pipeline-builder

Pipeline Builder

Execution model: Human-in-the-loop. Claude facilitates the discussion and generates artifacts; the human confirms, corrects, and approves at every gate.

Convert workflow documents into agentic pipeline skills that Claude Code and Cowork execute as enforced task lists.

Why Pipelines Beat Rules

Rules in a document are suggestions. Claude reads them, understands them, then optimizes for speed over process. The stronger the time pressure, the more rules get skipped.

Pipelines enforce rules through structure: each phase is a Task tool agent with a single job. Each agent writes output to a file. The next agent requires that file as input. You cannot skip Phase 2 because Phase 3 needs Phase 2's output file to exist.

Gates are verification agents that check the prior agent's work before the next phase fires. If the gate fails, work goes back — not forward. "Write tests first" stops being a suggestion and becomes a hard dependency.

Before Starting

Read these references when needed during the pipeline build:

• references/interrogation_guide.md — How to probe the user's workflow for gaps, contradictions, and missing failure modes
• references/pipeline_patterns.md — Dispatcher patterns, agent prompt templates, gate templates, file handoff conventions
• references/example_output.md — Complete worked example: CLAUDE.md rules → installed pipeline skill

The Pipeline (Follow This Task List)

This skill itself runs as a pipeline. Follow each task in order. Do not skip tasks. Do not combine tasks.

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Task 1: INGEST

Ingest whatever the user provides — workflow document, verbal description, existing pipeline, process notes, or any combination. Adapt to each resource according to your understanding.

Action:

1. Read the actual source artifacts — not summaries, not descriptions of files. If the user points to a file, read it. Summaries omit the details where gaps hide.
2. List every rule, checkpoint, phase, and constraint you find
3. Tag each item using whichever tags apply:
   • [phase] — a step in the workflow that produces an artifact
   • [gate] — a verification/quality check
   • [rule] — a behavioral constraint
   • [working] — functioning as intended (for existing pipelines)
   • [broken] — where a known failure lives (for existing pipelines)
   • [suspect] — adjacent to a failure, may need to change (for existing pipelines)
   • [unclear] — needs clarification