/flow-next:pilot — single-tick autonomous build-loop conductor Skill

/flow-next:pilot — single-tick autonomous build-loop conductor

A tick is one invocation of /flow-next:pilot: select one ready spec, classify its current stage (plan, plan-review, work, the opt-in qa, make-pr), dispatch exactly one existing stage skill, verify state advanced, and end with one terminal PILOT_VERDICT line. It is intentionally not a runner; /loop in Claude Code or /goal in Claude Code / Codex owns repeated invocation.

Pilot and Ralph are alternative autonomous drivers. Ralph is an external shell loop with receipt plumbing; pilot is an in-session conductor for host loop primitives. Never nest them, and never reuse Ralph harness state inside pilot.

Human judgment lives before pilot: the spec content, depends_on_epics, and the fn-58 ready gate are the consent boundary. Pilot executes the mechanical pipeline one stage at a time, with ambiguity reported as NEEDS_HUMAN.

Preamble

CRITICAL: flowctl is BUNDLED — NOT installed globally. which flowctl will fail (expected). Define once; subsequent blocks (here and in workflow.md) use $FLOWCTL. Subagents that run in fresh context fall back to the repo-local copy:

FLOWCTL="${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT:-${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}}/scripts/flowctl"
[ -x "$FLOWCTL" ] || FLOWCTL=".flow/bin/flowctl"

Pre-check: Local setup version

Non-blocking, never asks (autonomous). On mismatch, stash a SETUP_STALE line so the verdict contract can co-locate it with the terminal PILOT_VERDICT (a stderr echo alone gets buried); version_ack never suppresses it. Detection logic is unchanged:

[[ -d .flow/tmp && ! -L .flow/tmp ]] && rm -f .flow/tmp/setup_stale 2>/dev/null
SETUP_VER=$(jq -r '.setup_version // empty' .flow/meta.json 2>/dev/null)
PLUGIN_JSON="${DROID_PLUGIN_ROOT:-${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}}/.claude-plugin/plugin.json"
PLUGIN_VER=$(jq -r '.version' "$PLUGIN_JSON" 2>/dev/null || echo "unknown")
if [[ -n "$SETUP_VER" && "$PLUGIN_VER" != "unknown" && "$SETUP_VER" != "$PLUGIN_VER" ]]; then
  if [[ ! -L .flow/tmp ]]; then
    mkdir -p .flow/tmp 2>/dev/null
    rm -f .flow/tmp/setup_stale 2>/dev/null                # drop a planted setup_stale symlink before tee follows it
    echo "SETUP_STALE: local v${SETUP_VER}, plugin v${PLUGIN_VER}, run /flow-next:setup" | tee .flow/tmp/setup_stale >&2
  else
    echo "SETUP_STALE: local v${SETUP_VER}, plugin v${PLUGIN_VER}, run /flow-next:setup" >&2
  fi
fi

Continue regardless (never blocks; fail-open - silent when setup was never run, versions match, or any read fails). Symlink guard (autonomous-safety): a repo-committed symlink at .flow/tmp (or at the setup_stale file) would redirect the tee write outside the workspace during an unattended tick. When .flow/tmp is a symlink pilot refuses to stash - stderr echo only, no file write - so the verdict-time cat simply finds nothing (acceptable degradation, never an out-of-tree write); the cleanup guard is likewise symlink-aware (! -L), and the pre-tee rm -f drops a planted setup_stale symlink so tee creates a fresh regular file. See the verdict contract for how the stashed line is emitted before the terminal verdict.

Hard guards (before anything else)

Run these guards before selection, ledger writes, branch changes, or skill dispatch.

if [[ -n "${FLOW_RALPH:-}" || -n "${REVIEW_RECEIPT_PATH:-}" ]]; then
  echo "Ralph and pilot are alternative drivers — never nest them" >&2
  [[ -f .flow/tmp/setup_stale ]] && cat .flow/tmp/setup_stale
  echo 'PILOT_VERDICT=NEEDS_HUMAN spec=- stage=- reason="nested under Ralph harness (FLOW_RALPH/REVIEW_RECEIPT_PATH set) — refuse to run"'
  exit 1
fi

if git status --porcelain | grep -v '^.. \.flow/' >/dev/null; then
  [[ -f .flow/tmp/setup_stale ]] && cat .flow/tmp/setup_stale
  echo 'PILOT_VERDICT=NEEDS_HUMAN spec=- stage=- reason="dirty working tree at tick start"'
  exit 0
fi

Dirty tree means dirty outside .flow/; pilot leaves state untouched. No cleanup, no claim reset, no strike.

