/dev-cycle

Execute the development cycle for tasks in a markdown file or from a direct prompt.

Usage

/marsai:dev-cycle [tasks-file] [options] [prompt]
/marsai:dev-cycle [prompt]

Arguments

Argument	Required	Description
tasks-file	No*	Path to markdown file with tasks (e.g., docs/tasks/sprint-001.md)
prompt	No*	Direct instruction for what to implement (no quotes needed)

*Either tasks-file, prompt, or --resume is required.

Options

Option	Description	Example
--task ID	Execute only specific task	--task PROJ-123
--skip-gates	Skip specific gates	--skip-gates devops,review
--dry-run	Validate tasks without executing	--dry-run
--resume	Resume interrupted cycle	--resume

Prompt Modes

Direct Prompt (No Tasks File)

When a prompt is provided without a tasks file, marsai:dev-cycle enters prompt-only mode:

1. Analyzes the prompt to understand what needs to be done
2. Generates tasks internally (similar to pre-dev but streamlined)
3. Executes through 10 gates as normal

# Direct prompt - no tasks file needed
/marsai:dev-cycle Implement multi-tenant support for the API

# Another example
/marsai:dev-cycle Add pagination to all list endpoints with cursor-based navigation

With Tasks File + Additional Context

# Tasks file with additional context
/marsai:dev-cycle docs/tasks/sprint-001.md Focus on error handling

# Tasks file with specific guidance
/marsai:dev-cycle docs/tasks/sprint-001.md Prioritize security validations

When to use direct prompt:

• Quick implementations without full pre-dev planning
• Exploratory work where full planning is overkill
• When you know exactly what you want and want to skip task file creation

When to use tasks file:

• Complex multi-task features (use /pre-dev-* first)
• Refactoring work (use /marsai:dev-refactor first)
• When you need documented task breakdown for tracking

Prompt Behavior (with tasks file)

CANNOT override CRITICAL gates. Provides custom context to agents.

Persistence:

• Stored: custom_prompt field in docs/marsai:dev-cycle/current-cycle.json
• Resume: Survives interrupts; editable by modifying state file before --resume
• Reports: Included in execution reports under "Custom Context Used"

Propagation: Prepended to all agent prompts in a dedicated **CUSTOM CONTEXT (from user):** section. Applies to all gates and all agent types.

Constraints:

• Length: Recommended 50-75 words (~300-400 chars); hard limit 500 chars (truncated with warning). For longer context, summarize or link to external docs.
• Sanitization: Whitespace trimmed, control chars stripped (except newlines), unicode normalized. Does not prevent semantic prompt-injection attempts.

Gate Protection:

CRITICAL: Gates 3, 6, 7 enforce mandatory requirements:

• MUST enforce 85% coverage (Gate 3 Testing)
• MUST dispatch all 7 reviewers (Gate 6 Review)
• MUST require user approval (Gate 7 Validation)

Conflict Detection:

• Method: Targeted pattern matching (e.g., skip (gate|test|review), bypass (threshold|check))
• Output: Warning to stderr + recorded in state file
• Format: ⚠️ IGNORED: Prompt matched pattern "[name]" at "[text]" — cannot override [requirement]

See marsai:dev-cycle skill's "Custom Prompt Injection" section for full validation logic.

View/modify persisted prompt:

jq '.custom_prompt' docs/marsai:dev-cycle/current-cycle.json  # View
# Edit state file, then: /marsai:dev-cycle --resume

Examples

# Direct prompt - implement feature
/marsai:dev-cycle Implement multi-tenant support with organization_id in all entities

# Direct prompt - another example
/marsai:dev-cycle Add idempotency support to transaction create endpoint

# Execute all tasks from a file
/marsai:dev-cycle docs/tasks/sprint-001.md

# Execute single task
/marsai:dev-cycle docs/tasks/sprint-001.md --task AUTH-001

# Skip DevOps setup (infrastructure already exists)
/marsai:dev-cycle docs/tasks/sprint-001.md --skip-gates devops

# Validate tasks without executing
/marsai:dev-cycle docs/tasks/sprint-001.md --dry-run

# Resume interrupted cycle
/marsai:dev-cycle --resume

# Tasks file with additional context
/marsai:dev-cycle docs/tasks/sprint-001.md Prioritize error handling and use existing UserRepository interface

Prerequisites

1. Task file or prompt: Either a markdown file generated by /pre-dev-* or /marsai:dev-refactor, or a direct prompt
2. Project standards (optional but recommended): docs/PROJECT_RULES.md with project conventions
3. PRD/TRD (optional): If exists in docs/pre-dev/{feature}/, will be used in design phase

Gates Executed

Gate	Skill	Description
0	marsai:dev-implementation	Implement code (TDD, single-tenant)
1	marsai:dev-devops	Create Docker/compose
2	marsai:dev-sre	Observability (health checks, logging, tracing)
3	marsai:dev-unit-testing	Unit tests with 85%+ coverage
4	marsai:dev-integration-testing	Integration tests with testcontainers
5	marsai:dev-chaos-testing	Chaos tests for failure scenarios
6	marsai:requesting-code-review	Code review (7 reviewers in parallel)
7	marsai:dev-validation	Final validation

MANDATORY: All 8 gates execute per unit.

After final commit: marsai:dev-feedback-loop generates metrics report.

Output

• State file: docs/marsai:dev-cycle/current-cycle.json (feature) or docs/marsai:dev-refactor/current-cycle.json (refactor)
• Feedback report: docs/dev-team/feedback/cycle-YYYY-MM-DD.md

Related Commands

Command	Description
/marsai:dev-status	Check current cycle status
/marsai:dev-cancel	Cancel running cycle
/marsai:dev-report	View feedback report

---

⛔ MANDATORY: Load Full Skill

This command MUST load the skill for complete workflow execution.

Use Skill tool: marsai:dev-cycle

The skill contains the complete 8-gate workflow with:

• Anti-rationalization tables
• Pressure resistance scenarios
• TDD sub-phases (Gate 0.1 RED → Gate 0.2 GREEN)
• Gate completion definitions
• Incremental compromise prevention
• State management schema

Execution Context

Pass the following context to the skill:

Parameter	Value
tasks-file	First argument if it's a .md file path (e.g., docs/tasks/sprint-001.md)
prompt	Remaining text after tasks-file and options (direct instruction)
--task	If provided, filter to specific task ID
--skip-gates	If provided, list of gates to skip
--dry-run	If provided, validate only
--resume	If provided, resume from existing state file (marsai:dev-cycle or marsai:dev-refactor)

Argument Parsing:

• If first argument ends with .md → treat as tasks-file
• If first argument is an option (--*) → no tasks-file
• Remaining non-option text → prompt

Step 1: ASK EXECUTION MODE (MANDATORY)

After loading skill and before executing gates, you MUST ask:

AskUserQuestion:
  questions:
    - question: "Select execution mode for this cycle"
      header: "Mode"
      options:
        - label: "Manual per subtask"
          description: "Checkpoint after each subtask"
        - label: "Manual per task"
          description: "Checkpoint after each task"
        - label: "Automatic"
          description: "No checkpoints, run all gates"

Do not skip this. User hints ≠ mode selection. Only explicit selection is valid.

Quick Reference

See skill marsai:dev-cycle for full details. Key rules:

• all 8 gates execute per unit - Checkpoints affect pauses, not gates
• Gates execute in order - 0 → 1 → 2 → 3 → 4 → 5 → 6 → 7
• Gate 6 requires all 7 reviewers - 6/7 = FAIL
• Coverage threshold - 85% minimum, no exceptions
• State persisted - Can resume with --resume after any interruption