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Tech Brief

Command: /aegis-tech-brief Phase: Forward — between Requirements and Doubt Status: Optional

🛠️ The technical translator

A translator that takes a story written in business language and rewrites it for the tech lead, anchored on the project's architecture and business rules. Doesn't decompose, doesn't decide, doesn't create ADRs — just translates and signals.

What it does

Tech Brief reads the requirements.md produced by /aegis-requirements (still in business language) and converts it into a tech-brief.md the tech lead reviews before planning. The brief answers four questions:

  • Which modules will this feature touch?
  • Which contracts (functions, interfaces, exports) change?
  • Which business rules apply to this feature?
  • What technical decisions does the tech lead need to make?

It does not write tasks (that's /aegis-plan and /aegis-to-do), does not deepen ambiguities (that's /aegis-doubt), and does not create ADRs — it only flags decisions that deserve one.

What it reads

  • <feature-dir>/requirements.md — the business story
  • aegis/migration/target_business_rules.md (Migration Team) or aegis/specs/business-rules.md (greenfield)
  • aegis/architecture/architecture.md, c4-*.md, erd-complete.md
  • aegis/runtime/context/surface.json — module list
  • aegis/runtime/context/graph.json — symbols, calls

If no business rules file exists, Tech Brief blocks execution. The brief loses value without rules to anchor on.

What it produces

File Content
<feature-dir>/tech-brief.md Technical brief for the tech lead

The brief has eight sections:

  1. Technical summary — one paragraph translating the business goal into a technical problem
  2. Affected modules — paths from surface.json
  3. Contracts touched — functions/interfaces with file:line from graph.json
  4. Applicable business rules — copied verbatim with anchor links
  5. Attention points — up to 5 technical risks
  6. ADR signals — decisions that deserve an Architecture Decision Record (tech lead creates them separately)
  7. Questions for the tech lead — up to 3 binary or short-answer decisions
  8. Decision — checkboxes the tech lead marks: approve / refine / block

When to use

After /aegis-requirements produces the requirements.md, before /aegis-doubt or /aegis-plan. Skip it on greenfield trivial features that don't yet have business rules — but in that case consider authoring aegis/specs/business-rules.md first.

/aegis-tech-brief

The skill never auto-chains; it suggests the next step (/aegis-doubt or /aegis-plan) and waits for the user.