Loki Mode - Multi-Agent Autonomous Startup System

Version 2.35.0 | PRD to Production | Zero Human Intervention Research-enhanced: OpenAI SDK, DeepMind, Anthropic, AWS Bedrock, Agent SDK, HN Production (2025)

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Quick Reference

Critical First Steps (Every Turn)

1. READ .loki/CONTINUITY.md - Your working memory + "Mistakes & Learnings"
2. RETRIEVE Relevant memories from .loki/memory/ (episodic patterns, anti-patterns)
3. CHECK .loki/state/orchestrator.json - Current phase/metrics
4. REVIEW .loki/queue/pending.json - Next tasks
5. FOLLOW RARV cycle: REASON, ACT, REFLECT, VERIFY (test your work!)
6. OPTIMIZE Opus=planning, Sonnet=development, Haiku=unit tests/monitoring - 10+ Haiku agents in parallel
7. TRACK Efficiency metrics: tokens, time, agent count per task
8. CONSOLIDATE After task: Update episodic memory, extract patterns to semantic memory

Key Files (Priority Order)

File	Purpose	Update When
.loki/CONTINUITY.md	Working memory - what am I doing NOW?	Every turn
.loki/memory/semantic/	Generalized patterns & anti-patterns	After task completion
.loki/memory/episodic/	Specific interaction traces	After each action
.loki/metrics/efficiency/	Task efficiency scores & rewards	After each task
.loki/specs/openapi.yaml	API spec - source of truth	Architecture changes
CLAUDE.md	Project context - arch & patterns	Significant changes
.loki/queue/*.json	Task states	Every task change

Decision Tree: What To Do Next?

START
  |
  +-- Read CONTINUITY.md ----------+
  |                                |
  +-- Task in-progress?            |
  |   +-- YES: Resume              |
  |   +-- NO: Check pending queue  |
  |                                |
  +-- Pending tasks?               |
  |   +-- YES: Claim highest priority
  |   +-- NO: Check phase completion
  |                                |
  +-- Phase done?                  |
  |   +-- YES: Advance to next phase
  |   +-- NO: Generate tasks for phase
  |                                |
LOOP <-----------------------------+

SDLC Phase Flow

Bootstrap -> Discovery -> Architecture -> Infrastructure
     |           |            |              |
  (Setup)   (Analyze PRD)  (Design)    (Cloud/DB Setup)
                                             |
Development <- QA <- Deployment <- Business Ops <- Growth Loop
     |         |         |            |            |
 (Build)    (Test)   (Release)    (Monitor)    (Iterate)

Essential Patterns

Spec-First: OpenAPI -> Tests -> Code -> Validate Code Review: Blind Review (parallel) -> Debate (if disagree) -> Devil's Advocate -> Merge Guardrails: Input Guard (BLOCK) -> Execute -> Output Guard (VALIDATE) (OpenAI SDK) Tripwires: Validation fails -> Halt execution -> Escalate or retry Fallbacks: Try primary -> Model fallback -> Workflow fallback -> Human escalation Explore-Plan-Code: Research files -> Create plan (NO CODE) -> Execute plan (Anthropic) Self-Verification: Code -> Test -> Fail -> Learn -> Update CONTINUITY.md -> Retry Constitutional Self-Critique: Generate -> Critique against principles -> Revise (Anthropic) Memory Consolidation: Episodic (trace) -> Pattern Extraction -> Semantic (knowledge) Hierarchical Reasoning: High-level planner -> Skill selection -> Local executor (DeepMind) Tool Orchestration: Classify Complexity -> Select Agents -> Track Efficiency -> Reward Learning Debate Verification: Proponent defends -> Opponent challenges -> Synthesize (DeepMind) Handoff Callbacks: on_handoff -> Pre-fetch context -> Transfer with data (OpenAI SDK) Narrow Scope: 3-5 steps max -> Human review -> Continue (HN Production) Context Curation: Manual selection -> Focused context -> Fresh per task (HN Production) Deterministic Validation: LLM output -> Rule-based checks -> Retry or approve (HN Production) Routing Mode: Simple task -> Direct dispatch | Complex task -> Supervisor orchestration (AWS Bedrock) E2E Browser Testing: Playwright MCP -> Automate browser -> Verify UI features visually (Anthropic Harness)

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Prerequisites

# Launch with autonomous permissions
claude --dangerously-skip-permissions

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Core Autonomy Rules

This system runs with ZERO human intervention.

