msd-core/gsd-core/workflows/autonomous.md

Drive milestone phases autonomously — all remaining phases, a range via --from N/--to N, or a single phase via --only N. For each incomplete phase: discuss → plan → execute using Skill() flat invocations. When --converge or --cross-ai is set, route the planning step through plan-review convergence before execution. Pauses only for explicit user decisions (grey area acceptance, blockers, validation requests). Re-reads ROADMAP.md after each phase to catch dynamically inserted phases.

<required_reading>

Read all files referenced by the invoking prompt's execution_context before starting.

</required_reading>

1. Initialize

Parse $ARGUMENTS for --from N, --to N, --only N, --interactive, --converge/--cross-ai, reviewer selector flags, and --max-cycles N:

FROM_PHASE=""
if echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -qE '\-\-from\s+[0-9]'; then
  FROM_PHASE=$(echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -oE '\-\-from\s+[0-9]+\.?[0-9]*' | awk '{print $2}')
fi

TO_PHASE=""
if echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -qE '\-\-to\s+[0-9]'; then
  TO_PHASE=$(echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -oE '\-\-to\s+[0-9]+\.?[0-9]*' | awk '{print $2}')
fi

ONLY_PHASE=""
if echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -qE '\-\-only\s+[0-9]'; then
  ONLY_PHASE=$(echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -oE '\-\-only\s+[0-9]+\.?[0-9]*' | awk '{print $2}')
  FROM_PHASE="$ONLY_PHASE"
fi

INTERACTIVE=""
if echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -q '\-\-interactive'; then
  INTERACTIVE="true"
fi

PLAN_STRATEGY="local"
if echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -qE '(^|[[:space:]])\-\-(converge|cross-ai)([[:space:]]|$)'; then
  PLAN_STRATEGY="converge"
fi

CONVERGENCE_ARGS=""
for REVIEW_FLAG in --codex --gemini --claude --opencode --ollama --lm-studio --llama-cpp --all --text; do
  if echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -qE "(^|[[:space:]])${REVIEW_FLAG}([[:space:]]|$)"; then
    CONVERGENCE_ARGS="${CONVERGENCE_ARGS} ${REVIEW_FLAG}"
  fi
done

MAX_CYCLES_ARG=""
if echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -qE '\-\-max-cycles\s+[0-9]+'; then
  MAX_CYCLES_ARG=$(echo "$ARGUMENTS" | grep -oE '\-\-max-cycles\s+[0-9]+' | awk '{print $2}')
  CONVERGENCE_ARGS="${CONVERGENCE_ARGS} --max-cycles ${MAX_CYCLES_ARG}"
fi

When --only is set, also set FROM_PHASE to the same value so existing filter logic applies.

When --interactive is set, discuss runs inline with questions. On Codex, where a backgrounded agent can still spawn subagents, plan and execute are dispatched as background agents — keeping the main context lean (only discuss conversations accumulate) and enabling overlap. On every other runtime (Claude Code and all other non-Codex runtimes), backgrounded agents cannot reliably nest subagents, so plan and execute run inline to preserve worktree isolation and independent verification, and phases run sequentially with their work accumulating in the main context. Either way, user input is preserved on all design decisions.

When PLAN_STRATEGY=converge, the planning step MUST invoke the plan-review convergence workflow instead of gsd-plan-phase. --cross-ai is an alias for --converge. Forward CONVERGENCE_ARGS exactly as parsed so reviewer flags and --max-cycles N retain the same meaning as they have on /gsd:plan-review-convergence.

Bootstrap via milestone-level init:

