Composable Primitives Skill

When to Use

• Designing new agentic workflows
• Customizing SDLC for specific needs
• Mapping problem classes to primitives
• Building organization-specific compositions

The Secret

"The secret of tactical agentic coding is that it's not about the software developer lifecycle at all. It's about composable agentic primitives you can use to solve any engineering problem class."

Core Primitives

Composition Workflow

Step 1: Identify Problem Class

• Chore (simple, low risk)
• Bug (medium complexity, clear criteria)
• Feature (complex, full SDLC)
• Hotfix (urgent, minimal process)
• Documentation (content only)

Step 2: Select Primitives

Step 3: Order by Dependencies

• Plan before Build (Build needs plan)
• Build before Test (Test needs code)
• Test before Ship (Ship needs validation)

Step 4: Add Validation Points

Plan -> Build -> [Test GATE] -> Review -> [Review GATE] -> Ship

Step 5: Define Entry/Exit

• Entry: What triggers this workflow?
• Exit: What signals completion?

Standard Compositions

Full SDLC

Classify -> Plan -> Build -> Test -> Review -> Document -> Ship

ZTE (Zero-Touch)

Classify -> Plan -> Build -> Test -> Review -> Document -> Ship
                              | |
                          [GATE]         [GATE]

Quick Fix

Classify -> Patch -> Test -> Ship

Review-Driven

Review -> Patch -> Test -> Ship

Custom Composition Design

Organization Factors

• Testing requirements (mandatory E2E?)
• Review processes (who reviews?)
• Documentation standards (auto-generated?)
• Deployment pipelines (manual approval?)
• Compliance needs (audit trails?)

Example: Compliance-Heavy

Classify -> Plan -> [Compliance Review] -> Build -> Test ->
[Security Scan] -> Review -> Document -> [Approval] -> Ship

Example: Rapid Iteration

Build -> Test -> Ship (no planning for small changes)

Key Memory References

• @composable-primitives.md - Detailed primitives documentation
• @template-engineering.md - Templates as primitive definitions
• @adw-anatomy.md - ADW as composition framework

Output Format

## Workflow Composition

**Problem Class:** {type}
**Entry Trigger:** {trigger}
**Exit Criteria:** {criteria}

### Primitives Selected
1. Classify - Categorize the task
2. Plan - Create implementation spec
3. Build - Implement changes
4. Test - Validate functionality
5. Ship - Deploy to production

### Composition Flow

### Validation Gates

- After Test: Abort if tests fail
- After Review: Optional based on confidence

### Customizations

- [Organization-specific additions]

Anti-Patterns

• Rigid SDLC thinking (must do all steps)
• Over-composition (too many primitives)
• Under-composition (missing critical steps)
• Ignoring failure paths (no gates)
• One-size-fits-all (same for all problem classes)

Version History

• v1.0.0 (2025-12-26): Initial release

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