archon-symphony-pipeline

A 7-stage stage-gate SDLC pipeline for Archon, ported from the symphony-multi-agent methodology.

  Triage  ->  Explore  ->  Implement  ->  Review  ->  QA  ->  Learn  ->  Done
                                \                       \
                                 +-> Blocked             +-> Blocked
                                                          (QA failure rewinds to Implement)

Each stage has a single, opinionated job and writes its evidence to $ARTIFACTS_DIR/<stage>.md. The QA stage is hard-gated on executing real code — inspection-only is a failed QA. The Done stage refuses to run without a green QA verdict.

The pipeline is language- and stack-agnostic. It works for any project that provides a PROJECT_CONTEXT.md describing the mission, locked tech stack, and hard rules.

What you get

.archon/
├── commands/
│   ├── symphony-triage.md       # Todo  -> route to Explore
│   ├── symphony-explore.md      # Domain brief, plan candidates, recommendation
│   ├── symphony-implement.md    # TDD loop, no code without a failing test
│   ├── symphony-review.md       # Diff review, fix CRITICAL/HIGH
│   ├── symphony-qa.md           # MUST execute real code (tests, curl, schema)
│   ├── symphony-learn.md        # Distill learnings, write back to wiki
│   └── symphony-done.md         # Terminal As-Is -> To-Be report
└── workflows/
    └── symphony-pipeline.yaml   # Wires the 7 commands as a depends_on chain

You can run the whole pipeline end-to-end (symphony-pipeline.yaml) or invoke individual commands from your own custom workflows.

Install

1. Prerequisite: Archon CLI installed and working (install guide).
2. Copy the .archon/ tree into your target repository:

   cp -r path/to/archon-symphony-pipeline/.archon/* /path/to/your-repo/.archon/

3. Drop a PROJECT_CONTEXT.md at your repo root (see examples/PROJECT_CONTEXT.md.example). The pipeline reads it during Triage and Implement.
4. Verify Archon picks up the new files:

   cd /path/to/your-repo
   archon workflow list | grep symphony-pipeline

Run

# Full pipeline against a ticket file
archon workflow run symphony-pipeline \
  --branch feat/my-feature \
  "Implement kanban/MY-001.md"

# Or skip worktree isolation for repos without a GitHub remote
archon workflow run symphony-pipeline \
  --no-worktree \
  "Implement kanban/MY-001.md"

# Or invoke a single stage as a one-off
archon workflow run archon-assist \
  --no-worktree \
  --workflow archon-assist \
  "Run the symphony-explore command against kanban/MY-001.md"

Watch progress live at the Archon UI (run archon serve in a separate terminal, then open http://localhost:3090).

Stage cheat sheet

Stage	Job	Hard rule
Triage	Confirm request is actionable	No design, no code
Explore	Brief + plan options + recommendation	Must specify the first failing test
Implement	TDD loop on the chosen plan	No production code without a failing test
Review	Re-read your own diff, fix CRITICAL/HIGH	Every CRITICAL and HIGH must be fixed
QA	Execute real code, capture evidence	Inspection-only = failed QA
Learn	Update the project knowledge base	Zero wiki updates must be defended
Done	As-Is → To-Be report	No Done without **all green** QA verdict

Audience and writing style

Every stage's artefact opens with a plain-language header so non-developers (PMs, designers, stakeholders) can grasp the work in ~30 seconds:

**무엇**: <한 줄, 비-개발자도 이해 가능>
**왜**: <한 줄, 어떤 가치/위험이 있는지>
**As-Is → To-Be**:
- As-Is: <한 줄, 이 단계 시작 전>
- To-Be: <한 줄, 이 단계 종료 후>

The shape works in any language — substitute **What** / **Why** / **As-Is → To-Be** for English-only projects. The body cap matters more than the wording: each stage has explicit caps so artefacts stay scannable.

Why a stage gate?

The original symphony-multi-agent project found three failure modes that unstructured agent loops fall into repeatedly:

1. Skipped exploration — the agent dives into code, then has to redesign halfway through.
2. Inspection-as-QA — the agent claims tests pass without running them.
3. No write-back — the next ticket's agent re-discovers the same gotchas.

The seven-stage gate forces each failure mode into a separate, named gate that an outside observer (human or another agent) can reject independently.

Customising the prompts

The command files in .archon/commands/ are plain markdown — edit them. Common adaptations:

• Replace the 무엇 / 왜 Korean header with **What** / **Why** if your team is English-only.
• Tighten the body caps if your team writes longer artefacts than they read.
• Add project-specific hard rules to symphony-implement.md (Spring Boot examples → React conventions, etc.).

If you fork the prompts, leave a one-line attribution at the top of each file pointing back to this repo. That keeps the lineage clear.

Credits

• symphony-multi-agent — the original stage-gate methodology and per-state prompts.
• Archon — the workflow engine and worktree-isolated execution.

License

MIT — see LICENSE.