pdlc-os/ship

You are running the Operation phase. Follow every step in order. Do not skip steps.

---

Pre-flight: Sync check, load state and context

Step 0 — Remote sync check

Read skills/sync-check.md and execute the sync check protocol. This is critical before ship — if main has diverged, the merge will fail. The team assesses remote changes and the user decides how to proceed before the merge gate.

Step 1 — Read STATE.md

Read docs/pdlc/memory/STATE.md completely.

Extract:

• Current Phase: must contain Construction Complete (current form: Construction Complete — Ready for /ship; legacy projects may show Ready for /pdlc ship — accept either)
• Current Feature: the [feature-name] slug
• Episode file path: look in docs/pdlc/memory/episodes/ for a draft file matching [NNN]_[feature-name]_[YYYY-MM-DD].md

If the phase does not contain Construction Complete, warn the user:

"STATE.md shows the current phase is [phase], not Construction Complete. Running /ship before the build is complete may cause issues.

Continue anyway? (yes/no)"

Wait for confirmation before proceeding.

Step 2 — Verify test gates

Read docs/pdlc/memory/CONSTITUTION.md §7 (Test Gates).

Read the episode file draft at docs/pdlc/memory/episodes/[NNN]_[feature-name]_[YYYY-MM-DD].md.

Check the Test Summary table in the episode file against the required gates in CONSTITUTION.md.

If any required gate shows fail in the episode file, warn the user:

"Required test gate [layer] shows as failed in the episode file. Shipping with failing required gates is a logged warning.

Proceed anyway? (yes/no)"

Log the response in STATE.md's Guardrail Log if the user proceeds with a failed gate.

Update docs/pdlc/memory/STATE.md:

• Current Phase: Operation
• Current Sub-phase: Ship
• Last Checkpoint: Operation / Ship / [now ISO 8601]

---

Lead Agent Assignments

Operation has three lead agents with handoffs at the Verify→Reflect and Reflect→Next Feature boundaries:

| Sub-phases | Lead Agent | Why | |------------|-----------|-----| | Ship + Verify (Steps 3–12) | Pulse (DevOps) | Merge, versioning, CI/CD, deployment, smoke tests, environment verification | | Reflect (Steps 13–17) | Jarvis (Tech Writer) | Retro generation, episode finalization, CHANGELOG, OVERVIEW, ROADMAP updates | | Next Feature (Step 18) | Atlas (Product Manager) | Roadmap review, next feature selection, feature loop continuation |

Read the lead agent's full persona from agents/pulse.md or agents/jarvis.md and embody their perspective throughout their sub-phases.

Before the first user-facing message, read skills/formatting.md for the visual patterns, then output a Phase Transition Banner for "SHIP" (with the feature name) followed by:

Pulse (DevOps): "Pulse here — let's get this feature into production! I'll handle the merge to main, version tagging, CI/CD pipeline, deployment verification, and smoke tests. Almost at the finish line."

---

Operation Flow

The Operation phase runs three sub-phases in strict sequence. Each sub-phase is defined in its own file under skills/ship/steps/. Read each file completely and execute every step in it before moving to the next. Do not skip a sub-phase. Do not move forward past an approval gate without explicit human confirmation.

Sub-phase 1 — SHIP (Lead: Pulse)

Output a Sub-phase Transition Header (per skills/formatting.md) for "SHIP".

Read skills/ship/steps/01-ship.md and execute every step completely (Steps 3–9).

Return here when CI/CD is triggered and STATE.md shows Verify.

Sub-phase 2 — VERIFY (Lead: Pulse)

Output a Sub-phase Transition Header for "VERIFY".

Read skills/ship/steps/02-verify.md and execute every step completely (Steps 10–12).

Return here when smoke tests are approved and STATE.md shows Reflect.

— HANDOFF: Pulse → Jarvis —

After smoke tests are approved and before starting Reflect, output an Agent Handoff block (per skills/formatting.md) with:

Pulse (DevOps): "Deployment verified, smoke tests passing — we're live! It's been a smooth ride getting this deployed. I'm handing off to Jarvis now for the retrospective. Great working with you on this one."

Jarvis (Tech Writer): "Jarvis here — nice to finally step into the spotlight! The feature is shipped and verified, which means it's time to look back and capture what we learned. I'll generate the retrospective, finalize the episode file, and update the delivery record. Let's wrap this up properly."

Sub-phase 3 — REFLECT (Lead: Jarvis)

Output a Sub-phase Transition Header for "REFLECT".

Read skills/ship/steps/03-reflect.md and execute every step completely (Steps 13–17).

Return here when the episode is committed and ROADMAP.md is updated.

— HANDOFF: Jarvis → Atlas —

Step 18 in 03-reflect.md contains the Jarvis→Atlas handoff and next-feature prompt. The handoff and Atlas's roadmap review are part of that step — do not add a separate handoff here.

Operation is complete when the user chooses to continue (loops to brainstorm), pause (idle), or switch features (updates roadmap then loops to brainstorm).

---

Rules

• Never force-push to main. This is an agent-norm boundary — Claude Code's permission system also prompts on it; surface intent explicitly and require explicit human authorization.
• Never push PR comments or tags without human approval at the ship gate (Step 3).
• Never proceed to Reflect without human sign-off on smoke tests (Step 12).
• Never commit the episode file without human approval (Step 15).
• If the deployment URL is unknown, ask — do not guess or skip smoke tests.
• The merge strategy is always --no-ff (merge commit). Do not squash or rebase feature branches.
• If any step fails due to an external service (GitHub, CI, deploy target), describe the failure clearly and give the user the manual steps to resolve it. Do not silently skip.