Alignment Review: DDx Migration

Date: 2026-04-04 Scope: DDx bead delegation, tracker migration, spec alignment Reviewer: Claude Opus 4.6

Summary

This review covers the migration of the HELIX tracker from a self-contained bash implementation (scripts/tracker.sh, ~962 lines) to a thin adapter delegating to ddx bead (~200 lines). The review checks spec/code alignment after the migration.

Findings

ALIGNED

Area	Evidence
PRD Dependencies	PRD correctly describes DDx bead + DDx agent as dependencies
FEAT-002 Tracker Model	Accurately describes ddx bead delegation with HELIX validation hooks
DDX.md Tooling	Correctly describes beads, ADRs, HELIX layering
scripts/tracker.sh	Delegates all storage to ddx bead; HELIX validation preserved
scripts/helix field names	Uses bd-compatible field names (issue_type, owner, dependencies)
NEXT_ACTION vocabulary	Uses BUILD/DESIGN (not IMPLEMENT/PLAN) everywhere
Skill symlinks	helix-implement → helix-build, helix-plan → helix-design
SKILL.md frontmatter	All 16 skills parse valid YAML
Test suite	133/133 pass with ddx bead backend
helix status	Implemented with run-state persistence and JSON output

FIXED (was STALE)

Area	What Changed
tracker_dir default	Was `.ddx/`, now `.helix/` per FEAT-002 and README
10+ normative docs	Updated from `.helix/issues.jsonl` path references
TRACKER.md refs	Removed from all normative files (file deleted)
ADR-003 (Go rewrite)	Deleted — applies to DDx, not HELIX
Export default	No longer hardcodes `.beads/issues.jsonl`

REMAINING DRIFT

Area	Status	Notes
workflow.yml comment	Low	Has `# - workflows/TRACKER.md` comment — cosmetic
TD-002 line numbers	Low	Design doc line refs to tracker.sh are stale — expected for historical docs
TP-002 evidence chain	Low	Test plan references are generic — pre-existing, not migration-related

OPEN WORK

6 issues remain in tracker (all P2/P3):

hx-0d27eca7 P2: Condense codex stderr output
hx-7d00b06f P2: Queue-drain check regression test
hx-bf99e0ee P2: Deduplicate implementation blocker notes
hx-44a5dbfe P3: Deduplicate review evidence notes
hx-407ed8b8 P2: helix start/stop for background operation
hx-8447a41c P2: Refresh implementation plan

None are migration-related. All are incremental improvements.

Conclusion

The DDx migration is complete and aligned:

Storage: delegated to ddx bead via thin adapter
Format: bd-compatible (issue_type, owner, dependencies, created_at, updated_at)
Specs: FEAT-002, PRD, DDX.md all reflect the new architecture
Tests: 133/133 pass through the adapter
Vocabulary: BUILD/DESIGN throughout (not IMPLEMENT/PLAN)

No blocking drift remains. The 6 open issues are backlog quality work.

ALIGNMENT_STATUS: ALIGNED