_GSD_SHIM_NAME="gsd-tools.cjs"; _GSD_RUNTIME_ROOT="${RUNTIME_DIR:-$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel 2>/dev/null || pwd)}"; GSD_TOOLS="${_GSD_RUNTIME_ROOT}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; if [ -f "$GSD_TOOLS" ]; then gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${_GSD_RUNTIME_ROOT}/.claude/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${_GSD_RUNTIME_ROOT}/.claude/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${_GSD_RUNTIME_ROOT}/.codex/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${_GSD_RUNTIME_ROOT}/.codex/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif command -v gsd-tools >/dev/null 2>&1; then GSD_TOOLS="$(command -v gsd-tools)"; gsd_run() { "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "$HOME/.claude/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="$HOME/.claude/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${HERMES_HOME:-$HOME/.hermes}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${CURSOR_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.cursor}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${CURSOR_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.cursor}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${GEMINI_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.gemini}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${GEMINI_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.gemini}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${COPILOT_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.copilot}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${COPILOT_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.copilot}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${WINDSURF_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.codeium/windsurf}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${WINDSURF_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.codeium/windsurf}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${AUGMENT_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.augment}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${AUGMENT_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.augment}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${TRAE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.trae}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${TRAE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.trae}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${QWEN_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.qwen}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${QWEN_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.qwen}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${CODEBUDDY_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.codebuddy}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${CODEBUDDY_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.codebuddy}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${CLINE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.cline}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${CLINE_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.cline}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${GROK_AGENTS_HOME:-$HOME/.agents}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${GROK_AGENTS_HOME:-$HOME/.agents}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${ANTIGRAVITY_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.gemini/antigravity}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${ANTIGRAVITY_CONFIG_DIR:-$HOME/.gemini/antigravity}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${OPENCODE_CONFIG_DIR:-${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/opencode}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${OPENCODE_CONFIG_DIR:-${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/opencode}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; elif [ -f "${KILO_CONFIG_DIR:-${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/kilo}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}" ]; then GSD_TOOLS="${KILO_CONFIG_DIR:-${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-$HOME/.config}/kilo}/gsd-core/bin/${_GSD_SHIM_NAME}"; gsd_run() { node "$GSD_TOOLS" "$@"; }; else echo "ERROR: gsd-tools.cjs not found at $GSD_TOOLS and gsd-tools is not on PATH. Run: npx -y @opengsd/gsd-core@latest --claude --local" >&2; exit 1; fi; if [ -n "${CLAUDE_ENV_FILE:-}" ] && [ -n "${GSD_TOOLS:-}" ]; then printf "export PATH='%s':\"\$PATH\"\n" "${GSD_TOOLS%/*}" >> "$CLAUDE_ENV_FILE" 2>/dev/null || true; fi
INIT=$(gsd_run query init.milestone-op)
if [[ "$INIT" == @file:* ]]; then INIT=$(cat "${INIT#@file:}"); fi

If PLAN_STRATEGY is converge, fail fast unless the existing convergence feature gate is enabled:

if [ "$PLAN_STRATEGY" = "converge" ]; then
  CONVERGENCE_ENABLED=$(gsd_run query config-get workflow.plan_review_convergence 2>/dev/null || echo "false")
  if [ "$CONVERGENCE_ENABLED" != "true" ]; then
    printf '%s\n' \
      'gsd-autonomous --converge is disabled (workflow.plan_review_convergence=false).' \
      '' \
      'Enable plan convergence with:' \
      '' \
      '  gsd config-set workflow.plan_review_convergence true' \
      '' \
      'Then re-run the autonomous command with --converge.'
    exit 1
  fi
fi

Parse JSON for: milestone_version, milestone_name, phase_count, completed_phases, roadmap_exists, state_exists, commit_docs.

If roadmap_exists is false: Error — "No ROADMAP.md found. Run /gsd:new-milestone first." If state_exists is false: Error — "No STATE.md found. Run /gsd:new-milestone first."

Display startup banner:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTONOMOUS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 Milestone: {milestone_version} — {milestone_name}
 Phases: {phase_count} total, {completed_phases} complete

If ONLY_PHASE is set, display: Single phase mode: Phase ${ONLY_PHASE} Else if FROM_PHASE is set, display: Starting from phase ${FROM_PHASE} If TO_PHASE is set, display: Stopping after phase ${TO_PHASE} If INTERACTIVE is set, display: Mode: Interactive (discuss inline, plan+execute inline — background on Codex only) If PLAN_STRATEGY is converge, display: Planning: Plan-review convergence enabled

2. Discover Phases

Run phase discovery:

INIT_MANAGER=$(gsd_run query init.manager)
if [[ "$INIT_MANAGER" == @file:* ]]; then INIT_MANAGER=$(cat "${INIT_MANAGER#@file:}"); fi

Parse the JSON phases array.

Filter to incomplete phases: Keep phase_complete !== true, including implemented phases with verification_status !== "passed".

Apply --from N: If set, filter out phases where number < FROM_PHASE (numeric compare; handles "5.1").

Apply --to N: If set, filter out phases where number > TO_PHASE (numeric compare).

Apply --only N: If set, filter out phases where number != ONLY_PHASE.

If TO_PHASE is set and no phases remain (all phases up to N are already completed):

All phases through ${TO_PHASE} are already completed. Nothing to do.

Exit cleanly.

If ONLY_PHASE is set and no phases remain (phase already complete):

Phase ${ONLY_PHASE} is already complete. Nothing to do.

Exit cleanly.

Sort by number in numeric ascending order.

If no incomplete phases remain:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTONOMOUS ▸ COMPLETE 🎉
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 All phases complete! Nothing left to do.

Exit cleanly.

