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skill · phase: implementation

Autopilot

Purpose

Turn "do the next 3 items" into one background run. The run builds each ready backlog item in its own worktree with an unattended agent, opens a pull request, waits for CI, merges, and runs the configured release step — one item at a time through the merge.

The CLI does the work. This skill starts it and says how to watch and stop it. Do not build the items yourself in this session.

Instructions

  1. Read the count. "the next 3 items" → --items 3. "all the items", "the whole backlog" → --all. "the next item" → --items 1. If no count is given, ask once: how many items, or all?

  2. Check it is set up. Run aidlc autopilot status. If the user has never run setup, run refuses in step 3 and says so; then go to step 4.

  3. Start the run. From the project, run:

    aidlc autopilot run --items <n>

    or aidlc autopilot run --all. It returns at once. Do not wait for it, and do not poll it.

  4. If it refuses:

    • not set up → tell the user to run aidlc autopilot setup in their own terminal. It asks which agent to use and what it may do; that choice is theirs, so do not pick it with flags on their behalf.
    • a run is already active → report its pid and offer aidlc autopilot stop first.

  5. Report, in four short lines: what it is doing (how many items), the log file it printed, aidlc autopilot status to watch, and /aidlc-autopilot-stop (or aidlc autopilot stop) to stop.

What the run does on its own

  • Takes items in aidlc roadmap next order. Builds at most two at once, and never more than the count asked for.
  • Parks an item (moves it to hold/ with a reason) when its agent stops short, when CI fails twice, or when it passes the cost cap.
  • Before each merge, brings the item's branch up to date with main and waits for CI on the new head. A conflict with main goes back to the item's agent, twice at most, then the item is parked. A pull request someone merged by hand is dropped from tracking.
  • Halts the merge queue when a step fails. Running aidlc autopilot run again retries a failure that came before the merge; a failed release is for a person — aidlc autopilot status shows the error. aidlc autopilot forget <instance> stops tracking an item finished by hand.
  • Ends when the asked-for items are each released or parked, or, with --all, when nothing is ready and nothing is in flight.

Exit Criteria

  • aidlc autopilot run has started a run, or its refusal has been reported with the one command that fixes it
  • The user knows where the log is, how to watch, and how to stop