Executive Briefing · Orbit Platform

The Agentic
Developer Workflow

Request in. Working, tested, staged feature out. Human approves the gate.

June 2026
Operational Since
23+
Specs Through Pipeline
8
In Production
Definition
A plain-English request goes in. A working, tested, sandbox-staged feature comes out. A human approves the production gate.
Input
A Request
Anyone describes the feature they want, in plain English — no technical spec required.
Automated Work
Spec · Build · Test
The governed pipeline writes the spec, builds it, deploys to a live sandbox, and tests it in a browser.
Human Gate
Approve to Ship
A person reviews the working result and decides whether it goes to production.
Core Principle

Humans own sign-off — not authorship

Governance model
Judgment stays human

AI drafts, builds, and tests. Humans exercise judgment and own the release decision. Reviewers evaluate the outcome in a live sandbox — not the code line-by-line.

AI Does the labor
  • AAuthors the full written specification
  • AImplements the feature on an isolated branch
  • ADeploys to a complete running sandbox
  • ATests it in a real browser and records the proof
OWNS →
HUMAN Owns the decision
  • HReviews the working feature in the sandbox
  • HJudges whether it meets the business need
  • HApproves — the merge to production is the gate
  • HAccountable for everything that reaches production
The Journey of a Request

Five governed stages — each leaves a permanent record

Audit trail
Nothing skips a gate
1 Intake & Classify TYPED & NUMBERED 2 Author Spec WRITTEN CONTRACT 3 Independent Review Gate 7 CHECKS · MAX 3 TRIES 4 Build, Stage & Validate RECORDED EVIDENCE 5 Human Approval HUMAN MERGE RELEASES IT
Automated stage (passed) Quality gate (in review) Human decision point
Stage Detail · 2 → 3

Nothing is built from a vague idea

Gate result
Fail → revise, never ship
STAGE 2 · SPECIFICATION
An explicit written contract
  • A complete specification is authored before any code — the problem, the acceptance criteria, and the validation plan are all written down first.
  • The spec is the source of truth. It cannot be quietly edited to match the code later.
Acceptance criteria Validation plan Scope boundary
STAGE 3 · INDEPENDENT REVIEW
Checked cold by a separate reviewer
  • A second, independent AI reviewer reads the spec as a stranger would — catching gaps the author's context hides.
  • Seven quality checks. Up to three revision attempts. Persistent failures escalate to a human and the build never starts.
7-point gate Max 3 revisions Human escalation
Draft Spec
Authored by AI
7-CHECK
GATE
↺ revise ×3
Approved
Cleared for build
Stage Detail · 4

A real sandbox. Recorded proof.

Validation
A real running copy

Every feature is deployed to a complete isolated sandbox — a real running copy of the system, not a mock. An automated browser agent then exercises it like a real user and records the proof.

THE SANDBOX
A real running environment
  • Full stack: live frontend, live backend, and a real database — reset to a clean, known state before every run.
  • Isolated from production. Reviewers click through the actual working feature before anything ships.
Live preview URL Clean seeded data
✓ PASS Validation Evidence — recorded
Narrated demo video of the feature in use
VIDEO
Per-scenario screenshots captured
IMAGES
Pass / fail table for each test scenario
RESULTS
Fails feed a fix loop — up to 3 attempts
AUTO
Governance & Safety

The guardrails are structural — not policy

Result
Every change is accountable

AI never touches production

Automated work happens only in the isolated sandbox. The single path to production is a human merge — the AI cannot cross that line.

Every change is classified, specified & independently reviewed

No feature reaches the build stage without a written contract that passed the seven-point review gate.

Recorded test evidence for everything that ships

Screenshots and a narrated video accompany each feature — the proof it works is attached, not asserted.

A human owns the production gate

Classification, spec, review record, and validation evidence together form a complete, replayable audit trail for every release.

The Proof

Operational since June 2026. Not a pilot.

Status
Live production system
Live Since
June 2026
Proven end-to-end
Specs Through Pipeline
23+
Each fully auditable
Merged to Production
8
Human-approved ships
Validation Evidence
Auto
Recorded every run
AUDIT LOG Representative pipeline record
Intake & classified — request received, type assigned
STAGE 1
Specification authored — full written contract
STAGE 2
Independent review passed — 7-point quality gate
STAGE 3
Built, staged & validated — browser evidence recorded
STAGE 4
Handed off for human approval — awaiting sign-off to ship
STAGE 5
Business Value

Broader access. Faster cycles. Same governance.

Effect
How Wasteology leverages ADW
Anyone can request a featureACCESS

A plain-English description is enough to kick off the pipeline. Feature requests are no longer bottlenecked on writing a technical spec.

Engineers move to the review seatLEVERAGE

Engineers shift from typing every line to reviewing outcomes and owning sign-off — their judgment scales across more features.

Cycle time drops: days → hoursSPEED

Per-feature turnaround compresses from days to hours, while the governance gates and audit trail stay fully intact.

A proven, portable patternSCALE

The same governed workflow already runs on the internal orchestration platform and extends to other Wasteology systems.

The Decision
Recommendation · Adopt as standard
ADW is the standard development path for Orbit going forward.

Speed and broader access — without giving up governance. Humans remain in control of what ships.

What we gain
Speed & access — days-to-hours cycle time; anyone can request a feature.
What we keep
Governance — every change classified, specified, reviewed, and evidenced.
Who stays in control
Humans — sign-off on every release; AI never touches production.
Proven Since
June 2026
Specs Run
23+
In Production
8
Final Word · Go / No-Go Poll

Cleared for launch

GOSpeed & broader access — without giving up governance
GOFull audit trail on every feature that ships
GOHumans remain in control of what reaches production
GO for production

Adopt the Orbit ADW as the standard development path for Orbit going forward — proven in production since June 2026. Speed and broader access without surrendering governance. Humans keep the key to production.

REQUEST IN → WORKING, TESTED, STAGED FEATURE OUT → HUMAN APPROVES THE GATE