Flow Next Features

---
name: flow-next-features
description: Seed or maintain the committed user-POV drive map at .flow/features/ so QA and drive reuse how a user reaches each feature.
user-invocable: false
allowed-tools: Read, Bash, Grep, Glob, Write, Edit, Task
---

# /flow-next:features - compounding user-POV drive knowledge

A committed directory (`.flow/features/`, beside `.flow/memory/`) records, from the user's point of view, what each user-facing feature is, how a user reaches it, how an agent drives it, and which traps waste a verification run. QA and drive stop re-deriving navigation; work can reuse it to verify what it built.

Split that keeps existing contracts intact: **map = how a user gets there (compounds). Spec = what to prove this time. Live drive = proof.**

Seed-mode phases live in [seed.md](seed.md); read it only once mode detection resolves `MODE=seed`. Feature file shape: [references/feature-entry-contract.md](references/feature-entry-contract.md). Doctor + proof: [references/doctor-and-proof.md](references/doctor-and-proof.md). Maintain (when `MODE=maintain`) executes [maintain.md](maintain.md).

The skill validates the four-H2 shape itself. Its flowctl calls on the maintain path are `features status` (read-only: last-proven age and open drift notes), `memory list` for the `feature-map-drift` tag handoff, `memory mark-stale` to retire drift notes whose route proved, and `memory add` (overlap-judged fold) for bug filing.

This skill and work's feature-map update step (entries its own change altered, [feature-map-update.md](../flow-next-work/references/feature-map-update.md)) are the only map writers; every other stage reads the map and files drift notes ([references/feature-entry-contract.md](references/feature-entry-contract.md), "Writers and drift notes").

Read [working-rules.md](../../references/working-rules.md) first unless you already have this run; it holds for every step of this skill.

## Preamble

**CRITICAL: flowctl is BUNDLED - NOT installed globally.** `which flowctl` will fail (expected). Define once; subsequent blocks (here and in `maintain.md`) use `$FLOWCTL`:

```bash
FLOWCTL="${CODEX_HOME:-$HOME/.codex}/scripts/flowctl"
[ -x "$FLOWCTL" ] || FLOWCTL="<plugin-root>/scripts/flowctl"   # <plugin-root> = the directory two levels above this skill's SKILL.md file (the harness gave you that file's absolute path when the skill loaded); substitute it literally
[ -x "$FLOWCTL" ] || FLOWCTL=".flow/bin/flowctl"
```

**Inline skill (no `context: fork`)** - `plain-text numbered prompt` must stay reachable for the few facts seed cannot observe. Subagents cannot call plain-text numbered prompts (Claude Code issues #12890, #34592). On portable hosts without `plain-text numbered prompt`, fall back to a plain-text numbered prompt with a final `Other - type your own answer` option. For read-only scouts use `spawn_agent` with `agent_type: explorer` (or the host's generic read-only dispatch with Edit/Write disallowed when Explore is unavailable).

## Autonomy refusal

`/flow-next:features` is user-invoked (or a host loop the human started). `flow --auto`, land, and every other autonomous driver must not dispatch it. Scan the autonomy-marker **namespace**, never a fixed two-var list. Any hit refuses with the typed one-line report and stops.

```bash
REFUSE=0
# Namespace scan over autonomy marker families. Never a fixed two-var list.
# Families: any FLOW_*AUTONOM* name, plus the mode:autonomous argument token.
if env | grep -E '^FLOW_[^=]*AUTONOM' >/dev/null 2>&1; then
  REFUSE=1
fi
case " ${ARGUMENTS:-} " in
  *" mode:autonomous "*) REFUSE=1 ;;
esac
if [ "$REFUSE" = "1" ]; then
  echo 'FEATURES_VERDICT=REFUSED features=0 reason="autonomy marker present; /flow-next:features is user-invoked only"'
  exit 2
fi
```