Display phase plan:

## Phase Plan

| # | Phase | Status |
|---|-------|--------|
| 5 | Skill Scaffolding & Phase Discovery | In Progress |
| 6 | Smart Discuss | Not Started |
| 7 | Auto-Chain Refinements | Not Started |
| 8 | Lifecycle Orchestration | Not Started |

Fetch details for each phase:

DETAIL=$(gsd_run query roadmap.get-phase ${PHASE_NUM})

Extract phase_name, goal, success_criteria from each. Store for use in execute_phase and transition messages.

3. Execute Phase

For the current phase, display the progress banner:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTONOMOUS ▸ Phase {N}/{T}: {Name} [████░░░░] {P}%
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Where N = current phase number (from the ROADMAP, e.g., 63), T = total milestone phases (from phase_count parsed in initialize step, e.g., 67). Important: T must be phase_count (the total number of phases in this milestone), NOT the count of remaining/incomplete phases. When phases are numbered 61-67, T=7 and the banner should read Phase 63/7 (phase 63, 7 total in milestone), not Phase 63/3 (which would confuse 3 remaining with 3 total). P = percentage of all milestone phases completed so far. Calculate P as: (number of phases with disk_status "complete" from the latest roadmap analyze / T × 100). Use █ for filled and ░ for empty segments in the progress bar (8 characters wide).

Alternative display when phase numbers exceed total (e.g., multi-milestone projects where phases are numbered globally): If N > T (phase number exceeds milestone phase count), use the format Phase {N} ({position}/{T}) where position is the 1-based index of this phase among incomplete phases being processed. This prevents confusing displays like "Phase 63/5".

3a. Smart Discuss

Check if CONTEXT.md already exists for this phase:

PHASE_STATE=$(gsd_run query init.phase-op ${PHASE_NUM})

Parse has_context from JSON.

If has_context is true: Skip discuss — context already gathered. Display:

Phase ${PHASE_NUM}: Context exists — skipping discuss.

Proceed to 3b.

If has_context is false: Check if discuss is disabled via settings:

SKIP_DISCUSS=$(gsd_run query config-get workflow.skip_discuss 2>/dev/null || echo "false")

If SKIP_DISCUSS is true: Skip discuss entirely — the ROADMAP phase description is the spec. Display:

Phase ${PHASE_NUM}: Discuss skipped (workflow.skip_discuss=true) — using ROADMAP phase goal as spec.

Write a minimal CONTEXT.md so downstream plan-phase has valid input. Get phase details:

DETAIL=$(gsd_run query roadmap.get-phase ${PHASE_NUM})

Extract goal and requirements from JSON. Write ${phase_dir}/${padded_phase}-CONTEXT.md with:

# Phase {PHASE_NUM}: {Phase Name} - Context

**Gathered:** {date}
**Status:** Ready for planning
**Mode:** Auto-generated (discuss skipped via workflow.skip_discuss)

<domain>
## Phase Boundary

{goal from ROADMAP phase description}

</domain>

<decisions>
## Implementation Decisions

### Claude's Discretion
All implementation choices are at Claude's discretion — discuss phase was skipped per user setting. Use ROADMAP phase goal, success criteria, and codebase conventions to guide decisions.

</decisions>

<code_context>
## Existing Code Insights

Codebase context will be gathered during plan-phase research.

</code_context>

<specifics>
## Specific Ideas

No specific requirements — discuss phase skipped. Refer to ROADMAP phase description and success criteria.

</specifics>

<deferred>
## Deferred Ideas

None — discuss phase skipped.

</deferred>

Commit the minimal context:

gsd_run query commit "docs(${PADDED_PHASE}): auto-generated context (discuss skipped)" --files "${phase_dir}/${padded_phase}-CONTEXT.md"

Proceed to 3b.

If SKIP_DISCUSS is false (or unset):

IMPORTANT — Discuss must be single-pass in autonomous mode. The discuss step in --auto mode MUST NOT loop. If CONTEXT.md already exists after discuss completes, do NOT re-invoke discuss for the same phase. The has_context check below is authoritative — once true, discuss is done for this phase regardless of perceived "gaps" in the context file.

If INTERACTIVE is set: Run the standard discuss-phase skill inline (asks interactive questions, waits for user answers). This preserves user input on all design decisions while keeping plan+execute out of the main context:

Skill(skill="gsd-discuss-phase", args="${PHASE_NUM}")

If INTERACTIVE is NOT set: Execute the smart_discuss step for this phase (batch table proposals, auto-optimized).

After discuss completes (either mode), verify context was written:

PHASE_STATE=$(gsd_run query init.phase-op ${PHASE_NUM})

Check has_context. If false → go to handle_blocker: "Discuss for phase ${PHASE_NUM} did not produce CONTEXT.md."

