Catalog / Business processes / Sales / Discovery-to-Solution / Record the Requirements
reference process · sales · 14 activities · 7 on the roster
Record the Requirements
Discovery produced notes. This process turns them into a list the next stage can read without having been in the room. Each requirement is written in the buyer's own words, carries the name of the person who asked for it, and is separated from the things that were only wanted. Contradictions are found and put back to the buyer rather than settled by the seller. The buyer ranks the list, confirms it, and the record gets a version and a date. What cannot be met is marked before anything is shaped, so the shape is never built on a promise nobody made.
The walk
The document
One run
Adoption
The activities
What happens in a run
14 activities from a confirmed discovery summary arrives to one versioned record the shaping stage can read, 2 of them gates a person has to sign. Drag the diagram to move along it.
Record the Requirements a confirmed discovery summary arrives → one versioned record the shaping stage can read
the answer changes a line a constraint kills a requirement the buyer does not recognize the record a new requirement arrives a confirmed discovery summary arrives 1 Take in the Discovery Not… the confirmed notes, and who said what 2 Split the Needs from the … what must be true, and what would be nice 3 Write Each One in the Buy… one line each, quoted, not paraphrased 4 Name Who Asked for Each O… every line carries the person behind it 5 Find the Contradictions two requirements that cannot both be met 6 Ask the Follow-Up Questio… the gaps and clashes go back to the buyer 7 Check the Hard Constraints rules, dates and systems that cannot move 8 Have the Buyer Rank the L… the buyer puts it in their own order 9 Mark What Cannot Be Met said plainly, before anything is shaped a person signs · never an agent 10 Read the Record Back the buyer confirms this is what they need a person signs · never an agent 11 Version the Record the confirmed list gets a number and a date 12 Hand the Record to Shaping one record, one version, for the architect 13 Watch for Drift While Sha… new requirements arrive and are versioned in 14 Record What Was Learned which questions should have come earlier one versioned record the shaping stage can read
The roster this process needs
Hover a name to see the activities it holds. A dashed one is a person, and stays one.
The document
The document, with the blanks marked
Everything in amber is yours to fill in: who owns it, when it takes effect, which platforms, which numbers, and who holds each activity. Everything else is the process, and it is the same wherever it is run.
Use in LangGraph
Use in Agent Framework
Use in CrewAI
Use in Google ADK
PROCESS: requirement record id: <team> /record-the-requirements v1
from: ref/sls/record-the-requirements v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer in <your
discovery process>
watch: record=<discovery summary>
system=<your discovery process>
change=<a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer>
concurrency: runs may overlap - one requirement record per
opportunity, and <how many> records open at once
goal: every requirement written in the buyer's words, attributed,
ranked by the buyer, confirmed by the buyer, and versioned, with
what cannot be met marked before anything is shaped
phases:
take-in-notes - human: read the confirmed notes and the
unanswered questions that came with them
owner: requirements-recorder after: trigger
automation: <level>
split-needs-wants - convenes decide-and-announce: what must be true
for a purchase to make sense, and what was only
wanted. The buyer draws the line, not the seller
owner: requirements-recorder after: take-in-notes
by: <days> automation: <level>
write-each-one - human: one line per requirement, in the words
the buyer used, with a paraphrase marked as a
paraphrase
owner: requirements-recorder after: split-needs-wants
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-who-asked - system: every line carries the person who asked
for it and the date they asked
owner: requirements-recorder after: write-each-one
automation: <level>
find-clashes - runs assessment: pairs of requirements that
cannot both be met, and requirements that
contradict a constraint
owner: requirements-recorder after: name-who-asked
automation: <level>
ask-follow-ups - human: the gaps and the clashes go back to the
buyer as questions. The seller does not settle
a clash on the buyer's behalf
owner: discovery-interviewer after: find-clashes
by: <days> automation: <level>
check-constraints - runs collect-and-report: the rules the buyer
works under, the dates that cannot move, and the
systems that have to be lived with
owner: researcher after: ask-follow-ups
by: <days> automation: <level>
rank-the-list - convenes decide-and-announce: the buyer puts the
list in their own order, and the order is
recorded as theirs
owner: requirements-recorder after: check-constraints
by: <days> automation: <level>
mark-unmeetable - human: requirements <your organization> cannot
meet are marked as such, with the reason, before
any shape is drawn
owner: solution-architect after: rank-the-list
automation: never
read-record-back - convenes approval: the buyer reads the record
and confirms it is what they need. Silence is
not confirmation
owner: requirements-recorder after: mark-unmeetable
by: <days> automation: never
version-record - system: the confirmed list gets a number and a
date, and earlier versions stay readable
owner: requirements-recorder after: read-record-back
automation: <level>
hand-to-shaping - system: one record, at one version, reaches the
shaping stage
owner: requirements-recorder after: version-record
automation: <level>
watch-for-drift - human: requirements that arrive after the record
was confirmed are written, attributed and
versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
owner: requirements-recorder after: hand-to-shaping
automation: <level>
record-learnings - convenes debrief: which questions should have
been asked in discovery, and which lines had to
be rewritten
owner: requirements-recorder after: watch-for-drift
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
changes - runs collect-and-report owner: requirements-recorder
every: <cadence>
from: hand-to-shaping until: run close
handoffs:
take-in-notes -> split-needs-wants [discovery-notes]: the confirmed
notes, and the questions discovery could not answer
split-needs-wants -> write-each-one [need-want-line]: the line
between need and want, as the buyer drew it, with the buyer's
wording for the line
write-each-one -> name-who-asked [quoted-lines]: one line per
requirement, quoted
name-who-asked -> find-clashes [attributed-list]: the list, with a
person and a date against every line
find-clashes -> ask-follow-ups [clashes]: the pairs that cannot
both be met, and the lines nobody can be found to have asked for
ask-follow-ups -> check-constraints [buyer-answers]: the buyer's
answers, in writing, and the clashes the buyer chose not to settle
check-constraints -> rank-the-list [hard-constraints]: the rules,
the dates and the systems that cannot move, each with its source
rank-the-list -> mark-unmeetable [buyers-ranking]: the list in the
buyer's order
mark-unmeetable -> read-record-back [marked-list]: the same list,
with every requirement that will not be met marked and reasoned
read-record-back -> version-record [confirmed-record]: the record
as the buyer confirmed it, with their corrections kept alongside
the original
version-record -> hand-to-shaping [versioned-record]: the record at
a number and a date
hand-to-shaping -> watch-for-drift [shaping-baseline]: the version
the architect is shaping against, so a later change can be seen as
a change
watch-for-drift -> record-learnings [late-requirements]: every
requirement that arrived late, with who asked and when
deviations:
ask-follow-ups -> write-each-one [answer-changes-a-line]: the
buyer's answer changes a requirement, so that line is written
again in the words the buyer just used
check-constraints -> split-needs-wants [constraint-kills-a-line]: a
rule the buyer works under makes a requirement impossible, so the
need and want split is drawn again with the constraint quoted
read-record-back -> write-each-one [record-not-recognized]: the
buyer does not recognize the record, so the lines they disowned
are written again or struck
watch-for-drift -> write-each-one [requirement-arrives-late]: a
requirement arrives after the record was confirmed, so it is
written, attributed and versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for the customer sponsor, the
security reviewer and whoever signs that a requirement
cannot be met>
systems: the CRM (write), the requirement record (write),
the notes store (read), <your policy register> (read),
<your product roadmap> (read)
data: the confirmed discovery summary <version> , <your constraint
library> <version> , <your list of things you do not do>
policy:
a requirement is written in the buyer's words, and a paraphrase says
that it is one
every requirement names the person who asked for it
a contradiction goes back to the buyer, and the seller never picks
a side on the buyer's behalf
a requirement <your organization> cannot meet is marked before the
shaping stage reads the record, never after
the ranking is the buyer's, and a seller's re-ranking is a separate
marked opinion
a requirement that arrives after confirmation raises the version and
is told to everyone holding the old one
measures:
cycle time: <target> from a confirmed summary to a versioned record
volume: <records per period>
quality gate: <target> share of records confirmed by the buyer with
no requirement added after shaping started
Copy
Take it somewhere
Use this process in LangGraph
close
Paste this into an assistant that can read the web, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It reads the specification and the current LangGraph documentation, then writes two files: the graph, and a note on what did not survive the translation. Read the note first. What a runtime cannot express is the part worth arguing about, and this process is a draft to argue with.
copy the prompt
277 lines · the document is inside it, so nothing else is needed
Convert the business process below into a runnable LangGraph graph:
one Python file with a TypedDict state, a StateGraph, nodes, edges,
conditional edges and a checkpointer.