Mode Detection

Parse $ARGUMENTS for the scope lock, dry-run switch, and passthroughs. Unknown flags warn to stderr and are ignored. Defaults are research=grep, depth=short, and review resolved later via $FLOWCTL review-backend.

The loop handles both --flag=value and space-separated --flag value forms directly via a PREV token holder. It deliberately avoids bash positional parameters (shift-based parsing) — the host's argument interpolation rewrites positional tokens inside skill code blocks, which corrupts a case-on-positionals parse (observed live in the 1.13.0 dogfood).

RAW_ARGS="$ARGUMENTS"
PILOT_SPEC=""
PILOT_DRY_RUN=0
PILOT_REVIEW=""
PILOT_RESEARCH="grep"
PILOT_DEPTH="short"
PILOT_BACKLOG_OVERRIDE=""   # "" = use config; "1" = force backlog (--backlog/--auto)

PREV=""
for ARG in $RAW_ARGS; do
  case "$PREV" in
    --spec)     PILOT_SPEC="$ARG"; PREV=""; continue ;;
    --review)   PILOT_REVIEW="$ARG"; PREV=""; continue ;;
    --research) PILOT_RESEARCH="$ARG"; PREV=""; continue ;;
    --depth)    PILOT_DEPTH="$ARG"; PREV=""; continue ;;
  esac
  case "$ARG" in
    --spec|--review|--research|--depth) PREV="$ARG" ;;
    --spec=*)     PILOT_SPEC="${ARG#--spec=}" ;;
    --dry-run)    PILOT_DRY_RUN=1 ;;
    --backlog|--auto) PILOT_BACKLOG_OVERRIDE=1 ;;
    --review=*)   PILOT_REVIEW="${ARG#--review=}" ;;
    --research=*) PILOT_RESEARCH="${ARG#--research=}" ;;
    --depth=*)    PILOT_DEPTH="${ARG#--depth=}" ;;
    -*) echo "Unknown flag: $ARG (ignored by /flow-next:pilot)" >&2 ;;
    *)  echo "Unknown argument: $ARG (ignored by /flow-next:pilot)" >&2 ;;
  esac
done
[[ -n "$PREV" ]] && echo "Flag $PREV given without a value (ignored by /flow-next:pilot)" >&2
export PILOT_SPEC PILOT_DRY_RUN PILOT_REVIEW PILOT_RESEARCH PILOT_DEPTH PILOT_BACKLOG_OVERRIDE

No branch flag exists in v1. Branch resolution is pilot-owned from the selected spec's branch_name.

Autonomy mode resolution (R1) — gate the wide backlog behavior

Resolve PILOT_AUTONOMY once, here, so every downstream block keys off a single value. The gate is a strict scalar string-enum — backlog mode activates only on the literal backlog (config pilot.autonomy), or when the per-run --backlog / --auto flag forced the override. Any other config value (ready, null, a coerced bool true, a typo) leaves pilot in ready mode — byte-for-byte unchanged behavior (the references/backlog-mode.md file is never even read):

PILOT_AUTONOMY="$($FLOWCTL config get pilot.autonomy --json | jq -r '.value')"
if [ "$PILOT_BACKLOG_OVERRIDE" = "1" ]; then
  PILOT_AUTONOMY="backlog"                       # --backlog / --auto forces backlog this run
elif [ "$PILOT_AUTONOMY" != "backlog" ]; then
  PILOT_AUTONOMY="ready"                         # ONLY the literal `backlog` enables — never bool true / typos / null
fi
export PILOT_AUTONOMY

When PILOT_AUTONOMY=ready (the default), pilot behaves exactly as documented in workflow.md Phases 1–6 — no backlog-mode code path runs, references/backlog-mode.md is not loaded, and the verdict grammar/stage set/forbidden block are unchanged. When PILOT_AUTONOMY=backlog, the SELECT and TRIAGE/ASK phases follow references/backlog-mode.md (loaded only then), the verdict grammar gains ASKED, and the safety invariants below are active. FLOW_AUTONOMOUS=1 is exported into every sub-skill / tracker-sync dispatch so the whole tick runs unattended (AskUserQuestion is never reached).