3a.5. UI Design Contract (Frontend Phases)

Resolve active plan:pre hooks:

UI_SPEC_FILE=$(ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-UI-SPEC.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
HOOKS_JSON=$(gsd_run loop render-hooks plan:pre --raw)

Read the activeHooks array directly from HOOKS_JSON (in-context — do NOT invoke a shell pipeline). Compute the active UI step hooks = entries from activeHooks where kind == "step" and ref.skill is set. If there are NO active step hooks → skip silently to 3b. (This covers workflow.ui_phase=false — including configurations where only a gate-only entry is present, e.g. ui_phase=false + ui_safety_gate=true produces activeHooks=[{kind:"gate"}]. Autonomous never runs the plan:pre gate — it is always pipeline mode — so a gate-only active set is equivalent to no active step and is silently skipped here. This matches OLD §3a.5 behaviour.)

(At least one active step hook ⇒ workflow.ui_phase is on.) Run the UI-SPEC gate:

GATE=$(gsd_run check ui-plan-gate "${PHASE_NUM}" --raw)

Read frontend and hasUiSpec from GATE (in-context).

If frontend is false: Skip silently to 3b.

If hasUiSpec is true (UI-SPEC already exists): Skip silently to 3b.

Otherwise (frontend phase + no UI-SPEC): For each active step hook (the kind == "step" set from above, in array order):

Skill(skill="gsd-${ref.skill}", args="${PHASE_NUM}")

(Prepend gsd- to ref.skill — so ui-phase → gsd-ui-phase. Bare ${PHASE_NUM} args — autonomous style, same pattern as the verify:post dispatch.) Entries where kind == "gate" are silently ignored — autonomous is always pipeline mode, there is no blocking gate here.

After all step hooks return, re-read:

UI_SPEC_FILE=$(ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-UI-SPEC.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)

If UI_SPEC_FILE is still empty: Display warning Phase ${PHASE_NUM}: UI-SPEC generation did not produce output — continuing without design contract. and proceed to 3b. NON-BLOCKING.

3b. Plan

If INTERACTIVE is set: Background dispatch is only safe on a runtime where a backgrounded agent can still nest the pipeline's subagents (plan-checker / worktree executors / verifier). Among supported runtimes only Codex (spawn_agent) can do this; Claude Code's backgrounded agents have no Agent/Task tool, and every other runtime either prohibits nested subagents or disables them by default. So run inline everywhere except Codex, which is dispatched in the background. Resolve the runtime first:

RUNTIME=$(gsd_run query config-get runtime --default claude --raw 2>/dev/null || echo "claude")

• If RUNTIME is codex: Dispatch plan as a background agent to keep the main context lean. While plan runs, the workflow can immediately start discussing the next phase (see step 4).

  • If PLAN_STRATEGY=converge, print: ◆ Spawning background plan-convergence loop for phase ${PHASE_NUM}... (runs in a subagent — no output until it returns, ~1–5 min; expected, not a freeze)

  Agent(
    description="Plan convergence phase ${PHASE_NUM}: ${PHASE_NAME}",
    run_in_background=true,
    prompt="Run plan convergence for phase ${PHASE_NUM}: Skill(skill=\"gsd-plan-review-convergence\", args=\"${PHASE_NUM} ${CONVERGENCE_ARGS}\")"
  )
  

  • Otherwise, print: ◆ Spawning background planner for phase ${PHASE_NUM}... (runs in a subagent — no output until it returns, ~1–5 min; expected, not a freeze)

  Agent(
    description="Plan phase ${PHASE_NUM}: ${PHASE_NAME}",
    run_in_background=true,
    prompt="Run plan-phase for phase ${PHASE_NUM}: Skill(skill=\"gsd-plan-phase\", args=\"${PHASE_NUM}\")"
  )
  

  Store the agent task_id. After discuss for the next phase completes (or if no next phase), wait for the plan agent to finish before proceeding to execute.

• Otherwise (Claude Code or any other non-Codex runtime): Run plan inline (do NOT background) so the plan-checker runs. The next phase's discuss does not overlap planning here — correctness over overlap.

  • If PLAN_STRATEGY=converge:

  Skill(skill="gsd-plan-review-convergence", args="${PHASE_NUM} ${CONVERGENCE_ARGS}")
  

  • Otherwise (local planning):

  Skill(skill="gsd-plan-phase", args="${PHASE_NUM}")
  

If INTERACTIVE is NOT set (default): Run plan inline.

If PLAN_STRATEGY=converge, run the convergence loop:

Skill(skill="gsd-plan-review-convergence", args="${PHASE_NUM} ${CONVERGENCE_ARGS}")

If PLAN_STRATEGY=local, run the regular planner:

Skill(skill="gsd-plan-phase", args="${PHASE_NUM}")

Verify plan produced output — re-run init phase-op and check has_plans. If false → go to handle_blocker: "Plan phase ${PHASE_NUM} did not produce any plans."

