git:20260827.05382aa to git:20260827.639cb2e

---

name: startcycle

description: Use when running the autonomous multi-agent build pipeline after /bdbrainstorm or /grill-me. Routes to the startcycle-dispatch Dynamic Workflow, which reads production_artifacts/state.json and invokes Architect, TechLead, UI/UX, Engineering, Media/EventTech, Reviewer, and Shipping in turn per .agents/graph.md's edge table — the agents never invoke each other.

category: bdb-core

disable-model-invocation: true

---

# 🚀 BDB Autonomous Development Cycle (`/startcycle`)

**Action — do this, and nothing else:** call the `Workflow` tool with

`scriptPath` pointing at this repo's dispatcher script — resolve `$HOME`

yourself (e.g. `echo $HOME` or your own environment info) rather than

hardcoding a username, giving

`$HOME/.claude/workflows/startcycle-dispatch.mjs` — and `args` set to the

goal text that follows `ARGUMENTS:` below this file's content. Pass the goal

through verbatim. If there is no `ARGUMENTS:` text, pass no `args` (or

`args: undefined`) — the workflow itself asks for a goal in that case rather

than guessing one.

Use `scriptPath`, not `name: "startcycle-dispatch"` — by-name lookup for a

custom (non-built-in) workflow script has been observed to fail with

`Workflow "startcycle-dispatch" not found. Available: deep-research`, even

when the script exists at the expected path and is correctly named inside

its own `meta.name`. `scriptPath` pointing directly at the file works

reliably; `name` apparently requires a separate registration step (the

`/workflows` monitor's `s save` action looked like a candidate, but that's

an interactive step a slash command can't trigger on its own, so don't rely

on it).

Then wait for the `Workflow` tool call to finish and report its result

(including `phase`, any `reason`, and — at `ready_to_ship` — the instruction

to reply `GO`) back to the user. Do not summarize or reinterpret it; relay it.

**Do NOT decompose the task, write anything under `production_artifacts/`, or

implement any part of the goal yourself in response to this skill.** This

file exists only to route the `/startcycle` slash command to the real

dispatcher — a Dynamic Workflow script

(`.claude/workflows/startcycle-dispatch.mjs`) that holds the actual

node/edge graph, spawns the seven agents, and drives the repair loop. If you

catch yourself about to write a plan file or code directly because of this

skill, stop — that means the `Workflow` tool call was skipped, which is

exactly the failure this file was rewritten to close (see

`SESSION-HANDOVER-v3.13.md` in the source repo for the incident: an earlier

version of this file embedded the full pipeline description in prose, and

the model followed it "in spirit" inline instead of invoking the script —

silently skipping the whole graph, with no `state.json`, no subagents, no

Reviewer, and no quality gate ever running).

## Why this file is a thin router, not a spec

The full contract — state schema, node/edge table, the Stop-hook

loop-keeper, the no-progress guard — lives in

[`.agents/graph.md`](../../../.agents/graph.md) and

[`.agents/state.schema.json`](../../../.agents/state.schema.json). Those are

read by the dispatcher script itself and by the agents it invokes, not

duplicated here — so there is nothing here to follow "in spirit" instead of

actually running.

## If the `Workflow` tool is unavailable

Some harnesses (or Claude Code with Dynamic Workflows toggled off in

`/config`) have no `Workflow` tool at all. Only in that case, fall back to

manually driving `.agents/graph.md`'s node/edge table yourself as the

dispatcher: read `production_artifacts/state.json`, decide the next node

per the edge predicates, invoke exactly that one agent, and repeat. Never

let one agent's output instruct another agent directly — that hand-off

pattern is the thing `.agents/graph.md` (F-17) rules out.