The Pipeline

Six Stages.
Zero Context Loss.

Each stage runs in isolation with only the context it needs. No accumulated noise. No drift. Every stage starts clean and delivers precise results to the next.

Context Architecture

Isolated Stage Handoff

Instead of passing conversation history between stages, each stage receives only the structured context it needs. The result: consistent performance regardless of pipeline length.

Stage N
→
Structured Context
→
Stage N+1

Predictable Performance

Each stage operates with a fixed context window. No cumulative growth. Stage six runs just as efficiently as stage one.

Resume from Any Stage

Pipeline state persists between runs. If a stage fails, fix the issue and resume from that stage — no need to re-run the entire pipeline.

Debuggable & Inspectable

Every stage's output is inspectable. You can see exactly what each stage produced and what the next stage will consume.

Stage Deep Dives

What Each Stage Does

Six focused stages, each with a clear purpose. From issue selection through merged pull request.

1

Issue Pickup

Claim and prepare
13 phases

Automatically selects the highest-priority issue, extracts requirements and acceptance criteria, creates a feature branch, and determines the optimal pipeline path.

  • Priority-based selection finds the highest-impact work
  • Requirements and acceptance criteria extracted automatically
  • Feature branch created with consistent naming
  • Issue complexity assessed to determine the optimal pipeline path
2

Feature Planning

Documentation-first design
14 phases

Reads your project documentation before touching code. Produces a structured implementation plan with file targets, test strategy, and phased steps.

  • Reads project documentation first — code exploration only for gaps
  • Creates a structured implementation plan with phased steps
  • Identifies files to create, modify, and delete
  • Designs test strategy aligned with your existing patterns
  • Plan requires approval before proceeding
3

Feature Dev

Parallel implementation
18 phases

Implements the approved plan with parallel execution for independent changes. Tests are written alongside code. Security and standards are enforced.

  • Parallel execution for independent file changes
  • Tests written alongside implementation code
  • Security scanning and standards compliance enforced
  • Follows approved plan phases in sequence
  • Validates against acceptance criteria
4

Feature Validate

Build, test, verify
21 phases

Runs your full build and test suite. Failures are automatically diagnosed and fixed. Only new failures block the pipeline — pre-existing issues are excluded.

  • Build verification is a hard gate — cannot be bypassed
  • Framework-aware test execution for your stack
  • Automatic self-healing for build and test failures
  • Dead code detection and removal
  • Pre-existing failures excluded — only new issues block progress
5

PR Create

Auto-generated pull request
14 phases

Runs pre-flight quality checks, creates a well-structured pull request linked to the original issue, and assigns reviewers.

  • Pre-flight quality checks before submission
  • Issue auto-linked for automatic closure on merge
  • Structured PR description with full context
  • Reviewers assigned based on your configuration
  • Documentation completeness validated
6

PR Merge

Review, fix, merge
14 phases

Monitors review feedback, auto-fixes CI failures, and merges when approved. Branches are cleaned up and related issues are closed.

  • Review feedback categorized and addressed intelligently
  • CI failures auto-fixed when possible
  • Related issues auto-closed on merge
  • Branch cleanup after successful merge
  • Full audit trail maintained
Granularity

Phases, not just stages

Each of the six stages decomposes into named phases — 94 in total. Phases carry their own context, their own post-condition check, and their own retry policy. When something fails, you retry the phase. Not the stage. Not the pipeline.

94 verified phases across 6 stages — every one declares the artifacts it must produce before the pipeline moves on
Phase-level resume If implementation fails at phase 11 of 18, the pipeline retries phase 11 — not the whole stage, not the whole pipeline. Tokens preserved.
Parallel waves Feature Dev runs independent file changes in parallel waves. Doc analysis fans out. Context groups load concurrently. Faster without sacrificing verification.
Phase gates 21 of the 94 phases are deterministic gates — build verification, baseline comparison, security rescan, scope-drift, merge guard. Hard checks, not LLM judgment.

Feature Dev — 18 phases, in detail

Every one of these runs in order. Implementation (phase 9) fans out into parallel file edits. Self-correction (phase 13) gates the stage before context handoff. The sidebar shows live progress like Implementation [7/17] so you always know where the pipeline is.

  1. 01 validate-environment
  2. 02 read-planning-context
  3. 03 batch-plan-detection
  4. 04 feedback-context-check
  5. 05 plan-verification gate
  6. 06 knowledge-base-read
  7. 07 recall-architectural-constraints
  8. 08 standards-loading
  9. 09 implementation parallel waves
  10. 10 testing
  11. 11 e2e-testing
  12. 12 quality-review
  13. 13 self-correction gate
  14. 14 feedback-signal-evaluation gate
  15. 15 write-dev-context
  16. 16 sync-project-status
  17. 17 output-summary
  18. 18 self-assessment
phases per stage
13 Issue Pickup gates: size-gate-preflight · baseline-ci-gate 14 Feature Planning gates: ac-reconcile (can short-circuit) 18 Feature Dev gates: plan-verification · self-correction · feedback-signal-evaluation 21 Feature Validate gates: build-verification (hard) · ci-parity · baseline-comparison 14 PR Create gates: preflight-checks · security-rescan · scope-drift-gate 14 PR Merge gates: ci-gate · auto-fix-retry (RALPH)
Self-Healing

Automatic Error Recovery

When builds fail or tests break, the pipeline automatically diagnoses and fixes the issue — with strict safety controls to prevent runaway corrections.

1
Detect Identify the failure
→
2
Diagnose Understand the root cause
→
3
Fix Apply the correction
→
4
Verify Confirm the fix works
↺

Where It Applies

Build Errors

Compilation failures, import errors, and type mismatches are automatically diagnosed and fixed before tests run.

Test Failures

Failing assertions and incorrect expectations are diagnosed and corrected. The fix is verified before moving on.

CI Failures

Linter violations, formatting issues, and minor CI check failures are resolved automatically after PR creation.

Safety Controls

Iteration limits Capped retries per error
Resource budgets Per-fix and total limits
Time limits Per-fix and total timeouts
Smart classification Only fixable errors attempted

Complex architectural and configuration issues are immediately escalated to the developer — never auto-fixed.

Quality Gates

Enforced at Every Step

Quality isn't optional. Build verification is a hard gate. Plan approval is required. Acceptance criteria are validated before merge.

Pre-Submission Checks

  • Link validation and syntax checking
  • Versioning verification
  • Sensitive data pattern scanning
  • Documentation completeness
  • Code quality analysis

Build Verification

  • Hard gate — cannot be bypassed
  • Full compilation must pass
  • Automatic error recovery on failure
  • Framework-aware test execution
  • Dead code detection and removal

Baseline Comparison

  • Pre-existing failures are excluded
  • Only new failures block the pipeline
  • Changes isolated from existing issues
  • Prevents false positives from legacy code
Health dashboard showing 6-dimension scores, findings, and modernization recommendations
Every pipeline run feeds back into the Health dashboard — six dimensions, deduped against baseline, with modernization recommendations prioritized by risk × leverage.

Ready to see it in action?

Incredibuilders is available to select clients. Get early access and experience the full pipeline.

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