dark-factory: operating core

One unit, replicated. Everything this skill builds is composed of cycles (CYCLE.md, implemented by C:/Users/Michael/.claude/workflows/cycle.js). The long-form rules, incidents and rationale live in REFERENCE.md under the same section headings they always had. Read a REFERENCE section when this core points you to it; do not re-derive it.

flowchart TD
  A["Intake · reuse check · kill gate<br/>REFERENCE §-1, §0, §1"] --> B["cycle spec<br/>= old phases 2 + 2.5"]
  B --> C["cycle contract<br/>= old phase 3 (schema first, disjoint owns)"]
  C -->|contract merged: the exit condition| D["cycle component × N, in parallel<br/>= old phases 4–6"]
  D --> E["cycle integration<br/>= old phases 7 + 7.5"]
  E --> F["Review Queue evidence<br/>REFERENCE: Executive Review Checkpoint"]

Phase-number map (Foreman dispatch prompts still use these numbers)

Entry modes

Non-negotiables (details in REFERENCE)

• State is always current. docs/STATE.md header and docs/PHASE-LOG.jsonl get one entry per cycle step. completedAt is a real date -u reading, and needsAttention carries an attentionClass (REFERENCE "docs/STATE.md").
• Attention budget. The owner is pulled in only for a typed hard blocker or review evidence (a demo video or a before/after pair). A budget-exhausted cycle is repair-budget-exhausted. Everything else is self-healing.
• Work items are folders. docs/work/<id>/ holds a README, per-layer before→after files, and cycles/ (WORK-ITEM-STANDARD.md, including the DESIGN.md diagram contract and the owns lines).
• Tier gate. live needs human approvedBy at spec lock and never auto-merges without the label ladder. pre-traffic runs unattended with build and test green.
• Backlog, not scope creep. Found work goes to STATE.md backlogItems (REFERENCE "Spec-Gap Ledger"), never inline.

Calling a cycle

Workflow({ scriptPath: "C:/Users/Michael/.claude/workflows/cycle.js",
           args: { repo, workItem, scope, cycleId: <new UUID>, startedAt: <now ISO>,
                   testCommand, owns, contract, size?, parentCycleId? } })

Run parallel component cycles as parallel Workflow calls, each with its own worktree repo. After each cycle, write its cycle.json outcome into PHASE-LOG, and act on outcome: passed continues, and budget-exhausted escalates.