ci/README.md

CI — Continuous Intelligence

Fully autonomous AI-driven software engineering harness.

Overview

CI (Continuous Intelligence) is an autonomous-first software engineering harness that eliminates human-in-the-loop overhead while preserving the rigor of guided development. It receives a specification, resolves ambiguities through a single Clarify phase, then executes the full pipeline — research, plan, execute, verify — autonomously.

Installation

npm install -g @continuous-intelligence/ci

Or from source:

git clone <repo-url>
cd ci
npm install
npm run build
npm link

Quick Start

# Initialize from inline specification
ci init "Build a REST API for task management"

# Initialize from a specification file
ci init --spec ./specs/my-project.md

# Initialize with interactive clarify phase
ci init --clarify "Build a REST API for task management"

# Run the full autonomous pipeline
ci run --all

# Run a specific phase
ci run research
ci run plan
ci run execute
ci run verify

# Execute an ad-hoc task
ci quick "Add authentication middleware"

# Verify a phase
ci verify 1

# Check project status
ci status

# Review autonomous decisions
ci audit
ci audit --verbose

# Debug an issue
ci debug "Tests failing on CI"

# Rollback a phase
ci rollback 1

# Ship a phase (verify, security, commit, tag)
ci ship 1

Autonomy Levels

Level	Behavior
full	No human interaction after Clarify. Escalate only irreversible decisions.
supervised	Escalate on every Escalation Gate plus verification failures.
guided	Escalate on every Decision Gate. Closest to Learnship behavior.

Configuration

CI uses .ci/config.json for project configuration:

{
  "autonomy": {
    "level": "full",
    "escalation_hooks": ["deploy", "delete_data", "merge_to_main"],
    "clarify_budget": 10,
    "decision_confidence_threshold": 0.6,
    "max_revision_iterations": 3,
    "max_verification_retries": 2,
    "escalation_timeout_ms": 300000
  },
  "model_profile": "quality",
  "parallelization": {
    "enabled": true,
    "max_concurrent_agents": 5,
    "min_plans_for_parallel": 2
  },
  "verification": {
    "automated_only": true,
    "escalate_visual": true,
    "escalate_external_integration": true,
    "test_first": false
  },
  "security": {
    "auto_accept_low_severity": true,
    "auto_mitigate_medium_severity": true,
    "escalate_high_severity": true
  },
  "git": {
    "branching_strategy": "phase",
    "auto_commit": true,
    "auto_push": false
  }
}

Architecture

Pipeline

SPECIFY → CLARIFY → RESEARCH → PLAN → EXECUTE → VERIFY → COMPLETE
               ↕               ↕         ↕          ↕
          (questions)    (auto-decide) (auto-run) (auto-verify)

Decision Engine

Every autonomous decision is classified by confidence:

• High (>0.85): Auto-decide, log to audit trail
• Medium (0.60-0.85): Auto-decide with assumption logging, flag for review
• Low (<0.60): Escalate to human

18 Agents

All 17 Learnship agents retained, plus the CI Orchestrator:

Agent	Role	Modification
orchestrator	Pipeline controller	New — replaces interactive workflows
planner	Plan creation	Never sets autonomous: false
executor	Task execution	Never pauses for checkpoints
verifier	Output verification	Generates automated tests, not human UAT
researcher	Domain research	Logs assumptions, never flags for human
challenger	Plan stress-testing	Binding verdicts, only escalates <0.60
security-auditor	Security audit	Auto-dispositions threats
debugger	Bug fixing	Auto-fixes when confidence > threshold
Others	Various	Unchanged from Learnship

Verification Layers

1. Structural: File existence, import/export wiring, no stubs
2. Behavioral: Generated automated tests for must-haves
3. Security: STRIDE analysis with auto-disposition
4. Code Quality: Multi-persona review with P0 auto-fix

Specification Format

# Project: My Project

## Objective
Build a REST API for task management.

## Requirements
- User authentication (JWT-based)
- CRUD operations for tasks
- Real-time notifications

## Constraints
- Must use Node.js
- Must be production-ready

## Out of Scope
- Admin dashboard
- Mobile apps

Escalation Protocol

When CI cannot proceed autonomously:

1. Irreversible Action: Deploy, delete, merge to protected branch
2. Verification Failure: Tests pass but functional verification fails
3. Low Confidence Decision: Critical decision below threshold
4. Security Escalation: High-severity threat detected
5. Specification Ambiguity: Multiple valid interpretations

Each escalation includes a recommended default with auto-proceed timeout.

Differences from Learnship

Dimension	Learnship	CI
Human Interactions	19+/lifecycle	1-2/lifecycle
Decision Making	Human decides, agent implements	Agent decides, human reviews post-hoc
Verification	Human UAT	Automated tests + escalation
Specification	Multi-round conversation	Single spec file
Learning Curve	Moderate	Low (5 core commands)

License

MIT