org/agents/flea-flicker/SDLC.md

SDLC — Software Development Lifecycle

Source Control Policy

GitHub is the primary source of truth. Paperclip issues must have a corresponding GitHub issue; if one does not exist, create it. Both GitHub and Paperclip issues should remain open until work is completed, reviewed, approved, merged, and QA has been performed.

All changes must happen via pull request. Tag @cpfarhood in all pull requests for visibility only (cc, not review request).

GitHub Authentication

Invoke the github-app-token skill before any GitHub operation. The skill generates a short-lived installation token, writes it to $AGENT_HOME/.gh-token, and authenticates via gh auth login --with-token. Follow whatever the skill says.

NEVER run gh auth login interactively. The interactive device-auth flow hangs headless agents. The skill uses gh auth login --with-token < "$AGENT_HOME/.gh-token" which is non-interactive and correct. Clean up the token file after use with rm -f "$AGENT_HOME/.gh-token".

Token expiry: The generated token expires after ~1 hour. Re-invoke the skill to regenerate if your session runs long enough that it may have expired.

Creating Pull Requests

Use the gh CLI or the GitHub MCP server to create pull requests. Always cc @cpfarhood for visibility — do not request review from @cpfarhood.

gh pr create --title "..." --body "... cc @cpfarhood"

PR Review & Merge Policy

There are three merge points corresponding to three environments. Each has different reviewers and a different authorized merger.

Dev merge (Engineer → Dev branch)

• Reviewer: QA (Lint Roller) — code quality review and GitHub approval
• Merger: QA (Lint Roller)
• Result: Auto-deploys to groombook-dev

UAT merge (Dev → UAT branch)

• Reviewers: QA (Lint Roller) + CTO (The Dogfather)
• Merger: CTO (The Dogfather)
• Result: Auto-deploys to groombook-uat; Shedward then validates the live UAT environment

Production merge (UAT → Production branch)

• Prerequisites: Shedward UAT sign-off + Barkley security review sign-off
• Merger: CEO (Scrubs McBarkley) — sole authorized agent for production merges
• Result: Auto-deploys to groombook (production)

@cpfarhood is not a reviewer. Do not request review from or tag @cpfarhood as a required approver. The board is cc'd for visibility only (cc @cpfarhood in PR body).

Note: Agents have read/write access to dev and UAT environments. Production merges require CEO authorization only after UAT and security gates are cleared.

Handoff Protocol — MANDATORY

The SDLC and handoff protocol is law. Violating it is instant termination for cause. Not even the board may request a bypass — there are no exceptions, ever.

Every time you route work to another agent, you MUST complete ALL THREE steps:

Step 1 — Explicit Assignment (Required)

PATCH the issue with assigneeAgentId: "<target-agent-uuid>". Tagging or @mentioning an agent in a comment is NOT a handoff. The receiving agent will not wake up unless explicitly assigned via the API.

Step 2 — Status Must Be todo (Required)

Every handoff sets status: "todo". NEVER use status: "in_review" when routing to another agent. in_review does not appear in inbox-lite — the receiving agent will never receive a wake event and the task silently dies.

Step 3 — Release Your Checkout Lock (Required)

After reassigning, release your checkout:

POST /api/issues/{issueId}/release
Headers: Authorization: Bearer $PAPERCLIP_API_KEY, X-Paperclip-Run-Id: $PAPERCLIP_RUN_ID

Without this release, the receiving agent cannot checkout the issue. They will receive a 409 Conflict on every attempt and the task will be permanently stuck.

Status Semantics

Understand and enforce these across the entire team:

Status	Meaning
backlog	Not ready to execute yet. Parked or unscheduled work.
todo	Ready and actionable, waiting for agent pickup.
in_progress	Agent is actively working on implementation.
in_review	PR created, CI passing, agent is waiting for review. Self-held status only — never use as a handoff status.
blocked	Cannot proceed until something specific changes. Always document the blocker and who must act.
done	Deployed to target environment AND verified working by QA/UAT. IC agents never set this themselves — only CTO or QA may close IC tasks.
cancelled	Work is intentionally abandoned and should not be resumed.

"Code complete" is in_review, not done. Any IC agent that marks a task done without a PR + CI pass has violated policy — reopen and escalate to CTO.

Status Transition Rules

Never use in_review when requesting anything of another agent. in_review does NOT appear in inbox-lite — using it when routing to any agent means that agent will never receive a wakeup and the task will be invisible to them.

Handoff	Correct status	Wrong status
Engineer → QA (Lint Roller)	todo	in_review
QA → CTO	todo	in_review
CTO → Shedward (UAT validation)	todo	in_review
Shedward UAT pass → CTO → Barkley (security review)	todo	done in_review
CTO → CEO (prod merge)	todo	in_review
Shedward UAT fails → CTO	todo	in_review
Barkley security fails → CTO	todo	in_review

in_review is only valid as a self-held status meaning "I am waiting for async external feedback." Never use it as the handoff status.