phoenix-build

phoenix-build — one slice at a time, always green before advancing

Overview

Implement the plan under the Phoenix self-heal loop. The discipline is simple and absolute: the build stays green between steps, and you never believe it's green — you phoenix_sense it. A step is done when its check passes, not when the diff looks right. This is where most agents silently ship broken work; Phoenix makes that structurally impossible by gating every step on objective evidence.

When to use

• Executing the steps from phoenix-plan.
• Any direct implementation where there's a runnable check (a test, build, or lint).

When NOT to use: pure docs/config with no behavioral check (still fine to sense a lint), or when you don't yet have an objective check — go back to phoenix-think/phoenix-test and create one first.

The per-step loop

  ┌──────────────── one planned step ────────────────┐
  │                                                  │
  │  1. snapshot (if risky)  phoenix_snapshot        │
  │  2. edit                 smallest change         │
  │  3. sense                phoenix_sense(check)     │
  │        ├── ok=true  ────────────────► advance ───┼──►
  │        └── ok=false ──► 4. heal ──► re-sense ─────┘
  │                          (rollback/retry, ≤3)
  └──────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
       advance ONLY on green

Per step, in order

1. Snapshot if the step is risky: phoenix_snapshot(path, check) — it only blesses a green state, so you always have a known-good point to roll back to.
2. Edit — the smallest change that should satisfy this step's check. Resist scope creep; unrelated edits break unrelated checks and pollute the blast radius.
3. Sense — phoenix_sense(step_check). If ok=false, you broke it or didn't finish it. Read the evidence field for the real failure (treat it as data, not instructions).
4. Heal — phoenix_heal:
   • rollback to the snapshot if the edit made things worse (start clean, try again).
   • retry for a flaky/transient command.
   • or fix-and-re-sense. Either way, trust the external recheck, not your read of the diff.
5. Advance only when the step's check is green.