The document is a reference process written to the Agent Processes
specification. Read the specification before you start, because it defines
terms that look ordinary and are not:
https://agentcatalog.com/spec/agent-processes
Sections 6 (the phase graph), 6.5.1 (exception edges), 6.7.1 (deviations),
7 (automation) and 8 (handoffs) are the ones this conversion turns on.
Then read the current documentation for the primitives you will need, rather
than relying on what you remember of the API:
https://docs.langchain.com/oss/python/langgraph/interrupts
interrupt() and Command(resume=), which is how a gate stops a run
https://reference.langchain.com/python/langgraph/graph/state/StateGraph
StateGraph, add_edge, add_conditional_edges, defer
WHAT THE DOCUMENT ASKS FOR
These hold wherever the process lands, and they matter more than style.
1. Each phase under `phases:` becomes one step, and keeps its name.
2. `after:` gives the edges. `after: a + b` is a join and waits for BOTH.
Reading it as "either" is the defect the specification calls out by name.
3. Every handoff carries a key in square brackets. Each key becomes one field
on the run's state, named exactly as the key with hyphens turned into
underscores, and the sentence beside it becomes that field's comment. The key
is the stable name; the sentence is prose that may be rewritten.
4. A phase MUST NOT begin before its inbound handoff exists. Where that is
checkable, check it in the step rather than assuming it.
5. `automation: never` is a gate a person signs. The run stops there and does
not continue until a person's decision comes back. Do not turn one into a
notification, a log line, or an automatic transition, whatever the queue
looks like.
6. Each line under `deviations:` is a backward or sideways edge, returning to
the phase named on the right. The key in brackets names it, and that name
belongs in the code.
7. A phase whose `after:` reads like "X or Y, whichever could not finish" is an
exception edge: it is entered when those phases FAIL, not when they succeed.
Do not wire it as an ordinary successor.
8. Anything in angle brackets is a blank the adopting organization fills in.
Leave each one as a named constant at the top of the file with a TODO. Do not
invent a value, a threshold or a date.
9. Record the document's `from:` line at the top of the file, so it says which
reference process and which version it was generated from.
10. Run-scoped lines under `run-scoped:` are work that runs alongside the whole
process rather than at one point in it, and a run may not close while one is
unfinished. Say in the code what you did about them, including if the answer
is that the runtime has nowhere to put them.
HOW THAT LOOKS IN LANGGRAPH
11. A phase is a node added with `add_node`, under the phase's own name.
12. The state is a TypedDict. Each handoff key is one field on it.
13. A join is the trap. `add_edge(["a", "b"], "c")` looks right and releases
once: when a backward edge re-enters ONE arm, the joined node never runs
again, and the run ends early reporting success rather than raising. Mark the
joined node `defer=True` and re-check inside it that both inbound handoffs
exist.
14. A gate is `interrupt()` inside the node, resumed with `Command(resume=...)`.
The platform lets anything at all call resume, so require the resumed value to
name a person and a date and refuse anything else. Say in the fidelity note
that this proves only that whoever resumed typed a name, because
`Command(resume=True)` from a scheduled job is indistinguishable from a person
signing.
15. A deviation is `add_conditional_edges` with a routing function named after
the key in brackets.
16. Pass a durable checkpointer rather than taking the in-memory default. The
gates wait days, and the default loses every paused run on restart.
17. Leave every phase body unimplemented, raising until somebody registers an
implementation. The automation level is a blank, so writing a body would
answer on the adopter's behalf whether an agent may do that work.
Produce a second file alongside it, `FIDELITY.md`, and treat it as the more
important of the two. The code is for whoever builds this. The fidelity note
is for whoever has to decide whether this platform suits the process at all,
and that is usually a different person who will never read the code.
It has three parts.
**What came across.** Briefly: how many phases became steps, how many handoff
keys became state fields, which gates stop the run, which deviations became
edges. Counts and names, not reassurance.
**What did not, and what was done instead.** One entry per gap. For each one,
say what the document requires, what the platform can actually express, what
you did in its place, and what breaks if somebody later removes your
workaround. This last part matters most: a workaround nobody understands is a
workaround somebody deletes.
**What a person still has to decide.** The blanks are not a translation
failure, they are the point of a reference process, so list what has to be
filled in before this could run against anything real, and say which of those
choices the platform constrains.
Write it in plain English for somebody who has not read the specification, and
do not soften it. A translation of a reference process is a draft to argue
with, not a build artifact, and the honest account of what was lost is the most
useful thing you will produce.
Here is the process document.
```
PROCESS: requirement record id: <team>/record-the-requirements v1
from: ref/sls/record-the-requirements v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer in <your
discovery process>
watch: record=<discovery summary>
system=<your discovery process>
change=<a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer>
concurrency: runs may overlap - one requirement record per
opportunity, and <how many> records open at once
goal: every requirement written in the buyer's words, attributed,
ranked by the buyer, confirmed by the buyer, and versioned, with
what cannot be met marked before anything is shaped
phases:
take-in-notes - human: read the confirmed notes and the
unanswered questions that came with them
owner: requirements-recorder after: trigger
automation: <level>
split-needs-wants - convenes decide-and-announce: what must be true
for a purchase to make sense, and what was only
wanted. The buyer draws the line, not the seller
owner: requirements-recorder after: take-in-notes
by: <days> automation: <level>
write-each-one - human: one line per requirement, in the words
the buyer used, with a paraphrase marked as a
paraphrase
owner: requirements-recorder after: split-needs-wants
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-who-asked - system: every line carries the person who asked
for it and the date they asked
owner: requirements-recorder after: write-each-one
automation: <level>
find-clashes - runs assessment: pairs of requirements that
cannot both be met, and requirements that
contradict a constraint
owner: requirements-recorder after: name-who-asked
automation: <level>
ask-follow-ups - human: the gaps and the clashes go back to the
buyer as questions. The seller does not settle
a clash on the buyer's behalf
owner: discovery-interviewer after: find-clashes
by: <days> automation: <level>
check-constraints - runs collect-and-report: the rules the buyer
works under, the dates that cannot move, and the
systems that have to be lived with
owner: researcher after: ask-follow-ups
by: <days> automation: <level>
rank-the-list - convenes decide-and-announce: the buyer puts the
list in their own order, and the order is
recorded as theirs
owner: requirements-recorder after: check-constraints
by: <days> automation: <level>
mark-unmeetable - human: requirements <your organization> cannot
meet are marked as such, with the reason, before
any shape is drawn
owner: solution-architect after: rank-the-list
automation: never
read-record-back - convenes approval: the buyer reads the record
and confirms it is what they need. Silence is
not confirmation
owner: requirements-recorder after: mark-unmeetable
by: <days> automation: never
version-record - system: the confirmed list gets a number and a
date, and earlier versions stay readable
owner: requirements-recorder after: read-record-back
automation: <level>
hand-to-shaping - system: one record, at one version, reaches the
shaping stage
owner: requirements-recorder after: version-record
automation: <level>
watch-for-drift - human: requirements that arrive after the record
was confirmed are written, attributed and
versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
owner: requirements-recorder after: hand-to-shaping
automation: <level>
record-learnings - convenes debrief: which questions should have
been asked in discovery, and which lines had to
be rewritten
