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feat: add QA-gated epic workflow with business analyst and QA specialist agents#27

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nullhack merged 4 commits intomainfrom
feat/qa-gated-epic-workflow
Apr 10, 2026
Merged

feat: add QA-gated epic workflow with business analyst and QA specialist agents#27
nullhack merged 4 commits intomainfrom
feat/qa-gated-epic-workflow

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Summary

This PR introduces a comprehensive QA-gated epic workflow system that mirrors enterprise development practices with dedicated business analyst and QA specialist agents.

Type of Change

  • 🚀 New feature
  • 🐛 Bug fix
  • 📚 Documentation update
  • 🔧 Refactoring
  • ⚡ Performance improvement
  • 🧪 Test addition/improvement
  • 🔨 Build/CI changes

Changes Made

  • Added requirements-gatherer agent: Business analyst role using BABOK principles for stakeholder requirements
  • Added overseer agent: QA specialist enforcing mandatory quality checkpoints
  • Added epic-workflow skill: Manages epic-based development with automatic feature progression
  • Updated developer agent to integrate QA gates throughout workflow
  • Enhanced architect agent with pattern selection and industry terminology
  • Modified TODO.md template to support current feature tracking within epics
  • Added EPICS.md template for epic tracking and management
  • Updated documentation in AGENTS.md files to reflect new workflow

New Workflow Features

Epic-Based Development

Projects now follow an epic-based workflow where features are organized into epics, tracked in EPICS.md, and automatically progress through features after QA approval.

Mandatory QA Gates

The workflow enforces quality at 4 checkpoints:

  1. Requirements review: After business analysis
  2. Test quality review: After TDD phase
  3. Implementation review: SOLID/DRY/KISS compliance
  4. Final approval: Before feature completion

Industry Standard Roles

  • Business Analyst (@requirements-gatherer): BABOK-based requirements elicitation
  • QA Specialist (@overseer): Quality assurance with veto power at gates
  • Software Architect (@architect): Design patterns and technical authority
  • Development Lead (@developer): TDD workflow with QA integration

Testing

  • Manual testing completed
  • Template generation tested
  • YAML frontmatter validated
  • File structure verified

Quality Checklist

  • Code follows project style guidelines
  • Self-review completed
  • Documentation updated
  • No debug statements left

Breaking Changes

Projects now use epic-based workflow with mandatory QA gates. This changes the development flow from linear to epic-based with QA checkpoints.

Migration Notes

Existing projects can adopt the new workflow by:

  1. Copying the new agents (overseer, requirements-gatherer)
  2. Adding the epic-workflow skill
  3. Creating an EPICS.md file
  4. Following the new workflow for future features

Example Usage

# Start epic
@requirements-gatherer          # Gather requirements
@overseer                      # QA: Requirements review
@developer /skill tdd          # Write tests
@overseer                      # QA: Test quality review
@architect                     # Design approval
@developer /skill implementation # Implement
@overseer                      # QA: Code quality review
@developer /skill epic-workflow next-feature # Auto-progress

…ist agents

- Added requirements-gatherer agent: Business analyst role using BABOK principles
- Added overseer agent: QA specialist with mandatory quality checkpoints
- Added epic-workflow skill: Manages epic-based development with automatic feature progression
- Updated developer agent to integrate QA gates throughout workflow
- Enhanced architect agent with pattern selection and industry terminology
- Modified TODO.md template to support current feature tracking within epics
- Added EPICS.md template for epic tracking and management

The new workflow enforces quality at 4 mandatory checkpoints:
1. Requirements completeness review
2. Test quality review
3. Implementation SOLID/DRY/KISS review
4. Final approval before feature completion

BREAKING CHANGE: Projects now use epic-based workflow with mandatory QA gates
- Removed model specifications from all 7 agents (5 in generated projects, 2 in template)
- Removed model specification from create-agent skill example
- Updated AGENTS.md to accurately document all template components:
  - Listed all 5 generated project agents (added overseer and requirements-gatherer)
  - Added all skills to template structure (session-workflow, epic-workflow, create-skill, create-agent)
  - Documented template's own agents and skills (repo-manager, git-release, pr-management)
  - Clarified roles: template-manager handles template tasks, repo-manager handles git/GitHub
- Added Template Management Workflow section to explain agent usage

This ensures the template is model-agnostic and documentation accurately reflects what exists.
@nullhack
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Update: Model specifications removed and documentation fixed

This PR has been updated with an additional commit that addresses:

  1. Removed model specifications from all agents (7 total) to make the template model-agnostic
  2. Fixed documentation gaps in AGENTS.md:
    • Now lists all 5 generated project agents (added overseer and requirements-gatherer)
    • Added missing skills to template structure documentation
    • Documented template's own components (repo-manager agent, git-release and pr-management skills)
  3. Clarified agent roles:
    • template-manager: Handles template-specific tasks (testing, validation, releases)
    • repo-manager: Handles git operations and GitHub integration

The template is now fully model-agnostic and the documentation accurately reflects what exists in the repository.

- Updated agent descriptions to use industry-standard role titles:
  - developer.md: Development Lead specializing in TDD
  - architect.md: Software Architect specializing in design patterns
  - overseer.md: QA Specialist enforcing quality standards
  - requirements-gatherer.md: Business Analyst using BABOK methodology
  - repo-manager.md: Release Engineer managing Git workflows

- Updated template's own agents (template-manager, repo-manager):
  - Changed from 'meta agent/repository management' to DevOps Engineer/Release Engineer
  - Fixed version reference (template uses semantic versioning)
  - Removed themed naming (for generated projects only)
  - Added proper GitFlow methodology and CI/CD standards

- Updated AGENTS.md:
  - Added 'Enterprise Development Framework' section
  - Documented proper team structure roles
  - Clarified template vs generated project agent responsibilities

- Updated README.md:
  - Added QA gates and epic workflow to features
  - Updated workflow to 10-step with mandatory QA gates
  - Removed multi-language template support (not planned)
  - Updated quick start to show requirements-gatherer workflow
Resolved conflicts in:
- AGENTS.md: Kept our version with all 5 agents and QA-gated workflow
- architect.md: Kept our version with Software Architect title
- developer.md: Kept our version with Development Lead title
- overseer.md: Kept our version (add/add conflict)
- requirements-gatherer.md: Kept our version (add/add conflict)
- {{cookiecutter.project_slug}}/AGENTS.md: Kept our version with new workflow
@nullhack nullhack merged commit ce8c893 into main Apr 10, 2026
1 check passed
@nullhack nullhack deleted the feat/qa-gated-epic-workflow branch April 10, 2026 10:54
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