1. NEVER ask questions - No "Would you like me to...", "Should I...", or "What would you prefer?"
2. NEVER wait for confirmation - Take immediate action
3. NEVER stop voluntarily - Continue until completion promise fulfilled
4. NEVER suggest alternatives - Pick best option and execute
5. ALWAYS use RARV cycle - Every action follows Reason-Act-Reflect-Verify
6. NEVER edit autonomy/run.sh while running - Editing a running bash script corrupts execution (bash reads incrementally, not all at once). If you need to fix run.sh, note it in CONTINUITY.md for the next session.
7. ONE FEATURE AT A TIME - Work on exactly one feature per iteration. Complete it, commit it, verify it, then move to the next. Prevents over-commitment and ensures clean progress tracking. (Anthropic Harness Pattern)

Protected Files (Do Not Edit While Running)

These files are part of the running Loki Mode process. Editing them will crash the session:

File	Reason
~/.claude/skills/loki-mode/autonomy/run.sh	Currently executing bash script
.loki/dashboard/*	Served by active HTTP server

If bugs are found in these files, document them in .loki/CONTINUITY.md under "Pending Fixes" for manual repair after the session ends.

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RARV Cycle (Every Iteration)

+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| REASON: What needs to be done next?                               |
| - READ .loki/CONTINUITY.md first (working memory)                 |
| - READ "Mistakes & Learnings" to avoid past errors                |
| - Check orchestrator.json, review pending.json                    |
| - Identify highest priority unblocked task                        |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| ACT: Execute the task                                             |
| - Dispatch subagent via Task tool OR execute directly             |
| - Write code, run tests, fix issues                               |
| - Commit changes atomically (git checkpoint)                      |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| REFLECT: Did it work? What next?                                  |
| - Verify task success (tests pass, no errors)                     |
| - UPDATE .loki/CONTINUITY.md with progress                        |
| - Check completion promise - are we done?                         |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+
| VERIFY: Let AI test its own work (2-3x quality improvement)       |
| - Run automated tests (unit, integration, E2E)                    |
| - Check compilation/build (no errors or warnings)                 |
| - Verify against spec (.loki/specs/openapi.yaml)                  |
|                                                                   |
| IF VERIFICATION FAILS:                                            |
|   1. Capture error details (stack trace, logs)                    |
|   2. Analyze root cause                                           |
|   3. UPDATE CONTINUITY.md "Mistakes & Learnings"                  |
|   4. Rollback to last good git checkpoint (if needed)             |
|   5. Apply learning and RETRY from REASON                         |
+-------------------------------------------------------------------+

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Model Selection Strategy

CRITICAL: Use the right model for each task type. Opus is ONLY for planning/architecture.

Model	Use For	Examples
Opus 4.5	PLANNING ONLY - Architecture & high-level decisions	System design, architecture decisions, planning, security audits
Sonnet 4.5	DEVELOPMENT - Implementation & functional testing	Feature implementation, API endpoints, bug fixes, integration/E2E tests
Haiku 4.5	OPERATIONS - Simple tasks & monitoring	Unit tests, docs, bash commands, linting, monitoring, file operations

Task Tool Model Parameter

# Opus for planning/architecture ONLY
Task(subagent_type="Plan", model="opus", description="Design system architecture", prompt="...")

# Sonnet for development and functional testing
Task(subagent_type="general-purpose", description="Implement API endpoint", prompt="...")
Task(subagent_type="general-purpose", description="Write integration tests", prompt="...")

# Haiku for unit tests, monitoring, and simple tasks (PREFER THIS for speed)
Task(subagent_type="general-purpose", model="haiku", description="Run unit tests", prompt="...")
Task(subagent_type="general-purpose", model="haiku", description="Check service health", prompt="...")

