> ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://specs.flux.employinc.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Wave 6: Dark Factory SDLC # Wave 6: Dark Factory SDLC **Status**: IN PROGRESS (several cycles operating; others in draft) **Domain**: The AI-native software development lifecycle — spec-driven development, Chief Engineer review, autonomous operations, progressive delivery, skill-driven automation, AI debt management. **Owner**: @pj *** ## Scope Wave 6 owns the machinery that lets a 100%-AI-generated codebase ship reliably. It is the "dark factory" layer — the infrastructure that Claude Code and peer agents operate on, the review system that enforces architectural coherence, the observability extensions that enable autonomous remediation, and the skill-driven tooling that compresses human workflows into agent-callable capabilities. Specifically: * **Spec-Driven Development** (Cycle 214): Mintlify + PRDs + RFCs + Cycles — the full spec stack with AI-native tooling (Autopilot, AGENTS.md, auto-generated MCP server, `llms.txt`). * **Chief Engineer Review System** (Cycle 221): AI-native manifesto, Chief Engineer AI persona, CE Review Skill (autonomous + conversational). Operating since 2026-04-12. * **Autonomous Operations** (Cycle 301.4): observability tools, Alertmanager→Temporal bridge, auto-remediation workflows, learning loop. Builds on the Wave 5 observability foundation. * **Progressive Delivery** (Cycle 301.5): Argo Rollouts, SLO-driven canary analysis, deployment workflow, feature flag coordination. Depends on Wave 5 feature flags. * **UI Design Skill** (Cycle 380): research-first design workflow as a Claude Code skill. * **Issue-Number Cycle IDs** (Cycle 381): consistent cycle identification via GitHub issue numbers. Merged. * **Skill-Driven Automation** (Cycles 400 /changelog, 401 /standup): skills that automate human workflows (release notes, team standup reports). * **AI Debt Management** (cycles in draft, pending renumbering — see collision flag): AI debt scanning, AI debt triage skills. * **Preview + Worktree Environments** (Cycles 209.2, 209.5): isolated per-PR preview environments and per-worktree namespaces for parallel AI agent work. Wave 6 does not own functional product domains (Waves 1–4) or platform non-functional guarantees (Wave 5). It owns the SDLC itself — how we build and operate the rest. *** ## Cycles | Cycle | Title | Status | Milestone | | ----- | ---------------------------------------------------------------- | --------------- | --------------------------------- | | 209.2 | GKE Preview Environments | Draft | Post-pilot | | 209.5 | Local Worktree Environments | Draft | Post-pilot | | 214 | Spec-Driven Development (Mintlify + PRDs + RFCs + Cycles) | Draft | Post-pilot | | 221 | Chief Engineer Review System — Manifesto, Agent & Skill | ✅ Operating | **In pilot** (review enforcement) | | 301.4 | Dark Factory — Autonomous Incident Response | Plan merged | M6 | | 301.5 | Dark Factory — Progressive Delivery (Argo Rollouts) | Plan merged | M6 | | 380 | UI Design Skill | ✅ Merged | In pilot (skill in use) | | 381 | Issue-Number Cycle IDs | ✅ Merged | In pilot | | 400 | /changelog Claude Skill + GitHub Action | Plan in PR #407 | Post-pilot | | 401 | /standup Claude Skill | Plan in PR #419 | Post-pilot | | — | AI Debt Scan Skill (currently drafted as "382" — **renumber**) | Plan in PR #400 | Post-pilot | | — | AI Debt Triage Skill (currently drafted as "383" — **renumber**) | Plan in PR #401 | Post-pilot | *** ## M1 Paychex Pilot Contribution **In pilot, operating**: * Cycle 221 Chief Engineer Review System — every PR during pilot execution is CE-reviewed for manifesto alignment. * Cycle 380 UI Design Skill — used when authoring new UI like the `HireConfirmationSheet` (Cycle 364 §1). * Cycle 381 Issue-Number Cycle IDs — new cycles going forward use issue numbers as IDs. **Not in pilot**: * All other Wave 6 cycles are post-pilot (M6 for autonomous ops, otherwise capacity-governed). The Dark Factory vision is **not blocked by the pilot**, but its full realization is post-M1. The pilot uses Wave 6 primitives that are already operating (CE review, UI design skill); it does not wait for the autonomous-operations extensions. *** ## Dependencies * Wave 5: observability foundation (301.1, 301.2, 301.3) is a prerequisite for Wave 6's autonomous-operations extensions (301.4, 301.5). * Wave 5: feature flags (213 feature flags variant) are required for 301.5's progressive delivery. * Wave 0: CI/CD infrastructure (209) underlies all skill automation and GitHub Action workflows. *** ## Naming-Collision Flag **Cycle 382 collision**: The Production Environment Bootstrap (Wave 5, PR #420) correctly holds cycle-382 numbering. The AI Debt Scan cycle in PR #400 and #417 is incorrectly drafted as cycle-382. The AI Debt Triage cycle in PR #401 and #421 is incorrectly drafted as cycle-383. **Recommendation**: Renumber the AI debt cycles before they merge. Candidate numbers: 430, 431 (following a consistent Wave 6 pattern), or adopt issue-number IDs per Cycle 381. Tracked as post-pilot cleanup. *** ## Strategic Importance Wave 6 is the wave that makes Flux a **showcase of AI-native product development**, as specified in CLAUDE.md Directive 1. It is the difference between "a product built with AI help" and "a product whose SDLC itself is AI-native at every layer." The Chief Engineer review skill (Cycle 221) is already the most-impactful Wave 6 cycle — it enforces the manifesto on every PR, and the CE's authority derives from the manifesto itself. Post-pilot, Wave 6 extends with autonomous incident response (301.4), progressive delivery (301.5), spec-driven documentation (214 Mintlify), and skill-driven automation (/changelog, /standup, AI debt). The long-term goal is an SDLC where human engineers operate as orchestrators and reviewers while the agent layer handles the bulk of mechanical work — the "dark factory" metaphor. *** ## Historical Context Wave 6 is **new in the 2026-04-17 domain-reorganization**. Previously, its cycles were scattered across "Wave 3: Production Hardening + Differentiation" (the spec-driven dev, client-side tools) and various skill-development-as-needed drafts. Consolidating them into a dedicated Dark Factory SDLC wave makes the Wave 0–6 structure coherent: functional domains (1–4), platform (5), SDLC (6).