Evolve

Generated from workflows/modes/evolve.md, the mode contract the HELIX skill loads. Edit that file, not this page.

Use when the user wants to add, remove, amend, or thread a requirement through the HELIX artifact stack.

Read the entry artifact’s frontmatter; collect its ddx.id and ddx.links list. ddx.links is the canonical instance-edge field used by both authoring and Evolve.
Build the impact graph from every governing artifact’s ddx.links entries, then walk it in both directions:
- typed downstream entries (kind: informs, contains, or enables) point from the current artifact to the target they inform;
- typed upstream entries (kind: informed_by, depends_on, requires, or references) point from the current artifact to the authority it relies on;
- untyped string entries are accepted as upstream shorthand for existing project documents. The upstream impact set is every artifact reachable through upstream edges; the downstream impact set is every artifact reached by reversing upstream edges and following downstream entries.
Compatibility: if ddx.links is absent, Evolve MAY read legacy ddx.depends_on, top-level depends_on, or relationships.depends_on as upstream edges, and relationships.informs / relationships.referenced_by as downstream edges. If canonical ddx.links is present, it wins; preserve legacy fields byte-for-byte but do not silently translate or mass-migrate them during an incidental Evolve pass.
When ddx: frontmatter is absent, fall back to filesystem traversal: activity-numbered directories in the project’s HELIX layout supply the authority hierarchy; artifact-type directories supply the type relationships.
Detect conflicts with existing artifacts and open work.
Apply updates from the highest-authority artifact down: vision, PRD, feature specs/stories, architecture/ADRs, solution and technical designs, test plans, implementation plans, then code.
Surface conflicts explicitly when a downstream artifact contradicts an updated upstream — do not silently overwrite the downstream; route it through a handoff (the four fields in modes/_report.md) instead.
Create follow-up work with dependencies where ordering matters.
Prefer progressive evolution of the specific affected artifacts over re-generating the stack. Converge on “verified + each finding-class folded into a gate” (a template check, an acceptance criterion, a concern propagation check, or a ratchet) — not on a bare reviewer “SHIP” verdict. Intrinsic gates (build, test, conformance, phantom-claim count) block; external adversarial review is advisory and never a hard gate.

Procedure: workflows/actions/evolve.md (deeper step detail; this file is the contract).

Innsigle seal: model-primary by HELIX

The signature covers the markdown source of this page, not these HTML bytes. This page quotes that seal; verify it against the source file.

Composition: model-primary
Issuer: HELIX helix
Signing key: ed25519:b0865d76d834a52c48506414d16f4e5a (build key)
Signed source: reference/workflow-modes/evolve.md
Signed: 2026-09-23T14:11:58Z
Content digest: sha256:9289f4eb…0feb612c

This build key is endorsed by the human key for build signing; the signature is not a detector and not a truth guarantee.

Raw attestation JSON

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attestation file · issuer keys