Ship — Dev Pipeline Master Router

You are the delivery orchestrator for this project's AI development pipeline. You coordinate all agents, manage pipeline state, and ensure every task moves through the correct sequence of stages.

Commands

/ship stories/foo.md

Start a new pipeline run for the given story file.

/ship status

Show current pipeline state and stage progress.

/ship resume

Continue the pipeline from its current stage in state.json.

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Command: Start Pipeline

When invoked as /ship stories/foo.md:

1. Read Story File

Read the story file at the given path. Extract:

• Story title
• Description
• Acceptance criteria
• Task list (lines matching - [ ])

If the file does not exist, halt with: ❌ Story file not found: [path]

2. Initialize State

Write .claude/pipeline/state.json:

{
  "story_file": "stories/foo.md",
  "story_title": "[extracted title]",
  "task_index": 0,
  "current_task": "[first unchecked task]",
  "task_type": null,
  "stage": "scan",
  "iteration": {
    "review": 0,
    "qa": 0
  },
  "checkpoints": {
    "scan": "pending",
    "orchestrate": "pending",
    "architect": "pending",
    "implement": "pending",
    "review": "pending",
    "qa": "pending",
    "playwright": "pending"
  },
  "flags": {
    "review_critical_pending": false,
    "qa_bugs_pending": false,
    "escalated": false
  },
  "last_updated": "[ISO timestamp]"
}

3. Run Pipeline

Execute stages in order for the current task. See Stage Routing below.

---

Command: Status

When invoked as /ship status:

Read .claude/pipeline/state.json. Print:

📋 Pipeline Status
   Story:   [story_title]
   Task:    [task_index + 1] of [total tasks] — "[current_task]"
   Type:    [FRONTEND / BACKEND / unknown]

   Stages:
   ✅ scan          [completed / pending]
   ✅ orchestrate   [completed / pending]
   ✅ architect     [completed / awaiting_approval]
   🔄 implement     [in_progress]
   ⏳ review        [pending]
   ⏳ qa            [pending]
   ⏳ playwright    [pending / N/A for BACKEND]

   Review iterations:  [N] / 2
   QA iterations:      [N] / 2

---

Command: Resume

When invoked as /ship resume:

Read .claude/pipeline/state.json. Continue from state.stage. See Stage Routing below.

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Stage Routing

After reading state, route to the correct stage:

scan

Invoke the scan skill. On completion → set stage to orchestrate → continue.

orchestrate

Invoke the orchestrate skill. On completion → set stage to architect → continue.

architect

Invoke the architect skill. On completion → set checkpoints.architect = "awaiting_approval" → set stage to architect → PAUSE.

Print:

⏸️  Architect plan ready for review.
   📄 .claude/pipeline/architect-plan.md

   Review the plan, then run /ship resume to begin implementation.

Stop here. Do not continue until /ship resume is called.

implement (entered via resume after architect approval)

Set checkpoints.architect = "completed". Invoke the implement skill. On completion → set stage to review → continue.

review

Invoke the review skill.

After review:

• If flags.review_critical_pending == true: Print:

  ⏸️  🔴 Critical review issues require human decision.
     📄 .claude/pipeline/review-report.md
     
     Review the findings, then run /ship resume to continue.
  

  PAUSE.

• If no critical flags: set checkpoints.review = "completed" → set stage to qa → continue.

qa

Invoke the qa skill.

After QA:

• If flags.qa_bugs_pending == true:

  • Increment iteration.qa
  • If iteration.qa >= 2: Print:

    ⏸️  QA has failed twice. Human escalation required.
       📄 .claude/pipeline/qa-report.md
       
       Review the QA report and resolve manually, then run /ship resume.
    

    Set flags.escalated = true. PAUSE.
  • Else: set stage to implement → continue (bug fix loop).

• If QA passes: set checkpoints.qa = "completed" → route based on task_type.

playwright (FRONTEND tasks only)

If task_type == "FRONTEND": invoke the playwright skill. If task_type == "BACKEND": skip → go directly to task completion.

Task Completion

• Mark current task [x] in the story file
• Print: ✅ Task complete: "[current_task]"
• Increment task_index
• Check if more tasks remain in story file:
  • More tasks: update current_task, reset all stage checkpoints to pending, reset iterations to 0, set stage to scan → continue with next task.
  • No more tasks: print completion banner and exit.

🎉 Story complete: [story_title]
   All [N] tasks delivered through the full pipeline.

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Anti-Loop Guards

These rules apply across all stage routing:

1. Repeated Blocker Rule — If the same blocker type appears twice in the same delegation chain, escalate to human immediately.
2. No Cyclic Handoff — Do not send work back to a stage that already handled the same issue.
3. Two-Handoff Rule — After 2 unresolved handoffs on the same issue, pause and escalate to human. This is enforced by the iteration caps in state.json.

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State File Location

.claude/pipeline/state.json

Update last_updated timestamp on every state write.