What I do

•Define the mandatory pre-flight protocol for all DevOps work
•Guide branch naming conventions for issue-linked branches
•Document the full lifecycle from issue to merged PR
•Provide post-merge cleanup procedures

When to use me

Use this skill when starting any DevOps task, when unsure about the workflow order, or when onboarding someone to the issue-driven development process.

Pre-flight Protocol

Every task follows this sequence before work begins:

code

1. Issue Check     ->  Verify GitHub issue exists and is open
2. Clean Tree      ->  No uncommitted changes in working directory
3. Branch Create   ->  Dedicated branch from default branch

All three must PASS before any work begins. If any check fails, stop and resolve the issue before proceeding.

Branch Naming Convention

Format: <type>/<issue-number>-<slug>

Type	When to use
`feature`	New functionality
`fix`	Bug fixes
`chore`	Maintenance, dependency updates, config changes
`docs`	Documentation changes
`refactor`	Code restructuring without behavior change
`test`	Adding or updating tests

Examples:

•feature/42-add-dark-mode
•fix/17-login-timeout
•chore/5-update-terraform-provider
•docs/23-update-deployment-guide

Rules:

•Slug is derived from the issue title, kebab-cased, max 40 characters
•Always branch from the default branch (usually main)
•One branch per issue, one issue per branch

Full Lifecycle

code

Issue Created
  |
  v
Pre-flight Checks (issue, clean tree, branch)
  |
  v
Work Execution (containers, infra, troubleshooting)
  |
  v
Test Validation (mandatory — PASS / FAIL / WARN)
  |
  v
Stage & Commit (via @git-ops, conventional commit format)
  |
  v
Create PR (via @git-ops, with "Closes #N" in body)
  |         - Always set delete_branch: true
  v
Review & Merge
  |
  v
Post-merge Cleanup
  - Switch to default branch
  - Pull latest
  - Delete local feature branch
  - git fetch --prune

Test Validation

Test validation is a mandatory step between work execution and commit. It runs automatically via the validate_tests tool and MUST NOT be silently skipped.

Detection Priority

The tool searches for test infrastructure in this order:

•make local-test — Makefile target (preferred, uses scripts/local.sh test)
•make test — Fallback Makefile target
•Auto-detect — Infers test command from project type (e.g., npm test, go test ./..., python3 -m pytest, cargo test)

Outcomes

Result	Meaning	Action
PASS	Tests ran and passed	Proceed to commit
FAIL	Tests ran and failed	Show output. User must explicitly confirm to skip.
WARN	No test infrastructure found	User must explicitly confirm to proceed. Suggest tracking issue.

Skip Override Rules

•The user CAN skip test validation, but MUST explicitly confirm.
•The agent MUST NOT silently skip or auto-confirm on behalf of the user.
•If tests fail, the prompt must include: "Tests failed. Do you want to skip test validation and commit anyway? This is not recommended."
•If no tests exist, the prompt must include: "No test infrastructure was found. Do you want to proceed without test validation?"
•Skipping should be the exception, not the norm.

Commit Message Convention

Use conventional commits: type(scope): description

•feat(container): add multi-stage build for API service
•fix(terraform): correct GKE node pool machine type
•chore(gcloud): update project IAM bindings
•docs(readme): add deployment prerequisites

Post-merge Cleanup

After a PR is merged, clean up to prevent branch accumulation. Use the /cleanup command to list and prune stale merged branches:

•Switch to default branch: git checkout main
•Pull latest: git pull
•Delete local branch: git branch -d <branch>
•Prune remote refs: git fetch --prune

This is a separate step from the post-work protocol. Do NOT run cleanup immediately after PR creation -- wait until the PR is merged.