COMPOSE. ENFORCE. TRACE. SHIP.
Brooks was right. Silver Bullet is not one magic trick. It is the enforced system around the work.
Silver Bullet is an Agentic Process Orchestrator (APO): the orchestration and enforcement layer around GSD. /silver composes the right workflow for the task, sequences adjacent plugins, and blocks unsafe edits, PRs, deploys, and releases until the required evidence exists.
A good prompt is not a delivery system. Agentic work needs routing, traceability, review, test freshness, docs governance, and mechanical gates that survive long sessions and context compaction.
Agents jump straight to coding. No spec, no accepted assumptions, no plan coverage check. The path of least resistance is always to start editing files.
Specs, requirements, plans, UAT, PR descriptions, and implementation records drift apart. Reviewers cannot easily tell which accepted criteria were actually delivered.
Work is declared “done” without fresh tests, code review, UAT evidence, docs updates, CI status, or release readiness checks.
As the context window fills, output quality silently degrades. The best workflows in the world mean nothing if the agent is operating on a rotting context.
The root cause: Great execution engines exist. Great review skills exist. Great docs and DevOps practices exist. The missing layer is enforced orchestration: choosing the right chain for the task and blocking unsafe progress until the chain has produced evidence.
Plain GSD is the planning and execution engine. Silver Bullet is the APO layer that wraps it with dynamic workflow composition, cross-plugin sequencing, spec/UAT/PR traceability, review governance, documentation governance, DevOps safety, and host hooks that make skipping steps harder.
/silver classifies the task and composes the chain it needs: feature, bugfix, UI, DevOps, release, research, spec, ingest, validate, or fast path. GSD already has freeform routing; Silver Bullet’s value is broader task-shaped orchestration across SB gates and adjacent plugins.
Every composition is tracked under .planning/workflows/<id>.md: active flow, completed flows, deferred improvements, dynamic insertions, autonomous decisions, and the next required step. The retired single-file WORKFLOW.md model is legacy only.
SB blocks unsafe progress at multiple evidence boundaries: spec floor before planning, validation findings before implementation, UAT before milestone completion, fresh tests before delivery, and review loops before shipping.
Small edits stay lightweight through silver:fast, but agents cannot arm legacy bypass markers directly. If scope expands or DevOps files are involved, the work routes back into the governed workflow.
Silver Bullet adds the upstream and downstream contract around GSD execution: elicited or ingested specs, explicit assumptions, plan coverage validation, UAT freshness, and PR traceability.
silver:specSocratic spec elicitation produces canonical .planning/SPEC.md and .planning/REQUIREMENTS.md with acceptance criteria, assumptions, open questions, source artifacts, and version metadata.
silver:ingestIngest JIRA, Figma, Google Docs, Confluence, or cross-repo specs through configured connectors. Failures are explicit [ARTIFACT MISSING] blocks and every run writes an INGESTION_MANIFEST.md.
silver:validateCompare SPEC.md acceptance criteria against GSD phase plans, surface uncovered criteria, unresolved assumptions, orphan tasks, and open questions, then write machine-readable VALIDATION.md findings.
Session-start hooks capture spec version and JIRA ID. PR creation appends a traceability block and deferred validation warnings. Milestone completion is blocked if UAT.md is missing, failing, or stale.
Silver Bullet adds a general artifact-review framework across specs, requirements, design, roadmap, context, research, ingestion, UAT, and cross-artifact consistency — with audit trails and analytics.
artifact-reviewer auto-detects the correct reviewer for SPEC.md, DESIGN.md, REQUIREMENTS.md, ROADMAP.md, CONTEXT.md, RESEARCH.md, INGESTION_MANIFEST.md, UAT.md, and cross-artifact sets.
High-stakes artifacts can require two consecutive clean passes. Each round updates review state and writes a REVIEW-ROUNDS.md audit trail, so review quality is visible and resumable.
Configure deep, standard, or quick review depth per reviewer in .planning/config.json. SPEC and REQUIREMENTS can be deep while lower-risk artifacts stay quick.
artifact-review-assessor classifies findings as MUST-FIX, NICE-TO-HAVE, or DISMISS against the artifact contract, preventing review loops from turning stylistic preferences into blockers.
Every review round emits structured metrics. Silver Bullet gives you data-driven visibility into artifact quality trends, round counts, and finding categories — right from the CLI.
Every review round emits structured metrics to a JSON Lines file. Pass rates, rounds to clean pass, and finding categories — all captured automatically with no extra configuration.
silver-review-statsRun silver-review-stats to generate summary reports from review metrics. Three report tables cover pass rates, rounds to clean pass, and finding categories by artifact type.
The review loop enforces that verification completes before any completion claim. No artifact can be declared done without confirmed verification in the review record.
