modernize-reimagine.md 4.5 KB


description: Multi-agent greenfield rebuild — extract specs from legacy, design AI-native, scaffold & validate with HITL

argument-hint:

The first token of $ARGUMENTS is the system dir ($1); everything after it is the target vision — it is usually multiple words, so do not truncate it to one token. Below, <vision> means that full remainder.

Reimagine legacy/$1 as:

This is not a port — it's a rebuild from extracted intent. The legacy system becomes the specification source, not the structural template. This command orchestrates a multi-agent team with explicit human checkpoints.

Phase A — Specification mining (parallel agents)

Spawn concurrently and show the user that all three are running:

  1. business-rules-extractor — "Extract every business rule from legacy/$1 into Given/When/Then form. Output to a structured list I can parse."

  2. legacy-analyst — "Catalog every external interface of legacy/$1: inbound (screens, APIs, batch triggers, queues) and outbound (reports, files, downstream calls, DB writes). For each: name, direction, payload shape, frequency/SLA if discernible. Mask any credential embedded in endpoints or payload examples per your secret-handling rules."

  3. legacy-analyst — "Identify the core domain entities in legacy/$1 and their relationships. Return as an entity list + Mermaid erDiagram."

Collect results. Write analysis/$1/AI_NATIVE_SPEC.md containing:

  • Capabilities (what the system must do — derived from rules + interfaces)
  • Domain Model (entities + erDiagram)
  • Interface Contracts (each external interface as an OpenAPI fragment or AsyncAPI fragment)
  • Non-functional requirements inferred from legacy (batch windows, volumes)
  • Behavior Contract (the Given/When/Then rules — these are the acceptance tests)

Credential values are masked everywhere in the spec; connection details appear as env-var placeholders (${DATABASE_URL}), never literals.

Phase B — HITL checkpoint #1

Present the spec summary. Ask the user one focused question: "Which of these capabilities are P0 for the reimagined system, and are there any we should deliberately drop?" Wait for the answer. Record it in the spec.

Phase C — Architecture (single agent, then critique)

Design the target architecture for "":

  • Mermaid C4 Container diagram
  • Service boundaries with rationale (which rules/entities live where)
  • Technology choices with one-line justification each
  • Data migration approach from legacy stores

Then spawn architecture-critic: "Review this proposed architecture for against the spec in analysis/$1/AI_NATIVE_SPEC.md. Identify over-engineering, missed requirements, scaling risks, and simpler alternatives." Incorporate the critique. Write the result to analysis/$1/REIMAGINED_ARCHITECTURE.md.

Phase D — HITL checkpoint #2

Present the architecture and stop — scaffold nothing until the user explicitly approves (use plan mode if the session supports it).

Phase E — Parallel scaffolding

For each service in the approved architecture (cap at 3 to keep the run tractable; tell the user which you deferred), spawn a general-purpose agent in parallel:

"Scaffold the service per analysis/$1/REIMAGINED_ARCHITECTURE.md and AI_NATIVE_SPEC.md. Create: project skeleton, domain model, API stubs matching the interface contracts, and executable acceptance tests for every behavior-contract rule assigned to this service (mark unimplemented ones as expected-failure/skip with the rule ID). No credential literal from legacy code becomes a test fixture or config default — use fake same-shape values and env-var placeholders. Write to modernized/$1-reimagined//."

Show the agents' progress. When all complete, run the acceptance test suites and report: total tests, passing (scaffolded behavior), pending (rule IDs awaiting implementation).

Phase F — Knowledge graph handoff

Write modernized/$1-reimagined/CLAUDE.md — the persistent context file for the new system, containing: architecture summary, service responsibilities, where the spec lives, how to run tests, and the legacy→modern traceability map. This file IS the knowledge graph that future agents and engineers will load — and it gets committed: connection details and credentials appear only as env-var names with a pointer to where they're provisioned, never as values.

Report: services scaffolded, acceptance tests defined, % behaviors with a home, location of all artifacts.