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Catalyst

Your First Workflow

Catalyst provides a structured development workflow that chains together: research, plan, implement, validate, and ship. Each phase produces a persistent artifact that feeds into the next.

The Core Workflow

Section titled “The Core Workflow”
/research-codebase → /create-plan → /implement-plan → /validate-plan → /create-pr

1. Research Phase

Section titled “1. Research Phase”

Start by understanding the codebase:

/research-codebase

Follow the prompts to describe what you want to research. Catalyst will:

  • Spawn parallel research agents (locator, analyzer, pattern-finder)
  • Document what exists in the codebase (not critique it)
  • Save findings to thoughts/shared/research/

2. Planning Phase

Section titled “2. Planning Phase”

Create an implementation plan from your research:

/create-plan

Catalyst auto-discovers your most recent research and:

  • Reads research documents
  • Interactively builds a plan with you
  • Includes automated AND manual success criteria
  • Saves to thoughts/shared/plans/YYYY-MM-DD-TICKET-description.md

If revisions are needed before implementation:

/iterate-plan

3. Implementation Phase

Section titled “3. Implementation Phase”

Execute the approved plan:

/implement-plan

Omit the path — Catalyst auto-finds your most recent plan. It will:

  • Read the plan fully
  • Implement each phase sequentially
  • Run automated verification after each phase
  • Update checkboxes as work completes

4. Validation Phase

Section titled “4. Validation Phase”

Verify the implementation:

/validate-plan

Catalyst will:

  • Verify all success criteria
  • Run automated test suites
  • Document any deviations
  • Provide a manual testing checklist

5. Ship It

Section titled “5. Ship It”

Create a PR:

/create-pr

This automatically creates a pull request with a comprehensive description generated from your research and plan.

One-Shot Alternative

Section titled “One-Shot Alternative”

For straightforward tasks, chain the entire workflow:

/oneshot PROJ-123

This runs research, planning, and implementation in a single invocation with context isolation between phases.

Context Persistence

Section titled “Context Persistence”

Save context between sessions with handoffs:

Terminal window
# Save context at any point
/create-handoff


# Resume in a new session
/resume-handoff

Workflow Auto-Discovery

Section titled “Workflow Auto-Discovery”

Catalyst tracks your workflow via .claude/.workflow-context.json:

  • /research-codebase saves research — /create-plan auto-references it
  • /create-plan saves plan — /implement-plan auto-finds it
  • /create-handoff saves handoff — /resume-handoff auto-finds it

You don’t need to specify file paths — commands remember your work.