Analysis and refinement workflow
How an idea becomes a Ready story with pair, brainstorm, stories, refine, breakdown, in Assisted, Supervised and Autonomous modes.
The analysis and refinement workflow is the first of the two lifecycle workflows. It ends where the delivery workflow begins: at a story in the Ready macrostate.
Figure: the four steps are the same in every row; what changes down the rows is how many of them a human runs by hand.
The four steps
| Step | Skill | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Brainstorm | /pair-process-brainstorm, with a /pair-capability-grill interview | a Draft epic and story tree from a theme |
| Stories | /pair-process-plan-stories, which triages each candidate (EXTEND or CREATE) | INVEST-valid Draft stories |
| Refine | /pair-process-refine-story | acceptance criteria, analysis, sizing, ## Assumptions and ## Open Questions |
| Breakdown | /pair-process-plan-tasks | tasks, dependency graph, AC coverage; the card becomes Ready |
Refinement opens with a sync phase 0: /pair-capability-grill asks one question at a time until you and the AI agree (grill). Whatever the AI had to assume, or could not resolve, is written to the card as Assumptions and Open Questions. Detail: Iteration.
Per mode
Assisted
You run each skill by hand and read each output. Use it while learning pair or for high-risk work. Tutorials: Brainstorming, Refinement.
Supervised
pair refines one card end to end; you trigger it and read the result. With pair-cli: pair-cli run --card 217 --prepare never --until ready stops the card right after refinement, before implementation. In your assistant: /pair-refine-batch does the same for a set of Draft cards you name. Grill questions still reach you.
Autonomous
The prepare autonomy gate lets pair refine a Draft card alone. never proceeds and records assumptions on the card; when proceeds unless a condition escalates. An escalation keeps the card Draft, labels it needs-review and exits non-zero, so a human takes over. Default is always: a human prepares. Setting the gate: Autonomy and per-stage engine and model.
Next: Delivery workflow, from Ready card to review-approved PR.