sova: Skill for Claude Code

Full Development Workflow

Develop a feature or fix end-to-end with TDD, testing, self-review, and clean commit history.

Instructions

Phase 0: Understand the Task

1. Get the task from the arguments provided when this skill is invoked: either a GitHub Issue number or a task description.
2. Check for spec (issue numbers only): look for .claude/specs/{issue-number}-*.md.
   • If found with Status: approved: read it. Report: "Using approved spec: {filename}". The sova-develop skill step will follow this spec as its primary guide.
   • If found with Status: draft: warn the user: "Draft spec exists at {filename} but is not approved. Run the sova-spec skill {issue} to review and approve it, or proceed without spec guidance." Wait for user confirmation before continuing (when running headless, with no user to confirm, proceed without spec guidance and say so in the summary).
   • If not found: continue silently. Specs are optional; not every task needs one.
3. If it's an issue number, fetch details. When an approved spec was found in step 2, it already encodes the task intent in distilled form, so omit body and fetch only the fields this phase still needs (claiming, branch naming, labels):

   # No approved spec:
   gh issue view <ISSUE_NUMBER> --json number,title,body,labels,milestone
   # Approved spec found in step 2:
   gh issue view <ISSUE_NUMBER> --json number,title,labels,milestone
   

4. Claim the issue (GitHub Issues only):

   # Assign to self
   gh issue edit <ISSUE_NUMBER> --add-assignee @me
   

   If the project uses a GitHub Projects board, move the issue to "In Progress".
5. Read the project's CLAUDE.md and AGENTS.md for conventions and patterns.
6. Read agent memory files if they exist:
   • .claude/agent-memory/MEMORY.md and .claude/agent-memory/common-mistakes.md
   • The cookbook: when .claude/agent-memory/cookbook/ exists, read its README.md index and then only the domain files for the modules this work touches (the whole cookbook is too large to load); otherwise read .claude/agent-memory/cookbook.md
7. Identify which module(s) this work touches and read relevant source code.
8. Check current branch: if on main/master, create a feature branch before developing, the same way the sova-new-feature skill does (in a dedicated worktree when the project keeps branches under .claude/worktrees/, so the primary checkout stays on the base branch):

   BRANCH=$(git branch --show-current)
   if [ "$BRANCH" = "main" ] || [ "$BRANCH" = "master" ]; then
     echo "On main branch. Create a feature branch before developing."
   fi