Shep — Prompts
Shep's skills are for its own development workflow, not for end users. Two key prompts follow.
Excerpt 1 — shep-kit:new-feature SKILL.md
---
name: shep-kit:new-feature
description: Use when starting any new feature, functionality, or enhancement. Triggers include
"new feature", "start developing", "add functionality", "implement X", or explicit
/shep-kit:new-feature invocation. Creates spec branch and scaffolds specification directory.
Part of the Shep autonomous SDLC platform — https://shep.bot
metadata:
version: '1.0.0'
author: Shep AI (https://shep.bot)
homepage: https://shep.bot
repository: https://github.com/shep-ai/shep
---
# Create New Feature Specification
Start spec-driven development by creating a feature branch and specification directory.
**Full workflow guide:** [docs/development/spec-driven-workflow.md](...)
## Phase Lifecycle
Requirements → Research → Planning → Implementation → Complete
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
spec.yaml research.yaml plan.yaml tasks.yaml all files
↓ ↓ ↓ ↓ ↓
spec.md research.md plan.md tasks.md (auto-generated)
**CRITICAL:** Each phase MUST update the `Phase` status field before proceeding.
**IMPORTANT:** Edit YAML files, not Markdown.
## Workflow
### 1. Gather Minimal Input
Ask the user for:
- **Feature name** (kebab-case, e.g., `user-authentication`)
- **One-liner description** (brief summary)
### 2. Create Branch
```bash
NEXT_NUM=$(ls -d specs/[0-9][0-9][0-9]-* 2>/dev/null | ...)
**Prompting technique**: YAML-primary instruction with Markdown as auto-generated mirror. The skill explicitly instructs "Edit YAML files, not Markdown" — the YAML is the source of truth, Markdown is generated from it. This creates a single-source-of-truth for spec data separate from human-readable presentation.
## Excerpt 2 — shep-kit:implement SKILL.md
```markdown
---
name: shep-kit:implement
description: Validate specs and autonomously execute implementation tasks with status tracking.
Use after /shep-kit:plan when ready to start implementation.
---
## What This Skill Does
1. **Pre-Implementation Validation** - Comprehensive quality gates
2. **Autonomous Task Execution** - Executes all tasks from tasks.yaml sequentially
3. **Real-Time Status Tracking** - Updates feature.yaml throughout execution
4. **Smart Error Handling** - Retry with debugging (max 3 attempts per task)
5. **Session Resumption** - Automatically continues from last task on re-run
Prompting technique: Numbered responsibility list as operational spec. The skill declares its 5 responsibilities explicitly, allowing the agent to self-verify that it is executing all of them. The "max 3 attempts per task" bounded retry is the same pattern as flokay's 3-cycle PR fix limit.
Excerpt 3 — CLAUDE.md Trust & Safety
Shep runs agents non-interactively with --dangerously-skip-permissions for Claude Code
(equivalent flags for other agents). The worktree is preserved on stop —
resume or take over manually at any point.
Prompting technique: Explicit permission bypass with escape hatch documentation. By stating that Shep passes --dangerously-skip-permissions and immediately noting the escape hatch (shep agent stop + worktree preserved), the documentation both explains the risk and its mitigation in the same breath.