development-system-core

Development System Core

Purpose

Provide operational guardrails for lifecycle maturity progression. Every stage agent and the orchestrator must consult this skill to understand what "done" means at each maturity level and what actions are prohibited until that maturity is reached.

Maturity Ladder

Level	Name	Condition
M0	Idea captured	Problem and actor intent recorded; no implementation intent
M1	Planned	Plan and requirements (EARS) complete; Gherkin contracts approved
M2	Behavior documented	Gherkin scenarios cover happy/unhappy/abuse; mapped to EARS IDs
M3	Tests authored	Failing tests prove gap; infrastructure stable; gap map documented
M4	Implemented	Implementation satisfies tests; spec intent confirmed
M5	Release workflow complete	Sync, commit, push, roadmap/plan closure done
M6	DoD audit complete	All Definition Of Done gates satisfied; orchestrator marks COMPLETE

Required Checks Per Stage

Before a stage agent can mark its stage complete:

1. Objective clarity: Exactly one primary outcome for the stage is met.
2. Contract references: All upstream artifacts are explicitly cited in the handoff payload.
3. Evidence quality: Produced artifact is complete, specific, and reviewable.
4. Handoff completeness: Downstream instructions are explicit, imperative, and testable.

Prohibited Actions

Action	Prohibited until
Writing Gherkin scenarios	M1 (EARS complete)
Writing test code	M2 (Gherkin approved)
Writing production code	M3 (tests RED, gap map documented)
Running green test suite	M4 (implementation complete)
Committing and pushing	M5 (post-sync green suite confirmed)
Marking item COMPLETE	M6 (global DoD audit passed)

Commands For Agents

• Never skip stage order without explicit orchestrator override.
• Never accept stage completion without reviewer-gate pass.
• Always emit handoff payload in the schema defined in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/handoff-protocol/SKILL.md.
• Always read DEFINITION_OF_DONE.md before stage execution.
• Always validate the incoming sentinel before beginning work.

Integration With FOUNDRY

When operating inside a FOUNDRY cycle, this maturity ladder maps to FOUNDRY's PHASE_POOL:

FOUNDRY Phase	DS Maturity	DS Steps
Pre-cycle	M0	IDEATOR brief
EARS-AGENT	M1	step-0, step-1
FEATURE-AGENT	M2	step-2
TEST-AGENT	M3	step-3, step-4
IMPLEMENT-AGENT	M4	step-5, step-6
STORY-AGENT	M4.5	step-story-tests (emits STORY_PROVEN)
DELIVERY-AGENT	M5	step-7, step-8, step-9 (emits DELIVERY_COMPLETE)
FOUNDRY completion	M6	global DoD audit

step-story-tests is mandatory. Items cannot reach M5 without STORY_PROVEN in the sentinel chain. Skipping the story step is the most common silent coverage gap in TDD pipelines.

Dependencies

• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/roadmapper/SKILL.md — roadmap lifecycle management
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/code-quality/SKILL.md — code design reference
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/handoff-protocol/SKILL.md — stage handoff schema
• ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/reviewer-gate/SKILL.md — reviewer enforcement rules

State Skill Exit Criteria

At each maturity transition, the orchestrator reads the corresponding state skill to validate that all exit criteria are satisfied before advancing:

Maturity transition	State skill	Exit criteria govern
Pre-M0 → M1	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/lifecycle-states/states/discovery.md	Brief readiness before planning
M1 → M2	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/lifecycle-states/states/specification.md	EARS and Gherkin quality bar
M2 → M4	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/lifecycle-states/states/verification.md	Test-first proof and green evidence
M4 → M5	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/lifecycle-states/states/delivery.md	Sync, commit, push quality bar
M5 → M6	${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/lifecycle-states/states/production-readiness.md	Full DoD certification

KAIZEN Covenant

This skill carries the KAIZEN self-improvement covenant. If maturity gates are consistently violated (stages skipped, handoffs missing fields, DoD audit finding the same gate failing repeatedly), update the Prohibited Actions table and the Required Checks to be more explicit. Precision here prevents waste downstream.