# Feature lifecycle

When the job is a product feature, Waykit routes work through specialist roles: grilling, PRD/bet (when the value is unproven), stories, spec, TDD, cross-functional quality, audit, telemetry and release - then confirm or kill flagged bets. Language and framework profiles load on top of that once the stack is known. The **orchestrator stays in the parent chat**. Isolation, sequential and readonly-audit roles on the [subagent allowlist](/docs/subagents) launch as host subagents by default; they write `COMPLETE`/`BLOCKED` to the handover ([subagent launch](/SOPs/subagent-launch)). Run `wk agents status` before routing. Set `WK_SUBAGENTS=0` in the host’s shell, then confirm `mode: skills-only`, to keep those roles as skills in the parent. EDD (**alpha**) is how you prove tool routing in CI; it lives inside TDD when the change is a prompt or a tool schema. Product bets: [hypothesis-driven development](/SOPs/hypothesis-driven-development). Bugs: [hypothesis-driven debug](/SOPs/hypothesis-driven-debug).

| Step | Runtime |
|------|---------|
| Grilling, PRD, stories | Skills in the parent |
| Spec, TDD (gear 1+2), XFN | Host subagents (or skills if `wk agents status` says skills-only) |
| Security / hex-drift audit | Readonly host subagents |
| Telemetry, release, prune | Skills in the parent |

The sequence and Task prompt live on [subagent launch](/SOPs/subagent-launch), not here.

1. **Grilling:** If the idea is still mushy, interview until the decision frontier is clear — including contract vs bet.
2. **PRD / bet:** For bets, write problem, belief, leading indicator, timebox, kill criteria, cheapest experiment, and flag plan (`agent-prd`). Tiny contracts may skip this.
3. **Stories then spec:** INVEST tickets (Hypothesis block on bets; flags in Notes), then Gherkin including flag off/on/kill when flagged.
4. **TDD:** Inventory the behavior catalog (both flag states), then gear 1 (domain) and gear 2 (thin adapters) in the **same** `agent-tdd` subagent. Claim the Linear issue In Progress and assign the host agent first ([linear ticket workflow](/SOPs/linear-ticket-workflow)). Stay on main, uncommitted; output the conventional commit subject with the ticket id. EDD lives here when the change is a prompt or tool schema. Cursor/Claude [TDD Guard hooks](/SOPs/tdd-guard) (`wk tdd-guard install`) block production writes until a failing test run is recorded.
5. **XFN:** Green the apply rows (accessibility, load, security) or skip with a reason — including flag-on surfaces in scope.
6. **Audit:** Security and architecture-drift checks, then pre-commit.
7. **Telemetry and release:** Map SLOs (`agent-telemetry`) and the bet’s leading indicator in PostHog (`agent-posthog`). Ship with a conventional PR title, record flag expiry and rollback.
8. **Close the loop:** After the timebox, measure that leading indicator in PostHog (`wk mcp posthog --install`). Then confirm (default on, prune flag) or kill (flag off, prune slice) via `agent-user-stories` and `agent-prune`. Do not add a separate product-insights role. Turning live PostHog signals into backlog work is the two-session loop on [product signal intake](/SOPs/product-signal-intake) — link only; do not copy the procedure here. Git crime-scene ranking → Linear is [complexity hotspots](/SOPs/complexity-hotspots) §8 — same gate, no extra skill. SonarQube issues are [sonarqube findings](/SOPs/sonarqube-findings) — triage, skip kit disagreements, file one typed ticket after restore default, no extra skill. Coding-agent tokens, cost, and OTel traces are [coding-agent observability](/SOPs/coding-agent-observability) — community SigNoz Docker on the operator machine, SigNoz Cloud ingest for Cloud Agents, `wk mcp signoz` or hosted MCP, `wk eval` for right results, no extra skill. CI, RUM, Lighthouse, and scout alerts that should become typed Linear tickets are [quality loops](/docs/loops) — hygiene, allowlist, then draft PR, no extra skill.

[Orchestrator skill](https://github.com/mzworthington/waykit/blob/main/skills/agent-orchestrator/SKILL.md) · [Coding philosophy](https://github.com/mzworthington/waykit/blob/main/CODING_PHILOSOPHY.md) · [Quality loops](/docs/loops) · [EDD guide (alpha)](/docs/edd) · [Hosts](/docs/hosts) · [Subagent allowlist](/docs/subagents)