workflow-product-discovery

Codex compatibility note:

• Invoke repository skills with $skill-name in Codex; this mirrored copy rewrites legacy Claude /skill-name references.
• Task tracker mandate: BEFORE executing any workflow or skill step, create/update task tracking for all steps and keep it synchronized as progress changes.
• User-question prompts mean to ask the user directly in Codex.
• Ignore Claude-specific mode-switch instructions when they appear.
• Strict execution contract: when a user explicitly invokes a skill, execute that skill protocol as written.
• Subagent authorization: when a skill is user-invoked or AI-detected and its protocol requires subagents, that skill activation authorizes use of the required spawn_agent subagent(s) for that task.
• Do not skip, reorder, or merge protocol steps unless the user explicitly approves the deviation first.
• For workflow skills, execute each listed child-skill step explicitly and report step-by-step evidence.
• If a required step/tool cannot run in this environment, stop and ask the user before adapting.

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Codex Project-Reference Loading (No Hooks)

Codex does not receive Claude hook-based doc injection. When coding, planning, debugging, testing, or reviewing, open project docs explicitly using this routing.

Always read:

• docs/project-config.json (project-specific paths, commands, modules, and workflow/test settings)
• docs/project-reference/docs-index-reference.md (routes to the full docs/project-reference/* catalog)
• docs/project-reference/lessons.md (always-on guardrails and anti-patterns)

Situation-based docs:

• Backend/CQRS/API/domain/entity changes: backend-patterns-reference.md, domain-entities-reference.md, project-structure-reference.md
• Frontend/UI/styling/design-system: frontend-patterns-reference.md, scss-styling-guide.md, design-system/README.md
• Spec/test-case planning or TC mapping: feature-docs-reference.md
• Integration test implementation/review: integration-test-reference.md
• E2E test implementation/review: e2e-test-reference.md
• Code review/audit work: code-review-rules.md plus domain docs above based on changed files

Do not read all docs blindly. Start from docs-index-reference.md, then open only relevant files for the task.

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Quick Summary

Goal: [Workflow] Trigger Product Discovery workflow — raw vision or problem → structured brainstorm → prioritized opportunity map → N PBIs with stories, challenge review, DoR gate, and HTML mock-ups → cross-PBI ranked backlog ready for sprint planning.

Workflow:

1. Detect — classify request scope and target artifacts.
2. Execute — apply required steps with evidence-backed actions.
3. Verify — confirm constraints, output quality, and completion evidence.

Key Rules:

• MUST ATTENTION keep claims evidence-based (file:line) with confidence >80% to act.
• MUST ATTENTION keep task tracking updated as each step starts/completes.
• MUST ATTENTION define success criteria before execution and loop until observable verification passes.
• MUST ATTENTION when creating/reviewing specs or tests, name Business Intent / Invariant Guarded or the protected business intent/invariant and ensure the test would fail if that intent breaks.
• NEVER skip mandatory workflow or skill gates.

When to Use

• PO/BA has a raw product vision, big problem statement, or "we need to build X" starting point
• Team needs to go from zero to a grooming-ready backlog for sprint planning
• Strategic product initiative needs to be broken down into implementable PBIs
• Existing product needs a discovery sprint to generate new feature opportunities

When NOT to Use

• Single well-defined feature → use feature or idea-to-pbi
• Implementation work (code writing) → use feature or big-feature
• Bug fixes → use bugfix
• Research only, no PBI output needed → use investigation or deep-research

Key Mechanics

0. Task Decomposition Gate (MANDATORY — Runs After Brainstorm, Before First $idea)

After the opportunity map is produced and the user selects which opportunities to develop, STOP and call task tracking for every upcoming unit of work before processing any opportunity:

Formula: N opportunities × 8 steps = N×8 tasks. For 5 opportunities: 40 tasks.

Per-opportunity task set:

Task tracking: "Opportunity {#}: Idea capture — {opportunity-slug}"
Task tracking: "Opportunity {#}: PBI refinement — {opportunity-slug}"
Task tracking: "Opportunity {#}: PBI review — {opportunity-slug}"
Task tracking: "Opportunity {#}: User stories — {opportunity-slug}"
Task tracking: "Opportunity {#}: Story review — {opportunity-slug}"
Task tracking: "Opportunity {#}: Challenge review — {opportunity-slug}"
Task tracking: "Opportunity {#}: DoR gate — {opportunity-slug}"
Task tracking: "Opportunity {#}: HTML mock-up — {opportunity-slug}" [skip if backend-only]

Plus: Task tracking: "Cross-PBI prioritization (final step)" — one task at the end.

