Context
From the Scout analysis of issue #25311, this workflow addresses Problem 6: Dead Ends.
"He spent weeks following AI down dead ends, and admits the first version was fragile."
AI confidently pursues approaches that are architecturally wrong. Without a validation step before a large implementation begins, developers can sink weeks into a dead end.
Objective
Create a new gh-aw agentic workflow called approach-validator that validates proposed technical approaches before significant implementation begins, using a multi-agent panel.
Workflow Prompt
Create an agentic GitHub Actions workflow called "approach-validator" that
validates proposed technical approaches BEFORE significant implementation begins.
The workflow must:
1. Trigger when a PR is opened with the label "approach-proposal" OR when an
issue has the label "needs-design"
2. Given the issue/PR description as input, spawn a multi-agent validation panel:
- Agent 1 (Devil's Advocate): Identifies the top 3 ways this approach could fail
- Agent 2 (Alternatives Scout): Researches 2–3 alternative approaches and
briefly evaluates tradeoffs
- Agent 3 (Implementation Estimator): Estimates implementation complexity and
identifies the riskiest unknowns
- Agent 4 (Dead End Detector): Specifically asks "Under what conditions would
this approach require a full rewrite in 3 months?"
3. Post a structured comment with all four agents' output, formatted as:
"Approach Validation Report" with sections for each agent
4. Require a human to explicitly approve or reject the approach by reacting with
✅ or ❌ before any implementation PR is merged
5. Store all validation reports as artifacts linked from the implementing PR
Use Claude with system prompts tuned for each agent role.
Chain agents sequentially: each reads the prior agent's output before responding.
Files to Create
.github/workflows/approach-validator.md — the workflow markdown file
Acceptance Criteria
Generated by Plan Command for issue #25311 · ● 394.6K · ◷
Context
From the Scout analysis of issue #25311, this workflow addresses Problem 6: Dead Ends.
AI confidently pursues approaches that are architecturally wrong. Without a validation step before a large implementation begins, developers can sink weeks into a dead end.
Objective
Create a new gh-aw agentic workflow called
approach-validatorthat validates proposed technical approaches before significant implementation begins, using a multi-agent panel.Workflow Prompt
Files to Create
.github/workflows/approach-validator.md— the workflow markdown fileAcceptance Criteria
approach-proposaland issues labeledneeds-design.lock.ymlgenerated viamake recompileRelated to Blog analysis #25311