 plugin's PostToolUse hook 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.

Document update flow (spec-lite mode): if the originating proposal description contains a locator line Spec-lite: .chorus/specs/<slug>/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<change-slug>/, the prd / tech_design / … Documents are persistent mirrors of the Chorus-typed docs in that dated change folder. Load the spec-lite skill (~/.codex/skills/spec-lite/SKILL.md). Locate the dated folder from the locator line (not by title/type). Edit those <type>.md files in place and update the capability's durable .chorus/specs/<slug>/spec.md in place too — but spec.md is never mirrored (local only, no ids). Tick - [ ] acceptance points, then re-mirror each edited dated-folder file via chorus mcp call chorus_pm_update_document … --arg-file content=.chorus/specs/<slug>/<YYYY-MM-DD>-<change-slug>/<type>.md against its documentUuid (each update auto-increments the Document version = its modification history; chorus-mcp-call.sh fallback when chorus not on PATH). Git history is the audit trail (git log -- .chorus/specs/<slug>/; git log --follow -- <file> for a single renamed file) — no changelog section.

Step 5: Start Working

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

Dependency enforcement: If this task has unresolved dependencies (dependsOn tasks not in done or closed), the call will be rejected with detailed blocker info. Use chorus_get_unblocked_tasks to find tasks you can start now.

Step 6: Report Progress

Report periodically with chorus_report_work. Include:

• What was completed
• Files created or modified
• Git commits and PRs
• Current status / remaining work
• Blockers or questions

chorus_report_work({
  taskUuid: "<task-uuid>",
  report: "Progress:\n- Created src/services/auth.service.ts\n- Commit: abc1234\n- Remaining: unit tests"
})

Report with status update when complete:

chorus_report_work({
  taskUuid: "<task-uuid>",
  report: "All implementation complete:\n- Files: ...\n- PR: https://github.com/org/repo/pull/42\n- All tests passing",
  status: "to_verify"
})

Step 7: Self-Check Acceptance Criteria

Before submitting, check structured acceptance criteria:

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

# If task.acceptanceCriteriaItems is non-empty:
chorus_report_criteria_self_check({
  taskUuid: "<task-uuid>",
  criteria: [
    { uuid: "<criterion-uuid>", devStatus: "passed", devEvidence: "Unit tests cover this" },
    { uuid: "<criterion-uuid>", devStatus: "passed", devEvidence: "Verified manually" }
  ]
})

For required criteria, keep working until you can self-check as passed. Only use failed for optional criteria that are out of scope.

Step 8: Submit for Verification

Submit:

chorus_submit_for_verify({
  taskUuid: "<task-uuid>",
  summary: "Implemented auth feature:\n- Added login/logout endpoints\n- JWT middleware\n- 95% test coverage\n- All AC self-checked (3/3 passed)"
})

to_verify does NOT unblock downstream tasks — only done (after admin verification) does.

Review Agent: After chorus_submit_for_verify, the Chorus plugin's PostToolUse hook injects context instructing you to spawn the chorus-task-reviewer sub-agent. You MUST spawn it yourself (it is NOT auto-launched). Mount this plugin's chorus-task-reviewer skill explicitly:

reviewer = spawn_agent({
  items: [
    { type: "skill", name: "Chorus Task Reviewer", path: "chorus:chorus-task-reviewer" },
    { type: "text",  text: "Review Chorus task <task-uuid>. Post VERDICT comment." }
  ]
})
wait_agent({ targets: [reviewer.agent_id] })
close_agent({ target: reviewer.agent_id })

Verification is blocked on the verdict, so this call site waits. Once the reviewer finishes, close it promptly to release its thread slot. The reviewer posts a VERDICT: comment on the task.

Final code-review gateway (after the Idea's LAST task is verified): when the task you just verified is the last task of its idea-rooted proposal, the feature is about to ship — the PostToolUse hook injects a reminder to run the ship-time code-review gateway. Spawn it the same way, mounting chorus:chorus-code-reviewer and passing the ideaUuid + round number; it reviews the Idea's aggregate code change (cross-task integration, architecture, security, regression, feature-level coverage) and posts one VERDICT: comment on the idea. PASS / PASS WITH NOTES → ship; FAIL → fix via the quick-dev workflow ($quick-dev): chorus_create_tasks with proposalUuid set to the current approved proposal so the fix tasks attach to it (do not reopen old tasks). Group related small BLOCKERs into one cohesive task by default; split only materially large or independently testable fixes. Each fix task must self-check its acceptance criteria and pass independent task review plus admin verification. Re-run the gateway only after every fix task is successfully done; if there is a failed or cancelled fix task, stop and escalate instead. Advisory/behavioral, same as the other reviewers. Run it before any idea-completion report.

After the reviewer completes, read its VERDICT:

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

Find THIS round's VERDICT: comment — the one posted after your dispatch, not an older round's — and act on it:

• VERDICT: PASS — All AC verified, no issues. Proceed to admin verification.
• VERDICT: PASS WITH NOTES — All AC verified, minor notes. Proceed to admin verification (notes are non-blocking).
• VERDICT: FAIL — BLOCKERs found. Do NOT verify. Fix the BLOCKERs listed in the reviewer's comment, then resubmit.

If no new VERDICT: comment appears after the reviewer returns, check what it did post. A comment reporting that the round limit was reached, or any other explicit refusal to review, is a deliberate escalation to a human: STOP — do not respawn, do not self-review, do not post a VERDICT of your own. If it posted nothing at all, respawn it ONCE, telling it to stay within its turn budget and reserve its last turns for the VERDICT, then apply this same check again to what the retry posts. An explicit refusal from the retry still means STOP; only a second true silence lets you review the task yourself as a read-only pass using the checklist and POST the VERDICT comment. Absence is never a PASS.