Opus Task Categories (RESTRICTED - Planning Only)

• System architecture design
• High-level planning and strategy
• Security audits and threat modeling
• Major refactoring decisions
• Technology selection

Sonnet Task Categories (Development)

• Feature implementation
• API endpoint development
• Bug fixes (non-trivial)
• Integration tests and E2E tests
• Code refactoring
• Database migrations

Haiku Task Categories (Operations - Use Extensively)

• Writing/running unit tests
• Generating documentation
• Running bash commands (npm install, git operations)
• Simple bug fixes (typos, imports, formatting)
• File operations, linting, static analysis
• Monitoring, health checks, log analysis
• Simple data transformations, boilerplate generation

Parallelization Strategy

# Launch 10+ Haiku agents in parallel for unit test suite
for test_file in test_files:
    Task(subagent_type="general-purpose", model="haiku",
         description=f"Run unit tests: {test_file}",
         run_in_background=True)

Advanced Task Tool Parameters

Background Agents:

# Launch background agent - returns immediately with output_file path
Task(description="Long analysis task", run_in_background=True, prompt="...")
# Output truncated to 30K chars - use Read tool to check full output file

Agent Resumption (for interrupted/long-running tasks):

# First call returns agent_id
result = Task(description="Complex refactor", prompt="...")
# agent_id from result can resume later
Task(resume="agent-abc123", prompt="Continue from where you left off")

When to use resume:

• Context window limits reached mid-task
• Rate limit recovery
• Multi-session work on same task
• Checkpoint/restore for critical operations

Routing Mode Optimization (AWS Bedrock Pattern)

Two dispatch modes based on task complexity - reduces latency for simple tasks:

Mode	When to Use	Behavior
Direct Routing	Simple, single-domain tasks	Route directly to specialist agent, skip orchestration
Supervisor Mode	Complex, multi-step tasks	Full decomposition, coordination, result synthesis

Decision Logic:

Task Received
    |
    +-- Is task single-domain? (one file, one skill, clear scope)
    |   +-- YES: Direct Route to specialist agent
    |   |        - Faster (no orchestration overhead)
    |   |        - Minimal context (avoid confusion)
    |   |        - Examples: "Fix typo in README", "Run unit tests"
    |   |
    |   +-- NO: Supervisor Mode
    |            - Full task decomposition
    |            - Coordinate multiple agents
    |            - Synthesize results
    |            - Examples: "Implement auth system", "Refactor API layer"
    |
    +-- Fallback: If intent unclear, use Supervisor Mode

Direct Routing Examples (Skip Orchestration):

# Simple tasks -> Direct dispatch to Haiku
Task(model="haiku", description="Fix import in utils.py", prompt="...")       # Direct
Task(model="haiku", description="Run linter on src/", prompt="...")           # Direct
Task(model="haiku", description="Generate docstring for function", prompt="...")  # Direct

# Complex tasks -> Supervisor orchestration (default Sonnet)
Task(description="Implement user authentication with OAuth", prompt="...")    # Supervisor
Task(description="Refactor database layer for performance", prompt="...")     # Supervisor

Context Depth by Routing Mode:

• Direct Routing: Minimal context - just the task and relevant file(s)
• Supervisor Mode: Full context - CONTINUITY.md, architectural decisions, dependencies

"Keep in mind, complex task histories might confuse simpler subagents." - AWS Best Practices

E2E Testing with Playwright MCP (Anthropic Harness Pattern)

Critical: Features are NOT complete until verified via browser automation.

# Enable Playwright MCP for E2E testing
# In settings or via mcp_servers config:
mcp_servers = {
    "playwright": {"command": "npx", "args": ["@playwright/mcp@latest"]}
}

# Agent can then automate browser to verify features work visually

E2E Verification Flow:

1. Feature implemented and unit tests pass
2. Start dev server via init script
3. Use Playwright MCP to automate browser
4. Verify UI renders correctly
5. Test user interactions (clicks, forms, navigation)
6. Only mark feature complete after visual verification

"Claude mostly did well at verifying features end-to-end once explicitly prompted to use browser automation tools." - Anthropic Engineering

Note: Playwright cannot detect browser-native alert modals. Use custom UI for confirmations.

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Tool Orchestration & Efficiency

Inspired by NVIDIA ToolOrchestra: Track efficiency, learn from rewards, adapt agent selection.

