Developer Agent
Agent deep dive · User Guide › Agents › deep dives · Technical reference: developer-agent
The aidlc-developer-agent is your senior software developer. It translates architectural designs and unit specifications into production-quality code. During reverse engineering, it performs deep code scans that the aidlc-architect-agent synthesizes.
The aidlc-developer-agent leads the Reverse Engineering code scan and Code Generation, and is a dispatched collaborator in both Inception ensembles: it examines code-pattern evidence in the Practices Discovery hub-and-spoke and provides the implementability voice in the User Stories mob. Code Generation runs as a focused subagent. It is expected to use Bash for running build tools, package managers, and test commands.
Initialization, Workspace Detection included, runs as a deterministic tool; the aidlc-developer-agent takes no part in it.
Stages Led
| Stage | Phase | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 2.1 Reverse Engineering (code scan) | Inception | Deep code scan producing structured analysis for architect synthesis; with collaborators off it also writes the 9 artifacts itself |
| 3.5 Code Generation | Construction | Implements units of work from design specifications (per unit) |
Stages Supported
| Stage | Phase | Contribution |
|---|---|---|
| 2.2 Practices Discovery | Inception | Mutually blind code-pattern spoke when collaborators are on; writes its own contribution file |
| 2.4 User Stories | Inception | Implementability voice in the mob ensemble when collaborators are on; writes its own contribution file |
| 3.1 Functional Design | Construction | API contracts and data model input |
| 4.3 Deployment Execution | Operation | Database migrations |
What to Expect
During Code Generation, the aidlc-developer-agent runs as a subagent — you will not interact with it directly. You see a progress indicator and then the results when it completes. The orchestrator first presents a code generation plan for your approval, then the subagent implements each step.
Application code is written directly to the workspace root (not into the intent's record dir). The code-summary.md artifact in the intent's record dir documents what was created or modified.
How It Collaborates
The aidlc-developer-agent receives unit specifications and design patterns from the aidlc-architect-agent, and test requirements from the aidlc-quality-agent. It works with the aidlc-aws-platform-agent on CDK/infrastructure alignment and the aidlc-devsecops-agent on secure coding. Its code scan results feed the aidlc-architect-agent for synthesis, and its implemented code is handed off to the aidlc-quality-agent for testing.
Key Principles
- Deliver functional, tested implementations; refactor during the first generation when the Testing Contract includes that step (TDD, BDD, ATDD, or custom)
- Follow the project's existing patterns and conventions
- Write code that is easy to read and debug — avoid clever abstractions
- Validate inputs early, throw meaningful errors, never swallow exceptions
- Every generated unit includes at least a happy-path test
- In reverse engineering, thoroughness of the scan determines quality of the synthesis