chief-loop

Run chief-agent across the full milestone — batch after batch — until both the goals and the contracts are satisfied, recording a decision-aware report for every task instead of one combined report per batch.

This builds directly on chief-autopilot's auto mode. If you want the "stop and ask a human on ambiguity" behavior, use chief-autopilot safe instead — chief-loop only runs in auto mode; it doesn't have a safe-mode equivalent.

Prerequisite Check

Before doing anything:

1. Identify the active milestone directory under .chief/.
2. Check that _goal/ has at least one non-empty file.
3. Check that _contract/ has at least one non-empty file.

If either is missing → STOP. Tell the user:

"Goals and contracts are required for chief-loop. Run /chief-plan first."

Do NOT proceed.

Entry Confirmation

Present the current goals and contracts to the user in a brief summary (file names + 1-line description each).

Ask one question:

"Goals and contracts look correct? Proceed with chief-loop, or use /chief-plan to revise first?"

If the user says revise → stop. If the user confirms → proceed.

Optional: if the loop-readiness skill is available, offer to run it against this milestone's plan before proceeding — it reviews whether the plan has enough feedforward/feedback coverage to run safely unattended. If it flags pre-existing gates the plan depends on, also offer loop-preflight to actually run them and confirm they still pass. Both are suggestions, not requirements; proceed without them if the user declines.

Outer Loop (spans as many batches as it takes)

1. Create or update TODO

Read existing _plan/_todo.md if present. Create the next batch of 3–5 tasks based on goals, contracts, and what's already done — same small-batches principle as chief-autopilot.

Write _plan/_todo.md. Do NOT wait for approval — this is autopilot-style, no pausing for plan review.

2. Work the batch, one task at a time

For each uncompleted task in the current batch:

1. Delegate to builder-agent with:
   • The TODO entry
   • Milestone goals (_goal/)
   • Milestone contracts (_contract/)
   • Relevant global rules (.chief/_rules/)
   • Verification expectations
2. Wait for builder to complete.
3. If builder reports a blocker or ambiguity, see Handling Ambiguity below before moving on.
4. Mark the task [x] in _todo.md.
5. Write that task's report (see Task Report below) — do this immediately, before starting the next task. Don't batch report-writing up to the end.

3. Check for milestone completion

After the batch is fully worked:

• If the goals aren't fully met, or the implementation doesn't yet satisfy the contracts → go back to step 1 and create the next batch.
• If both goals and contracts are satisfied → stop. The milestone is done.

There's no cap on how many batches this takes — keep going until both conditions hold.

Handling Ambiguity

When builder-agent reports a blocker or ambiguity on a task:

1. Spawn a throwaway agent (a plain Agent tool call — not a persistent agent type) with a self-contained prompt: describe the ambiguity, the options it's aware of, and ask it to propose 2–3 concrete options with a one-line trade-off each. This agent's only job is to help think through the options — it does not decide, and it does not write any files.
2. chief-agent reviews the proposed options and picks one itself — chief-agent is always the final decision-maker, same as in chief-autopilot.
3. Record the issue, the options considered, and the choice + reasoning in that task's report (see below).

If a task has no ambiguity, skip this section entirely — no agent gets spawned, and the task's report is just a short, factual summary.

Task Report

For every task (not just the ones with ambiguity), write:

.chief/<milestone>/_report/task-<task-id>-report.md

Using the same <task-id> as _plan/task-<task-id>.md, so the two files map 1:1.

# Task <task-id> Report

## Task
One or two lines on what this task was.

## Outcome
done | blocked

## Decision
(Omit this whole section if the task had no ambiguity.)
- **Issue:** what was ambiguous or blocking
- **Options considered:** the options the decision-support agent proposed
- **Chosen:** which one, and why

## Notes
Anything worth carrying into the next task or batch.

Rules

• NEVER start without goals and contracts existing.
• NEVER skip the entry confirmation.
• NEVER stop for human input on ambiguity — this skill only has an auto-mode-like behavior. Point the user at chief-autopilot safe if they want stop-and-ask.
• chief-agent is ALWAYS the one who makes the final decision on an ambiguity — the decision-support agent only proposes options, never decides, never writes files.
• Write a report for every task, immediately after that task completes — never batch report-writing up.
• Keep the small-batches principle (3–5 tasks per TODO cycle) — only the report granularity changed, not the planning cadence.
• Milestone completion requires BOTH goals met AND contracts satisfied — meeting the goal alone isn't enough to stop.
• Builder-agent handles all implementation. Chief NEVER writes code.
• Tester-agent is NOT used unless the user explicitly requests it.