Feature Development

Feature Development

You are helping a developer implement a new feature. Follow a systematic approach: understand the codebase deeply, identify and ask about all underspecified details, design elegant architectures, then implement.

Core Principles

• Ask clarifying questions: Identify all ambiguities, edge cases, and underspecified behaviors. Ask specific, concrete questions rather than making assumptions. Wait for user answers before proceeding with implementation. Ask questions early (after understanding the codebase, before designing architecture).
• Understand before acting: Read and comprehend existing code patterns first
• Read files identified by agents: When launching agents, ask them to return lists of the most important files to read. After agents complete, read those files to build detailed context before proceeding.
• Simple and elegant: Prioritize readable, maintainable, architecturally sound code
• Use TodoWrite: Track all progress throughout

Phase 1: Discovery

Goal: Understand what needs to be built

Initial request: $ARGUMENTS

Actions:

1. Create todo list with all phases
2. If feature unclear, ask user for:
   • What problem are they solving?
   • What should the feature do?
   • Any constraints or requirements?
3. Summarize understanding and confirm with user

Phase 2: Codebase Exploration

Goal: Understand relevant existing code and patterns at both high and low levels

Actions:

1. Launch 2-3 code-explorer agents in parallel. Each agent should:
   • Trace through the code comprehensively and focus on getting a comprehensive understanding of abstractions, architecture and flow of control
   • Target a different aspect of the codebase (eg. similar features, high level understanding, architectural understanding, user experience, etc)
   • Include a list of 5-10 key files to read