Project Stage Detect

What Is Project Stage Detect?

Project Stage Detect is an advanced diagnostic skill available on the Happycapy Skills platform, specifically designed to analyze your development project's current state. By scanning key directories and artifacts within your repository, the skill determines your project's stage in the development lifecycle, highlights missing components, and recommends actionable next steps. With support for optional role-based filtering (such as "programmer" or "designer"), it provides targeted insights for different team members. Project Stage Detect leverages the Haiku model and operates as a read-only analysis tool, ensuring safety and integrity throughout its operation.

Key features include:

• Automatic detection of design and code completeness
• Identification of missing documents or systems
• High-level project milestone audit
• Role-based analysis (optional)
• Recommendations for progression

This skill is ideal for teams who need to quickly assess project status, onboard new contributors, or prepare for major milestones.

Why Use Project Stage Detect?

Understanding where your project stands is critical for effective planning and resource allocation. Manual audits of large, multi-disciplinary codebases or design documentation can be time-consuming and error-prone. Project Stage Detect automates this process, offering several compelling benefits:

• Time Savings: Instantly scans and summarizes project completeness, eliminating hours of manual review.
• Onboarding Support: Provides a clear overview for new team members, making ramp-up faster and more efficient.
• Milestone Tracking: Ensures that all necessary artifacts (design docs, core code, level designs, etc.) are present before major releases.
• Gap Identification: Highlights missing or incomplete files, systems, or documentation, allowing you to address issues before they become blockers.
• Role-Specific Focus: Tailors its analysis to specific disciplines (e.g., programmers, designers), ensuring feedback is relevant.

By leveraging Project Stage Detect, teams can maintain higher project hygiene, accelerate development cycles, and reduce the risk of critical omissions.

How to Use Project Stage Detect

Skill Invocation

Project Stage Detect is user-invocable and easy to run. You can call it directly from the Happycapy Skills interface or via a command, optionally specifying a role filter:

## Analyze the entire project
happycapy invoke project-stage-detect

## Focus analysis on programmer-relevant artifacts
happycapy invoke project-stage-detect "programmer"

## Focus analysis on designer-relevant artifacts
happycapy invoke project-stage-detect "designer"

Under the Hood:

Analysis Workflow

The skill systematically examines your project, focusing on two primary domains:

1. Design

Documentation (design/ Directory)

• Game Design Documents (GDDs): Counts markdown files under design/gdd/*.md, checking for key documents like game-concept.md, game-pillars.md, and systems-index.md.
• Systems Index: If systems-index.md is present, the skill compares the listed systems with the designed systems to spot any gaps.
• Completeness Checks: Evaluates documents for critical sections such as Overview, Detailed Design, and Edge Cases.
• Narrative and Level Design: Counts narrative documentation (design/narrative/) and level design files (design/levels/).

2. Source

Code (src/ Directory)

• Source File Inventory: Counts all source code files, regardless of language.
• Major Systems Detection: Identifies directories with five or more files, flagging them as major systems.
• Core Components: Checks for presence of directories like core/, gameplay/, ai/, networking/, and ui/.
• Codebase Size: Estimates lines of code using rough metrics.

Example Output

## Project Stage Summary

**Design Documentation:**
- GDD files: 4/7 present (`game-concept.md`, `systems-index.md` missing)
- Narrative docs: 2 present
- Level designs: 0 present

**Source Code:**
- Major systems: core/, gameplay/, ui/
- Estimated lines of code: 8,500
- Missing: ai/, networking/ directories

**Recommendations:**
- Complete missing GDD files before next milestone
- Add initial level designs
- Implement AI and networking core modules

When to Use Project Stage Detect

Project Stage Detect is especially valuable in the following scenarios:

• Initial Project Assessment: When joining or inheriting an unfamiliar codebase, use the skill to quickly gauge completeness and identify missing elements.
• Pre-Milestone Audit: Before a major release or demo, ensure all required components are in place and up to standard.
• Onboarding New Team Members: Provide newcomers with a concise project status report, lowering the learning curve.
• Routine Health Checks: Regularly monitor project progress to prevent technical debt and documentation drift.

Important Notes

• Read-Only Operation: Project Stage Detect does not modify your files or delegate to specialist agents. It is strictly for analysis and reporting.
• Role Filtering: The optional argument narrows the audit to artifacts relevant for a specific role, enhancing focus and reducing noise.
• Project Structure Dependency: Accuracy depends on adherence to the expected directory and file conventions (e.g., design documents under design/gdd/).
• No Automated Fixes: The skill identifies gaps and recommends actions, but it does not generate or edit project files.

Project Stage Detect is a powerful, non-intrusive way to keep your development process transparent and on track. By integrating this skill into your workflow, you ensure that everyone understands "where you are" and what needs to happen next.