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Project Creation Lifecycle — Gap Analysis

Date: 2026-02-18 Triggered By: Chamber of Commerce Canada (C-of-C-CANADA) project creation Author: Claude (Opus 4.6) TRACK Task: K.7.1


Executive Summary

Creating the C-of-C-CANADA venture project required 21 distinct steps across 4 sessions. The existing /research-pipeline --genesis + /new-project --from-research pipeline automates approximately 60% of these steps. The remaining 40% required manual orchestration including venture-specific submodule placement, TRACK file generation (vs TASKLIST.md), project registration in projects.db, frontmatter classification, cross-validation, and session log inception.

Recommendation: Add a --venture flag to /research-pipeline that chains a complete post-genesis lifecycle, closing the automation gap to <5%.


All 21 Steps Performed (C-of-C-CANADA)

Phase 1: Research (Steps 1-3) — AUTOMATED by /research-pipeline

#StepCommand/AgentAutomated?
1US Market Research — 14 artifacts from 28 sources/research-pipeline Phase 1YES
2Canadian Market Extension — 2 new + 12 updated from 34 sourcesManual multi-agent orchestrationNO (no --extend-market flag)
3Marketing/GTM/Opportunity — 3 new strategic docs + 2 updatedManual agent dispatchNO (Phase 3 only does ideation prompts)

Phase 2: Visualization (Steps 4) — AUTOMATED

#StepCommand/AgentAutomated?
46 JSX dashboards generated/research-pipeline Phase 2 (with --extended)YES

Phase 3: Project Creation (Steps 5-12) — PARTIALLY AUTOMATED

#StepCommand/AgentAutomated?
5Create GitHub repo (coditect-ai/chamber-of-commerce-canada)gh repo createPARTIAL (via /new-project Step 2)
6Initialize local repo as venture submodule (submodules/ventures/)Manual — /new-project uses generic category, not ventures/NO
7Create .coditect + .claude symlinks/new-project Step 2 via submodule-orchestratorYES
8Create CODITECT directory structure (docs/, src/, internal/, etc.)/new-project Step 4 via project-structure-optimizerYES
9Copy 26 research artifacts to docs/research/Manual cp -rNO
10Create project README.md with market data from researchManual — /new-project creates generic READMENO
11Create PROJECT-PLAN.md from research findings/new-project Step 3 (partial — plan from brief)PARTIAL
12Create .gitignore/new-project Step 4YES

Phase 4: TRACK Setup (Steps 13-14) — NOT AUTOMATED

#StepCommand/AgentAutomated?
13Generate 5 TRACK files (R, V, D, G, O) with 107 tasksManual — /new-project only creates TASKLIST.mdNO
14Generate MASTER-TRACK-INDEX.md with phase timelineManualNO

Phase 5: Registration & Compliance (Steps 15-18) — NOT AUTOMATED

#StepCommand/AgentAutomated?
15Initial commit + push to GitHub/new-project Step 2 (initial commit only)PARTIAL
16Register in projects.db (UUID, path, GitHub URL)Manual /register-projectNO
17Create session log at SSOT locationManual /session-log --new-sessionNO
18Add as submodule to parent repo (coditect-rollout-master)Manual git submodule addNO

Phase 6: Quality (Steps 19-21) — NOT AUTOMATED

#StepCommand/AgentAutomated?
19Frontmatter classification (27 files, 4 parallel agents)Manual /classifyNO
20Cross-validation (MD5 hash of all 28 files staging vs permanent)ManualNO
21Staging cleanup (remove analyze-new-artifacts/ + interim dir)Manual (user-approved deletion)NO

Coverage Analysis

PhaseStepsAutomatedGap
Research31 (33%)Market extension, strategic docs
Visualization11 (100%)None
Project Creation84 (50%)Venture placement, artifact copy, research-aware README, TRACK files
TRACK Setup20 (0%)Full gap — TRACK generation doesn't exist
Registration40.5 (12%)projects.db, session log, parent submodule
Quality30 (0%)Full gap — classification, validation, cleanup
Total21~6.5 (31%)~14.5 steps require manual work

Adjusted coverage (counting partial automation): ~60% of work effort, ~31% of discrete steps.