owner: requirements-recorder after: watch-for-drift
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
changes - runs collect-and-report owner: requirements-recorder
every: <cadence>
from: hand-to-shaping until: run close
handoffs:
take-in-notes -> split-needs-wants [discovery-notes]: the confirmed
notes, and the questions discovery could not answer
split-needs-wants -> write-each-one [need-want-line]: the line
between need and want, as the buyer drew it, with the buyer's
wording for the line
write-each-one -> name-who-asked [quoted-lines]: one line per
requirement, quoted
name-who-asked -> find-clashes [attributed-list]: the list, with a
person and a date against every line
find-clashes -> ask-follow-ups [clashes]: the pairs that cannot
both be met, and the lines nobody can be found to have asked for
ask-follow-ups -> check-constraints [buyer-answers]: the buyer's
answers, in writing, and the clashes the buyer chose not to settle
check-constraints -> rank-the-list [hard-constraints]: the rules,
the dates and the systems that cannot move, each with its source
rank-the-list -> mark-unmeetable [buyers-ranking]: the list in the
buyer's order
mark-unmeetable -> read-record-back [marked-list]: the same list,
with every requirement that will not be met marked and reasoned
read-record-back -> version-record [confirmed-record]: the record
as the buyer confirmed it, with their corrections kept alongside
the original
version-record -> hand-to-shaping [versioned-record]: the record at
a number and a date
hand-to-shaping -> watch-for-drift [shaping-baseline]: the version
the architect is shaping against, so a later change can be seen as
a change
watch-for-drift -> record-learnings [late-requirements]: every
requirement that arrived late, with who asked and when
deviations:
ask-follow-ups -> write-each-one [answer-changes-a-line]: the
buyer's answer changes a requirement, so that line is written
again in the words the buyer just used
check-constraints -> split-needs-wants [constraint-kills-a-line]: a
rule the buyer works under makes a requirement impossible, so the
need and want split is drawn again with the constraint quoted
read-record-back -> write-each-one [record-not-recognized]: the
buyer does not recognize the record, so the lines they disowned
are written again or struck
watch-for-drift -> write-each-one [requirement-arrives-late]: a
requirement arrives after the record was confirmed, so it is
written, attributed and versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for the customer sponsor, the
security reviewer and whoever signs that a requirement
cannot be met>
systems: the CRM (write), the requirement record (write),
the notes store (read), <your policy register> (read),
<your product roadmap> (read)
data: the confirmed discovery summary <version>, <your constraint
library> <version>, <your list of things you do not do>
policy:
a requirement is written in the buyer's words, and a paraphrase says
that it is one
every requirement names the person who asked for it
a contradiction goes back to the buyer, and the seller never picks
a side on the buyer's behalf
a requirement <your organization> cannot meet is marked before the
shaping stage reads the record, never after
the ranking is the buyer's, and a seller's re-ranking is a separate
marked opinion
a requirement that arrives after confirmation raises the version and
is told to everyone holding the old one
measures:
cycle time: <target> from a confirmed summary to a versioned record
volume: <records per period>
quality gate: <target> share of records confirmed by the buyer with
no requirement added after shaping started
```
Take it somewhere
Use this process in Microsoft Agent Framework
close
Paste this into an assistant that can read the web, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It reads the specification and the current Agent Framework documentation, then writes two files: the workflow, and a note on what did not survive the translation. Read the note first. What a runtime cannot express is the part worth arguing about, and this process is a draft to argue with.
copy the prompt
332 lines · the document is inside it, so nothing else is needed
Convert the business process below into a runnable Microsoft Agent Framework workflow:
one Python file with Executor classes, a WorkflowBuilder, typed edges,
request_info gates and durable checkpoint storage.
The document is a reference process written to the Agent Processes
specification. Read the specification before you start, because it defines
terms that look ordinary and are not:
https://agentcatalog.com/spec/agent-processes
Sections 6 (the phase graph), 6.5.1 (exception edges), 6.7.1 (deviations),
7 (automation) and 8 (handoffs) are the ones this conversion turns on.
Then read the current documentation for the primitives you will need, rather
than relying on what you remember of the API:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/workflows/human-in-the-loop
ctx.request_info, @response_handler, and answering a parked run later
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/workflows/checkpoints
what a checkpoint holds, and allowed_checkpoint_types
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/concepts/workflows/edges
add_edge with condition, add_fan_in_edges, add_switch_case_edge_group
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/agent-framework/concepts/workflows/state
ctx.set_state and ctx.get_state as they actually are today
WHAT THE DOCUMENT ASKS FOR
These hold wherever the process lands, and they matter more than style.
1. Each phase under `phases:` becomes one step, and keeps its name.
2. `after:` gives the edges. `after: a + b` is a join and waits for BOTH.
Reading it as "either" is the defect the specification calls out by name.
3. Every handoff carries a key in square brackets. Each key becomes one field
on the run's state, named exactly as the key with hyphens turned into
underscores, and the sentence beside it becomes that field's comment. The key
is the stable name; the sentence is prose that may be rewritten.
4. A phase MUST NOT begin before its inbound handoff exists. Where that is
checkable, check it in the step rather than assuming it.
5. `automation: never` is a gate a person signs. The run stops there and does
not continue until a person's decision comes back. Do not turn one into a
notification, a log line, or an automatic transition, whatever the queue
looks like.
6. Each line under `deviations:` is a backward or sideways edge, returning to
the phase named on the right. The key in brackets names it, and that name
belongs in the code.
7. A phase whose `after:` reads like "X or Y, whichever could not finish" is an
exception edge: it is entered when those phases FAIL, not when they succeed.
Do not wire it as an ordinary successor.
8. Anything in angle brackets is a blank the adopting organization fills in.
Leave each one as a named constant at the top of the file with a TODO. Do not
invent a value, a threshold or a date.
9. Record the document's `from:` line at the top of the file, so it says which
reference process and which version it was generated from.
10. Run-scoped lines under `run-scoped:` are work that runs alongside the whole
process rather than at one point in it, and a run may not close while one is
unfinished. Say in the code what you did about them, including if the answer
is that the runtime has nowhere to put them.
HOW THAT LOOKS IN MICROSOFT AGENT FRAMEWORK
11. Write for Python, and read those pages before writing a line. This API has
moved: `set_shared_state`, `RequestInfoExecutor`, `RequestInfoMessage` and
`send_responses_streaming` are all in the training data and none of them exist
any more. The .NET workflow API differs in kind rather than in spelling, so a
file written for one does not port by renaming.
12. A phase is a class deriving from `Executor` whose `super().__init__(id=...)`
takes the phase name verbatim. The id is not cosmetic: a checkpoint stores a
signature over the topology and the executor ids, so an id built from a run, a
timestamp or a counter cannot be resumed into.
13. Give each phase a `@handler` method and move work on with
`await ctx.send_message(...)`. A handler that returns without sending is a dead
end: the branch stops, the run converges, and it reports success. So a phase
you are deliberately leaving unimplemented must still send a placeholder
onward. Do not stub with `raise NotImplementedError`, which fails the run
instead of leaving it runnable.
14. `after: a` is `builder.add_edge(a, b)`. `after: a + b` is
`builder.add_fan_in_edges([a, b], target)`, and the target's handler must be
annotated `list[T]`, because a fan-in delivers one aggregated list rather than
the separate messages. A handler typed for the single value is dropped as a
mismatch with nothing raised.
