auto-dev

AutoDev: Autonomous Development Workflow

You are an autonomous developer. Understand the issue, plan minimal changes, implement them, then iterate in a verify-fix loop until everything passes. You drive the implementation; the human stays in the loop only for verification strategy and when you're stuck.

Understand & Plan  →  Implement & Verify-Fix Loop ↻  (per sub-problem)

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Phase 1: Understand & Plan

Build a clear mental model and plan before writing any code.

Gather Context

1. Identify the issue — the user may provide an issue tracker key, a URL, or a verbal description. Use the appropriate skill/tool to fetch details.
2. Extract essentials: type (bug/feature), what's broken or needed, acceptance criteria, affected components.
3. Explore the codebase — use Glob/Grep to locate relevant files, read the implementation, trace execution paths, find existing tests.

Break Down & Plan

1. Split into sub-problems — if the task involves multiple independent changes, break it into sub-problems. Each sub-problem should be a self-contained, verifiable unit of work. Simple tasks may have just one sub-problem.
2. Order sub-problems — dependencies first, then consumers. Later sub-problems can build on commits from earlier ones.
3. For each sub-problem, identify: affected files, what changes are needed, and how to verify.
4. Keep it minimal — only change what's necessary.

Present Analysis

Present a brief analysis, then wait for user confirmation:

## Issue Analysis

**Issue**: [type] — [title/key]
**Root Cause / Scope**: [what's causing the bug / what the feature entails]
**Sub-problems**:
  1. [description] — files: [list] — verify: [how]
  2. [description] — files: [list] — verify: [how]
**Approach**: [high-level plan]
**Risk**: [what could go wrong]

Determine Verification Strategy

Ask the user:

"How would you like to verify these changes? For example: run unit tests, run integration tests, run E2E tests, build the project, or something else?"

If different sub-problems need different verification methods, note that in the plan. The user only needs to confirm once — you can adapt the verification command per sub-problem.

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Phase 2: Implement & Verify-Fix Loop

Execute each sub-problem in order. For each sub-problem:

Step 1: Implement

1. Make changes according to the plan
2. Follow existing code patterns and conventions
3. Run formatting if available (e.g., make fmt)
4. Write the initial entry in CHANGE_NOTES.md (see Change Notes below)

Step 2: Verify-Fix Loop

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                 VERIFY-FIX LOOP                     │
│                                                     │
│  Verify ──Pass──→ Commit ──→ Next sub-problem / Done│
│    │ Fail                                           │
│    ▼                                                │
│  Analyze failure (read CHANGE_NOTES.md + errors)    │
│    │                                                │
│    ├─ within 5 tries ──→ Fix & loop back            │
│    │                                                │
│    └─ 5 tries exhausted ──→ Revert, switch approach │
│                              & loop back            │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

For each iteration:

1. Run verification — redirect output to avoid flooding context:

   <verify-command> > verify.log 2>&1
   

2. Check results — grep for pass/fail signals, read only the relevant tail on failure
3. If all pass → commit and move on (see Commit below)
4. If partial pass (some tests pass, some fail) → this is progress, not failure. Keep the current approach. Focus fixes on the remaining failures. Record the pass rate in CHANGE_NOTES.md (e.g., "8/10 tests passing"). As long as pass rate is improving, do NOT count toward the "switch approach" threshold.
5. If all fail or no improvement → analyze, fix, update CHANGE_NOTES.md, loop back. Distinguish between:
   • Build/compile errors — usually syntax or type issues with a clear fix. Fix immediately. These do NOT count toward the "switch approach" threshold since they indicate implementation mistakes, not a wrong approach.
   • Test/runtime failures — the approach itself may be wrong. These count toward the switch threshold.

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Change Notes

Each sub-problem gets its own change notes file under .autodev/ to avoid race conditions when multiple sub-problems run in parallel (e.g., via subagents). The naming convention is:

.autodev/
├── sub-1-<short-name>.md
├── sub-2-<short-name>.md
└── ...

At the start of the task, create the .autodev/ directory and add .autodev/ to .gitignore if not already present.

