BDD Orchestrator

Behavior-first development for features. Discovery → Scenarios → Implementation.

Iron Law: DEFINE BEHAVIOR BEFORE IMPLEMENTATION

Phase Tracking

Features progress through phases. Track in ticket frontmatter:

---
type: feature
phase: implement # intake | define-behavior | scenario-gate | decomposition | implement | done
---

Phase meanings:

Update phase when:

• Completing a BDD phase → set next phase
• Handing off to TDD → set implement
• All scenarios pass → set done

Resume Logic

When user references a ticket, resume work:

1. Read ticket → get current phase:
2. Find progress → first unchecked [ ] in test-definitions
3. Check context → read last work log entry
4. Announce resume → "Resuming at [phase]. Last: [log entry]."

Resume by phase:

Phase 3: Define Behavior

Entry: Agent enters define-behavior phase (after detection or resume)

Prerequisite check:

• If no spec exists → create minimal spec (goal, scope from user request)
• If no ticket exists → create ticket with phase: define-behavior

Draft scenarios:

1. Read spec goal/scope
2. Draft Given/When/Then scenarios covering:
   • Happy path (main success)
   • Failure modes (what can go wrong)
   • Edge cases (boundaries, empty states)
3. Present scenarios to user
4. User can add/modify/remove scenarios
5. Save to .safeword-project/test-definitions/feature-{slug}.md
6. Each scenario gets [ ] checkbox for implementation tracking

Exit: User approves scenario list → update ticket to phase: scenario-gate

Phase 4: Scenario Quality Gate

Entry: Agent enters scenario-gate phase

Validate each scenario against three criteria:

Report issues:

• Group by type (atomicity, observability, determinism)
• Suggest fix for each issue
• Example: "Scenario 3 tests login AND session creation. Split into two scenarios."

Exit options:

• All pass → update ticket to decomposition
• Issues found → user fixes or acknowledges → update ticket to decomposition

Phase 5: Technical Decomposition

Entry: Agent enters decomposition phase (after scenarios validated)

Analyze scenarios for implementation:

1. Identify components — What parts of the system does each scenario touch?
   • UI components
   • API endpoints
   • Data models
   • Business logic modules
2. Assign test layers — For each component:
   • Pure logic (no I/O) → unit test
   • API boundaries, database → integration test
   • User flows → E2E test
3. Create task breakdown — Order by dependencies:
   • Data models first
   • Business logic second
   • API endpoints third
   • UI components fourth
   • E2E tests last (prove everything works)
4. Present to user — Show components, test layers, task order

Exit: User approves breakdown → update ticket to phase: implement

Phase 6 Entry: TDD Handoff

Entry: Agent enters implement phase

Handoff protocol:

1. Announce: "Entering implementation. TDD mode for each scenario."
2. Invoke safeword-tdd-enforcing skill
3. TDD skill takes over for RED → GREEN → REFACTOR cycles

For each scenario:

1. Write E2E test first (from scenario Given/When/Then)
2. E2E fails (RED) — expected, nothing implemented yet
3. TDD loop builds pieces until E2E passes
4. Mark scenario [x] when E2E is GREEN

Walking skeleton (first scenario only):

If project has no E2E infrastructure, build skeleton first:

• Thinnest possible slice proving architecture works
• Form → API → response → UI (no real logic)
• This becomes foundation for all scenarios

Current Behavior (Iteration 4)

1. Detect work level (see SAFEWORD.md "Work Level Detection")
2. Announce with override hint
3. If ticket exists: Read phase, resume at appropriate point
4. Phase 3: Draft scenarios from spec, save to test-definitions
5. Phase 4: Validate scenarios (atomic, observable, deterministic)
6. Phase 5: Decompose into components, assign test layers, create task breakdown
7. Phase 6 Entry: Hand off to safeword-tdd-enforcing for implementation
8. Update phase in ticket when transitioning
9. REFACTOR: Verify against guides before marking iteration complete

Future iterations add: context check, discovery.

Key Takeaways

• patch/task → delegate to TDD immediately
• feature → BDD phases first, track in ticket phase: field
• Resume → read ticket, find first unchecked scenario, continue
• When unsure → default to task, user can /bdd to override