Context Window Management:

• Write each artifact immediately after completing its task — never batch
• For 6+ opportunities, use sub-agent parallel processing:
  • Spawn one sub-agent per opportunity with its task list and brainstorm context
  • Each sub-agent runs idea → mockup and writes artifacts to team-artifacts/pbis/
  • Main context runs $prioritize across all completed PBIs at the end
• After every 3 opportunities completed, update the session summary table

1. Brainstorm → Opportunity Map

The $brainstorm step is the engine. It uses the Double Diamond process:

• Problem framing: POV statement, 5 Whys / Fishbone, JTBD job stories, HMW questions
• Opportunity framing: Opportunity Solution Tree (enhancement) OR Lean Canvas (new product)
• Ideation: SCAMPER, Crazy 8s, Impact Mapping — target 25–40 raw ideas
• Convergence: RICE scoring, Kano classification, 2×2 Effort/Impact, MoSCoW

Output: A scored opportunity map with 3–8 ranked items. AI presents the map and asks: "Which opportunities should we develop into PBIs?" (multi-select).

2. Why-Review Gate (After domain-analysis, Before per-opportunity loop)

Before committing to the per-PBI loop, validate the opportunity map rationale with $why-review:

Challenge prompts:

• Are the top-ranked opportunities truly the right problems to solve? What was deprioritized and why?
• Are RICE scores well-founded or speculative? Challenge Reach and Impact estimates independently.
• Pre-mortem: if these opportunities are built and miss in 6 months, what was the root cause?
• Are there systemic alternatives (platform change, process change) that make these opportunities unnecessary?

Result	Action
PASS	Proceed to per-opportunity loop
WARN	Document risk, acknowledge with user, proceed
FAIL on high-ranked opportunity	Remove from selection or revisit brainstorm framing

3. Multi-Opportunity Loop

For each selected opportunity, the following steps run in sequence:

Step	Purpose	Output
$idea	Capture as structured artifact	team-artifacts/ideas/{date}-po-idea-{slug}.md
$refine	PBI with hypothesis, AC (GIVEN/WHEN/THEN), RICE	team-artifacts/pbis/{date}-pbi-{slug}.md
$refine-review	BA quality check on PBI	Reviewed PBI
$story	User stories per PBI	Stories in PBI artifact
$story-review	Story quality and completeness check	Reviewed stories
$pbi-challenge	Dev BA PIC review — challenge prompts, AC quality, feasibility	Challenge log
$dor-gate	INVEST check — PASS/WARN/FAIL	DoR result
$pbi-mockup	HTML mock-up based on project reference design docs (skip for backend-only)	HTML mock-up file beside PBI artifact

Track progress: After each opportunity loop, AI updates a session summary table in the plan dir.

5. Cross-PBI Prioritize

After all loops complete, $prioritize aggregates all PBIs:

• Cross-PBI RICE ranking
• Dependency graph (which PBIs must come before others)
• Release scope (Must-Have / Should-Have / Could-Have)
• Output: team-artifacts/backlog/product-discovery-{date}-backlog.md

6. Handoff

At $workflow-end, AI presents:

• Session summary: N PBIs created, X passed DoR, Y need rework
• Ranked backlog with RICE scores
• Recommended next step: /sprint-planning (backlog ready) or /big-feature (single large PBI needs deep research + implementation)
• Blocked PBIs: list DoR failures with specific blocking items

Conditional Skip Rules

Step	Skip When
$web-research	Internal tool, well-understood domain, user says "skip market research"
$domain-analysis	No new domain entities or aggregates involved
$why-review	User has already validated opportunity rationale; no alternatives available
$pbi-mockup (per PBI)	PBI is backend-only — no UI changes

---

IMPORTANT MANDATORY Steps: $brainstorm -> $web-research -> $domain-analysis -> $why-review -> $idea -> $refine -> $why-review -> $refine-review -> $story -> $why-review -> $story-review -> $pbi-challenge -> $dor-gate -> $pbi-mockup -> $review-changes -> $prioritize -> $watzup -> $workflow-end

IMPORTANT MANDATORY Steps: $brainstorm -> $web-research -> $domain-analysis -> $why-review -> $idea -> $refine -> $why-review -> $refine-review -> $story -> $why-review -> $story-review -> $pbi-challenge -> $dor-gate -> $pbi-mockup -> $review-changes -> $prioritize -> $watzup -> $workflow-end

[BLOCKING] Each step MUST ATTENTION invoke its skill invocation — marking a task completed without skill invocation is a workflow violation. NEVER batch-complete validation gates.

Activate the product-discovery workflow. Run $workflow-start product-discovery with the user's prompt as context.

