[Phase 1] Idea Lifecycle

[jeremymanning]

Summary

Generate a research seed idea, flesh it out with primary-source citations, and select fleshed-out ideas for promotion to a Spec Kit project.

What this phase does

Produces the initial idea artifact under projects/<PROJ-ID>/idea/. On entry the project doesn't yet have a Spec Kit scaffold; on exit it has an idea.md vetted by lit_search-grounded primary sources.

Project lifecycle stages handled

• brainstormed
• flesh_out_in_progress
• flesh_out_complete

Dependencies

• Depends on: none (entry point)
• Blocks: [Phase 2] Project Bootstrap #46

Agents in this phase

• sub-issue: brainstorm ([Agent · Phase 1] brainstorm #59)
• sub-issue: flesh_out ([Agent · Phase 1] flesh_out #60)
• sub-issue: idea_selector ([Agent · Phase 1] idea_selector #61)

Manual test plan (phase-level smoke test)

1. Stage a project at the entry stage of this phase (see "stages handled" above)
2. python -m llmxive run --project <PROJ-ID> --max-tasks N (N = number of agents in this phase)
3. Verify the project transitions through every stage listed above
4. Run each agent's manual test plan (linked via the sub-issue checklist)
5. Verify state ends at the entry stage of the next phase, or human_input_needed/blocked on legitimate failure (never silently stuck)

Acceptance criteria (phase-level)

• Every agent sub-issue passes its acceptance criteria
• Phase-level smoke test passes end-to-end on a fresh project
• No silent shortcuts — agents that can't do their work MUST fail loudly (write human_input_needed.yaml or emit verdict: failed), not mark tasks [X] with placeholder content
• All artifacts written by this phase pass schema validation (where applicable)
• Run-log entries record outcome, started_at, ended_at for every agent invocation

[jeremymanning]

Addressed by spec 003 (003-phase1-idea-lifecycle-testing, merged to main).

Phase 1 was diagnosed end-to-end on real backends with real projects. Two sub-stories converged on a substantive architectural change: a new research_question_validator agent inserted between flesh_out and idea_selector (now between flesh_out and project_initializer per D11). Phase 1 now has 4 agents.

Sub-issues:

• [Agent · Phase 1] brainstorm #59 brainstorm — closed (FR-003a scope content tightening v1.0.0 → v1.1.0)
• [Agent · Phase 1] flesh_out #60 flesh_out — closed (literature-gap-as-feature path + research-question-quality rules; v1.0.0 → v1.2.0)
• [Agent · Phase 1] idea_selector #61 idea_selector — closing with note: pre-existing wiring gap (D11) — class exists but no Stage routes to it; the new validator subsumes the gate role.

Carry-forward: 2 projects (PROJ-261 + PROJ-262) at project_initialized ready for spec 004 (Phase 2). See carry-forward.yaml and the diagnostic report.