3c. Execute

If INTERACTIVE is set: Wait for the plan agent to complete (if not already) and verify plans exist. Background dispatch is only safe on a runtime where a backgrounded agent can still nest the pipeline's subagents (plan-checker / worktree executors / verifier). Among supported runtimes only Codex (spawn_agent) can do this; Claude Code's backgrounded agents have no Agent/Task tool, and every other runtime either prohibits nested subagents or disables them by default. So run inline everywhere except Codex, which is dispatched in the background. Resolve the runtime first:

RUNTIME=$(gsd_run query config-get runtime --default claude --raw 2>/dev/null || echo "claude")

• If RUNTIME is codex: Dispatch execute as a background agent:

Agent(
  description="Execute phase ${PHASE_NUM}: ${PHASE_NAME}",
  run_in_background=true,
  prompt="Run execute-phase for phase ${PHASE_NUM}: Skill(skill=\"gsd-execute-phase\", args=\"${PHASE_NUM} --no-transition\")"
)

Store the agent task_id. The workflow can now start discussing the next phase while this phase executes in the background. Before starting post-execution routing for this phase, wait for the execute agent to complete.

• Otherwise (Claude Code or any other non-Codex runtime): Run execute inline (do NOT background) so worktree isolation and verification run:

Skill(skill="gsd-execute-phase", args="${PHASE_NUM} --no-transition")

If INTERACTIVE is NOT set (default): Run execute inline as before.

Skill(skill="gsd-execute-phase", args="${PHASE_NUM} --no-transition")

3c.5. Code Review and Fix

Auto-invoke code review and fix chain. Autonomous mode chains both review and fix (unlike execute-phase/quick which only suggest fix).

Capability dispatch:

EXECUTE_POST_HOOKS_JSON=$(gsd_run loop render-hooks execute:post --raw)

Resolve active step hooks from EXECUTE_POST_HOOKS_JSON where kind == "step" and ref.skill == "code-review".

If no active code-review step hook exists: display "Code review skipped (code-review capability inactive)" and proceed to 3d. This covers workflow.code_review=false through the Capability Registry; do not query the code-review toggle directly here.

For each active code-review step hook, dispatch the skill using the registry-provided stem:

Skill(skill="gsd-${ref.skill}", args="${PHASE_NUM}")

Parse status from REVIEW.md frontmatter. If "clean" or "skipped": proceed to 3d. If findings found after the capability-dispatched review, auto-invoke the consolidated fix entry point:

Skill(skill="gsd-code-review", args="${PHASE_NUM} --fix --auto")

Error handling: If either Skill fails, catch the error, display as non-blocking, and proceed to 3d.

3d. Post-Execution Routing

After execute, read canonical verification:

VERIFY_STATUS=$(gsd_run query verification.status "${PHASE_DIR}" 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.status//empty')

If PHASE_DIR is absent, re-fetch init.phase-op ${PHASE_NUM} and parse phase_dir.

If VERIFY_STATUS is empty, handle_blocker: "No verification results for phase ${PHASE_NUM}."

If passed:

Display Phase ${PHASE_NUM} ✅ ${PHASE_NAME} — Verification passed, run @~/.claude/gsd-core/workflows/transition.md, then Proceed to iterate step.

If stale: handle_blocker: "Stale verification for phase ${PHASE_NUM}."

If human_needed:

Read human_verification items. In text mode (--text or init text_mode=true), replace AskUserQuestion with a numbered list and typed choice. Otherwise display items and ask:

• question: "Phase ${PHASE_NUM} has items needing manual verification. Validate now or continue to next phase?"
• options: "Validate now" / "Continue without validation"

On "Validate now": Present items, then ask:

• question: "Validation result?"
• options: "All good — continue" / "Found issues"

On "All good — continue": set VERIFICATION frontmatter status: passed, display Phase ${PHASE_NUM} ✅ Human validation passed, run @~/.claude/gsd-core/workflows/transition.md, then iterate.

On "Found issues": Go to handle_blocker with the user's reported issues as the description.

On "Continue without validation": record an explicit deferred state and stop autonomous mode:

## Deferred Verification

| Phase | State | Resume |
|-------|-------|--------|
| ${PHASE_NUM} | verification_deferred_human | /gsd:verify-work ${PHASE_NUM} |

Append/update this STATE.md section, display Phase ${PHASE_NUM} ⏭ verification_deferred_human — resume with /gsd:verify-work ${PHASE_NUM}, then handle_blocker: "Human verification deferred for phase ${PHASE_NUM}."