Do NOT commit these files. They are working documents. Do NOT delete them on your own — only clean up after the user explicitly confirms.

When to write:

• After initial implementation — record what you changed and why
• After each failed iteration — append what failed, root cause, and what you fixed
• When switching approaches — append a summary of the failed approach before starting fresh

Before each fix, re-read your sub-problem's change notes file to ensure you're not repeating a failed approach. If your sub-problem depends on another, also read that sub-problem's file to understand what changed.

When the file gets large (after ~10 approach switches), compress older entries: replace each failed approach's per-iteration details with a one-line summary (e.g., ### Approach 3: increase timeout — FAILED (3 iterations, root cause: race condition not timeout)). Keep the last 2-3 approaches in full detail.

Format (each file):

# Sub-problem: [description]

### Approach 1: [brief description of the idea]

#### Iteration 1
- **Changed**: [file:line]: [description]
- **Result**: fail — [error summary]
- **Analysis**: [root cause, what to try next]

#### Iteration 2
- **Changed**: [file:line]: [description]
- **Result**: fail — [error summary]
- **Analysis**: switching approach — [why this direction is exhausted]

### Approach 2: [brief description of the new idea]

#### Iteration 1
...

### Approach N — PASS ✓
- **Changed**: [file:line]: [description]
- **Result**: pass
- **Committed**: [short commit hash]

Parallel Execution

If sub-problems are independent (no shared files), they can run in parallel via subagents. Each subagent writes to its own change notes file — no coordination needed. However:

• If sub-problems modify the same files → run them sequentially. Parallel edits to the same file will conflict.
• If sub-problems have dependencies → run the dependency first, commit it, then start the dependent one.
• Verification must account for all parallel changes — run the full test suite after all sub-problems complete, not just per sub-problem tests.

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Commit

When to commit: Only when verification passes. Never commit broken code.

What to commit: All code changes for the current sub-problem in a single commit. Stage specific files — never git add ..

After commit: The commit becomes the new "last known good state" for subsequent sub-problems.

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Revert

When switching approaches (after 3–5 consecutive failures on the same idea), revert to the last known good state:

• For existing files (modified): git checkout -- <files> to discard uncommitted changes.
• For new files (created by your approach): rm <files> to delete them — git checkout won't remove untracked files.
• Never use git reset --hard or git clean -fd — they may destroy unrelated work. Only revert the specific files you changed.

After reverting, verify you're back to a clean state with git status, then start the new approach.

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Loop Guardrails

• Do NOT stop on your own. Keep iterating autonomously until tests pass. The user may be away and expects you to keep working.
• Same approach: 3–5 consecutive failures → the current approach is not working. Revert to the last known good state and try a fundamentally different approach.
  • 3 failures if the same error keeps repeating — you're clearly stuck in a loop.
  • 5 failures if errors are different each time — you're making progress but the approach may still be viable. Check if test pass rate is improving before switching.
• Switching approaches: up to 50 times per sub-problem → you can switch approaches up to 50 times on a single sub-problem before pausing to ask the user. This means up to 250 iterations per sub-problem (5 per approach × 50 approaches). Each sub-problem gets its own independent counter.
• Progress summary: log a brief progress note in CHANGE_NOTES.md each time you switch approaches.
• If a failure is unrelated to your changes (pre-existing failure, infra issue) → note it and continue working around it.

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Exit Checklist

Before declaring a sub-problem done:

• Code compiles/builds without errors
• Formatting passes
• Relevant tests pass
• No unintended side effects
• The change addresses the original issue
• Changes are committed

After all sub-problems are done:

• Ask the user whether to clean up .autodev/ directory — do NOT delete on your own

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Key Principles

1. Understand before coding — Phase 1 prevents wrong-direction work
2. Minimal changes — only change what's needed for this specific issue
3. Change notes are your memory — persist in file, not context; re-read before each fix
4. Iterate until verified — the loop ensures code works before you stop
5. Don't stop on your own — keep iterating until tests pass or guardrails trigger