Silver Bullet doesn’t reinvent what already exists. It treats GSD as the execution engine, then sequences review, design, docs, DevOps, and SB-owned gates around it. Required dependencies fail closed; optional DevOps enrichments are routed when available.
Silver Bullet is the orchestration and enforcement layer. GSD owns planning and execution. SB decides which lifecycle route applies, which adjacent plugins must run, which gates are non-skippable, and whether the session is allowed to commit, create a PR, deploy, or release.
For the devops-cycle workflow, Silver Bullet integrates five best-in-class DevOps plugins as optional contextual enrichments. A smart skill router maps your IaC toolchain and cloud provider to the best available skill — with automatic fallback chains.
Smart skill routing, not blind fallback. Silver Bullet’s /devops-skill-router maps context such as Terraform authoring, Kubernetes troubleshooting, or AWS deployment to the best available enrichment. Optional enrichments can degrade gracefully; required dependency skills fail closed so the workflow cannot pretend a missing gate ran.
GSD is the planning and execution engine. Silver Bullet is the orchestration, enforcement, traceability, review, DevOps, documentation, and release layer around that engine.
Silver Bullet does not replace GSD or claim GSD’s lifecycle as its own. It composes the right task-shaped workflow, sequences GSD with adjacent plugins, and blocks unsafe progress until the expected evidence exists: spec coverage, UAT, review, fresh tests, docs, CI, DevOps risk controls, and release readiness.
.planning/, executes with fresh agent context, verifies work, and ships milestones.
/silver builds the workflow chain for feature, bugfix, UI, DevOps, research, release, or fast-path work.GSD gives the right lifecycle. SB adds hook-level blockers so agents cannot silently edit, commit, PR, deploy, or release before required evidence exists.
GSD has gsd:do. SB’s extra value is broader workflow composition across SB gates, GSD, and selected helper plugins for review, design, PM, DevOps, and release work.
SB sequences GSD with review, TDD, docs, design, testing, product, DevOps, and release capabilities without pretending those tools are interchangeable.
silver:spec, silver:ingest, silver:validate, UAT gates, and PR traceability connect accepted requirements to delivered implementation.
SB reviews specs, requirements, design, roadmap, research, ingestion manifests, UAT, and cross-artifact consistency with audit trails and review analytics.
Blast-radius analysis, IaC-adapted quality gates, promotion checks, deployment checklists, CI-red blocking, and release gates surround GSD milestone work.
GSD remains the lifecycle and execution authority. Silver Bullet acts as the Agentic Process Orchestrator around it: composing the right task path, enforcing gates, and bringing in optional plugin helpers only when the selected workflow requires them.
Silver Bullet reduces waste by routing work to the smallest safe workflow. Tiny changes use silver:fast. Feature work gets spec and review gates. DevOps work gets blast radius and promotion controls. Release work gets release readiness checks.
silver:fast handles typos, small config edits, simple renames, and low-risk changes without dragging the task through a full delivery workflow.
Feature, UI, bugfix, DevOps, and release tasks get the gates they need: clarify, spec, plan, execute, review, verify, document, ship, and release.
If a required dependency skill is unavailable, SB fails closed and asks for install-and-retry instead of pretending a degraded substitute is equivalent.
Efficiency comes from fit, not shortcuts. Silver Bullet avoids both extremes: full ceremony for tiny edits and casual shortcuts for high-risk changes. The workflow is composed around the task.
Silver Bullet enforces process through host hooks, state files, composed workflow admission, dependency checks, spec/UAT gates, test freshness, PR traceability, docs governance, and completion audits. The active agent can reason, but the environment decides whether unsafe actions proceed.
Skill invocations are recorded to a state file. Delivery gates read that state instead of trusting the agent’s memory or a verbal completion claim.
When a composed workflow exists under .planning/workflows/, non-trivial source edits must present the matching workflow id. Direct edits cannot bypass an active composition.
Required GSD skills and selected SB helper dependencies must be available. Missing mandatory dependencies fail closed with install-and-retry guidance.
Commit, PR, deploy, merge, and release commands are intercepted. Intermediate commits require planning gates; final delivery requires the full deploy skill list and workflow completion.
CI must be green, and /verify-tests must be fresh. Source edits invalidate the test marker, so delivery cannot rely on a test run from before the latest change.
Planning is blocked when SPEC.md lacks required sections. Milestone completion is blocked when UAT.md is missing, failing, or stale against the current spec version.
When the agent tries to declare completion, SB checks required markers and blocks the stop if gates are missing. The next required action is surfaced immediately.
Before each user prompt, SB re-injects missing steps, active workflow context, and core rules. Long sessions and compaction do not erase process obligations.
Direct edits to GSD-owned planning artifacts, SB state files, legacy trivial bypass markers, installed plugin files, and protected instruction surfaces are blocked.
PR descriptions receive spec traceability, SPEC.md records implementation links, roadmap freshness is checked at commit time, and phase directories are archived before clearing.
