Deliver Recipe — Scope-Adaptive Product Delivery
Purpose: Build and ship a product or MVP through the minimum viable specialist chain, sizing discovery, implementation, verification, and release work to the actual scope.
Read when: deliver matches, the user asks to build a product from scratch, or an MVP/product-lifecycle request is broader than one feature but does not justify the fixed high-investment apex shape.
Recipe Admission Record
| Gate | Result | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| Cross-boundary | PASS | Product delivery crosses discovery, implementation, verification, and release ownership. |
| Reusable orchestration value | PASS | The absorbed delivery workflow carried independent small, medium, and epic request shapes; all need the same scope-classification and anti-stall contract with different chain sizes. |
| No ownership overlap | PASS | feature owns one bounded capability; apex owns a high-investment discovery-to-ship run; deliver owns scope-adaptive product/MVP delivery. |
| Closed execution contract | PASS | Nexus owns orchestration; specialists own phase artifacts; Radar/Attest/Guardian are independent verification oracles; termination and residual routes are defined below. |
Parameters
scope: auto | small | medium | epic
target: <product, MVP, or release objective>
mode: build | plan-and-build | resume
release: true | false
checkpoint: .agents/nexus-delivery-state.mdscope=auto is the default. Classify with evidence from repository shape, requested outcomes, public-interface impact, and dependency breadth:
| Scope | Typical surface | Chain posture |
|---|---|---|
small |
1-5 files, one dominant domain, no architecture migration | 3-5 specialists; skip optional discovery artifacts when evidence already exists |
medium |
6-15 files or 2-3 domains, integration or public-interface change | 5-9 specialists; explicit specification and impact gates |
epic |
More than 15 files, multiple workstreams, migration/release coordination | 8-18 specialists; Sherpa decomposition and parallel hub-spoke branches |
File counts are evidence, not automatic permission. Safety and blast radius can raise the scope tier.
Phase Contract
CLASSIFY → PREFLIGHT → SHAPE → BUILD → VERIFY → RELEASE? → DELIVER
| Phase | Nexus responsibility | Specialist ownership | Exit evidence |
|---|---|---|---|
| CLASSIFY | Freeze target, non-goals, scope tier, and success signals | Lens/PDM may inspect current state | Delivery Intent + declared tier |
| PREFLIGHT | Reuse existing artifacts and expose blockers before implementation | Lens, Ripple, Schema/Gateway/Atlas as needed | Reuse Map + Impact Notes |
| SHAPE | Select only the chain required by the tier | Scribe/Sherpa for ACs and decomposition | Traceable ACs + bounded work packages |
| BUILD | Execute work packages through hub-spoke delegation | Builder/Artisan/Native/Scaffold and domain owners | Working artifacts; no placeholder residue |
| VERIFY | Keep producer and verifier separate | Radar, Attest, Sentinel, Voyager as applicable | Build/test/lint evidence + AC disposition |
| RELEASE | Prepare or execute release only when release=true and authorized |
Guardian, Launch, Gear | Release evidence or an explicit release-ready handoff |
| DELIVER | Aggregate evidence and residuals | Nexus | NEXUS_COMPLETE + Delivery Report |
Checkpoint format → reference/delivery-output-formats.md (read when saving/resuming). Checkpoint-resume applies: persist phase outputs to .agents/nexus-delivery-state.md at every boundary. mode=resume continues from the last valid checkpoint after revalidating repository state and permissions.
Chain Selection
small:Lens?[reuse] → Builder/Artisan → Radar → Guardian?medium:Lens → Scribe/Sherpa → Ripple? → domain implementer(s) → Radar/Attest → Guardian → Launch?epic:Lens → Sherpa → (domain branches in parallel) → Radar/Attest/Sentinel → Guardian → Launch?
The hub may omit an optional step only with a recorded reason and equivalent evidence. Domain methodology remains in the owning skill; this recipe owns order, handoffs, termination, and verification only.
Anti-Stall and Recovery
Use the bounded recovery ladder from reference/delivery-anti-stall-engine.md: retry only after diagnosis, then narrow the work package, switch to the documented alternate owner/tool, or mark a typed residual. Two identical failures trigger diagnosis rather than a third blind retry. Do not lower acceptance criteria to preserve momentum.
Exit reasons are ACCEPT, target-met, BLOCK, denied, invalid-state, or cancelled. This is a non-loop recipe; Termination bound: N/A — every work package reaches a terminal state exactly once. Any non-ACCEPT exit reports best-so-far, the residual gap, and the named route.
Confirm / Safety Gate
Default tier is announce-and-proceed (no objection window) for reversible in-scope delivery. Use Ask First for L4 security, destructive data work, PUBLIC_API/DATA blast radius, production release, or 10+ files when the repository rules require it. A denied gate yields denied; no side effect is attempted after refusal.
Scale
3-18 specialists; relative cost Low-High by classified scope.
Range derivation: small 3-5; medium 5-9; epic 8-18; global floor/ceiling = min(3,5,8) / max(5,9,18) = 3-18.
Delivery Report
Emit the base ## Nexus Execution Report plus a named Delivery Report:
## Delivery Report
- Target: <frozen target>
- Scope: <small|medium|epic> — <evidence>
- Shipped: <artifacts and behavior>
- Acceptance: <AC-ID → PASS|FAIL|UNVERIFIED + evidence>
- Verification: <commands, tests, review oracles>
- Release: <released|release-ready|not-requested|blocked>
- Exit reason: <canonical exit reason>
- Residual Ledger:
- RES-<n>: <typed residual> → <owner/recipe> — <why it remains>Done means the requested product slice works at the frozen acceptance bar, verification evidence is attached, no in-scope placeholder/TODO residue remains, and each residual has an owner and route. Implementation residuals route to feature or the relevant specialist; verification gaps route to Radar/Attest; release gaps route to Guardian/Launch.
Boundaries and Decision Tree
- One bounded capability in an existing product →
feature. - A product/MVP build needing a chain that grows with scope →
deliver. - A high-investment discovery-to-ship run with a fixed deep quality loop →
apex. - A reusable team/work plan already exists →
enact.
Failure Modes Prevented
| Failure mode | Prevention |
|---|---|
| Fixed heavyweight chain for a small build | Scope classification and minimum-chain selection |
| Coding before target/AC freeze | CLASSIFY and SHAPE exits |
| Orchestrator absorbing domain work | Explicit specialist ownership per phase |
| False completion after partial progress | Independent VERIFY phase and typed Residual Ledger |
| Retry loops that burn time without new evidence | Bounded anti-stall recovery ladder |
| Release side effects without authority | Ask First gate and release parameter |
Shared Protocols and References
reference/autonomy-quality-protocol.md— completion integrity, producer≠verifier, residual discipline._common/HANDOFF.md— structured phase handoffs._common/PARALLEL.md— epic hub-spoke branch ownership and merge.reference/delivery-decision-matrix.md— scope and agent-selection evidence.reference/delivery-exit-criteria-validation.md— phase exit validation.reference/delivery-momentum-system.md— momentum signals without lowering the bar.reference/delivery-product-lifecycle.md— lifecycle phase detail loaded only when the selected scope needs it.