Platonic Coding Workflow

Orchestrate the complete four-phase Platonic Coding workflow from conceptual design through specification, implementation (guide + code), and review.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when you need to:

Run the full workflow from design idea to reviewed implementation
Progress through phases with clear phase visibility and handoffs
Ensure traceability from design draft → RFC → impl guide → code → review
Coordinate other skills (platonic-specs, platonic-impl, platonic-code-review) in the correct order

Keywords: workflow, platonic coding, design draft, RFC, implementation guide, code review, phase

Phase Visibility

Always show the current Phase of the workflow at the start of each step and in summaries:

Phase 0: Conceptual Design & Design Draft
Phase 1: RFC Specification (Draft)
Phase 2: Implementation (Guide + Code)
Phase 3: Spec Compliance Review
FINISHED: Workflow complete

Workflow Summary

| Phase | Focus | Output Location | Skills / Actions | |-------|--------|------------------|------------------| | 0 | Conceptual design, requirements | docs/drafts/ | Interactive chat, optional items | | 1 | Formal RFC from design draft | docs/specs/ | Generate RFC, then platonic-specs (refine) | | 2 | Impl guide + code with tests | docs/impl/ + Codebase | platonic-impl (full impl sub-workflow) | | 3 | Review code vs specs & impl guides | Report | platonic-code-review | | FINISHED | — | — | — |

Phase Details

Phase 0: Conceptual Design & Design Draft

Goal: Obtain a shared conceptual design (principles, constraints, conceptual interfaces, design art, etc.).
Method: Interactive chat; use optional items to communicate with the user.
Output: A design draft.
Location: Default docs/drafts/. The user may provide a draft from elsewhere.
Reference: See references/phase-0-design-draft.md.

Phase 1: RFC Specification (Draft)

Goal: Turn the design draft into a formal RFC spec (Status: Draft).
Optional: Ask the user for RFC number/index if not specified.
Actions:
1. Generate RFC from the Phase 0 design draft.
2. Call platonic-specs to refine the generated RFC (and related specs).
Output: RFC(s) in the specs directory.
Location: Default docs/specs/.
Reference: See references/phase-1-rfc-spec.md.

Phase 2: Implementation (Guide + Code)

Goal: Produce a concrete implementation guide from the RFC spec, then implement the code with tests.
Optional: Ask the user for RFC number/index if not specified.
Actions: Use platonic-impl (full-impl operation) which runs a four-step sub-workflow:
1. Spec analysis — extract requirements from RFC
2. Impl guide design — create architecture doc (user confirmation gate)
3. Coding plan — task breakdown with file-level changes (user confirmation gate)
4. Coding — implement code with unit and integration tests
Output: Implementation guide in docs/impl/ + source code with tests in codebase.
Reference: See references/phase-2-implementation.md.

Phase 3: Spec Compliance Review

Goal: Review implementation against both RFC specs and implementation guides.
Actions: Call platonic-code-review to review the code implementation and the targeted RFC (specs and impl guides).
Output: Review and compliance report.
Reference: See references/phase-3-review.md.

FINISHED

Workflow complete. Summarize outcomes and any follow-up recommendations.

Default Paths

| Artifact | Default Path | |----------|--------------| | Design drafts | docs/drafts/ | | RFC specs | docs/specs/ | | Implementation guides | docs/impl/ |

Paths may be overridden by the user.

Available References

| Phase | Reference File | Purpose | |-------|----------------|---------| | Overview | workflow-overview.md | End-to-end workflow and phase transitions | | Phase 0 | phase-0-design-draft.md | Conceptual design and design draft | | Phase 1 | phase-1-rfc-spec.md | RFC generation and platonic-specs refine | | Phase 2 | phase-2-implementation.md | platonic-impl full sub-workflow (guide + code) | | Phase 3 | phase-3-review.md | platonic-code-review usage |

See references/REFERENCE.md for detailed phase procedures.

Best Practices

Always show current phase at the start of each step and in status summaries.
Confirm handoffs: Before leaving a phase, confirm outputs and paths with the user if ambiguous.
Ask for indices when useful: In Phase 1 (RFC number) and Phase 2 (RFC for implementation), ask for index if not provided.
Call skills explicitly: Phase 1 → platonic-specs (refine); Phase 2 → platonic-impl (full-impl); Phase 3 → platonic-code-review.
Preserve traceability: Keep links between design draft → RFC → impl guide → code in summaries and docs.

Dependencies

platonic-specs: Phase 1 (refine RFCs).
platonic-impl: Phase 2 (full implementation: guide + code with tests).
platonic-code-review: Phase 3 (review code vs specs and impl guides).
Read/write access to docs/drafts/, docs/specs/, docs/impl/ and codebase as needed.