## Mode Detection

State-resolved, cwd-relative to the repo root (`.flow/features/` under the current working directory). No `.flow/features/` directory, or explicit init intent (`--init`, `init`, `mode:seed`, `--seed` in `$ARGUMENTS`), routes to **seed**. A present map with no init intent routes to **maintain**. Consumers elsewhere gate on directory existence only: no config key, no registration.

```bash
MODE="maintain"
if [ ! -d ".flow/features" ]; then
  MODE="seed"
fi
RAW_ARGS="${ARGUMENTS:-}"
for ARG in $RAW_ARGS; do
  case "$ARG" in
    --init|init|mode:seed|--seed) MODE="seed" ;;
  esac
done
printf 'MODE=%s\n' "$MODE"
```

| Mode | When | Behavior |
|------|------|----------|
| **seed** | `.flow/features/` absent, or explicit init intent | Interview the repo, prove each route with one live drive, write the index plus one file per proven feature. Explicit re-init over an existing map first requires `.flow/features/` to be CLEAN in git (`git status --porcelain -- .flow/features/` empty - uncommitted map edits could be overwritten or deleted unrecoverably; dirty ends `BLOCKED` asking to commit or stash). Then every pre-existing feature file is either re-proven this run (and re-indexed) or removed with the removal named in the verdict reason - a file neither re-proven nor removed cannot remain, and `SEEDED` over unproven leftovers has broken this. See [seed.md](seed.md). |
| **maintain** | `.flow/features/` present and no init intent | Audit-shaped pass over the existing map. See [maintain.md](maintain.md). |

## Interaction Principles

- **Interview the repo, not the user.** Surface, run command, drive mechanism, observable evidence, isolation: read them from the checkout. Ask only what cannot be observed.
**Ask the user via plain text.** Render the options below as a numbered list `1.` … `N.`, followed by a final option `N+1. Other — type your own answer`. Print the question, then the numbered list, then **stop and wait for the user's next message before continuing**. Parse the reply as: a bare number `1`–`N+1` → that option; the literal text of an option label → that option; free text after `Other` → custom answer.

- Ask via `plain-text numbered prompt`. Never silently skip the question.
- Prefer **multiple choice** when natural options exist. Lead with the recommended option and a one-sentence rationale.
- Do **not** ask before evidence is gathered. Observation first, questions second.
- Multi-surface repos (web + CLI) seed **per-surface feature groups** under one index. Enumeration is observation: each feature file carries `**Surface:**`; consumers select by surface + sub-feature IDs.

## Forbidden

- **Dispatch by an autonomous driver.** `flow --auto`, land, or any autonomy-marker hit: refuse. Cadence belongs to the human or their host loop.
- **Editing product code in maintain.** Maintain's edit scope is `.flow/features/` plus harness scripts the map owns. Product bugs are reported and kept out of the PR.
- **Merging.** Never `gh pr merge`, never `/flow-next:land`. A `changed` maintain PR stays open for the human or land.
- **Driving an instance this run did not start.** Doctor names the owner. An orphaned port from a crashed prior run ends `BLOCKED`; reclaim is left to the human. Never kill by process name - kill what this run started.
- **Setting `context: fork`** - plain-text numbered prompt must stay reachable.
- **Duplicating the drive-skill ladder.** Live driving consumes [flow-next-drive](../flow-next-drive/SKILL.md) by pointer. A copy of CDP / agent-browser / Computer-Use actuation detail in this skill has broken this.
- **Writing an undriven feature file.** Nothing enters the map that was not driven once.
- **Treating the map as the intent source.** Specs and acceptance criteria stay the contract of what to prove. The map is how-to-drive only.

## Workflow

1. Run the autonomy-refusal fence. On refuse, the `FEATURES_VERDICT=REFUSED` line is the last line of the run.
2. Run the mode-detection fence. Honor `MODE`.
3. **seed** - execute [seed.md](seed.md) in order.
4. **maintain** - execute [maintain.md](maintain.md) in order.

## Terminal line

Every run ends with exactly one terminal line, the last line of the response, with nothing after it:

```text
FEATURES_VERDICT=<SEEDED|CLEAN|CHANGED|BLOCKED|REFUSED> features=<n> reason="<one line>"
```

| Verdict | When |
|---------|------|
| `SEEDED` | Seed landed at least one proven feature (partial seed names failures in `reason`) |
| `CLEAN` | Maintain: no map/harness change, no branch, no PR |
| `CHANGED` | Maintain: one PR of proven map/harness corrections only, or the pushed or local branch when no create command reaches the host or the user asked for less |
| `BLOCKED` | Named blocker (missing ship-name value, orphaned port, concurrent isolation failure, source-reader collapse of the pass, a failed ship step). Next run re-enters fresh; a failed ship step keeps the proven edits and names them. |
| `REFUSED` | Autonomy marker, no drivable surface, no usable driver on this host, or broken checkout |

Use `features=0` when nothing landed. `reason` is one line, quoted.