arayaroma/ether/ether-phase-dag

Ether Phase DAG

This project is under Ether Harness enforcement. A PreToolUse hook hard-blocks writes that skip phases. This is not advisory — violations are denied by the hook, not just discouraged.

Phase order (stages)

1. init — ether init <change-id> creates .ether/changes/<id>/ and state.
2. explore — research, read code, understand the problem. Mark complete with ether phase done explore.
3. proposal — write .ether/changes/<id>/proposal.md. Completing this file auto-marks the phase.
4. spec and design (parallel stage) — write spec.md then design.md (design.md requires spec.md to exist — see the ether-artifact-deps skill).
5. tasks — write tasks.md.
6. apply — invoke ether-scope-estimate right after tasks.md exists, BEFORE writing any code — record a min/max LOC estimate in .ether/learning.db. Then invoke ether-tdd before writing any implementation code. BLOCKED until tasks.md and ac.md both exist, AND until a scope estimate is recorded — guard.ts's validateWrite denies code writes for the active change until hasScopeEstimate() returns true, same hard-block as the tasks.md/ac.md check. tasks.md must list every touched file under a ## Files section — ether phase done apply fails closed if any listed file has no paired test (default src/X.ts → tests/X.test.ts, configurable via .ether/config.json) or if the test suite doesn't pass. Missing-test failures name the exact test file to write; consult spec.md/design.md/ac.md for expected behavior before writing it. There is no auto-fix — Ether has no LLM/network calls, so you write the missing test yourself.
7. verify — invoke ether-tdd's regression-check step again before claiming done, and ether-scope-estimate's reconciliation step — measure actual LOC changed and compare to the recorded min/max; if over max, record cause + prevention learning before continuing (mandatory, not optional). Write evidence.md with proof (test output, logs). ether phase done verify re-runs the same TDD gate as apply (same ## Files coverage + passing suite) as a regression check before completing.
8. archive — write archive.md summarizing the shipped change. Writing the file auto-marks the phase via the PostToolUse hook. Run `ether phase done archive` explicitly afterward to complete the phase and record the change in the session summary.

Commands

• ether init <change-id> — start a new change.
• ether phase done <phase> — mark a no-artifact phase (init/explore/apply/verify) complete. Fails if the previous stage isn't complete.
• ether status [change-id] — show current phase and completed phases.

What happens on violation

A PreToolUse hook denies the tool call (exit code 2) with a message stating exactly which file or phase is missing. Read the message and write the missing artifact/run the missing command before retrying — do not attempt to work around the block.