15. The join is the trap here, and it is the opposite of LangGraph's. The
barrier re-arms: it clears its buffer when it fires and then demands a fresh
message from every source. So a deviation that re-enters ONE arm parks the
run forever waiting for an arm that will not run again, and the workflow ends
IDLE reporting success. Wherever a deviation re-enters one arm of a join,
replace the barrier with an ordinary edge from each arm into a small executor
that records each arrival with `ctx.set_state` and only forwards when every
expected key is present, and say in a comment that putting `add_fan_in_edges`
back reintroduces the stall.
16. A phase that is both a join target and a deviation target needs two
handlers, one annotated `list[T]` for the barrier and one annotated `T` for the
backward message. Write only the list handler and every backward edge into it
is discarded as a type mismatch, silently.
17. `automation: never` is `await ctx.request_info(request_data=...,
response_type=...)` inside the phase, answered by a `@response_handler` on the
same executor whose annotations match those exact types. The run parks at
`IDLE_WITH_PENDING_REQUESTS` and the host answers with
`workflow.run(stream=True, responses={request_id: value})`. If no handler
matches the pair, the framework logs a warning and parks anyway, so the gate
reads as working right up until somebody asks why the approval did not take.
18. A gate is only a gate if the wait survives a restart, so pass
`checkpoint_storage=FileCheckpointStorage(...)` to the builder. Checkpointing
is off by default and `InMemoryCheckpointStorage` reads as configured while
persisting nothing. Register every handoff payload type in
`allowed_checkpoint_types`, or the first restore raises. Anything an executor
keeps as an instance attribute is absent after a restore unless you export it
from `on_checkpoint_save` and read it back in `on_checkpoint_restore`, and it
comes back empty rather than missing.
19. Each line under `deviations:` is `builder.add_edge(source, earlier,
condition=fn)` with `fn` named after the key. Cycles are legal and unchecked,
but raise `max_iterations` well above its default of 100, because several live
cycles will exhaust a budget sized for a straight line and fail with a message
about convergence that reads like a broken graph. Keep the ordinary forward
edge unconditional and add each deviation beside it: a condition that returns
false is dropped with no event, so a forward path expressed as a condition
dies silently on every normal run, which is most of them.
20. Handoff values go in `ctx.set_state(key, value)` and come back from
`ctx.get_state(key)`, untyped and unchecked. A write is visible to its writer
at once and to everyone else only in the next superstep, and two writers of one
key in a superstep keep the last write. Never read a key in the same superstep
another phase wrote it.
21. There are no timers, no deadlines and no scheduled wakes. Nothing in
`run-scoped:` becomes an executor and `by:` has no expression at all, so write
them as comments naming where they start and stop, and say plainly in the
fidelity note that a run can close over an unfinished run-scoped line. Do not
fake a deadline with a sleep inside a handler, which blocks the whole superstep
barrier, and never let an expiring wait release a gate.
Produce a second file alongside it, `FIDELITY.md`, and treat it as the more
important of the two. The code is for whoever builds this. The fidelity note
is for whoever has to decide whether this platform suits the process at all,
and that is usually a different person who will never read the code.
It has three parts.
**What came across.** Briefly: how many phases became steps, how many handoff
keys became state fields, which gates stop the run, which deviations became
edges. Counts and names, not reassurance.
**What did not, and what was done instead.** One entry per gap. For each one,
say what the document requires, what the platform can actually express, what
you did in its place, and what breaks if somebody later removes your
workaround. This last part matters most: a workaround nobody understands is a
workaround somebody deletes.
**What a person still has to decide.** The blanks are not a translation
failure, they are the point of a reference process, so list what has to be
filled in before this could run against anything real, and say which of those
choices the platform constrains.
Write it in plain English for somebody who has not read the specification, and
do not soften it. A translation of a reference process is a draft to argue
with, not a build artifact, and the honest account of what was lost is the most
useful thing you will produce.
Here is the process document.
```
PROCESS: requirement record id: <team>/record-the-requirements v1
from: ref/sls/record-the-requirements v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer in <your
discovery process>
watch: record=<discovery summary>
system=<your discovery process>
change=<a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer>
concurrency: runs may overlap - one requirement record per
opportunity, and <how many> records open at once
goal: every requirement written in the buyer's words, attributed,
ranked by the buyer, confirmed by the buyer, and versioned, with
what cannot be met marked before anything is shaped
phases:
take-in-notes - human: read the confirmed notes and the
unanswered questions that came with them
owner: requirements-recorder after: trigger
automation: <level>
split-needs-wants - convenes decide-and-announce: what must be true
for a purchase to make sense, and what was only
wanted. The buyer draws the line, not the seller
owner: requirements-recorder after: take-in-notes
by: <days> automation: <level>
write-each-one - human: one line per requirement, in the words
the buyer used, with a paraphrase marked as a
paraphrase
owner: requirements-recorder after: split-needs-wants
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-who-asked - system: every line carries the person who asked
for it and the date they asked
owner: requirements-recorder after: write-each-one
automation: <level>
find-clashes - runs assessment: pairs of requirements that
cannot both be met, and requirements that
contradict a constraint
owner: requirements-recorder after: name-who-asked
automation: <level>
ask-follow-ups - human: the gaps and the clashes go back to the
buyer as questions. The seller does not settle
a clash on the buyer's behalf
owner: discovery-interviewer after: find-clashes
by: <days> automation: <level>
check-constraints - runs collect-and-report: the rules the buyer
works under, the dates that cannot move, and the
systems that have to be lived with
owner: researcher after: ask-follow-ups
by: <days> automation: <level>
rank-the-list - convenes decide-and-announce: the buyer puts the
list in their own order, and the order is
recorded as theirs
owner: requirements-recorder after: check-constraints
by: <days> automation: <level>
mark-unmeetable - human: requirements <your organization> cannot
meet are marked as such, with the reason, before
any shape is drawn
owner: solution-architect after: rank-the-list
automation: never
read-record-back - convenes approval: the buyer reads the record
and confirms it is what they need. Silence is
not confirmation
owner: requirements-recorder after: mark-unmeetable
by: <days> automation: never
version-record - system: the confirmed list gets a number and a
date, and earlier versions stay readable
owner: requirements-recorder after: read-record-back
automation: <level>
hand-to-shaping - system: one record, at one version, reaches the
shaping stage
owner: requirements-recorder after: version-record
automation: <level>
watch-for-drift - human: requirements that arrive after the record
was confirmed are written, attributed and
versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
owner: requirements-recorder after: hand-to-shaping
automation: <level>
record-learnings - convenes debrief: which questions should have
been asked in discovery, and which lines had to
be rewritten
owner: requirements-recorder after: watch-for-drift
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
changes - runs collect-and-report owner: requirements-recorder
every: <cadence>
from: hand-to-shaping until: run close
handoffs:
take-in-notes -> split-needs-wants [discovery-notes]: the confirmed
notes, and the questions discovery could not answer
split-needs-wants -> write-each-one [need-want-line]: the line
between need and want, as the buyer drew it, with the buyer's
wording for the line
write-each-one -> name-who-asked [quoted-lines]: one line per
requirement, quoted
name-who-asked -> find-clashes [attributed-list]: the list, with a
person and a date against every line
find-clashes -> ask-follow-ups [clashes]: the pairs that cannot
both be met, and the lines nobody can be found to have asked for
ask-follow-ups -> check-constraints [buyer-answers]: the buyer's
answers, in writing, and the clashes the buyer chose not to settle
check-constraints -> rank-the-list [hard-constraints]: the rules,
the dates and the systems that cannot move, each with its source
rank-the-list -> mark-unmeetable [buyers-ranking]: the list in the
buyer's order
mark-unmeetable -> read-record-back [marked-list]: the same list,
with every requirement that will not be met marked and reasoned
read-record-back -> version-record [confirmed-record]: the record
as the buyer confirmed it, with their corrections kept alongside
the original
version-record -> hand-to-shaping [versioned-record]: the record at
a number and a date
hand-to-shaping -> watch-for-drift [shaping-baseline]: the version
the architect is shaping against, so a later change can be seen as
a change
watch-for-drift -> record-learnings [late-requirements]: every
requirement that arrived late, with who asked and when
deviations:
ask-follow-ups -> write-each-one [answer-changes-a-line]: the
buyer's answer changes a requirement, so that line is written
again in the words the buyer just used
check-constraints -> split-needs-wants [constraint-kills-a-line]: a
rule the buyer works under makes a requirement impossible, so the
need and want split is drawn again with the constraint quoted
read-record-back -> write-each-one [record-not-recognized]: the
buyer does not recognize the record, so the lines they disowned
are written again or struck
watch-for-drift -> write-each-one [requirement-arrives-late]: a
requirement arrives after the record was confirmed, so it is
written, attributed and versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for the customer sponsor, the
security reviewer and whoever signs that a requirement
cannot be met>
systems: the CRM (write), the requirement record (write),
the notes store (read), <your policy register> (read),
<your product roadmap> (read)
data: the confirmed discovery summary <version>, <your constraint
library> <version>, <your list of things you do not do>
policy:
a requirement is written in the buyer's words, and a paraphrase says
that it is one
every requirement names the person who asked for it
a contradiction goes back to the buyer, and the seller never picks
a side on the buyer's behalf
a requirement <your organization> cannot meet is marked before the
shaping stage reads the record, never after
the ranking is the buyer's, and a seller's re-ranking is a separate
marked opinion
a requirement that arrives after confirmation raises the version and
is told to everyone holding the old one
measures:
cycle time: <target> from a confirmed summary to a versioned record
volume: <records per period>
quality gate: <target> share of records confirmed by the buyer with
no requirement added after shaping started
```
Take it somewhere
Use this process in CrewAI Flows
close
Paste this into an assistant that can read the web, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It reads the specification and the current CrewAI documentation, then writes two files: the flow, and a note on what did not survive the translation. Read the note first. What a runtime cannot express is the part worth arguing about, and this process is a draft to argue with.