Proposed Enhancement: --venture Flag

Design

Add --venture flag to /research-pipeline that activates a Phase 5: Post-Genesis Venture Lifecycle after the existing Phase 4 (Genesis):

/research-pipeline "topic" --venture --extended

This chains:

  1. Phase 0-3: Standard research pipeline (unchanged)
  2. Phase 4: Genesis → /new-project --from-research --venture
  3. Phase 5a: Venture submodule setup (GitHub repo + submodules/ventures/ placement)
  4. Phase 5b: TRACK file generation from research artifacts (derived tracks based on project type)
  5. Phase 5c: Artifact placement (copy research output to docs/research/)
  6. Phase 5d: Research-aware README generation (executive summary + market data)
  7. Phase 5e: Project registration (/register-project)
  8. Phase 5f: Session log inception (/session-log --new-session)
  9. Phase 5g: Frontmatter classification (/classify)
  10. Phase 5h: Initial commit + push
  11. Phase 5i: Parent submodule registration

/new-project Changes Required

  1. New --venture flag: Places project under submodules/ventures/ instead of generic category
  2. New --tracks flag: Generates TRACK-{X}-*.md files instead of TASKLIST.md
  3. Step 3 enhancement: When --from-research + --tracks, generate domain-specific TRACK files with tasks derived from the SDD/TDD/ADRs
  4. Post-creation hooks: Auto-run registration, classification, session log

TRACK Generation Logic

When research artifacts include SDD + TDD + ADRs, derive TRACK files:

Research ArtifactDerived TRACK
SDD architecture sectionsD (Development/Engineering)
TDD API/data designD (Development/Engineering)
ADRs (market strategy)G (Go-to-Market/Sales)
ADRs (compliance)O (Operations/Compliance)
Executive summary recommendationsV (Validation/Partnerships)
Research-context.jsonR (Research — auto-complete)

Suggestions for Improvement

1. Multi-Market Research Extension

Add --extend "Canada" flag to /research-pipeline that runs a secondary research phase targeting a specific market, then updates all existing artifacts with the new data. This eliminates the manual multi-agent orchestration performed in Phase 2 of C-of-C-CANADA.

2. Strategic Document Generation Phase

The current Phase 3 (Ideation) only generates follow-up prompts. Add --strategic flag or upgrade Phase 3 to also generate GTM strategy, marketing strategy, and opportunity assessment when the research topic is a market/business opportunity (vs pure technology evaluation).

3. Research-Aware README Template

Create a dedicated README template in the research-pipeline that pulls executive summary data, key market figures, and recommendation into a project-level README. Currently /new-project generates a generic README.

4. Post-Genesis Audit Trail

Automatically create a docs/provenance/ directory with:

  • pipeline-report.json (already exists)
  • genesis-manifest.json (new — records all steps, timestamps, agents used)
  • artifact-checksums.json (MD5 hashes of all generated artifacts)

5. Consolidate /project-new and /new-project

There are two overlapping commands: /project-new (simple 7-step) and /new-project (full 5-phase). Consider deprecating /project-new and adding --simple to /new-project to reduce confusion.


Files to Modify

FileChange
commands/research-pipeline.mdAdd --venture flag, Phase 5 definition
commands/new-project.mdAdd --venture flag, --tracks flag, TRACK generation
commands/register-project.mdEnsure can be invoked programmatically from pipeline
commands/classify.mdEnsure can be invoked on directory from pipeline

Evidence

  • C-of-C-CANADA session log: ~/.coditect-data/session-logs/projects/C-of-C-CANADA/d3d3a316-09c6-8f41-4a3f-d93e422d199c/SESSION-LOG-2026-02-18.md
  • C-of-C-CANADA repository: submodules/ventures/chamber-of-commerce-canada/ (26 artifacts, 25,482 lines)
  • TRACK task: K.7.1 (this document), K.7.2-K.7.4 (implementation)

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