Start a software change

Use this when you know the change you want to make in a repository. Core turns that request into the right delivery route, without making you choose a skill or artifact first.

Start with the outcome:

Start work on adding export retention controls for workspace owners.

What Core does

1. Reads your request and the repository’s current work state.
2. Chooses the shortest safe route: direct build, spec, delivery brief, or defect diagnosis.
3. Starts the next workflow only after any required artifact and workspace entry are safely written.

For a bounded, low-risk change, Core can enter the build loop directly. That immediate route creates no intake artifact and no workspace entry.

For durable work, Core writes the artifact first, then adds the workspace.toml entry:

• one independently shippable change becomes a spec and plan;
• work that spans several changes or repositories becomes a delivery brief;
• cited regression evidence starts diagnosis before implementation.

You decide only at real gates: clarify an ambiguous route, approve a brief, approve a spec or plan, or make the final merge decision.

Shape first when the product question is open

If the user, problem, outcome, or solution direction is still open, start in Product Engineering before Core.

That path frames the intent, explores options when the direction is open, de-risks the chosen bet, and decomposes it into a buildable slice. A human then commits the shaped result to build.

For the Core handoff, say:

Start this confirmed delivery handoff through Core intake.

Core preserves the confirmed outcome, boundaries, non-goals, dependencies, and delivery questions. It still uses the normal spec or delivery-brief route, and it does not skip approval gates. See Hand an intent to build for the full handoff.

Result and next move

A typical durable result looks like this:

route        durable spec
created      docs/specs/export-retention/spec.md and a workspace entry
waiting for  your spec and plan approval
next         approve the spec and plan before implementation

This step is done when Core has either started the build loop or shown the created artifact and the next approval it needs.

Next, follow the reported action. If a later session resumes the work, ask:

workspace-status

Use the status result to see what is ready, blocked, active, or recently done.

State and skill reference

The routing skill is work-intake when you need to invoke or debug it. See Work-intake routing and lifecycle for every route and Why work begins with an artifact for the model behind durable work.