If gaps_found:

Read gap score/items from VERIFICATION.md. Display:

⚠ Phase ${PHASE_NUM}: ${PHASE_NAME} — Gaps Found
Score: {N}/{M} must-haves verified

Ask user via AskUserQuestion:

• question: "Gaps found in phase ${PHASE_NUM}. How to proceed?"
• options: "Run gap closure" / "Continue without fixing" / "Stop autonomous mode"

On "Run gap closure": one gap-closure attempt:

Skill(skill="gsd-plan-phase", args="${PHASE_NUM} --gaps")

Re-run init phase-op ${PHASE_NUM}; if has_plans is false, handle_blocker: "Gap closure planning for phase ${PHASE_NUM} did not produce plans."

Re-execute:

Skill(skill="gsd-execute-phase", args="${PHASE_NUM} --no-transition")

Re-read verification status:

VERIFY_STATUS=$(gsd_run query verification.status "${PHASE_DIR}" 2>/dev/null | jq -r '.status//empty')

If passed or human_needed: route normally.

If stale: handle_blocker: "Stale verification for phase ${PHASE_NUM}."

If still gaps_found after this retry: Display "Gaps persist after closure attempt." and ask via AskUserQuestion:

• question: "Gap closure did not fully resolve issues. How to proceed?"
• options: "Continue anyway" / "Stop autonomous mode"

On "Continue anyway": record verification_deferred_gaps using the table below, display Phase ${PHASE_NUM} ⏭ verification_deferred_gaps — resume with /gsd:plan-phase ${PHASE_NUM} --gaps, then handle_blocker: "Verification gaps deferred for phase ${PHASE_NUM}." On "Stop autonomous mode": Go to handle_blocker.

This limits gap closure to 1 retry.

On "Continue without fixing": record an explicit deferred state and stop autonomous mode:

## Deferred Verification

| Phase | State | Resume |
|-------|-------|--------|
| ${PHASE_NUM} | verification_deferred_gaps | /gsd:plan-phase ${PHASE_NUM} --gaps |

Append/update this STATE.md section, display Phase ${PHASE_NUM} ⏭ verification_deferred_gaps — resume with /gsd:plan-phase ${PHASE_NUM} --gaps, then handle_blocker: "Verification gaps deferred for phase ${PHASE_NUM}."

On "Stop autonomous mode": Go to handle_blocker with "User stopped — gaps remain in phase ${PHASE_NUM}".

3d.5. UI Review (Frontend Phases)

Run only after passed or human verification was updated to passed.

Resolve the active post-verification hooks and the UI-SPEC gate:

UI_SPEC_FILE=$(ls "${PHASE_DIR}"/*-UI-SPEC.md 2>/dev/null | head -1)
HOOKS_JSON=$(gsd_run loop render-hooks verify:post --raw)

Read the activeHooks array directly from the HOOKS_JSON value already in context (do not invoke a shell jq pipeline — parse as the JSON object it is). If activeHooks is empty or absent: skip silently to the iterate step.

For each entry in activeHooks in array order where kind == "step" and ref.skill is set:

• Honor consumes: if the hook's consumes array includes "UI-SPEC.md" and UI_SPEC_FILE is empty (no *-UI-SPEC.md exists in PHASE_DIR) → skip that hook (onError: skip). Hooks that do not declare "UI-SPEC.md" in their consumes proceed normally regardless of UI_SPEC_FILE.
• Invoke:

Skill(skill="gsd-${ref.skill}", args="${PHASE_NUM}")

(i.e. prepend gsd- to ref.skill — so ui-review → gsd-ui-review.)

Display the review result summary and score from UI-REVIEW.md if produced. Continue to iterate step regardless of result — hooks at this point are advisory, not blocking.

Smart Discuss

Full instructions are in gsd-core/references/autonomous-smart-discuss.md. Read that file now and follow it exactly.

Smart discuss is an autonomous-optimized variant of gsd-discuss-phase. It proposes grey area answers in batch tables — the user accepts or overrides per area — and writes an identical CONTEXT.md to what discuss-phase produces.

Inputs: PHASE_NUM from execute_phase.

Read and execute: $HOME/.claude/gsd-core/references/autonomous-smart-discuss.md

4. Iterate

If ONLY_PHASE is set: Do not iterate. Proceed directly to lifecycle step (which exits cleanly per single-phase mode).

If TO_PHASE is set and current phase number >= TO_PHASE: The target phase has been reached. Do not iterate further. Display:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTONOMOUS ▸ --to ${TO_PHASE} REACHED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 Completed through phase ${TO_PHASE} as requested.
 Remaining phases were not executed.

 Resume with: /gsd:autonomous --from ${next_incomplete_phase}

Proceed to lifecycle step (partial completion skips audit/complete/cleanup). Exit cleanly.

