Copal Engineering Loop Skill

This skill integrates with the Copal CLI to provide structured, state-driven development workflows.

When to Use This Skill

Activate this skill when:

• •User asks to implement a feature or fix a bug
• •User wants structured development workflow (Plan → Research → Work → Review)
• •Project has .copal/ directory with todo.json

Available Commands

Task Management

# Get and start the next pending task
copal next [--worktree]

# Mark a task as completed
copal done <task_id>

# Show project status, task summary, and recent session history
copal status

# Validate project state before starting work
copal validate --pre-task

# Search project memory
copal memory search --query "search term"

Workflow

1. Session Initialization (Get Bearings)

• •Run copal status to see active tasks.
• •Run copal next to get context and see recent session history.
• •If you need more context, use copal memory search.
• •Run copal validate --pre-task to ensure:
  • •Git working directory is clean
  • •Baseline tests are passing

2. Execution Loop

• •Run copal next (or copal next --worktree for isolation) to claim a task.
• •Worktree: If using worktree, cd into the new directory.
• •TDD: Write tests -> Fail -> Implement -> Pass.
• •Commit: Make atomic commits for the task.

3. Completion & Handover

• •Run copal done <id>. This will:
  • •Mark task as done in todo.json
  • •Save a session summary to memory automatically
• •If using worktree, merge changes back to main branch.

Task States

Best Practices

1. •Trust the Harness: Rely on copal validate and memory chains.
2. •One Feature, One Branch: Use copal next --worktree for complex tasks.
3. •Validation Gates: Never start a task on a dirty or broken state.
4. •Self-Correction: If copal done fails, fix the issue and retry.

File Locations

• •Task list: .copal/artifacts/todo.json
• •Memories: .copal/memory.sqlite (managed via CLI)