sdd-onboard

Run the SDD onboarding walkthrough, which scans your codebase for a small, low-risk improvement and guides you through the full cycle: explore, propose, spec, design, tasks, apply, verify, and archive. Each phase is narrated so you understand the reasoning behind every artifact.

The workflow produces a proposal.md explaining the why, delta specs with Given/When/Then scenarios defining the what, a design.md documenting decisions and rationale, and a tasks.md breaking work into checkable steps. After verification, the change is archived and delta specs merge into the main specs.

A good onboarding change is small enough to complete in 30-60 minutes, low risk with no breaking changes or migrations, and spec-worthy with at least one requirement and two scenarios. Examples include missing input validation, inconsistent error messages, or a missing loading state.

Yes, when Strict TDD mode is active the apply phase follows the RED, GREEN, TRIANGULATE, REFACTOR cycle. The walkthrough explains writing the failing test first, then the minimum code to pass it.

Skip SDD for small tweaks and trivial fixes where agreeing on specifications adds no value. Reserve it for features, APIs, and architecture decisions where defining what to build before writing code prevents rework.