
Use when a Ready feature needs its acceptance criteria discovered before specs are written. Triggers — "/engineer.discover-acs", "/engineer.acceptance-criteria", "discover ACs", "what must this feature do", "figure out acceptance criteria".
Use at the end of a work session on a DAE feature, so the next session picks up cleanly. Triggers — "/engineer.session-summary", "wrap up the session", "write the session log", "I'm stopping for the day".
Use mid-task when the working thread is lost — after a context compaction, a long agent run, or coming back to a feature unsure of the role, the current checkpoint, or the next action. Triggers — "/engineer.reorient", "reorient", "re-anchor", "what should I be doing right now", "I lost track", "where was I".
Use to check a feature's code against the charter's architecture rules — dependency layering, cycles, forbidden patterns, file naming, file size. Triggers — "/engineer.arch-check", "architecture check", "check architecture fitness", "does this follow the charter", "check layering".
Use at the start of a work session, or any time the question is "what should I pick up now" across the whole project. Triggers — "/engineer.next", "what's next", "what should I work on", "what should I do next", "where do I pick up".
Use to drive a bug fix from first report through close, with a "why didn't we catch it?" loop at the end. Triggers — "/engineer.fix", "a bug came in", "this is broken", "a user reported X", "there's a defect", "we have a regression", "this needs a fix", "another report", "more issues", "still failing", "validation failed again", "another bug", "next defect", "more fixes".
Use before starting pipeline work on a Ready feature the agent hasn't worked yet. Triggers — "/engineer.prime-context", "prime context", "load context before we start", "get up to speed on feature X".
Use to orchestrate a team-based ATDD workflow — six phases (spec writing, spec review, pipeline generation, implementation, refine, verify & harden) each handled by a fresh agent so no role erodes across a long-running feature. Triggers — "build a feature with a team", "use ATDD with agents", "create an ATDD team", "orchestrate agents for ATDD", "coordinate agents for feature development", "add ATDD roles to my team", "add spec-writer and reviewer to the team".
Use immediately after a PR is merged to clean up the local feature branch and resync main. Triggers — "/engineer.post-merge", "did we merge", "did we push", "PR merged", "post-merge cleanup", or right after a `gh pr merge` succeeds in the same session.
Use to bring a project into the DAE methodology, or to check an onboarded project for gaps. Triggers — "/engineer.onboard", "onboard this project", "set up DAE here", "adopt the methodology", or when a DAE skill fails because no manifest exists.
Use to propagate DAE state — turning handoff summaries into visible progress. Triggers — "/engineer.progress-log", "sync progress", "update the tracker", "reconcile the tracker", "refresh feature status".
Use after a feature's code is implemented and passing, to clean up the changed code before verification. Triggers — "/engineer.refine", "refine this code", "clean up the feature", "refactor what we built".
Use to write a feature's acceptance specs and generate its test pipeline — Checkpoint 3 of the DAE pipeline. The engineer-namespace entry point into the atdd plugin's acceptance workflow. Triggers — "/engineer.atdd", "write the spec", "Checkpoint 3", "formalize the ACs as specs", "generate the test pipeline".
Use to drive feature work through the Acceptance Test Driven Development workflow — Given/When/Then specs before code, a project-specific test pipeline, and two parallel test streams (acceptance + unit). Triggers — "/atdd", "build a feature", "implement a feature", "add functionality", "start development", "write acceptance tests", "write specs", "use ATDD", "use TDD with acceptance tests".
Use to produce a risk-based refactor + test plan for recently-changed code on a diff/branch/PR by computing CRAP (complexity × untested) on changed methods. Multi-language — TypeScript, JavaScript, Python, Java, Kotlin, Go, Ruby, C#, Rust, PHP — auto-discovers how the repo generates coverage. Triggers — "/crap-analyzer", "analyze CRAP", "compute CRAP", "find risky methods", "find complex untested methods".
Use to add a third validation layer to the ATDD workflow — after acceptance tests verify WHAT and unit tests verify HOW, mutation testing verifies the tests actually catch bugs. Triggers — "/mutate", "/kill-mutants", "run mutation testing", "mutate my code", "kill mutants", "check test quality", "find surviving mutants", "run stryker", "run mutmut", "run pitest", "are my tests catching bugs".
Use to validate DAE artifacts for schema correctness and cross-artifact consistency. Triggers — "/engineer.consistency-check", "check consistency", "validate the artifacts", "are the specs and ACs in sync", "audit this feature".
Use when a new feature folder must be created for the DAE pipeline, or when discuss promotes/parks an idea. Triggers — "/engineer.feature-init", "create a feature", "start a new feature", "init a feature".
Use when an in-flight feature must change — scope shifts, an AC is refined, the plan evolves, a behavior is added or removed. Triggers — "/engineer.feature-edit", "change feature X to", "the ACs need updating", "revise the plan", "scope changed".
Use when exploring a feature idea before committing, or revisiting a parked one. Triggers — "/engineer.discuss", "/engineer.discuss <slug>", "I have an idea about", "should we build", "let's think about".
Use after a feature's code is implemented and passing, to clean up the changed code before verification. Triggers — "/engineer.simplify", "simplify this code", "clean up the feature", "refactor what we built".
Use when a single DAE artifact has ambiguities to resolve. Triggers — "/engineer.clarify", "clarify this spec", "resolve ambiguities", "this is vague — tighten it".