Highway signals

This page answers what to reply at each of the three stops of the Highway, what green, yellow, and red do at each one, how a stopped track resumes, and how spec approval works.

The three stops

On the Highway, the intent, spec, and implement stages each end the same way: a four-bullet summary, a next-step line, and a stop. The agent then waits for your signal, read as plain text.

Stop	Four bullets	Next-step line
After intent	Problem, proposed outcome, scope, constraints	. para continuar com a spec
After spec	Outcome, phases, task count, parallel groups	. para implementar
After implement	Completed tasks, acceptance, review outcome, gate result	. para ship (marca a track como concluida)

The next-step lines are Portuguese in the package. They read as ". to continue with the spec", ". to implement", and ". to ship (marks the track as done)".

The signal is text. The agent keeps the host's question tool for questions and never turns a stop into a dialog.

The three signals

Signal	You type	Meaning
Green	., or a message that only means proceed, in your language (go, yes, continue, sim, verde)	Go on to the next stage of the same track.
Yellow	Any other message, an ambiguous one included	An instruction to the current stage.
Red	x, or a message that only means stop (stop, red, pare, vermelho)	Stop here.

Green and red are read by meaning, not from a closed word list. A message that mixes a yes with a change, such as "yes, but rename phase 2", is yellow: the stage revises and does not advance.

What each signal does at each stop

Stop	Green	Yellow	Red
After intent	Runs the spec stage for the same track. Intent status stays draft.	Revises the intent, regenerates the index, shows the summary again.	Stops. Changes no status, deletes nothing.
After spec	Sets status: approved in spec.md and tasks.md, then runs implement.	Revises spec or tasks, regenerates the index, reruns the structure gate, shows the summary again.	Stops. spec.md and tasks.md stay draft, nothing is deleted.
After implement	Sets intent status: shipped and regenerates the index.	Fixes or revises as instructed, then shows the summary again.	Stops. Intent status is unchanged and the implemented code stays.

Green never changes the intent status before ship. The intent stays draft from its creation until the implement stage sets shipped; approving the intent is not a step and is not required before the spec.

At the implement stop, the ship line appears only when every acceptance row is met and no [blocking] review finding remains. If a row is pending, the agent reports it and keeps fixing or asks how to proceed. Use a yellow reply at this stop to ask for a fix to an open review finding; there is no separate stop for it.

Red and resuming

Red stops without side effects: no status changes, no file is deleted, and no code is undone. It does not mark the track dropped. The track stays valid in draft and appears in the index with its current phase.

To resume, ask for the same stage again on the same track, for example:

Continue the spec for 001-lp-v2.

After a red at the implement stop, ship stays available: ask for it and the agent presents the summary again.

Abandoning a track is a different, explicit decision. When you say you are abandoning it, the agent sets intent status: dropped. When you replace it with another track and name that track, the agent sets status: superseded with superseded_by; it never invents the replacement. See Cycle.

How approval works

Approval happens at one place: green after the spec summary.

• The agent sets status: approved in both spec.md and tasks.md as an approval-only action, completed before any product edit. It may update both files together, but it never mixes approval with product edits.
• Your green covers exactly the spec.md and tasks.md content that was presented.
• Implementation requires both files approved. Without that, the implement skill refuses to start.

A material change after approval

After approval, a material change to either file returns both spec.md and tasks.md to status: draft, and implementation needs a new spec summary and a new green before it continues. Material means a change to scope, Files, Accept criteria, tasks, or group dependencies.

These do not count as material changes: checking task boxes, and the administrative writes the implement stage makes (files under the track's assets/, the index, new ADRs).

A material change to approved planning requires renewed approval. When you make a qualifying ADR decision during implementation, the agent files the ADR. If it conflicts with or materially changes the approved spec or tasks, the agent stops, returns both files to draft, reconciles the ADR and both planning artifacts, and presents a new spec summary ending with . para implementar. If it does not materially change approved scope or design, the agent records the ADR and continues.