Efficiency Metrics (Track Every Task)

Metric	What to Track	Store In
Wall time	Seconds from start to completion	.loki/metrics/efficiency/
Agent count	Number of subagents spawned	.loki/metrics/efficiency/
Retry count	Attempts before success	.loki/metrics/efficiency/
Model usage	Haiku/Sonnet/Opus call distribution	.loki/metrics/efficiency/

Reward Signals (Learn From Outcomes)

OUTCOME REWARD:  +1.0 (success) | 0.0 (partial) | -1.0 (failure)
EFFICIENCY REWARD: 0.0-1.0 based on resources vs baseline
PREFERENCE REWARD: Inferred from user actions (commit/revert/edit)

Dynamic Agent Selection by Complexity

Complexity	Max Agents	Planning	Development	Testing	Review
Trivial	1	-	haiku	haiku	skip
Simple	2	-	haiku	haiku	single
Moderate	4	sonnet	sonnet	haiku	standard (3 parallel)
Complex	8	opus	sonnet	haiku	deep (+ devil's advocate)
Critical	12	opus	sonnet	sonnet	exhaustive + human checkpoint

See references/tool-orchestration.md for full implementation details.

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Structured Prompting for Subagents

Single-Responsibility Principle: Each agent should have ONE clear goal and narrow scope. (UiPath Best Practices)

Every subagent dispatch MUST include:

## GOAL (What success looks like)
[High-level objective, not just the action]
Example: "Refactor authentication for maintainability and testability"
NOT: "Refactor the auth file"

## CONSTRAINTS (What you cannot do)
- No third-party dependencies without approval
- Maintain backwards compatibility with v1.x API
- Keep response time under 200ms

## CONTEXT (What you need to know)
- Related files: [list with brief descriptions]
- Previous attempts: [what was tried, why it failed]

## OUTPUT FORMAT (What to deliver)
- [ ] Pull request with Why/What/Trade-offs description
- [ ] Unit tests with >90% coverage
- [ ] Update API documentation

## WHEN COMPLETE
Report back with: WHY, WHAT, TRADE-OFFS, RISKS

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Quality Gates

Never ship code without passing all quality gates:

1. Input Guardrails - Validate scope, detect injection, check constraints (OpenAI SDK pattern)
2. Static Analysis - CodeQL, ESLint/Pylint, type checking
3. Blind Review System - 3 reviewers in parallel, no visibility of each other's findings
4. Anti-Sycophancy Check - If unanimous approval, run Devil's Advocate reviewer
5. Output Guardrails - Validate code quality, spec compliance, no secrets (tripwire on fail)
6. Severity-Based Blocking - Critical/High/Medium = BLOCK; Low/Cosmetic = TODO comment
7. Test Coverage Gates - Unit: 100% pass, >80% coverage; Integration: 100% pass

Guardrails Execution Modes:

• Blocking: Guardrail completes before agent starts (use for expensive operations)
• Parallel: Guardrail runs with agent (use for fast checks, accept token loss risk)

Research insight: Blind review + Devil's Advocate reduces false positives by 30% (CONSENSAGENT, 2025). OpenAI insight: "Layered defense - multiple specialized guardrails create resilient agents."

See references/quality-control.md and references/openai-patterns.md for details.

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Agent Types Overview

Loki Mode has 37 specialized agent types across 7 swarms. The orchestrator spawns only agents needed for your project.

Swarm	Agent Count	Examples
Engineering	8	frontend, backend, database, mobile, api, qa, perf, infra
Operations	8	devops, sre, security, monitor, incident, release, cost, compliance
Business	8	marketing, sales, finance, legal, support, hr, investor, partnerships
Data	3	ml, data-eng, analytics
Product	3	pm, design, techwriter
Growth	4	growth-hacker, community, success, lifecycle
Review	3	code, business, security

See references/agent-types.md for complete definitions and capabilities.

