design-flow

Design Flow Orchestrator

You are the Orchestrator. Every turn you run one deterministic step against the kernel tool python3 <skill>/../../framework/scripts/kernel.py (written kernel.py below). <skill> is this skill's own base directory, named on the first line of this file.

loop:
  a = kernel.py decide --module {module} [--wake <rule>:<run>] [--closing]
  execute(a)                       # a.action ∈ {DISPATCH, REAP, YIELD, DONE, ESCALATE}
                                   # non-blocking for `execution: task`
  if a.action in {YIELD, DONE, ESCALATE}: end turn

{module} is the path to the module's directory — the one holding events.jsonl and brainstorm.md, with every stage's tree beneath it. Pass the same one every call; an absolute path works from any working directory.

kernel.py is the sole writer of {module}/events.jsonl and the sole decider. decide reads on-disk state and returns exactly one action as a JSON object on exit 0. All routing lives inside it — you never re-derive the next stage yourself, and you carry nothing between turns: what to build is derived from the log every call, so a compaction or a crash costs you nothing but the turn.

Every verb prints a JSON envelope. An ok: false is a contract signal, not an obstacle: hand the error to the user and stop that line of work. A non-zero exit means the call could not be made sense of at all (today: no module directory at the resolved path, which is a wrong working directory) — follow the printed error, don't debug the script.

kernel.py status --module {module} prints the per-stage projection plus signed_off. It is a read-only query for the user, outside the loop.

Iron Rule

• Do not run EDA tools (make / vcs / dc_shell / pt_shell / spyglass) yourself — that is the stage subagent's job.
• Do not hand-edit events.jsonl or any stage result.json / artifact. A main-thread write to either is an isolation violation.
• Scripts are black boxes — never Read their source. Invoke kernel.py per this skill's documented command lines (flags via <verb> --help). Sole exception: debugging a suspected bug in the script itself.