Advanced Usage: Understanding Workflows & Processes

1. Introduction / Goal 🎯

Beyond the immediate rules that guide AI mode behavior, Roo Commander utilizes Workflows and Processes (SOPs) to define standardized procedures for more complex, multi-step activities. These documented procedures ensure consistency, reliability, and provide a clear "how-to" for both human users and AI agents involved in coordination or specific quality gates.

This guide explains the purpose of the .ruru/workflows/ and .ruru/processes/ directories and highlights key standard processes like ACQA, AFR, and PAL.

Goal: To help users understand how standardized procedures are documented and used within the Roo Commander framework to manage complex operations.

2. Workflows vs. Processes: What's the Difference? ↔️

While related, these terms represent different levels of procedural detail:

• Workflows (.ruru/workflows/)

  • Focus: High-level, end-to-end sequences involving multiple phases and often multiple agent roles.
  • Purpose: Define the overall orchestration for achieving a significant project goal (e.g., creating a new mode, onboarding a project, releasing a build).
  • Characteristics: Describe the flow of control, key decision points, delegation patterns, and major inputs/outputs between phases and roles. May reference specific Processes (SOPs) for detailed steps within a phase.
  • Example: WF-NEW-MODE-CREATION-004.md (describes steps from user request to final mode registration).
  • Template: .ruru/templates/workflows/00_workflow_boilerplate.md

• Processes (SOPs) (.ruru/processes/)

  • Focus: Granular, step-by-step instructions for a specific, repeatable task or activity, often within a single role's domain or acting as a quality gate.
  • Purpose: Define the exact "how-to" for a standard procedure to ensure consistency and correctness (e.g., validating a document, handling a specific type of error, applying QA checks).
  • Characteristics: Detail specific actions, tools, inputs, outputs, and error handling for a well-defined task. Often referenced by Workflows.
  • Example: acqa-process.md (defines the steps for quality assurance).
  • Template: .ruru/templates/processes/01_sop_toml_md.md (preferred) or 00_sop_basic.md.

Analogy: Think of a Workflow as the overall recipe for baking a cake, while a Process (SOP) is the detailed instruction for "how to cream butter and sugar" or "how to test if the cake is done".

3. How Are They Used? ⚙️

• Guidance for Coordinators: Modes like roo-commander, session-manager, or Leads consult these documents (when directed by their rules or KB) to understand how to orchestrate complex tasks.
• Standardization: They ensure common procedures are performed consistently across the team and by different AI agents.
• Training & Onboarding: Serve as documentation for human users learning standard procedures.
• Automation Basis: Provide the logical steps needed for potentially automating parts of these workflows in the future.
• Validation: The Process Assurance Lifecycle (PAL) (.ruru/processes/pal-process.md) is used to validate the logic and completeness of new Workflows and Processes before they are activated.

4. Key Standard Processes 🔑

The .ruru/processes/ directory contains critical standard procedures:

• acqa-process.md (Adaptive Confidence-based Quality Assurance):
  • Purpose: Defines how AI-generated artifacts (code, docs, config) are reviewed based on the generating agent's confidence score and the user's caution level. It standardizes the QA feedback loop.
  • Used By: Coordinators (roo-commander, roo-dispatch) after receiving work from specialists.
• afr-process.md (Adaptive Failure Resolution):
  • Purpose: Defines how to handle recurring failures identified during the ACQA process. It focuses on identifying and fixing the root cause (e.g., flawed rule, ambiguous spec) rather than just the symptom.
  • Used By: Coordinators when ACQA flags a repeating issue pattern.
• pal-process.md (Process Assurance Lifecycle):
  • Purpose: Defines the meta-process for creating, reviewing, simulating, and validating new Workflows and Processes (like ACQA and AFR themselves) before they are officially adopted.
  • Used By: Anyone creating or significantly modifying documents in .ruru/workflows/ or .ruru/processes/.

5. Creating New Workflows & Processes ✍️

• Identify Need: Determine if a recurring or complex procedure requires standardization.
• Choose Scope: Decide if it's a high-level Workflow or a granular Process (SOP).
• Select Template: Use the appropriate boilerplate from .ruru/templates/workflows/ or .ruru/templates/processes/.
• Draft & Refine: Write the steps clearly, defining roles, inputs, outputs, tools, and error handling.
• Validate with PAL: Follow the Process Assurance Lifecycle (pal-process.md) including conceptual review and simulation to ensure robustness.
• Finalize & Index: Save the validated document to the correct directory (.ruru/workflows/ or .ruru/processes/) and update the relevant index file in Roo Commander's KB (kb/10-standard-processes-index.md or kb/11-standard-workflows-index.md).

6. Conclusion ✅

Workflows and Processes are essential for managing complexity and ensuring consistency within the Roo Commander framework. Workflows define the high-level orchestration, while Processes (SOPs) provide the detailed "how-to" for specific activities. Understanding their purpose and location, particularly key standards like ACQA, AFR, and PAL, helps users leverage the full capabilities of the system and contribute to its improvement.