The full-dev-cycle applies 8 core quality dimensions plus conditional gates via /silver:quality-gates. The devops-cycle applies 7 IaC-adapted dimensions via /devops-quality-gates plus a mandatory /silver:blast-radius assessment. Usability and AI/LLM safety are excluded when they do not apply; reusability/extensibility are handled through modularity and change-safety. Every dimension is a hard stop — not a warning.
Small, focused modules. File size limits. Change locality max 3–5 files. Single responsibility enforced.
/silver:quality-gatesDRY, composable components. Rule of Three. No duplication across the codebase.
/silver:quality-gatesStateless by default. Indexed queries. Async processing. Resource limits defined upfront.
/silver:quality-gatesOWASP Top 10. Input validation. Secrets management. Defense in depth. No trust boundaries crossed. SENTINEL hardening: shell injection fixes and markdown injection prevention built in.
/silver:quality-gatesFault tolerance. Retries with backoff. Circuit breakers. Graceful degradation under load.
/silver:quality-gatesIntuitive APIs. Actionable error messages. Accessibility. Progressive disclosure of complexity.
/silver:quality-gatesDependency injection. Pure functions. Test seams. Deterministic behavior. No hidden state.
/silver:quality-gatesOpen-closed principle. Plugin architecture. Versioned interfaces. Change without breakage.
/silver:quality-gatesDevOps Cycle: Blast Radius First. Before quality gates, the devops-cycle requires a /silver:blast-radius assessment — mapping change scope, downstream dependencies, failure scenarios, and rollback plans. Changes rated HIGH require explicit approval and a runbook. CRITICAL changes are a hard stop requiring CAB review.
These are the kinds of messages the active runtime receives from enforcement hooks. Blocks are mechanical, not advisory.
/silver is the APO router: it classifies the request, composes the smallest safe workflow, delegates lifecycle work to GSD, and wraps execution with the right gates, reviews, documentation, DevOps controls, and release evidence.
| Workflow | Entry signals | Key steps | Non-skippable gates |
|---|---|---|---|
| /silver:feature | "add X", "build X", "implement X", "new feature" | orient → clarify/decide if needed → spec/validate as needed → quality gates → GSD discuss/plan/execute/verify → review/secure → ship | /silver:quality-gates gsd:verify-work gsd:secure-phase |
| /silver:bugfix | "bug", "broken", "crash", "error", "regression" | triage → systematic debugging or forensics → regression coverage → GSD fix path → review → verify → quality gates → ship | /silver:quality-gates gsd:verify-work review loop |
| /silver:ui | "UI", "frontend", "component", "design", "layout" | orient → clarify if needed → UI design contract → GSD execute → UI quality review → verify → quality gates → ship | gsd:ui-phase gsd:ui-review /silver:quality-gates |
| /silver:devops | "infra", "CI/CD", "deploy", "terraform", "kubernetes" | orient → blast radius → DevOps skill routing → IaC quality gates → GSD plan/execute/verify → promote → ship | /silver:blast-radius /devops-quality-gates gsd:verify-work |
| /silver:research | "how should we", "compare X vs Y", "spike", "which technology" | clarify question → configured research path → decision artifact → implementation handoff or research-only stop | No code changes; artifact quality and handoff discipline apply |
| /silver:release | "release", "publish", "version", "go live", "changelog" | quality gates → UAT audit → milestone audit → docs/review/fresh tests → gsd:ship → gsd:complete-milestone → /silver:create-release | /silver:quality-gates /verify-tests gsd:ship |
| /silver:fast | Typos, config tweaks, bounded small changes, dependency bumps | Tier 1 → gsd:fast; Tier 2 → gsd:quick with flags; Tier 3 → /silver:feature | scope expansion check GSD verification |
| /silver:spec | "write a spec", "clarify requirements", no SPEC.md exists | context → Socratic elicitation → SPEC.md → REQUIREMENTS.md → artifact review | SPEC review requirements review |
| /silver:ingest | JIRA, Figma, Google Doc, Confluence, cross-repo spec | connector check → artifact extraction → SPEC/DESIGN draft → manifest → review | manifest review |
| /silver:validate | Before implementation; check SPEC coverage against PLAN.md | parse SPEC → scan plans → BLOCK/WARN/INFO gap analysis → assumption awareness → VALIDATION.md | BLOCK findings stop implementation |
Use /silver <anything> when you want SB to classify the task and compose the route. Use direct /silver:* or /gsd:* commands when you already know the exact step.
