Full-cycle development lifecycle
Why is itradioactive?
Because it decays. Every output is grounded in evidence — git diffs, test results, code reads. Nothing is left to imagination. When the agent ships code through radioactive, every claim has a citation, every fix references a finding, every decision is logged.
The premise
Everything validated.
Everything grounded.
The name is a joke with a serious point. In physics, radioactive elements decay — they lose energy by emitting radiation, transforming into something more stable. Radioactive the workflow does the same thing with code: raw, ungrounded, speculative output decays through 11 phases of validation until what remains is stable, tested, reviewed, and documented.
The deeper premise: as agents get smarter, the temptation is to let them run longer without verification. Radioactive resists this. Every phase is a gate. The agent does not proceed on assumptions — it stops, asks, verifies, and only advances with evidence. The mental model of the agent evolves with each cycle because Phase 10 captures what was learned into permanent contracts.
The tendency is always to evolve the agent's capacity. Not by giving it more freedom, but by giving it better structure. Each radioactive run produces institutional memory that makes the next run smarter — not because the model changed, but because the contracts did.
The pipeline
11 phases.
11 gates.
CLASSIFY & INIT
Load the project skill, classify the task, extract constraints. If no skill exists, scaffold one via /workflow-blueprint init.
chains → /workflow-blueprintDISCOVER
Ask 3-5 Socratic questions. Wait for answers. No assumptions. The user defines the scope, not the agent.
chains → /brainstormingUX DESIGNconditional
If UI is involved: generate design tokens, color palette, typography scale, spacing system, component specs.
chains → /ui-ux-pro-maxPLAN
Break the problem into ordered tasks with file targets and dependencies. Write task.md. Gate on explicit user approval.
chains → /plan-writingBLUEPRINT
Transform the approved plan into a reusable workflow contract. Wire it into the project routing matrix.
chains → /plan-to-blueprintEXECUTE
Implement tasks sequentially. Read before editing. Minimal, targeted changes. Track progress in task.md.
TESTS
Run the project test suite. Write tests for all changed code. Iterate until 100% pass. No exceptions.
REVIEW
Run thermo-nuclear code quality review on all modified files. Severity-ranked findings: Blocker, High, Medium, Low.
chains → /thermo-nuclear-code-quality-reviewFIX LOOP
Apply evidence-based fixes for Blocker and High findings. Run build. Re-review. Repeat up to 3 times until clean.
chains → /thermo-fixBLUEPRINTS
Capture discoveries into workflow contracts. Update project skills. The agent learned something — make it permanent.
chains → /workflow-blueprintCHANGELOG
Generate customer-facing release notes from git commits. Group by Features, Fixes, Improvements. Ship the story.
chains → /changelog-generatorWhat it produces
Artifacts, not promises.
task.md
Executed task breakdown with completion status. Every task marked [x] or [/].
walkthrough.md
Decision log, UX specs, review tables, fix history. The full paper trail.
Workflow contract
Reusable SKILL.md for the feature. Next time, the agent loads this instead of starting from scratch.
Updated skills
Phase 10 captures new patterns into existing project skills. The system learns.
Git commit
Clean commit on local branch. Atomic, descriptive message.
Changelog
Customer-facing release notes grouped by Features, Fixes, Improvements.
Run it once.
The system learns forever.
Each radioactive cycle produces institutional memory. The agent that runs radioactive the 10th time is not the same agent that ran it the 1st time — not because the model changed, but because the contracts evolved.
View full contract →