/dev Compositor

/dev is the single-pass pipeline compositor behind the Five Dev Flows: assemble your own development pipeline from spec depth, plan review, code review, and QA flags. The preset commands (/dev-quick, /dev-plan, /dev-review) are fixed flag sets over this engine.

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Flag grammar

Flag	Effect
--plan	Ephemeral in-session plan (clarify + plan + confirm gate)
--sdd[="prd,adr,plan"]	Documented SDD lifecycle front-end (implies --plan)
--plan-review[=1|2]	Plan audit before confirm gate (implies --plan)
--code-review[=1|2]	Post-implementation audit (bare value = 1)
--qa	@qa derives regression tests from acceptance criteria
--fast	Force @fast-coder regardless of other flags
--max-rounds=N	Review/fix round cap
--auto-advisor[=full|lite|off]	Task-scoped advisor mode override (bare = full); when present it governs Clarify auto-adopt + Confirm proxy-approve for this run only; absent → the ambient global mode applies

Legacy alias: --review (still accepted on preset commands) → --code-review=1.

Parsing & normalization rules

1. Reviewer flags (--plan-review, --code-review): bare = 1; only =1 / =2 accepted. Any other value (including dual) → error "valid values: 1|2" and halt. Never guess.
2. --sdd value is a set, not a sequence: comma-separated, case-insensitive, whitespace-trimmed, duplicates silently deduped. Valid tokens: prd, adr, plan.
   • impl → error: "impl is not valid here — /dev already IS implementation". Any other token → error listing valid tokens.
   • Execution order is ALWAYS normalized to prd → adr → plan; input order is ignored.
   • Normalization never ADDS phases: --sdd="plan,adr" runs adr → plan, skipping prd. Bare --sdd = "prd,adr,plan".
3. --max-rounds: per-preset default (table below); bare /dev default 5. Clamped to [1, 99]; non-numeric → preset default.
4. Unknown flag → one-line error listing valid flags; halt. No silent ignore.
5. --auto-advisor: bare = full; valid values full|lite|off; any other value → error listing valid values and halt. Effective ONLY when the ephemeral Clarify/Confirm stages run (--plan without --sdd) — a no-op on raw passthrough and under --sdd (artifact gates don't consult advisor mode). When effective it overrides the ambient global mode for this run only — any ambient auto-advisor injection is disregarded for these gates; absent → the global mode applies.

Implications

Flag present	Implies
--plan-review	--plan
--sdd	--plan (the documented lifecycle REPLACES the ephemeral Clarify+Plan stages; the last plan artifact is the confirmed plan)
--code-review=2	Dual review + @advisor arbitration on disagreement (Safety-First)
--review	--code-review=1

Coder routing

Flags after normalization	Coder
Zero depth flags (none of --plan/--plan-review/--sdd/--code-review/--qa)	@fast-coder (Flash tier)
ANY depth flag	Domain-routed @<lang>-dev per build.md routing (@node-dev, @python-dev, @frontend-dev, @dba, …; multi-domain → sequential dispatches in dependency order)
--fast (overrides)	@fast-coder even with depth flags

Preset equivalence

Preset	Equivalent /dev flags	Legacy translation	max-rounds default
/dev-quick (alias /dev-flash)	(none)	--review → --code-review=1	3
/dev-plan	--plan	--review → --code-review=1	5
/dev-review	--code-review=2	—	10
bare /dev	your flags	--review → --code-review=1	5

Review stages use deterministic tiering: L0 skips review for docs/lockfiles/renames/version bumps; L1/L2 dispatch @code-review-fast (pro/medium/15 steps). Before a qualifying L3 review, one ready graph backend may provide bounded evidence: CodeGraph for ordinary single-repo impact, GitNexus for process/group/cross-repo questions. Otherwise L3 dispatches @code-review (max/high/30 steps) directly.

Usage

# Plan + dual code review + QA — a composition no preset covers
/dev Implement webhook retry with exponential backoff --plan --code-review=2 --qa

# Documented SDD front-end skipping the PRD (adr → plan), then implementation
/dev Add multi-tenant row-level security --sdd="adr,plan"

# Plan audit before coding: dual plan review + single code review
/dev Refactor the billing importer --plan --plan-review=2 --code-review=1

# QA alone — regression tests derived from the raw requirement
/dev Tighten the CSV parser edge cases --qa

# Force the fast coder even with depth flags
/dev Quick prototype of the settings drawer --plan --fast

# Explicit round cap
/dev Migrate config loader to ESM --code-review=1 --max-rounds=8

When no preset matches

The five flows are decision defaults. When you need a combination they don't encode — a plan with dual review, QA without review, an SDD front-end that skips the PRD — invoke /dev directly with the flag set you want. The engine composes the same linear pipeline (SDD-Spec → Clarify → Plan → PlanReview → Confirm → Implement → CodeReview → QA → Deliver) from your flags: each stage runs or is skipped, never interleaved.

Boundary

/dev-prud (FMEA risk register) and /dev-ultra (autonomous multi-phase) remain standalone protocols — different topologies (register-driven / multi-phase autonomous) that are not expressible as /dev flags.

See Five Dev Flows for the preset-first overview.