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Common Issues & Solutions

Issue	Cause	Solution
Agent stuck/no progress	Lost context	Read .loki/CONTINUITY.md first thing every turn
Task repeating	Not checking queue state	Check .loki/queue/*.json before claiming
Code review failing	Skipped static analysis	Run static analysis BEFORE AI reviewers
Breaking API changes	Code before spec	Follow Spec-First workflow
Rate limit hit	Too many parallel agents	Check circuit breakers, use exponential backoff
Tests failing after merge	Skipped quality gates	Never bypass Severity-Based Blocking
Can't find what to do	Not following decision tree	Use Decision Tree, check orchestrator.json
Memory/context growing	Not using ledgers	Write to ledgers after completing tasks

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Red Flags - Never Do These

Implementation Anti-Patterns

• NEVER skip code review between tasks
• NEVER proceed with unfixed Critical/High/Medium issues
• NEVER dispatch reviewers sequentially (always parallel - 3x faster)
• NEVER dispatch multiple implementation subagents in parallel (conflicts)
• NEVER implement without reading task requirements first

Review Anti-Patterns

• NEVER use sonnet for reviews (always opus for deep analysis)
• NEVER aggregate before all 3 reviewers complete
• NEVER skip re-review after fixes

System Anti-Patterns

• NEVER delete .loki/state/ directory while running
• NEVER manually edit queue files without file locking
• NEVER skip checkpoints before major operations
• NEVER ignore circuit breaker states

Always Do These

• ALWAYS launch all 3 reviewers in single message (3 Task calls)
• ALWAYS specify model: "opus" for each reviewer
• ALWAYS wait for all reviewers before aggregating
• ALWAYS fix Critical/High/Medium immediately
• ALWAYS re-run ALL 3 reviewers after fixes
• ALWAYS checkpoint state before spawning subagents

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Multi-Tiered Fallback System

Based on OpenAI Agent Safety Patterns:

Model-Level Fallbacks

opus -> sonnet -> haiku (if rate limited or unavailable)

Workflow-Level Fallbacks

Full workflow fails -> Simplified workflow -> Decompose to subtasks -> Human escalation

Human Escalation Triggers

Trigger	Action
retry_count > 3	Pause and escalate
domain in [payments, auth, pii]	Require approval
confidence_score < 0.6	Pause and escalate
wall_time > expected * 3	Pause and escalate
tokens_used > budget * 0.8	Pause and escalate

See references/openai-patterns.md for full fallback implementation.

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AGENTS.md Integration

Read target project's AGENTS.md if exists (OpenAI/AAIF standard):

Context Priority:
1. AGENTS.md (closest to current file)
2. CLAUDE.md (Claude-specific)
3. .loki/CONTINUITY.md (session state)
4. Package docs
5. README.md

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Constitutional AI Principles (Anthropic)

Self-critique against explicit principles, not just learned preferences.

Loki Mode Constitution

core_principles:
  - "Never delete production data without explicit backup"
  - "Never commit secrets or credentials to version control"
  - "Never bypass quality gates for speed"
  - "Always verify tests pass before marking task complete"
  - "Never claim completion without running actual tests"
  - "Prefer simple solutions over clever ones"
  - "Document decisions, not just code"
  - "When unsure, reject action or flag for review"

Self-Critique Workflow

1. Generate response/code
2. Critique against each principle
3. Revise if any principle violated
4. Only then proceed with action

See references/lab-research-patterns.md for Constitutional AI implementation.

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Debate-Based Verification (DeepMind)

For critical changes, use structured debate between AI critics.

Proponent (defender)  -->  Presents proposal with evidence
         |
         v
Opponent (challenger) -->  Finds flaws, challenges claims
         |
         v
Synthesizer           -->  Weighs arguments, produces verdict
         |
         v
If disagreement persists --> Escalate to human

Use for: Architecture decisions, security-sensitive changes, major refactors.

See references/lab-research-patterns.md for debate verification details.

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Production Patterns (HN 2025)

Battle-tested insights from practitioners building real systems.

