Agents
Helm has 12 agents: 11 specialized agents across 5 pipeline phases, plus the orchestrator. Each agent has a defined mission, inputs, outputs, and success criteria.
| Agent | Phase | Role |
|---|---|---|
| scout | Discover | Explore greenfield project requirements |
| survey | Discover | Analyze existing codebase |
| research | Discover | Deep research on problems and constraints |
| planning | Plan | Write product requirements document |
| architect | Plan | Design system architecture |
| roadmap | Plan | Define phases and milestones |
| breakdown | Plan | Decompose into atomic tasks |
| review | Quality | Validate plan traceability (95% gate) |
| build | Build | Implement code from task breakdown |
| verify | Quality | Test, SAST, code review (95% gate) |
| ship | Deploy | Git operations, PR, deployment |
Agent definitions live in agents/. Governance rules in rules/governance.md. Quality checklists in references/.
Orchestrator
Helm is the single entry point. It routes requests, manages sessions, handles deviations, and guides users through the pipeline. All messages pass through Helm when a session is active.
Discover Phase
Scout (greenfield only)
Interviews the user about their project goals, pain points, and current workflow. Produces a discovery report that seeds the Research agent.
Survey (brownfield only)
Analyzes the existing codebase: file structure, dependencies, patterns, tech stack, and current state. Produces a codebase survey report.
Research
Deep-dives into the project’s domain. Reads documentation, source code, and external references. Validates findings from Scout or Survey and produces a comprehensive research report.
Plan Phase
Planning
Produces a Product Requirements Document (PRD) with functional requirements, non-functional requirements, resolved questions, and open decisions. Every requirement traces to a research finding.
Architect
Defines the technical architecture: tech stack, project structure, component patterns, data flow, and deployment strategy. Decisions are justified against requirements.
Roadmap
Sequences delivery into phases based on dependencies, risk, and priority. Produces a phased delivery plan with clear milestones.
Breakdown
Converts the roadmap into individual tasks with Given-When-Then acceptance criteria, size estimates, and dependency chains. Each task traces to a requirement.
Quality Phase
Review (Plan Gate)
Validates the entire planning chain end-to-end. Checks that every task traces to a requirement and every requirement traces to a research finding. Requires 95% score to proceed to build. Verdict: APPROVED or BLOCKED.
Verify (Build Gate)
Validates the implementation against the spec. Runs tests, checks security (SAST), and scores quality. Requires APPROVED verdict to proceed to ship.
Build Phase
Build
Implements tasks from the breakdown following the architecture. Self-validates each task against acceptance criteria. Supports interactive (confirm each task) and autonomous (auto-execute) modes.
Deploy Phase
Ship
Handles release preparation and deployment. Manages versioning, changelog, and deployment configuration.