Feature Development Workflow

This skill provides a systematic 7-phase approach to building new features, ensuring better-designed features that integrate seamlessly with existing code.

Philosophy

Building features requires more than just writing code. You need to:

• Understand the codebase before making changes
• Ask questions to clarify ambiguous requirements
• Design thoughtfully before implementing
• Review for quality after building

The 7-Phase Workflow

Phase 1: Discovery

Goal: Understand what needs to be built

Actions:

• Clarify the feature request if unclear
• Ask what problem you're solving
• Identify constraints and requirements
• Summarize understanding and confirm with the user

When to proceed: Only after confirming understanding with the user

Phase 2: Codebase Exploration

Goal: Understand relevant existing code and patterns

Actions:

• Use explore-agent to analyze different aspects in parallel:

  • Find features similar to the requested feature
  • Map the architecture and abstractions for relevant areas
  • Analyze current implementation of related features

• Launch multiple explore-agents concurrently to maximize efficiency

Expected Output:

• List of similar features with file references
• Architecture patterns and abstractions used
• Key files to understand with line numbers
• Integration points and dependencies

Before proceeding: Read all identified key files to build deep understanding

Phase 3: Clarifying Questions

Goal: Fill in gaps and resolve all ambiguities

Actions:

• Review codebase findings and feature request

• Identify underspecified aspects:

  • Edge cases
  • Error handling
  • Integration points
  • Backward compatibility
  • Performance needs

• Present all questions in an organized list

• Wait for user answers before proceeding

Critical: This phase ensures nothing is ambiguous before design begins.

Phase 4: Architecture Design

Goal: Design multiple implementation approaches

Actions:

• Design 2-3 different approaches:

  • Minimal changes: Smallest change, maximum reuse
  • Clean architecture: Maintainability, elegant abstractions
  • Pragmatic balance: Speed + quality

• Present comparison with trade-offs and recommendation

• Ask which approach the user prefers

Before proceeding: Wait for explicit user approval of architecture

Phase 5: Implementation

Goal: Build the feature

Actions:

• Read all relevant files identified in previous phases
• Implement following chosen architecture
• Follow codebase conventions strictly
• Write clean, well-documented code
• Track progress with todo_write tool

Important: Implementation only starts after user approves architecture

Phase 6: Quality Review

Goal: Ensure code is simple, DRY, elegant, and functionally correct

Actions:

• Launch debugger agent to review for bugs and correctness

• Review code for:

  • Simplicity and DRY principles
  • Functional correctness and logic errors
  • Project conventions and patterns

• Present findings and ask user what to do:

  • Fix now
  • Fix later
  • Proceed as-is

• Address issues based on user decision

Phase 7: Summary

Goal: Document what was accomplished

Actions:

• Mark all todos complete
• Summarize:
  • What was built
  • Key decisions made
  • Files modified
  • Suggested next steps

When to Use This Workflow

Use for:

• New features that touch multiple files
• Features requiring architectural decisions
• Complex integrations with existing code
• Features where requirements are somewhat unclear

Don't use for:

• Single-line bug fixes
• Trivial changes
• Well-defined, simple tasks
• Urgent hotfixes

Best Practices

1. Use the full workflow for complex features: The 7 phases ensure thorough planning
2. Answer clarifying questions thoughtfully: Phase 3 prevents future confusion
3. Choose architecture deliberately: Phase 4 gives you options for a reason
4. Don't skip code review: Phase 6 catches issues before they reach production
5. Read the suggested files: Phase 2 identifies key files—read them to understand context

Specialized Agents Used

This workflow leverages these specialized agents:

• explore-agent: For deep codebase analysis and pattern discovery
• debugger: For quality review and bug detection
• plan-agent: For architecture design and implementation planning

Launch agents in parallel when possible to maximize efficiency.