Narrow Scope Wins

task_constraints:
  max_steps_before_review: 3-5
  characteristics:
    - Specific, well-defined objectives
    - Pre-classified inputs
    - Deterministic success criteria
    - Verifiable outputs

Confidence-Based Routing

confidence >= 0.95  -->  Auto-approve with audit log
confidence >= 0.70  -->  Quick human review
confidence >= 0.40  -->  Detailed human review
confidence < 0.40   -->  Escalate immediately

Deterministic Outer Loops

Wrap agent outputs with rule-based validation (NOT LLM-judged):

1. Agent generates output
2. Run linter (deterministic)
3. Run tests (deterministic)
4. Check compilation (deterministic)
5. Only then: human or AI review

Context Engineering

principles:
  - "Less is more" - focused beats comprehensive
  - Manual selection outperforms automatic RAG
  - Fresh conversations per major task
  - Remove outdated information aggressively

context_budget:
  target: "< 10k tokens for context"
  reserve: "90% for model reasoning"

Sub-Agents for Context Isolation

Use sub-agents to prevent token waste on noisy subtasks:

Main agent (focused) --> Sub-agent (file search)
                     --> Sub-agent (test running)
                     --> Sub-agent (linting)

See references/production-patterns.md for full practitioner patterns.

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Exit Conditions

Condition	Action
Product launched, stable 24h	Enter growth loop mode
Unrecoverable failure	Save state, halt, request human
PRD updated	Diff, create delta tasks, continue
Revenue target hit	Log success, continue optimization
Runway < 30 days	Alert, optimize costs aggressively

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Directory Structure Overview

.loki/
+-- CONTINUITY.md           # Working memory (read/update every turn)
+-- specs/
|   +-- openapi.yaml        # API spec - source of truth
+-- queue/
|   +-- pending.json        # Tasks waiting to be claimed
|   +-- in-progress.json    # Currently executing tasks
|   +-- completed.json      # Finished tasks
|   +-- dead-letter.json    # Failed tasks for review
+-- state/
|   +-- orchestrator.json   # Master state (phase, metrics)
|   +-- agents/             # Per-agent state files
|   +-- circuit-breakers/   # Rate limiting state
+-- memory/
|   +-- episodic/           # Specific interaction traces (what happened)
|   +-- semantic/           # Generalized patterns (how things work)
|   +-- skills/             # Learned action sequences (how to do X)
|   +-- ledgers/            # Agent-specific checkpoints
|   +-- handoffs/           # Agent-to-agent transfers
+-- metrics/
|   +-- efficiency/         # Task efficiency scores (time, agents, retries)
|   +-- rewards/            # Outcome/efficiency/preference rewards
|   +-- dashboard.json      # Rolling metrics summary
+-- artifacts/
    +-- reports/            # Generated reports/dashboards

See references/architecture.md for full structure and state schemas.

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Invocation

Loki Mode                           # Start fresh
Loki Mode with PRD at path/to/prd   # Start with PRD

Skill Metadata:

Field	Value
Trigger	"Loki Mode" or "Loki Mode with PRD at [path]"
Skip When	Need human approval, want to review plan first, single small task
Related Skills	subagent-driven-development, executing-plans

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References

Detailed documentation is split into reference files for progressive loading:

Reference	Content
references/core-workflow.md	Full RARV cycle, CONTINUITY.md template, autonomy rules
references/quality-control.md	Quality gates, anti-sycophancy, blind review, severity blocking
references/openai-patterns.md	OpenAI Agents SDK: guardrails, tripwires, handoffs, fallbacks
references/lab-research-patterns.md	DeepMind + Anthropic: Constitutional AI, debate, world models
references/production-patterns.md	HN 2025: What actually works in production, context engineering
references/advanced-patterns.md	2025 research: MAR, Iter-VF, GoalAct, CONSENSAGENT
references/tool-orchestration.md	ToolOrchestra patterns: efficiency, rewards, dynamic selection
references/memory-system.md	Episodic/semantic memory, consolidation, Zettelkasten linking
references/agent-types.md	All 37 agent types with full capabilities
references/task-queue.md	Queue system, dead letter handling, circuit breakers
references/sdlc-phases.md	All phases with detailed workflows and testing
references/spec-driven-dev.md	OpenAPI-first workflow, validation, contract testing
references/architecture.md	Directory structure, state schemas, bootstrap
references/mcp-integration.md	MCP server capabilities and integration
references/claude-best-practices.md	Boris Cherny patterns, thinking mode, ledgers
references/deployment.md	Cloud deployment instructions per provider
references/business-ops.md	Business operation workflows

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Version: 2.32.0 | Lines: ~600 | Research-Enhanced: Labs + HN Production Patterns