Code Autonomous

Harness-aware execution engine: planning depth, doubt resolution, multi-agent dispatch, review gate — standalone pipeline or caller's Phase 2 engine.

Workflow mode (mandatory)

Fixed workflow — named skill handoffs or harness bridges (../../ns-harness/references/subagent-dispatch.md). Review gate: ../ns-reviewer/references/review-gate-workflow.md. MUST reviewer-agent when available (else ns-reviewer); no Task persona substitutes. C2 (MUST coder-agent when available → ns-coder) completes full per-task cycle + same review gate before unit done.

Isolation invariant (non-negotiable)

Skill never writes application code on main product checkout; never commits main/master/base/SOURCE_BRANCH unless human explicitly said work in place this run.

• Standalone + Engine: isolated WORKBRANCH + WORKTREEROOT before any implementation edit.
• Worktree creation fails, or CWD/branch still main checkout / base → stop. No "continue on main to unlock plan".
• Sandbox restrictions (Operation not permitted, .cursor/ paths) not permission to violate invariant.

Session boot

See ../../ns-harness/references/session-boot.md. Complete Session boot (blocking) there before any other step in this skill.

After session boot — Engine and Standalone

Engine mode: caller may have already completed Session boot in Phase 0 — re-read session-boot.md only if context is missing. Standalone: you own Session boot before step 1 of the standalone pipeline.

Routing (read first)

Entry priority table: ../../ns-harness/references/code-skill-routing.md. Standalone triggers: references/entry-triggers.md.

1. Origin is a GitLab issue (ISSUE_URL or issue reference) → entry priority 1 — follow ns-execution-gitlab-issue end to end; this skill only runs as its Phase 2 engine (Engine mode below). Do not run the standalone pipeline, do not touch GitLab state, do not create a worktree.
2. Standalone autonomous (local plan file, pasted text/plan, ad-hoc "implement this autonomously" without an issue) → entry priority 3 — run the standalone pipeline: own worktree, own state, own review loop.

See references/routing.md for Engine-mode I/O and anti-cycle rules with ns-execution-gitlab-issue.

Engine mode (invoked by ns-execution-gitlab-issue)

Inputs (already resolved by the caller — this skill never creates them): issue payload, WORKTREEROOT, WORKBRANCH, SOURCE_BRANCH.

1. Planning-depth self-decision — evaluate the issue payload and decide single work unit vs. light requirements.md + tasks/task-NNN-*.md + execution-plan.md under docs/versions/{version_san}/sdd/. See references/planning-decision.md.
2. Doubt protocol — self-ask, docs-first lookup, self-answer non-destructive doubts, escalate destructive ones as a structured event to the caller instead of mutating GitLab state; pause dependent units until resumed. See references/doubt-resolution.md.
3. Multi-agent dispatch — parse work units (or the single unit) and MUST dispatch coder-agent when available (else ns-coder) workers, parallel only across units with no DAG edge and disjoint file scopes, sequential otherwise. Every subagent works inside WORKTREE_ROOT, never the main checkout. See references/multi-agent-dispatch.md and ../../ns-harness/references/subagent-dispatch.md.
4. Checkpoint commits — one commit per completed sequential unit or per completed parallel batch, inside the worktree; the caller squashes at delivery.
5. Fix-loop entry point — when re-invoked after a Rejected verdict, treat the reviewer findings as a new work unit (or units) and repeat step 3 for those only.
6. Return to caller: unit statuses, files changed, any open destructive doubt, and (first invocation only) a plan-based estimateseconds hint — the caller applies setissue_estimate only when the issue estimate is empty and the value is ≥ 60 (see ../ns-execution-gitlab-issue/references/time-tracking.md).

Standalone pipeline (non-GitLab origin)

Same internals as Engine mode, but this skill owns the whole run:

1. Resolve the descriptor — local plan path or pasted text. No MCP calls.
2. Infer changekind (fix/feat), allocate {versionsan}, create docs/versions/{version_san}/sdd/ when artifacts needed.
3. Create its own worktree: .worktrees/{versionsan}/ + branch work/{versionsan} from the resolved base branch, following ../../ns-harness/references/worktree-setup.md. Path is under the repo root, never under .cursor/. On failure → abort (do not fall back to the main checkout) — see references/standalone-pipeline.md.
4. Planning-depth self-decision, doubt protocol (destructive doubt → chat-only gate, no GitLab actions available), multi-agent dispatch — identical logic to Engine mode.
5. Internal review loop — ../ns-reviewer/references/review-gate-workflow.md: MUST reviewer-agent when available (else ns-reviewer) version-closure mode; max 3 rounds; Approved = 10. Score 9 = Rejected (Lift + re-review). Fail = Criticals or score ≤8. Stop on Blocked or rounds exhausted.
6. Report per review-gate-workflow.md Final report fields plus {version_san}, worktree path, commit(s), and follow-ups. No GitLab board, no MR — unless docs/context/gitlab-sync-config.md exists and the human explicitly asked for one (out of scope for v1; standalone stays local-only otherwise).

See references/standalone-pipeline.md for the full flow.

Stop and ask the human

Related skills

References

Forbidden

• Review substitutes (senior-tech-lead-reviewer, bugbot, security-review, or any non-ns-reviewer gate) — harness reviewer-agent is allowed; see ../ns-reviewer/references/review-gate-workflow.md
• Reporting success without Approved, or explicit blocked state
• Skipping re-review after a Rejected fix before closure