copy the prompt
337 lines · the document is inside it, so nothing else is needed
Convert the business process below into a runnable CrewAI Flow:
one Python file with a Pydantic state model, one Flow subclass, @start,
@listen, @router and a durable human feedback provider.
The document is a reference process written to the Agent Processes
specification. Read the specification before you start, because it defines
terms that look ordinary and are not:
https://agentcatalog.com/spec/agent-processes
Sections 6 (the phase graph), 6.5.1 (exception edges), 6.7.1 (deviations),
7 (automation) and 8 (handoffs) are the ones this conversion turns on.
Then read the current documentation for the primitives you will need, rather
than relying on what you remember of the API:
https://docs.crewai.com/en/concepts/flows
Flow, @start, @listen, @router, and_, or_, state, kickoff, plot
https://docs.crewai.com/en/learn/human-feedback-in-flows
@human_feedback, the provider protocol, from_pending and resume
https://docs.crewai.com/en/guides/flows/mastering-flow-state
@persist and what persistence actually promises, which is less than it sounds
WHAT THE DOCUMENT ASKS FOR
These hold wherever the process lands, and they matter more than style.
1. Each phase under `phases:` becomes one step, and keeps its name.
2. `after:` gives the edges. `after: a + b` is a join and waits for BOTH.
Reading it as "either" is the defect the specification calls out by name.
3. Every handoff carries a key in square brackets. Each key becomes one field
on the run's state, named exactly as the key with hyphens turned into
underscores, and the sentence beside it becomes that field's comment. The key
is the stable name; the sentence is prose that may be rewritten.
4. A phase MUST NOT begin before its inbound handoff exists. Where that is
checkable, check it in the step rather than assuming it.
5. `automation: never` is a gate a person signs. The run stops there and does
not continue until a person's decision comes back. Do not turn one into a
notification, a log line, or an automatic transition, whatever the queue
looks like.
6. Each line under `deviations:` is a backward or sideways edge, returning to
the phase named on the right. The key in brackets names it, and that name
belongs in the code.
7. A phase whose `after:` reads like "X or Y, whichever could not finish" is an
exception edge: it is entered when those phases FAIL, not when they succeed.
Do not wire it as an ordinary successor.
8. Anything in angle brackets is a blank the adopting organization fills in.
Leave each one as a named constant at the top of the file with a TODO. Do not
invent a value, a threshold or a date.
9. Record the document's `from:` line at the top of the file, so it says which
reference process and which version it was generated from.
10. Run-scoped lines under `run-scoped:` are work that runs alongside the whole
process rather than at one point in it, and a run may not close while one is
unfinished. Say in the code what you did about them, including if the answer
is that the runtime has nowhere to put them.
HOW THAT LOOKS IN CREWAI FLOWS
11. Build a Flow, not a Crew. A Crew is a team of roles with no graph, no join,
no persistence handle and no gate, and cannot express this document at all.
Each phase is one method on a single `Flow` subclass, keeping its name with
hyphens turned into underscores. A phase that genuinely needs role-based agents
builds its own Crew inside its own method body, and the Flow stays the graph.
12. Declare the state as a Pydantic model bound as the type parameter,
`class NegotiateTheAgreement(Flow[NegotiationState])`, and read and write
`self.state.field`. Never use the untyped dict form: the handoff keys are this
process's memory, and an untyped dict turns a misspelt key into a handoff that
is silently absent. Keep the auto-injected `id` field, which is what every
resume depends on.
13. `after: a` is `@listen(a)`. `after: a + b` is `@listen(and_(a, b))`. Never
write `or_` where the document writes `+`.
14. Check every inbound handoff at the top of the method and raise if one is
missing. `@listen` says when a method may run and says nothing about what is
in hand when it does.
15. The join is the trap, and it is proven rather than theoretical. `and_()`
empties its accumulator the moment it fires, so re-entering BOTH arms works
forever, and re-entering ONE arm after it has fired leaves it holding a single
trigger and waiting for the other for good. The cascade drains, CrewAI prints
that the flow completed, and `kickoff()` returns normally. So for any joining
phase that a deviation can send work back into, do not use `and_()` at all:
make the join a `@router` that both arms trigger, which reads the state fields
and emits its label only when every inbound handoff is present. A router is
re-evaluated against durable state every time and is never suppressed by the
once-fired set.
16. Do not write a phase as `@listen(or_(and_(a, b), "some_label"))`. There is
one accumulator per listener, shared across every branch of its condition and
wiped when any branch satisfies, so the label firing while the join is half
full erases the arm that had already arrived.
17. `automation: never` is `@human_feedback(message=..., provider=...)` stacked
under the method's `@listen`, with a provider whose `request_feedback` raises
`HumanFeedbackPending`. The run then persists, returns that object from
`kickoff()`, and a different process answers later with `from_pending(flow_id,
persistence)` and `resume(text)`. Do not take the default `ConsoleProvider`,
which calls `input()`: that gate exists only while somebody is watching a
terminal, and a run started by a scheduler either hangs or takes an empty
string.
18. Silence must not approve, and the platform's default is that it does. With
`emit=[...]` set, an empty resume collapses to `default_outcome`, or to the
first label when that is unset, with no model consulted and nobody named. Treat
an empty or unrecognised answer as a refusal in your own router. And write the
approver's name and the time onto the state yourself, because
`HumanFeedbackResult` carries the text, the outcome and a timestamp but has no
field for the person, which the specification requires.
