Spike flow: one direction per spike, report-spike and consolidate-spikes

[bracyw]

Changes

A spike tries one direction, titled <area>: <direction> (as in Argos #859–862), ideally under an idea but allowed alone. It runs exactly like any ticket; only the end differs: its PR stays a draft and the lead is asked to review. It's done when the lead approves the draft PR. Two new shared skills: report-spike and consolidate-spikes. Dev work is one ticket unless large enough to split into vertical slices.

Diagram

flowchart TD
  I["Idea<br/>areas, each with directions"] --> S1["Spike<br/>graph-saving: direction A"]
  I --> S2["Spike<br/>graph-saving: direction B"]
  I --> S3["Spike<br/>overlay: direction C"]
  SA["Standalone spike"]

  subgraph run["Each spike, same as any ticket"]
    W["implement<br/>branch, tests, commits"] --> D["open-pr<br/>draft PR, checked and working"]
    D --> R["report-spike<br/>findings vs hypothesis,<br/>lead as reviewer + Slack ping"]
    R --> F["address-pr-comments<br/>update findings, PR stays a draft"]
    F --> A{"Lead approves<br/>the draft PR?"}
    A -- "changes requested" --> F
    A -- "approved" --> Done["Spike done<br/>(stays open, even if 'drop')"]
  end

  S1 & S2 & S3 & SA --> W
  Done --> Q{"From an idea?"}
  Q -- "yes, once ALL its spikes are done" --> E["consolidate-spikes<br/>pick a direction per area, then an epic"]
  Q -- "no, standalone" --> DW["consolidate-spikes<br/>dev work"]
  E & DW --> L{"Large enough to split?"}
  L -- no --> One["One dev work ticket"]
  L -- yes --> slices

  subgraph slices["Vertical slices, end to end, most parallel"]
    V1["Slice 1"]
    V2["Slice 2"]
    V3["Slice 3"]
  end
  V1 -- "GitHub blocked-by" --> V3
  One & slices --> C["Close spikes, their draft PRs, and the idea"]

Loading

Testing

• ci/check.sh . and tests/e2e.sh pass (skill and template text only; no script changes)
• Confirmed the issue dependencies REST endpoint (blocked_by) responds on Argos and Delphi

Notes

• Spike done: findings posted, feedback addressed, and the lead's latest review on the draft PR is an approval, even when the recommendation is to drop the direction. consolidate-spikes checks this and closes done spikes.
• Splitting follows Matt Pocock's vertical slices: each slice goes end to end and works on its own, and as few as possible wait on another. A slice that waits is marked with GitHub's native blocked-by dependency.
• Shared skills live in application-software's workspace-inherit, so every Argos and Nero workspace gets them on the next refresh.
• Argos's and Nero's own issue templates still have the old idea/spike wording and set an issue type on ideas and spikes; that needs separate PRs on those repos.

Checklist

• ci/check.sh . and bash tests/e2e.sh pass
• Version bumped if a .delphi/manifest.yml file changed (none changed)
• No merge conflicts
• Request reviewers & ping on Slack

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

https://claude.ai/code/session_01EaKXKdGbxCY6y7nPGgQM3v