The verdict contract (read this before the workflow)

The /goal validator is transcript-blind: it reads conversation output only and never runs tools. Every tick therefore echoes its verification evidence into the output: flowctl status fields, task counts, task status transitions, and the gh-confirmed PR URL for make-pr.

Every tick ends with exactly one terminal line, the last line of the response, with nothing after it:

PILOT_VERDICT=<ADVANCED|ASKED|NO_WORK|DEFERRED_TO_LAND|BLOCKED|NEEDS_HUMAN> spec=<id> stage=<stage> reason="<one line>"

Use spec=- and stage=- when no spec was selected. Stage values are exactly plan, plan-review, work, qa (opt-in — only when pipeline.qa==on), make-pr, land, plus triage/ask (backlog mode only), or -.

SETUP_STALE line. Whenever the pre-check detected a setup-version mismatch it wrote .flow/tmp/setup_stale. At EVERY terminal PILOT_VERDICT emission - the Phase 6 line, each hard-guard exit, the backlog invariant-assert exits (Phase 0.5 / 1.5), and the dry-run early-terminal lines (Phase 1.6 TRIAGED, Phase 2 classification stop) - first print that file's SETUP_STALE: local v<X>, plugin v<Y>, run /flow-next:setup line, so it lands in the same output block immediately before the verdict and survives into driver logs. Emit it verbatim (cat .flow/tmp/setup_stale in bash blocks; a plain preceding line when the verdict is printed as text). It never blocks, is never suppressed, and fail-opens to nothing when the file is absent.

DEFERRED_TO_LAND is a distinct non-terminal-work verdict (stage land): every remaining all-done candidate has an open PR that land — not pilot — owns. It is deliberately separated from NO_WORK so a driver can route it to /flow-next:land instead of stopping; an all-done spec with an open PR is real outstanding work, never absence of work.

Backlog-mode verdict grammar (R10 — only when `PILOT_AUTONOMY=backlog`)

Backlog mode ADDS ASKED and reuses the existing terminals; it changes none of them:

ASKED <id> (<n>) — a durable park. The ask stage wrote a status=open question anchor (spec ## Open Questions for a spec-backed item, or the tracker comment alone for a tracker-only item), so the next tick's SELECT skips this subject. <n> is the count of open questions surfaced. Stage = ask.
ADVANCED <id> <stage> and BLOCKED <id> by <dep> — reused unchanged (BLOCKED here = ready-but-dep-unsatisfied, a state-changing surface of the dep wait).
NO_WORK and DEFERRED_TO_LAND are kept VERBATIM — drivers grep DEFERRED_TO_LAND to route an all-done-with-open-PR spec to /flow-next:land, and /goal//loop stop-clauses key on NO_WORK; coalescing either into a generic "idle" would break the land hand-off and the loop-stop. Never rename them.
No PROMOTED verb — the agent never sets the ready flag; promotion is the human's board act.

TRIAGED <id> <class> is DIAGNOSTIC / dry-run ONLY — emitted only under a triage-only inspection (--dry-run). The split is explicit:

Live backlog grammar (no --dry-run): ADVANCED | ASKED | NO_WORK | DEFERRED_TO_LAND | BLOCKED | NEEDS_HUMAN — TRIAGED is NOT a live terminal. A live triage always resolves to a state-changing terminal, so an item can never re-select forever. A live tick MUST NOT end on a bare TRIAGED no-op line. The primary grammar line above (which /loop//goal drivers read) is exactly this live set.
Dry-run-only grammar (--dry-run): adds TRIAGED <id> <class> as the diagnostic terminal — the tick classifies and stops, dispatching nothing and parking nothing. A /loop//goal driver never runs --dry-run, so it never sees TRIAGED.

