Autonomous Development

Description

Execute iterative development loops with automated quality gates, issue tracking integration, and intelligent remediation. Achieve 95/100 quality score before creating pull requests.

When to Use

•Large features broken into multiple issues
•Repetitive tasks that benefit from automation
•When consistent quality enforcement is needed
•Overnight/background development runs

Prerequisites

•GitHub or GitLab MCP configured
•Issues/epic created via /plan --issues
•.claude/autonomous.yml configured (or use defaults)

Quality Gates

Required Gates (Blockers)

Gate	Weight	Threshold	Remediation
`/test`	25	80% coverage, 0 failures	Auto-fix test failures
`/security`	25	0 critical/high vulns	Auto-fix vulnerabilities
`/build`	15	Build succeeds	`/build-fix`

Quality Gates

Gate	Weight	Threshold	Remediation
`/review`	20	< 3 smells	`/cleanup`
`/mentor`	10	No critical concerns	Create issues
`/ux`	5	A11y + responsive	Create issues

Scoring

code

Target: 95/100

Score = test + security + build + review + mentor + ux + bonus

Bonus:
  +2 for coverage > 90%
  +2 for zero code smells
  +1 for zero security issues

Workflow

Phase 1: Planning

bash

# Create epic with child issues
/plan "User authentication system" --issues

# Result:
# Epic #100: "User Authentication System"
# ├── Issue #101: "Create User model"
# ├── Issue #102: "Login endpoint"
# ├── Issue #103: "Session management"
# └── Issue #104: "Password reset"

Phase 2: Autonomous Execution

bash

# Start autonomous development
/autonomous --epic 100 --target 95

# Or for a single issue
/autonomous --issue 101

Phase 3: Monitoring

Watch progress via:

•Issue comments (real-time updates)
•GitHub/GitLab notifications
•/gate-status command

Phase 4: Review & Merge

•PRs created automatically when score >= 95
•Human reviews and approves
•On merge, loop continues to next issue

Configuration

Basic Config (`.claude/autonomous.yml`)

yaml

target_score: 95
max_iterations: 15

gates:
  test:
    weight: 25
    required: true
    thresholds:
      min_coverage: 80
      max_failures: 0

  security:
    weight: 25
    required: true
    thresholds:
      critical_vulns: 0
      high_vulns: 0

  review:
    weight: 20
    auto_fix: true

Presets

Preset	Target	Use Case
`default`	95	Standard development
`prototype`	80	Quick prototypes, MVPs
`production`	98	Production-critical code
`frontend`	95	UI components (UX required)

bash

/autonomous --epic 100 --preset production

Issue Integration

Issue Lifecycle

code

OPEN → IN PROGRESS → PR CREATED → IN REVIEW → MERGED → CLOSED
                         ↓
                   (if blocked)
                         ↓
                     BLOCKED → (human intervention) → IN PROGRESS

Labels Applied

Label	Meaning
`in-progress`	Autonomous loop working on issue
`blocked`	Loop paused, human needed
`ready-for-review`	PR created, awaiting approval
`auto-generated`	Issue created by autonomous run
`tech-debt`	Deferred improvement

Sub-Issue Creation

Unresolved items become linked issues:

code

Issue #101: "Create User model" [CLOSED]
├── PR #110 [MERGED]
└── Sub-issues created:
    ├── #105: "[Security] Add rate limiting" (medium vuln)
    └── #106: "[Tech Debt] Consider caching" (mentor recommendation)

Human Intervention

Via Issue Comments

Command	Action
`@claude [instruction]`	Execute instruction
`@pause`	Pause loop
`@resume`	Resume loop
`@skip-gate [gate] [reason]`	Skip a gate
`@target [score]`	Change target score

Example

markdown

<!-- User comments -->
@claude Use bcrypt instead of argon2 for password hashing

<!-- Bot responds -->
@user Understood. Switching to bcrypt:
- Updated User model
- Modified password service
- Updated tests

Re-running quality gates...

Exit Conditions

Success (Create PR)

•Score >= 95 (or target)
•All required gates pass

Success with Review

•Score 85-94
•10+ iterations attempted
•All required gates pass
•PR labeled needs-review

Blocked (Pause)

•Required gate fails after max retries
•Score < 85 after max iterations
•Human intervention requested

Best Practices

Do

•Break features into small, focused issues
•Set realistic acceptance criteria
•Review autonomous PRs carefully
•Address tech-debt issues promptly

Don't

•Create overly complex single issues
•Ignore blocked notifications
•Auto-merge PRs (always review)
•Skip security gates without justification

Troubleshooting

Problem	Solution
Loop stuck on same score	Check for flaky tests, review gate output
Too many sub-issues created	Adjust thresholds in config
PR has conflicts	Rebase branch, resume loop
Rate limited	Increase `iteration_delay`

Metrics

Track autonomous development effectiveness:

Metric	Target
Average score	> 90
Iterations per issue	< 5
Auto-fix success rate	> 80%
Human interventions	< 10% of issues

•/plan - Create issues from feature request
•/orchestrate - Coordinate multiple autonomous runs
•/review - Code review gate
•/security - Security audit gate
•/mentor - Architecture review gate

Autonomous Development

Description

When to Use

Prerequisites

Quality Gates

Required Gates (Blockers)

Quality Gates

Scoring

Workflow

Phase 1: Planning

Phase 2: Autonomous Execution

Phase 3: Monitoring

Phase 4: Review & Merge

Configuration

Basic Config (.claude/autonomous.yml)

Presets

Issue Integration

Issue Lifecycle

Labels Applied

Sub-Issue Creation

Human Intervention

Via Issue Comments

Example

Exit Conditions

Success (Create PR)

Success with Review

Blocked (Pause)

Best Practices

Do

Don't

Troubleshooting

Metrics

Related

Basic Config (`.claude/autonomous.yml`)