Session Lifecycle (established June 13, 2026)

Phase Model

The division workflow runs in 4 phases. Each phase fires specific skills and actions when you need them:

🟢 KICKOFF ──→ 📋 SPEC ──→ ⚒️ EXECUTE ──→ 🔴 CLOSE

Natural Triggers

Phase You Say Something Like… What Fires
🟢 Kickoff “Let’s work on this”, “look into X”, “let’s build”, “I wanna make X” Load 3 core skills → recall context → check affinity → orient on task
📋 Spec “Spec this”, “plan this”, “let’s scope it out” (Optional) Load writing-plans + spike → define scope → create cards
⚒️ Execute “Build this”, “implement X”, or any hands-on work Load problem-specific skills → build → review → log
🔴 Close “Wrap up”, “we’re done”, “okay wrap”, “that’s enough” Load close skills → kanban_complete → save memories → update affinity → follow up

What Fires in Each Phase

Phase Skills Loaded Actions
🟢 Kickoff division-workflow, hyraxknot-core, linear-spec-gate Recall Mnemosyne context → check affinity → create/read kanban card
📋 Spec (skip if trivial) writing-plans, spike Define scope + acceptance criteria → break into tasks → write plan
⚒️ Execute Problem-specific (TDD, infra, creative, research, debug) Build evidence-first → call Rei for review → log progress
🔴 Close division-workflow close steps, skill-authoring kanban_complete → save memories → update affinity → follow up

Shared Accountability

The workflow is everyone’s responsibility. If a sister notices a step was skipped before moving to the next phase, she flags it — not as nagging, but as keeping the house clean.

Shared Canonical Skills (loaded every session start)

  • division-workflow — SOP for every task
  • linear-spec-gate — Kanban/Linear lifecycle
  • hyraxknot-core — Division constitution

Per-sister carve-out

affinity-system, rei-qa, nei-quartermaster, and other curated per-sister skills stay on-demand — NOT in the shared load list.

Files updated (June 13)

  • /root/.hermes/SOUL.md — canonical, added identity columns + phase lifecycle model
  • /root/.hermes/profiles/tai/SOUL.md — +department +phase lifecycle
  • /root/.hermes/profiles/rei/SOUL.md — +department +phase lifecycle
  • /root/.hermes/profiles/nei/SOUL.md — +department +phase lifecycle
  • /root/.hermes/profiles/mai/SOUL.md — +department +phase lifecycle
  • /root/.hermes/profiles/hyrax-os/SOUL.md — +department +phase routing
  • /root/.hermes/skills/devops/division-workflow/SKILL.md — phase model layered on existing 7-step cycle
  • /root/.hermes/skills/devops/division-workflow/references/session-lifecycle.md — full phase reference