Otherwise: After each phase, re-read manager projection:

INIT_MANAGER=$(gsd_run query init.manager)
if [[ "$INIT_MANAGER" == @file:* ]]; then INIT_MANAGER=$(cat "${INIT_MANAGER#@file:}"); fi

Re-filter incomplete phases using the same logic as discover_phases:

• Keep phases where phase_complete !== true or verification_status !== "passed"
• Apply --from N filter if originally provided
• Apply --to N filter if originally provided
• Sort by number ascending

Read STATE.md fresh:

cat .planning/STATE.md

Check for blockers in the Blockers/Concerns section. If blockers are found, go to handle_blocker with the blocker description.

If incomplete phases remain: proceed to next phase, loop back to execute_phase.

Interactive mode overlap: When INTERACTIVE is set, the iterate step enables pipeline parallelism on Codex (on every other runtime, plan/execute run inline — see 3b/3c — so there is no overlap and phases run sequentially):

1. After discuss completes for Phase N, dispatch plan+execute as background agents
2. Immediately start discuss for Phase N+1 (the next incomplete phase) while Phase N builds
3. Before starting plan for Phase N+1, wait for Phase N's execute agent to complete and handle its post-execution routing (verification, gap closure, etc.)

This means the user is always answering discuss questions (lightweight, interactive) while the heavy work (planning, code generation) runs in the background. The main context only accumulates discuss conversations — plan and execute contexts are isolated in their agents. (On Claude Code and all other non-Codex runtimes, plan and execute run inline, so they run sequentially and their work accumulates in the main context.)

If all phases complete, proceed to lifecycle step.

5. Lifecycle

If ONLY_PHASE is set: Skip lifecycle. A single phase does not trigger audit/complete/cleanup. Display:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTONOMOUS ▸ PHASE ${ONLY_PHASE} COMPLETE ✓
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 Phase ${ONLY_PHASE}: ${PHASE_NAME} — Done
 Mode: Single phase (--only)

 Lifecycle skipped — run /gsd:autonomous without --only
 after all phases complete to trigger audit/complete/cleanup.

Exit cleanly.

Otherwise: After all phases complete, run the milestone lifecycle sequence: audit → complete → cleanup.

Display lifecycle transition banner:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTONOMOUS ▸ LIFECYCLE
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 All phases complete → Starting lifecycle: audit → complete → cleanup
 Milestone: {milestone_version} — {milestone_name}

5a. Audit

Skill(skill="gsd-audit-milestone")

After audit completes, detect the result:

AUDIT_FILE=".planning/v${milestone_version}-MILESTONE-AUDIT.md"
AUDIT_STATUS=$(grep "^status:" "${AUDIT_FILE}" 2>/dev/null | head -1 | cut -d: -f2 | tr -d ' ')

If AUDIT_STATUS is empty (no audit file or no status field):

Go to handle_blocker: "Audit did not produce results — audit file missing or malformed."

If passed:

Display:

Audit ✅ passed — proceeding to complete milestone

Proceed to 5b (no user pause — per CTRL-01).

If gaps_found:

Read the gaps summary from the audit file. Display:

⚠ Audit: Gaps Found

Ask user via AskUserQuestion:

• question: "Milestone audit found gaps. How to proceed?"
• options: "Continue anyway — accept gaps" / "Stop — fix gaps manually"

On "Continue anyway": Display Audit ⏭ Gaps accepted — proceeding to complete milestone and proceed to 5b.

On "Stop": Go to handle_blocker with "User stopped — audit gaps remain. Run /gsd:audit-milestone to review, then /gsd:complete-milestone when ready."

If tech_debt:

Read the tech debt summary from the audit file. Display:

⚠ Audit: Tech Debt Identified

Show the summary, then ask user via AskUserQuestion:

• question: "Milestone audit found tech debt. How to proceed?"
• options: "Continue with tech debt" / "Stop — address debt first"

On "Continue with tech debt": Display Audit ⏭ Tech debt acknowledged — proceeding to complete milestone and proceed to 5b.

On "Stop": Go to handle_blocker with "User stopped — tech debt to address. Run /gsd:audit-milestone to review details."

5b. Complete Milestone

Skill(skill="gsd-complete-milestone", args="${milestone_version}")

After complete-milestone returns, verify it produced output:

ls .planning/milestones/v${milestone_version}-ROADMAP.md 2>/dev/null || true

If the archive file does not exist, go to handle_blocker: "Complete milestone did not produce expected archive files."

5c. Cleanup

Skill(skill="gsd-cleanup")

Cleanup shows its own dry-run and asks user for approval internally — this is an acceptable pause per CTRL-01 since it's an explicit decision about file deletion.

