Story Engineer Workflow
Developer technical refinement — architecture, affected components, API contracts, and risks.
Pipeline
Phase Summary
Hover over any phase name to see what it does in detail.
| # | Phase | Purpose | Key Output |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | INTAKE | Fetch ticket, linked Confluence pages, and PRD requirements | INTAKE.md |
| 2 | ANALYZE | Read codebase scoped by CODEBASE_INSIGHTS and PRD specs | ANALYSIS.md |
| 3 | REFINE | Write technical approach, affected files, risks, sub-tasks | REFINEMENT.md |
| 4 | VALIDATE | Verify refinement covers all ACs with no gaps | VALIDATION.md |
| 5 | PUBLISH | Update Jira with Technical Refinement section + sub-tasks | PUBLISH.md |
What Gets Added to Jira
The PUBLISH phase appends a Technical Refinement section to the Jira ticket description and creates implementation sub-tasks.
## Technical Refinement
### Approach
2-3 sentence technical approach describing how the story will be implemented.
### Affected Components
Components grouped by layer — API, Service, Repository, UI, Config.
### API Contracts
New or modified endpoints with request/response shapes.
### Implementation Notes
Patterns to follow, pitfalls to avoid, migration considerations.
### Risks
Risk assessment with severity and mitigation for each.
### Sub-tasks
Implementation sub-tasks created as Jira children with estimates.
Signal Flow
| Signal | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| PHASE_COMPLETE | Advance | Phase done, advance to next |
| BLOCKED_NEEDS_ARCHITECT | Block | Cannot proceed without architect decision |
| STORY_NEEDS_SPLIT | Block | Story too large, needs splitting by PO |
| MISSING_API_CONTRACT | Loopback | API contract undefined, loop back to define it |
| REFINEMENT_PUBLISHED | Terminal | Workflow complete |