Steps: $brainstorm → $web-research → $domain-analysis → $why-review → [TASK DECOMPOSITION GATE] Create task tracking for every opportunity × step BEFORE looping → [loop per opportunity] $idea → $refine → $refine-review → $story → $story-review → $pbi-challenge → $dor-gate → $pbi-mockup → $review-changes → $prioritize → $watzup → $workflow-end

Scale awareness: This workflow can generate 8 opportunities × 8 steps = 64 artifact units plus a ranked backlog. Use the Task Decomposition Gate and incremental-write patterns to prevent context overrun. For 6+ opportunities, use sub-agent parallel processing (one sub-agent per opportunity, main context assembles at $prioritize).

<!-- SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention -->

AI Mistake Prevention — Failure modes to avoid on every task:

Check downstream references before deleting. Deleting components causes documentation and code staleness cascades. Map all referencing files before removal. Verify AI-generated content against actual code. AI hallucinates APIs, class names, and method signatures. Always grep to confirm existence before documenting or referencing. Trace full dependency chain after edits. Changing a definition misses downstream variables and consumers derived from it. Always trace the full chain. Trace ALL code paths when verifying correctness. Confirming code exists is not confirming it executes. Always trace early exits, error branches, and conditional skips — not just happy path. When debugging, ask "whose responsibility?" before fixing. Trace whether bug is in caller (wrong data) or callee (wrong handling). Fix at responsible layer — never patch symptom site. Assume existing values are intentional — ask WHY before changing. Before changing any constant, limit, flag, or pattern: read comments, check git blame, examine surrounding code. Verify ALL affected outputs, not just the first. Changes touching multiple stacks require verifying EVERY output. One green check is not all green checks. Holistic-first debugging — resist nearest-attention trap. When investigating any failure, list EVERY precondition first (config, env vars, DB names, endpoints, DI registrations, data preconditions), then verify each against evidence before forming any code-layer hypothesis. Surgical changes — apply the diff test. Bug fix: every changed line must trace directly to the bug. Don't restyle or improve adjacent code. Enhancement task: implement improvements AND announce them explicitly. Surface ambiguity before coding — don't pick silently. If request has multiple interpretations, present each with effort estimate and ask. Never assume all-records, file-based, or more complex path.

<!-- /SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention --> <!-- SYNC:nested-task-creation -->

Nested Task Expansion Contract — For workflow-step invocation, the [Workflow] ... row is only a parent container; the child skill still creates visible phase tasks.

1. Call the current task list first. If a matching active parent workflow row exists, set nested=true and record parentTaskId; otherwise run standalone.
2. Create one task per declared phase before phase work. When nested, prefix subjects [N.M] $skill-name — phase.
3. When nested, link the parent with TaskUpdate(parentTaskId, addBlockedBy: [childIds]).
4. Orchestrators must pre-expand a child skill's phase list and link the workflow row before invoking that child skill or sub-agent.
5. Mark exactly one child in_progress before work and completed immediately after evidence is written.
6. Complete the parent only after all child tasks are completed or explicitly cancelled with reason.

Blocked until: the current task list done, child phases created, parent linked when nested, first child marked in_progress.

<!-- /SYNC:nested-task-creation --> <!-- SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset -->

Critical Thinking Mindset — Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination.

<!-- /SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset --> <!-- SYNC:incremental-persistence -->

Incremental Result Persistence — MANDATORY for all sub-agents or heavy inline steps processing >3 files.

1. Before starting: Create report file plans/reports/{skill}-{date}-{slug}.md
2. After each file/section reviewed: Append findings to report immediately — never hold in memory
3. Return to main agent: Summary only (per SYNC:subagent-return-contract) with Full report: path
4. Main agent: Reads report file only when resolving specific blockers

Why: Context cutoff mid-execution loses ALL in-memory findings. Each disk write survives compaction. Partial results are better than no results.

Report naming: plans/reports/{skill-name}-{YYMMDD}-{HHmm}-{slug}.md

<!-- /SYNC:incremental-persistence --> <!-- SYNC:subagent-return-contract -->

Sub-Agent Return Contract — When this skill spawns a sub-agent, the sub-agent MUST return ONLY this structure. Main agent reads only this summary — NEVER requests full sub-agent output inline.

## Sub-Agent Result: [skill-name]

Status: ✅ PASS | ⚠️ PARTIAL | ❌ FAIL
Confidence: [0-100]%

### Findings (Critical/High only — max 10 bullets)

- [severity] [file:line] [finding]

### Actions Taken

- [file changed] [what changed]

### Blockers (if any)

- [blocker description]

Full report: plans/reports/[skill-name]-[date]-[slug].md

Main agent reads Full report file ONLY when: (a) resolving a specific blocker, or (b) building a fix plan. Sub-agent writes full report incrementally (per SYNC:incremental-persistence) — not held in memory.

<!-- /SYNC:subagent-return-contract --> <!-- SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder -->

MUST ATTENTION apply critical thinking — every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination: never present guess as fact.