19. Each line under `deviations:` is a `@router` named after the key, returning
a label named after the same key, with the target subscribing as
`@listen(or_(normal_trigger, "the_label"))`. Route rather than listen
directly, because a router is re-evaluated on every cycle while a top-level
`or_` listener is suppressed after it first fires.
20. An exception edge is a `try` and `except` around the failing phase's body,
recording the failure on the state and emitting an exception label from a
router. Wiring it as `@listen(or_(x, y))` fires when those phases SUCCEED, so
the clearing phase would run on every healthy run.
21. An unimplemented phase is a method with the document's own sentence as its
docstring and a bare `pass`, which is safe because listeners still fire on a
`None` return. An unimplemented `@router` is not safe: returning `None` emits
no label, every phase below it disappears from the run including the gates, and
the flow reports success. A stub router must return a hard-coded label with a
TODO beside it, or raise.
22. Turn persistence on with `@persist(SQLiteFlowPersistence(...))`, then treat
every phase that performs a real act as something that will run twice.
Persistence saves the state fields and nothing else, so a restart rehydrates
the data and runs the graph again from `@start`: a flow that had already sent a
written refusal sends a second one. Guard each acting phase with a state field
it checks and sets.
23. There are no timers, no deadlines and no cadences, and `run-scoped:` has no
counterpart at all. Put each `by:` value as a named constant, name the
run-scoped lines in the module docstring as unimplemented obligations, and say
in the fidelity note that no deadline in this document is enforced by anything.
These absences produce no diagnostic whatsoever, which is exactly why they have
to be written down.
Produce a second file alongside it, `FIDELITY.md`, and treat it as the more
important of the two. The code is for whoever builds this. The fidelity note
is for whoever has to decide whether this platform suits the process at all,
and that is usually a different person who will never read the code.
It has three parts.
**What came across.** Briefly: how many phases became steps, how many handoff
keys became state fields, which gates stop the run, which deviations became
edges. Counts and names, not reassurance.
**What did not, and what was done instead.** One entry per gap. For each one,
say what the document requires, what the platform can actually express, what
you did in its place, and what breaks if somebody later removes your
workaround. This last part matters most: a workaround nobody understands is a
workaround somebody deletes.
**What a person still has to decide.** The blanks are not a translation
failure, they are the point of a reference process, so list what has to be
filled in before this could run against anything real, and say which of those
choices the platform constrains.
Write it in plain English for somebody who has not read the specification, and
do not soften it. A translation of a reference process is a draft to argue
with, not a build artifact, and the honest account of what was lost is the most
useful thing you will produce.
Here is the process document.
```
PROCESS: requirement record id: <team>/record-the-requirements v1
from: ref/sls/record-the-requirements v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer in <your
discovery process>
watch: record=<discovery summary>
system=<your discovery process>
change=<a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer>
concurrency: runs may overlap - one requirement record per
opportunity, and <how many> records open at once
goal: every requirement written in the buyer's words, attributed,
ranked by the buyer, confirmed by the buyer, and versioned, with
what cannot be met marked before anything is shaped
phases:
take-in-notes - human: read the confirmed notes and the
unanswered questions that came with them
owner: requirements-recorder after: trigger
automation: <level>
split-needs-wants - convenes decide-and-announce: what must be true
for a purchase to make sense, and what was only
wanted. The buyer draws the line, not the seller
owner: requirements-recorder after: take-in-notes
by: <days> automation: <level>
write-each-one - human: one line per requirement, in the words
the buyer used, with a paraphrase marked as a
paraphrase
owner: requirements-recorder after: split-needs-wants
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-who-asked - system: every line carries the person who asked
for it and the date they asked
owner: requirements-recorder after: write-each-one
automation: <level>
find-clashes - runs assessment: pairs of requirements that
cannot both be met, and requirements that
contradict a constraint
owner: requirements-recorder after: name-who-asked
automation: <level>
ask-follow-ups - human: the gaps and the clashes go back to the
buyer as questions. The seller does not settle
a clash on the buyer's behalf
owner: discovery-interviewer after: find-clashes
by: <days> automation: <level>
check-constraints - runs collect-and-report: the rules the buyer
works under, the dates that cannot move, and the
systems that have to be lived with
owner: researcher after: ask-follow-ups
by: <days> automation: <level>
rank-the-list - convenes decide-and-announce: the buyer puts the
list in their own order, and the order is
recorded as theirs
owner: requirements-recorder after: check-constraints
by: <days> automation: <level>
mark-unmeetable - human: requirements <your organization> cannot
meet are marked as such, with the reason, before
any shape is drawn
owner: solution-architect after: rank-the-list
automation: never
read-record-back - convenes approval: the buyer reads the record
and confirms it is what they need. Silence is
not confirmation
owner: requirements-recorder after: mark-unmeetable
by: <days> automation: never
version-record - system: the confirmed list gets a number and a
date, and earlier versions stay readable
owner: requirements-recorder after: read-record-back
automation: <level>
hand-to-shaping - system: one record, at one version, reaches the
shaping stage
owner: requirements-recorder after: version-record
automation: <level>
watch-for-drift - human: requirements that arrive after the record
was confirmed are written, attributed and
versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
owner: requirements-recorder after: hand-to-shaping
automation: <level>
record-learnings - convenes debrief: which questions should have
been asked in discovery, and which lines had to
be rewritten
owner: requirements-recorder after: watch-for-drift
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
changes - runs collect-and-report owner: requirements-recorder
every: <cadence>
from: hand-to-shaping until: run close
handoffs:
take-in-notes -> split-needs-wants [discovery-notes]: the confirmed
notes, and the questions discovery could not answer
split-needs-wants -> write-each-one [need-want-line]: the line
between need and want, as the buyer drew it, with the buyer's
wording for the line
write-each-one -> name-who-asked [quoted-lines]: one line per
requirement, quoted
name-who-asked -> find-clashes [attributed-list]: the list, with a
person and a date against every line
find-clashes -> ask-follow-ups [clashes]: the pairs that cannot
both be met, and the lines nobody can be found to have asked for
ask-follow-ups -> check-constraints [buyer-answers]: the buyer's
answers, in writing, and the clashes the buyer chose not to settle
check-constraints -> rank-the-list [hard-constraints]: the rules,
the dates and the systems that cannot move, each with its source
rank-the-list -> mark-unmeetable [buyers-ranking]: the list in the
buyer's order
mark-unmeetable -> read-record-back [marked-list]: the same list,
with every requirement that will not be met marked and reasoned
read-record-back -> version-record [confirmed-record]: the record
as the buyer confirmed it, with their corrections kept alongside
the original
version-record -> hand-to-shaping [versioned-record]: the record at
a number and a date
hand-to-shaping -> watch-for-drift [shaping-baseline]: the version
the architect is shaping against, so a later change can be seen as
a change
watch-for-drift -> record-learnings [late-requirements]: every
requirement that arrived late, with who asked and when
deviations:
ask-follow-ups -> write-each-one [answer-changes-a-line]: the
buyer's answer changes a requirement, so that line is written
again in the words the buyer just used
check-constraints -> split-needs-wants [constraint-kills-a-line]: a
rule the buyer works under makes a requirement impossible, so the
need and want split is drawn again with the constraint quoted
read-record-back -> write-each-one [record-not-recognized]: the
buyer does not recognize the record, so the lines they disowned
are written again or struck
watch-for-drift -> write-each-one [requirement-arrives-late]: a
requirement arrives after the record was confirmed, so it is
written, attributed and versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for the customer sponsor, the
security reviewer and whoever signs that a requirement
cannot be met>
systems: the CRM (write), the requirement record (write),
the notes store (read), <your policy register> (read),
<your product roadmap> (read)
data: the confirmed discovery summary <version>, <your constraint
library> <version>, <your list of things you do not do>
policy:
a requirement is written in the buyer's words, and a paraphrase says
that it is one
every requirement names the person who asked for it
a contradiction goes back to the buyer, and the seller never picks
a side on the buyer's behalf
a requirement <your organization> cannot meet is marked before the
shaping stage reads the record, never after
the ranking is the buyer's, and a seller's re-ranking is a separate
marked opinion
a requirement that arrives after confirmation raises the version and
is told to everyone holding the old one
measures:
cycle time: <target> from a confirmed summary to a versioned record
volume: <records per period>
quality gate: <target> share of records confirmed by the buyer with
no requirement added after shaping started
```
Take it somewhere
Use this process in Google ADK
close
Paste this into an assistant that can read the web, such as Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor. It reads the specification and the current ADK documentation, then writes two files: the workflow, and a note on what did not survive the translation. Read the note first. What a runtime cannot express is the part worth arguing about, and this process is a draft to argue with.
copy the prompt
328 lines · the document is inside it, so nothing else is needed
Convert the business process below into a runnable Google ADK workflow:
one Python file with a Workflow, nodes, routed edges, a JoinNode,
RequestInput gates and a persisting session service.