Driver condition examples:

/goal keep running /flow-next:pilot until it prints PILOT_VERDICT=NO_WORK, or stop after 20 turns
/goal keep running /flow-next:pilot --review=codex until PILOT_VERDICT=NO_WORK or PILOT_VERDICT=NEEDS_HUMAN

Forbidden

Asking the user anything in the tick path. Pilot is autonomous; ambiguity maps to NEEDS_HUMAN. In backlog mode, ambiguity that needs a person is surfaced async via the ask stage (ASKED) — never an interactive AskUserQuestion.
Dispatching any skill outside the stage set {plan, plan-review, work, make-pr} — plus qa only when pipeline.qa==on (fn-72: an opt-in, gate-reversed stage at the all-done juncture before make-pr; with the gate off, qa is forbidden and the stage set is byte-for-byte unchanged). Backlog mode (PILOT_AUTONOMY=backlog) additionally invokes /flow-next:tracker-sync for the reconcile / list-open / list-relations / question ops — these are read/surface-only tracker calls (list-relations is the per-issue dependency-relation READ for dep-ordering), not a pipeline stage, and run only on the backlog path. Capture, interview, resolve-pr, merge, and release are never pilot stages — they stay forbidden for their distinct reasons (capture/interview are human authoring upstream of the consent boundary; resolve-pr/merge/release are land's territory downstream of the PR). Opening qa under its gate or tracker-sync under backlog mode is not a precedent to open any of those five.
Re-implementing sub-skill logic. Pilot owns selection, dispatch, verification, verdicts, and the strikes ledger only. The backlog-mode SELECT/TRIAGE/ASK workflow lives in references/backlog-mode.md (loaded only when PILOT_AUTONOMY=backlog); the question-anchor authoring + answer round-trip live in tracker-sync — backlog mode invokes them, never re-implements them.
Never merging / never invoking land (R6) — in either mode, the terminus is make-pr (draft). Merge stays human-gated. Backlog mode never calls /flow-next:land, gh pr merge, or any merge path.
Never authoring a spec (backlog mode) — capture/interview are human-gated upstream. A missing/too-thin spec is surfaced as a "needs capture/interview" gap and parked (ASKED), never auto-written. The only writing the ask stage may do is fill an obvious blank in an existing spec — never create a spec stub from a bare ticket.
Touching gh anywhere except the all-done classification branch's PR probe and the make-pr verification probe.
Printing anything after the PILOT_VERDICT line.
Running under Ralph (FLOW_RALPH / REVIEW_RECEIPT_PATH).

Workflow

Execute workflow.md in order:

guards — refuse Ralph nesting, refuse dirty non-.flow/ start state, resolve the .git strikes ledger (read-only at this point).
select — two-pass ready-spec selection with dependency, claim, and re-bless checks.
classify — derive one stage from flowctl state; probe gh only in the all-done branch.
branch — resolve the spec branch matrix before work or make-pr.
dispatch — invoke exactly one stage skill with mode:autonomous plus review/research/depth passthroughs.
verify — re-read flowctl state, or gh for make-pr, and echo before/after evidence.
report — clear or record strikes, optionally unready on the second healthy no-advance tick, and print the terminal verdict.

Backlog mode (PILOT_AUTONOMY=backlog). When the autonomy gate resolved to backlog, the SELECT and TRIAGE/ASK behavior follows references/backlog-mode.md — the agentic floor scheduler (loaded only in this mode). It widens SELECT (pull-before-scan, union tracker-only items, dep-order, skip parked) and adds the triage/ask stages in front of CLASSIFY; a workable item flows into the existing classify → branch → dispatch → verify path unchanged. workflow.md Phase 0.5 resolves the mode and routes; workflow.md Phase 1.5/Phase 3.5 carry the backlog SELECT + TRIAGE/ASK hooks and the safety invariants. The single-tick contract is unchanged: one item, one stage or one durable park, one terminal verdict.

Unattended runs — rp caveat

The rp review backend runs headlessly via rp-cli — it only needs the Repo Prompt app running on the same Mac (cold start: open -ga "Repo Prompt", MCP responds within seconds; a stopped app fails FAST with a clear error, never a hang). For machines without the app (remote/CI), use --review=codex, --review=copilot, or --review=none. Wall-clock limits and iteration caps belong to the driver (/goal --tokens, /goal stop clauses, or /loop cadence); a pilot tick has no timeout machinery.

Agent Skills: /flow-next:pilot — single-tick autonomous build-loop conductor

Install this agent skill to your local

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