<!-- /SYNC:critical-thinking-mindset:reminder --> <!-- SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder -->

MUST ATTENTION apply AI mistake prevention — holistic-first debugging, fix at responsible layer, surface ambiguity before coding, re-read files after compaction.

<!-- /SYNC:ai-mistake-prevention:reminder --> <!-- SYNC:nested-task-creation:reminder -->

• MANDATORY Parent workflow rows do not replace child phase tracking; expand phases and link the parent when nested.
• MANDATORY Orchestrators pre-expand child skill phases before invocation; use [N.M] $skill-name — phase prefixes and one-in_progress discipline.

<!-- /SYNC:nested-task-creation:reminder -->

Closing Reminders

• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION break work into small todo tasks using task tracking BEFORE starting — one task per opportunity × step
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION brainstorm output MUST produce a scored opportunity map before any $idea step
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION why-review runs after domain-analysis — FAIL removes opportunity from selection, WARN requires user acknowledgment
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION repeat idea→pbi chain for EACH selected opportunity — not just once
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION validate decisions with user via a direct user question — never auto-select opportunities
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION $prioritize runs ONCE at the end across ALL PBIs, not per-opportunity
• MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST ATTENTION add a final review todo task to verify all PBIs and backlog artifact

[TASK-PLANNING] Before acting, analyze task scope and systematically break it into small todo tasks and sub-tasks using task tracking.

[IMPORTANT] Analyze how big the task is and break it into many small todo tasks systematically before starting — this is very important.

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Hookless Prompt Protocol Mirror (Auto-Synced)

Source: .claude/hooks/lib/prompt-injections.cjs + .claude/.ck.json

[WORKFLOW-EXECUTION-PROTOCOL] [BLOCKING] Workflow Execution Protocol — MANDATORY IMPORTANT MUST CRITICAL. Do not skip for any reason.

Generic portability boundary: Reusable skills and protocol text stay project-neutral; project-specific conventions are discovered from docs/project-config.json and docs/project-reference/. Apply shared AI-SDD from shared/sdd-artifact-contract.md. Read docs/project-config.json and docs/project-reference/docs-index-reference.md, then open the project reference docs named there. Any supported AI tool may execute when this shared context and local docs are available.

1. DETECT: Match prompt against workflow catalog
2. ANALYZE: Find best-match workflow AND evaluate if a custom step combination would fit better
3. ASK (REQUIRED FORMAT): Use a direct user question with this structure unless the user explicitly invoked a workflow/skill and the local protocol treats explicit invocation as confirmation:
   • Question: "Which workflow do you want to activate?"
   • Option 1: "Activate [BestMatch Workflow] (Recommended)"
   • Option 2: "Activate custom workflow: [step1 → step2 → ...]" (include one-line rationale)
4. ACTIVATE (if confirmed): Call $workflow-start <workflowId> for standard; sequence custom steps manually
5. CREATE TASKS: task tracking for ALL workflow steps
6. EXECUTE: Follow each step in sequence [CRITICAL-THINKING-MINDSET] Apply critical thinking, sequential thinking. Every claim needs traced proof, confidence >80% to act. Anti-hallucination principle: Never present guess as fact — cite sources for every claim, admit uncertainty freely, self-check output for errors, cross-reference independently, stay skeptical of own confidence — certainty without evidence root of all hallucination. AI Attention principle (Primacy-Recency): Put the 3 most critical rules at both top and bottom of long prompts/protocols so instruction adherence survives long context windows. Goal-driven execution: Define success criteria first, loop until verified, and stop only when observable checks pass. Tests verify intent: Tests must protect business rules/invariants and fail when the protected intent breaks, not only mirror current behavior.

[LESSON-LEARNED-REMINDER] [BLOCKING] Task Planning & Continuous Improvement — MANDATORY. Do not skip.

Break work into small tasks (task tracking) before starting. Add final task: "Analyze AI mistakes & lessons learned".

Extract lessons — ROOT CAUSE ONLY, not symptom fixes:

1. Name the FAILURE MODE (reasoning/assumption failure), not symptom — "assumed API existed without reading source" not "used wrong enum value".
2. Generality test: does this failure mode apply to ≥3 contexts/codebases? If not, abstract one level up.
3. Write as a universal rule — strip project-specific names/paths/classes. Useful on any codebase.
4. Consolidate: multiple mistakes sharing one failure mode → ONE lesson.
5. Recurrence gate: "Would this recur in future session WITHOUT this reminder?" — No → skip $learn.
6. Auto-fix gate: "Could $code-review/$code-simplifier/$security/$lint catch this?" — Yes → improve review skill instead.
7. BOTH gates pass → ask user to run $learn. [TASK-PLANNING] [MANDATORY] BEFORE executing any workflow or skill step, create/update task tracking for all planned steps, then keep it synchronized as each step starts/completes.

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