The document is a reference process written to the Agent Processes
specification. Read the specification before you start, because it defines
terms that look ordinary and are not:
https://agentcatalog.com/spec/agent-processes
Sections 6 (the phase graph), 6.5.1 (exception edges), 6.7.1 (deviations),
7 (automation) and 8 (handoffs) are the ones this conversion turns on.
Then read the current documentation for the primitives you will need, rather
than relying on what you remember of the API:
https://adk.dev/graphs/routes/
nodes, tuple chains, Event(route=), JoinNode, back-edges
https://adk.dev/graphs/human-input/
RequestInput and the rerun_on_resume handoff
https://adk.dev/runtime/resume/
ResumabilityConfig, resuming by invocation id, at-least-once tools
https://adk.dev/graphs/data-handling/
Event.output against state, and the selector syntax in instructions
WHAT THE DOCUMENT ASKS FOR
These hold wherever the process lands, and they matter more than style.
1. Each phase under `phases:` becomes one step, and keeps its name.
2. `after:` gives the edges. `after: a + b` is a join and waits for BOTH.
Reading it as "either" is the defect the specification calls out by name.
3. Every handoff carries a key in square brackets. Each key becomes one field
on the run's state, named exactly as the key with hyphens turned into
underscores, and the sentence beside it becomes that field's comment. The key
is the stable name; the sentence is prose that may be rewritten.
4. A phase MUST NOT begin before its inbound handoff exists. Where that is
checkable, check it in the step rather than assuming it.
5. `automation: never` is a gate a person signs. The run stops there and does
not continue until a person's decision comes back. Do not turn one into a
notification, a log line, or an automatic transition, whatever the queue
looks like.
6. Each line under `deviations:` is a backward or sideways edge, returning to
the phase named on the right. The key in brackets names it, and that name
belongs in the code.
7. A phase whose `after:` reads like "X or Y, whichever could not finish" is an
exception edge: it is entered when those phases FAIL, not when they succeed.
Do not wire it as an ordinary successor.
8. Anything in angle brackets is a blank the adopting organization fills in.
Leave each one as a named constant at the top of the file with a TODO. Do not
invent a value, a threshold or a date.
9. Record the document's `from:` line at the top of the file, so it says which
reference process and which version it was generated from.
10. Run-scoped lines under `run-scoped:` are work that runs alongside the whole
process rather than at one point in it, and a run may not close while one is
unfinished. Say in the code what you did about them, including if the answer
is that the runtime has nowhere to put them.
HOW THAT LOOKS IN GOOGLE ADK
11. Build a `Workflow` from `google.adk.workflow`, and pin `google-adk>=2.0` in
a comment. Do not use `SequentialAgent`, `ParallelAgent` or `LoopAgent`: they
are deprecated in favour of the graph, and they carry their own defects around
state and control flow. The documentation moved to adk.dev, and anything you
remember about nesting agents rather than drawing a graph is out of date.
12. Each phase is one node keeping its name. Take the node kind from how the
phase resolves rather than from taste: a `human:` or `system:` phase is a plain
Python function node, and a `runs` or `convenes` phase is an `Agent`.
13. `after:` gives the edges, written as tuple chains in `edges=[...]`, and the
trigger is the `"START"` keyword. Take the order only from `after:` lines and
never from the order the phases are listed in.
14. `after: a + b` is a `JoinNode`, and it must be guarded, because this is the
worst trap of any runtime here. The join fires when every static predecessor is
marked COMPLETED, nothing ever un-completes a node, and stored outputs are
never cleared. So after a deviation re-runs one arm, the join fires the instant
that arm finishes and hands the next phase LAST PASS'S value for every arm that
did not re-run. It does not stall, it proceeds with stale data, and nothing
logs. Stamp each arm's output with a pass counter or a content hash, and have
the phase after the join compare the stamps and refuse to run when they
disagree.
15. Each line under `deviations:` is a routed back-edge: a router after the
phase on the left returning `Event(route=...)`, named after the key in
brackets, with one arm going back to the phase on the right and one going
forward. An unconditional cycle raises at construction, which is the one place
this model checks your work. Nothing budgets a routed cycle, so add your own
count and stop rather than looping forever.
16. Give every router an explicit `DEFAULT_ROUTE` arm, and route it to a phase
that stops and asks a person. A route value matching no key writes a log
warning, ends that branch, and lets the run finish reporting success with the
rest of the process never having happened.
17. `automation: never` is a `RequestInput` node of its own, never an `Agent`
asking a question. Decorate it `@node(rerun_on_resume=False)` and yield
`RequestInput(message=..., payload=..., response_schema=...)`, so the run
stops, persists, and delivers the person's answer to the node's successor as
its typed input. A resumed workflow runs its tools at least once, so any
irreversible act needs its own duplicate guard.
18. Make the gates durable or say plainly that they are not. Wrap the graph in
`App(..., resumability_config=ResumabilityConfig(is_resumable=True))` and pass
a persisting session service, never the in-memory one. Note in the file that
the command line and the web UI cannot resume a run, so whoever releases these
gates needs an operator surface that somebody has to write.
19. Every `Agent` in the graph gets `mode="single_turn"` and no `sub_agents`.
A non-empty `sub_agents` list silently adds a transfer tool, and a model that
uses it runs a different agent in this node's place while the graph's outgoing
edge fires on schedule regardless: the topology is honoured perfectly and the
work belongs to somebody else.
20. Model failure as a route, not as an exception. A node that raises does not
propagate: the failure is caught, recorded, and shuts the workflow down without
raising to the caller. So a phase that can fail catches its own failure and
returns `Event(route="could-not-finish")`, and the exception phase hangs off
that arm.
21. Keep every blank as a named module-level constant and never interpolate one
into an `instruction=` string. Angle brackets and curly braces are ADK's own
data selector syntax inside instructions, so a blank pasted verbatim stops
being a blank and becomes a selector.
22. `by:` and `not-before:` have no expression, and `@node(timeout=)` is not
one: it is an in-process wall clock that cancels the node and, because failures
are swallowed, ends the run silently rather than recording a missed deadline.
Nothing in `run-scoped:` has an expression either, and it must not be faked as
an ordinary node, because a node has to be reached and has to finish before
anything downstream starts, which is the opposite of what those lines mean.
Leave both out of the graph and name them in the fidelity note.
Produce a second file alongside it, `FIDELITY.md`, and treat it as the more
important of the two. The code is for whoever builds this. The fidelity note
is for whoever has to decide whether this platform suits the process at all,
and that is usually a different person who will never read the code.
It has three parts.