5d. Final Completion

Display final completion banner:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTONOMOUS ▸ COMPLETE 🎉
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 Milestone: {milestone_version} — {milestone_name}
 Status: Complete ✅
 Lifecycle: audit ✅ → complete ✅ → cleanup ✅

 Ship it! 🚀

6. Handle Blocker

When any phase operation fails or a blocker is detected, present 3 options via AskUserQuestion:

Prompt: "Phase {N} ({Name}) encountered an issue: {description}"

Options:

1. "Fix and retry" — Re-run the failed step (discuss, plan, or execute) for this phase
2. "Skip this phase" — Mark phase as skipped, continue to the next incomplete phase
3. "Stop autonomous mode" — Display summary of progress so far and exit cleanly

On "Fix and retry": Loop back to the failed step within execute_phase. If the same step fails again after retry, re-present these options.

On "Skip this phase": Log Phase {N} ⏭ {Name} — Skipped by user and proceed to iterate.

On "Stop autonomous mode": Display progress summary:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► AUTONOMOUS ▸ STOPPED
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

 Completed: {list of completed phases}
 Skipped: {list of skipped phases}
 Remaining: {list of remaining phases}

 Resume with: /gsd:autonomous ${ONLY_PHASE ? "--only " + ONLY_PHASE : "--from " + next_phase}${TO_PHASE ? " --to " + TO_PHASE : ""}

<success_criteria>

• All incomplete phases executed in order (smart discuss → ui-phase → plan → execute → ui-review each)
• Smart discuss proposes grey area answers in tables, user accepts or overrides per area
• Progress banners displayed between phases
• Execute-phase invoked with --no-transition (autonomous manages transitions)
• Post-execution verification reads VERIFICATION.md and routes on status
• Passed verification → automatic continue to next phase
• Human-needed verification → user prompted to validate or skip
• Gaps-found → user offered gap closure, continue, or stop
• Gap closure limited to 1 retry (prevents infinite loops)
• Plan-phase and execute-phase failures route to handle_blocker
• ROADMAP.md re-read after each phase (catches inserted phases)
• STATE.md checked for blockers before each phase
• Blockers handled via user choice (retry / skip / stop)
• Final completion or stop summary displayed
• After all phases complete, lifecycle step is invoked (not manual suggestion)
• Lifecycle transition banner displayed before audit
• Audit invoked via Skill(skill="gsd-audit-milestone")
• Audit result routing: passed → auto-continue, gaps_found → user decides, tech_debt → user decides
• Audit technical failure (no file/no status) routes to handle_blocker
• Complete-milestone invoked via Skill() with ${milestone_version} arg
• Cleanup invoked via Skill() — internal confirmation is acceptable (CTRL-01)
• Final completion banner displayed after lifecycle
• Progress bar uses phase number / total milestone phases (not position among incomplete), with fallback display when phase numbers exceed total
• Smart discuss documents relationship to discuss-phase with CTRL-03 note
• Frontend phases get UI-SPEC generated before planning (step 3a.5) if not already present
• Frontend phases get UI review audit after successful execution (step 3d.5) if UI-SPEC exists
• UI phase and UI review respect workflow.ui_phase and workflow.ui_review config toggles
• UI review is advisory (non-blocking) — phase proceeds to iterate regardless of score
• --only N restricts execution to exactly one phase
• --only N skips lifecycle step (audit/complete/cleanup)
• --only N exits cleanly after single phase completes
• --only N on already-complete phase exits with message
• --only N handle_blocker resume message uses --only flag
• --to N stops execution after phase N completes (halts at iterate step)
• --to N filters out phases with number > N during discovery
• --to N displays "Stopping after phase N" in startup banner
• --to N on already completed target exits with "already completed" message
• --to N compatible with --from N (run phases from M to N)
• --to N handle_blocker resume message preserves --to flag
• --to N skips lifecycle when not all milestone phases complete
• --interactive runs discuss inline via gsd-discuss-phase (asks questions, waits for user)
• --interactive dispatches plan and execute as background agents on Codex (the only runtime where a backgrounded agent can nest subagents); runs them inline on all other runtimes
• --interactive enables pipeline parallelism (discuss Phase N+1 while Phase N builds) on Codex; phases run sequentially on all other runtimes
• --interactive main context only accumulates discuss conversations on Codex (on all other runtimes, inline plan/execute also accumulate)
• --interactive waits for background agents before post-execution routing
• --interactive compatible with --only, --from, and --to flags
• --converge routes planning through gsd-plan-review-convergence
• --cross-ai is accepted as an alias for --converge
• --converge fails fast with enable instructions when workflow.plan_review_convergence=false
• --converge forwards reviewer selector flags and --max-cycles N
• Default autonomous planning remains gsd-plan-phase when convergence is not requested </success_criteria>