View full workflow docs →
| # | Phase | Step | Source | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | INIT | Worktree decision | Silver Bullet | |
| 2 | INIT | /gsd:new-project | GSD | Required GSD |
| ↻ Per-phase loop — repeat for each phase in ROADMAP.md | ||||
| 3 | DISCUSS | /gsd:discuss-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 3a | DISCUSS | /system-design (if architectural) | Engineering | |
| 3b | DISCUSS | /design-system + /ux-copy + /accessibility-review (if UI) | Design | |
| 4 | QUALITY | /silver:quality-gates | Silver Bullet | Required |
| 5 | PLAN | /gsd:plan-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 5a | EXECUTE | tdd (before writing behavior-changing code) | Silver Bullet wrapper | As needed |
| 6 | EXECUTE | /gsd:execute-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 7 | VERIFY | /gsd:verify-work | GSD | Required GSD |
| 7a | VERIFY | /silver:forensics or /gsd:debug (on failure) | Silver Bullet / GSD | |
| 8 | REVIEW | /gsd:code-review (structured quality review) | GSD | Required GSD |
| 9 | REVIEW | /requesting-code-review (review framing helper) | SB-required helper | Required |
| 10 | REVIEW | /receiving-code-review | SB-required helper | Required |
| 11 | PLAN | /gsd:plan-phase (revision) | GSD | |
| 12 | EXECUTE | /gsd:execute-phase (revision) | GSD | |
| ↓ Finalization — once all phases complete | ||||
| 13 | FINALIZATION | /gsd:secure-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 14 | FINALIZATION | /gsd:validate-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 15 | FINALIZATION | /verify-tests | Silver Bullet | Required |
| 16 | FINALIZATION | /finishing-a-development-branch | SB-required helper | Branches only |
| 17 | SHIP | /gsd:ship | GSD | Required GSD |
| 18 | RELEASE | /silver:release | Silver Bullet | Releases only |
| # | Phase | Step | Source | Required |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ⚠️ Incident fast path — for emergency production changes only | ||||
| 0 | INCIDENT | Incident fast path (skip to hotfix) | Silver Bullet | |
| ↓ Standard flow | ||||
| 1 | INIT | Worktree decision | Silver Bullet | |
| 2 | INIT | /gsd:new-project | GSD | Required GSD |
| ↻ Per-phase loop — repeat for each phase in ROADMAP.md | ||||
| 3 | DISCUSS | /gsd:discuss-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 3a | DISCUSS | Contextual enrichment (skill router) | DevOps Plugins | |
| 4 | BLAST RADIUS | /silver:blast-radius | Silver Bullet | Required |
| 5 | QUALITY | /devops-quality-gates (7 dimensions) | Silver Bullet | Required |
| 6 | PLAN | /gsd:plan-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 6a | PLAN | Contextual enrichment (skill router) | DevOps Plugins | |
| 7 | EXECUTE | /gsd:execute-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 7a | EXECUTE | Contextual enrichment (skill router) | DevOps Plugins | |
| 8 | VERIFY | /gsd:verify-work | GSD | Required GSD |
| 8a | VERIFY | Contextual enrichment (skill router) | DevOps Plugins | |
| 9 | REVIEW | /requesting-code-review (review framing helper) | SB-required helper | Required |
| 10 | REVIEW | /gsd:code-review (authoritative REVIEW.md) | GSD | Required GSD |
| 11 | REVIEW | /receiving-code-review | SB-required helper | Required |
| 12 | PLAN | /gsd:plan-phase (revision) | GSD | |
| 13 | EXECUTE | /gsd:execute-phase (revision) | GSD | |
| ↓ Environment promotion — dev → staging → prod | ||||
| 14 | PROMOTION | Promote to next environment | Silver Bullet | Required |
| 15 | PROMOTION | Verify promoted environment | GSD | Required |
| ↓ Finalization — once all phases complete | ||||
| 16 | FINALIZATION | /gsd:secure-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 17 | FINALIZATION | /gsd:validate-phase | GSD | Required GSD |
| 18 | FINALIZATION | /verify-tests | Silver Bullet | Required |
| 19 | FINALIZATION | /finishing-a-development-branch | SB-required helper | Branches only |
| 20 | DEPLOYMENT | CI/CD pipeline | Required | |
| 21 | DEPLOYMENT | Production apply | Required | |
| 22 | SHIP | /gsd:ship | GSD | Required GSD |
| 23 | RELEASE | /silver:release | Silver Bullet | Releases only |
Install Silver Bullet, initialize your project, then use /silver when you want SB to compose the right workflow for the task.
Enforcement starts immediately. After running /silver:init, hooks are active and the workflow is live. Use /silver <anything> when you want SB to classify the task and compose the right chain. For app projects, GSD execution anchors the composition. For DevOps projects, blast radius assessment and IaC-adapted quality gates are composed in automatically. Missing required dependencies are detected and fail closed with install-and-retry guidance.
Stop hoping your AI agent follows the process. Silver Bullet composes the workflow, sequences the right plugins, preserves traceability, enforces the gates, and keeps delivery evidence visible.
Install Silver Bullet ↓