**What came across.** Briefly: how many phases became steps, how many handoff
keys became state fields, which gates stop the run, which deviations became
edges. Counts and names, not reassurance.
**What did not, and what was done instead.** One entry per gap. For each one,
say what the document requires, what the platform can actually express, what
you did in its place, and what breaks if somebody later removes your
workaround. This last part matters most: a workaround nobody understands is a
workaround somebody deletes.
**What a person still has to decide.** The blanks are not a translation
failure, they are the point of a reference process, so list what has to be
filled in before this could run against anything real, and say which of those
choices the platform constrains.
Write it in plain English for somebody who has not read the specification, and
do not soften it. A translation of a reference process is a draft to argue
with, not a build artifact, and the honest account of what was lost is the most
useful thing you will produce.
Here is the process document.
```
PROCESS: requirement record id: <team>/record-the-requirements v1
from: ref/sls/record-the-requirements v1
owner: <who> effective: <date>
trigger: a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer in <your
discovery process>
watch: record=<discovery summary>
system=<your discovery process>
change=<a discovery summary is confirmed by the buyer>
concurrency: runs may overlap - one requirement record per
opportunity, and <how many> records open at once
goal: every requirement written in the buyer's words, attributed,
ranked by the buyer, confirmed by the buyer, and versioned, with
what cannot be met marked before anything is shaped
phases:
take-in-notes - human: read the confirmed notes and the
unanswered questions that came with them
owner: requirements-recorder after: trigger
automation: <level>
split-needs-wants - convenes decide-and-announce: what must be true
for a purchase to make sense, and what was only
wanted. The buyer draws the line, not the seller
owner: requirements-recorder after: take-in-notes
by: <days> automation: <level>
write-each-one - human: one line per requirement, in the words
the buyer used, with a paraphrase marked as a
paraphrase
owner: requirements-recorder after: split-needs-wants
by: <days> automation: <level>
name-who-asked - system: every line carries the person who asked
for it and the date they asked
owner: requirements-recorder after: write-each-one
automation: <level>
find-clashes - runs assessment: pairs of requirements that
cannot both be met, and requirements that
contradict a constraint
owner: requirements-recorder after: name-who-asked
automation: <level>
ask-follow-ups - human: the gaps and the clashes go back to the
buyer as questions. The seller does not settle
a clash on the buyer's behalf
owner: discovery-interviewer after: find-clashes
by: <days> automation: <level>
check-constraints - runs collect-and-report: the rules the buyer
works under, the dates that cannot move, and the
systems that have to be lived with
owner: researcher after: ask-follow-ups
by: <days> automation: <level>
rank-the-list - convenes decide-and-announce: the buyer puts the
list in their own order, and the order is
recorded as theirs
owner: requirements-recorder after: check-constraints
by: <days> automation: <level>
mark-unmeetable - human: requirements <your organization> cannot
meet are marked as such, with the reason, before
any shape is drawn
owner: solution-architect after: rank-the-list
automation: never
read-record-back - convenes approval: the buyer reads the record
and confirms it is what they need. Silence is
not confirmation
owner: requirements-recorder after: mark-unmeetable
by: <days> automation: never
version-record - system: the confirmed list gets a number and a
date, and earlier versions stay readable
owner: requirements-recorder after: read-record-back
automation: <level>
hand-to-shaping - system: one record, at one version, reaches the
shaping stage
owner: requirements-recorder after: version-record
automation: <level>
watch-for-drift - human: requirements that arrive after the record
was confirmed are written, attributed and
versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
owner: requirements-recorder after: hand-to-shaping
automation: <level>
record-learnings - convenes debrief: which questions should have
been asked in discovery, and which lines had to
be rewritten
owner: requirements-recorder after: watch-for-drift
automation: <level>
run-scoped:
changes - runs collect-and-report owner: requirements-recorder
every: <cadence>
from: hand-to-shaping until: run close
handoffs:
take-in-notes -> split-needs-wants [discovery-notes]: the confirmed
notes, and the questions discovery could not answer
split-needs-wants -> write-each-one [need-want-line]: the line
between need and want, as the buyer drew it, with the buyer's
wording for the line
write-each-one -> name-who-asked [quoted-lines]: one line per
requirement, quoted
name-who-asked -> find-clashes [attributed-list]: the list, with a
person and a date against every line
find-clashes -> ask-follow-ups [clashes]: the pairs that cannot
both be met, and the lines nobody can be found to have asked for
ask-follow-ups -> check-constraints [buyer-answers]: the buyer's
answers, in writing, and the clashes the buyer chose not to settle
check-constraints -> rank-the-list [hard-constraints]: the rules,
the dates and the systems that cannot move, each with its source
rank-the-list -> mark-unmeetable [buyers-ranking]: the list in the
buyer's order
mark-unmeetable -> read-record-back [marked-list]: the same list,
with every requirement that will not be met marked and reasoned
read-record-back -> version-record [confirmed-record]: the record
as the buyer confirmed it, with their corrections kept alongside
the original
version-record -> hand-to-shaping [versioned-record]: the record at
a number and a date
hand-to-shaping -> watch-for-drift [shaping-baseline]: the version
the architect is shaping against, so a later change can be seen as
a change
watch-for-drift -> record-learnings [late-requirements]: every
requirement that arrived late, with who asked and when
deviations:
ask-follow-ups -> write-each-one [answer-changes-a-line]: the
buyer's answer changes a requirement, so that line is written
again in the words the buyer just used
check-constraints -> split-needs-wants [constraint-kills-a-line]: a
rule the buyer works under makes a requirement impossible, so the
need and want split is drawn again with the constraint quoted
read-record-back -> write-each-one [record-not-recognized]: the
buyer does not recognize the record, so the lines they disowned
are written again or struck
watch-for-drift -> write-each-one [requirement-arrives-late]: a
requirement arrives after the record was confirmed, so it is
written, attributed and versioned in rather than absorbed quietly
bindings:
roster: <who holds each role - agents claiming the abstract agents
above, and named people for the customer sponsor, the
security reviewer and whoever signs that a requirement
cannot be met>
systems: the CRM (write), the requirement record (write),
the notes store (read), <your policy register> (read),
<your product roadmap> (read)
data: the confirmed discovery summary <version>, <your constraint
library> <version>, <your list of things you do not do>
policy:
a requirement is written in the buyer's words, and a paraphrase says
that it is one
every requirement names the person who asked for it
a contradiction goes back to the buyer, and the seller never picks
a side on the buyer's behalf
a requirement <your organization> cannot meet is marked before the
shaping stage reads the record, never after
the ranking is the buyer's, and a seller's re-ranking is a separate
marked opinion
a requirement that arrives after confirmation raises the version and
is told to everyone holding the old one
measures:
cycle time: <target> from a confirmed summary to a versioned record
volume: <records per period>
quality gate: <target> share of records confirmed by the buyer with
no requirement added after shaping started
```
One run
A simulation of one run
The activities are on the left, whoever is doing the active one is on the right, and the record of the run builds up as it goes.
This run is built from the same rows as the diagram above: the left column is the activity list, the captions are the activity lines, the cast is the roster, and the labels on the wires are what the handoffs say actually passes.
Adoption
What you fill in
36 blanks to fill. Everything else is the process.
this process
from: ref/sls/record-the-requirements v1
Copy this line into your own document. It never claims this process is running anywhere; it records which draft yours started from, and it is what lets the catalog tell you when this one changes.
The header. Your own id, an owner, and the date it takes effect. One line records where it came from, and that line is what lets the catalog tell you when this reference process changes.
The roster. Which agent takes each activity, and which person takes each of the human ones. The process already names what it needs, so this is a lookup rather than a design exercise.
The numbers. Dates, budgets, cadences, and the targets in the measures block. Nothing here can be a reference value, because a target nobody chose is a target nobody meets.