Walkthrough
A complete example showing Archie's full workflow on a fictional SaaS project. From feature idea to merged code.
The Project: TaskFlow
A project management SaaS with a Next.js frontend and Node/Express API.
The feature request: "Add due dates to tasks with email reminders 24 hours before the deadline."
Design the Feature
/architectI want to add due dates to tasks with email reminders 24h before the due date.
Before I design this, a few questions:
- What problem does this solve?
- Who benefits?
- What's out of scope?
- Any constraints?
Users forget deadlines. All assigned users benefit. Out of scope: recurring reminders, SMS, timezone customization. Must use our existing SendGrid integration. Reminder job must be idempotent.
EP-003: Task Due Dates with Email Reminders
Data Model: Task table gets dueDate (nullable timestamp) and reminderSentAt (nullable timestamp). User table gets emailReminders (boolean).
API: PATCH /tasks/:id accepts dueDate. New cron job runs every 15 min to process reminders.
Risk: Duplicate emails → mitigated by reminderSentAt as idempotency guard.
Complexity: M
Does this design look right? Any changes before I hand off to the Tech Lead?
Looks good.
Epic EP-003 saved with status arch_review ✅
Break Into Tasks
/tech-leadTask breakdown for EP-003:
Story 1: Due Date Management
T-001 | Add dueDate to Task model + migration | ~3 files | api
T-002 | Update task endpoints for dueDate | ~4 files | api
T-003 | Add date picker to task detail UI | ~3 files | web
T-004 | Show due dates on task cards | ~2 files | web
Story 2: Email Reminders
T-005 | Add reminder prefs to User model | ~3 files | api
T-006 | Build reminder cron job | ~4 files | api
T-007 | Create reminder email template | ~2 files | api
Sample done-when
T-006: Cron runs every 15 min. Finds tasks with dueDate within 24h that haven't had a reminder sent. Sends email via SendGrid. Sets reminderSentAt. Idempotent — running twice doesn't double-send.
Does this look implementable? Anything to add or remove?
Yes, go ahead.
7 tasks injected into backlog. Epic updated to in_dev.
Implement
/dev-agentImplementing T-001: Add dueDate to Task model + migration
Done when: Migration runs cleanly. Task model includes nullable dueDate and reminderSentAt fields. Existing tests pass.
Files: models/task.js, migrations/add-due-date.js, tests/models/task.test.js
No unresolved dependencies. Proceeding.
feat/api/add-due-dateT-001: Add dueDate and reminderSentAt fields to Task modelT-001 done. PR: #47. Next task is T-002: Update task endpoints. Run /dev-agent again to start it.
Fast-Track Alternative
/quickFor smaller features, skip the ceremony. Here's a "mark all as read" button for notifications:
Add a mark-all-as-read button to the notifications panel.
EP-004: Mark All Notifications as Read
Complexity: S — PATCH /notifications/read-all + button in NotificationPanel
T-008 | Add bulk read endpoint | ~3 files | api
T-009 | Add mark-all button to panel | ~2 files | web
Look good?
Yep.
EP-004 created + 2 tasks injected. Total time: ~90 seconds.
Check Progress Anytime
/statusActive Epic: EP-003 — Task Due Dates with Email Reminders (in_dev)
3/7 tasks done · 1 in progress · 3 pending
Task Queue:
T-004 (in progress) — Build reminder cron job [dev-agent-api]
T-005 (pending) — Create reminder email template
T-006 (pending) — Add date picker to task detail UI
T-007 (pending) — Show due dates on task cards
Agent State:
dev-agent-api → in_progress (T-004)
dev-agent-web → idle
Next: dev-agent-api is working on T-004. T-006 (web) can start in parallel.Key Takeaways
The full workflow took ~15 minutes of human time across three sessions. The AI did the heavy lifting; you reviewed and approved.
The Architect caught the idempotency requirement early — before any code was written.
The Tech Lead structured tasks so the web team could start as soon as API endpoints were ready, without waiting for the cron job.
Without these gates, an AI agent would have built everything sequentially in one tangled, unreviewable PR.
$129 — Early adopter pricing