BDD Orchestrator

BDD Orchestrator

Behavior-first development for features. Discovery → Scenarios → Implementation.

Iron Law: DEFINE BEHAVIOR BEFORE IMPLEMENTATION

Phase Tracking

Features progress through phases. Track in ticket frontmatter:

---
type: feature
phase: implement # intake | define-behavior | scenario-gate | decomposition | implement | done
---

Phase meanings:

Update phase when:

• Completing a BDD phase → set next phase
• Handing off to TDD → set implement
• All scenarios pass → set done

Resume Logic

When user references a ticket, resume work:

1. Read ticket → get current phase:
2. Find progress → first unchecked [ ] in test-definitions
3. Check context → read last work log entry
4. Announce resume → "Resuming at [phase]. Last: [log entry]."

Resume by phase:

Current Behavior

1. Detect work level (see SAFEWORD.md "Work Level Detection")
2. If user references iteration/​story/​phase from a spec:
   • Check if child ticket exists for that iteration
   • If not → create ticket, run full BDD
   • If yes → resume at current phase
3. Announce with override hint
4. If ticket exists: Read phase, resume at appropriate point
5. Artifact-first rule: Before doing work, create/​verify the phase artifact:
   • Phase 0-2 → ticket at .safeword-project/​tickets/​{id}-{slug}/​ticket.md
   • Phase 3 → test-definitions at .safeword-project/​tickets/​{id}-{slug}/​test-definitions.md
   • Phase 5 → task breakdown in ticket
6. Execute phase using the appropriate phase file
7. Update phase in ticket when transitioning

Phase Files

Load the appropriate file based on current phase:

For splitting large features, see SPLITTING.md.

Key Takeaways

• patch/​task → TDD directly (RED → GREEN → REFACTOR)
• feature → full BDD flow (Phases 0-7), track in ticket phase: field
• Resume → read ticket, find first unchecked scenario, continue
• Split → check thresholds at Entry, Phase 3, Phase 5; user decides (see SPLITTING.md)
• Done gate → run /​done before marking ticket complete
• When unsure → default to task, user can /​bdd to override