The process
Phase C - Finish (The Outlet)
Overview
The Forge loop ends when the Tester approves the full suite against the ephemeral environment. At that point, no agent takes any further action automatically. The work is complete - but it has not been delivered. That transition requires you.
This is the Finish phase: the outlet of the pipeline.
The Validation Package
When the Forge loop completes, the DevOps agent assembles a Validation Package and delivers it to you. The package contains everything you need to make a confident delivery decision in under 15 minutes.
A typical Validation Package includes:
| Section | Contents |
|---|---|
| Summary | One-paragraph plain-language description of what was built |
| Screenshots / screen recordings | Visual evidence of the feature working in the ephemeral environment |
| Test report | Full test suite results with pass/fail counts and any skipped tests |
| Diff summary | Line-count by file, with links to the full diff |
| Performance notes | Any latency or bundle-size changes flagged by the Reviewer |
| Migration plan | Database migrations that will run on deploy, with rollback instructions |
| Known limitations | Anything the Analytic flagged as out of scope for this ticket |
The package is designed to be read, not skimmed past. The expectation is that you will read the summary, look at the screenshots, and check the test report before confirming.
The audit
Your job as Gatekeeper is to review the Validation Package and make one of three decisions:
- Confirm - the work meets the acceptance criteria; proceed to delivery.
- Reject with notes - the work does not meet acceptance criteria; return to Forge with specific feedback.
- Defer - the work is acceptable but this is not the right time to deliver; leave the ticket in
Validatingstate.
Warning: Do not skip the audit. The Validation Package is not bureaucracy - it is the moment the human takes responsibility for the delivery. An agent-confirmed deploy is not a fully-reviewed delivery.
The delivery
When you confirm, the DevOps agent executes the deployment pipeline: merges the branch, runs migrations against production, promotes the image, and verifies the health check. The ticket transitions to Done and Cycle Time is recorded.
That is delivery. No ceremony. No sprint review. No deployment meeting.
After delivery
The system records:
- Cycle Time from trigger to confirm
- Interruption count for this ticket
- Test suite coverage delta
- Any performance changes
Over time, this data builds the probabilistic forecasting model that replaces velocity estimates. It also feeds back into the Analytic agent's instructions - if a particular ticket type is consistently slower than expected, the spec template for that type is updated.