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What Happened

Assessed the entire Choco platform (24 services, 31 repos, 171 requirements) against the existing architecture specification, then executed a 10-TASKSET production roadmap with human-gated confirmation between each phase.

Key Insight

Assessment before outlining is non-negotiable. The initial service completeness estimates (from prior sessions) were wrong — the SDK was rated 40% but was actually 85% complete. The editor had “no backend integration” but had a fully-implemented HttpClient with 50+ methods. Without deep reads of every source file, the roadmap would have wasted effort reimplementing existing code.

Pattern: Gated TASKSETs Beat Continuous Execution

The "GO TASKSET N" gate forced scope discipline. Each TASKSET had a single goal, listed affected files upfront, and stated success criteria. This prevented scope creep and gave the operator visibility into blast radius before each phase. The dependency graph allowed TASKSETs 3/4/5/7 to proceed in parallel after the foundation (1+2) was laid.

Metrics

  • Foundation first: CI workflows + secrets hardening before any service changes (TASKSET 1-2)
  • Schema drift caught early: golden_tickets table had 9 columns in migration, 18 in code — a runtime BLOCKER. Detected in TASKSET 3, fixed with alignment migration.
  • 2 function name bugs found via deep source reads (output.VerificationResult vs output.PrintVerificationResult) — would have caused runtime crashes.
  • Zero stub handlers remain after TASKSET 4 — all 7 consumer handlers now write to PostgreSQL.

Reusable For

Any multi-service platform transitioning from architecture/scaffolding phase to production. The ordering (CI → secrets → core services → integration → tests → deploy → go-live) is transferable.