Pipeline Phases

Your idea goes through 4 AI phases to become production-ready code. Each phase builds on the previous one.

Discovery
Specification
Implementation Plan
Agent (Code Generation)

Discovery

DISCOVERY

Analyzes your project idea to understand the full scope.

Produces

Core features list with priority (P0/P1/P2)
User roles and permissions
Recommended tech stack with rationale
Data model with entities and relationships
Non-functional requirements (performance, security)
Testing strategy

Input

Your project description + any uploaded documents

Estimated Cost

5,000 - 15,000 tokens (~$0.01 - $0.05)

Duration

10-30 seconds

💡 Tip:The more detail you provide in your idea, the better the discovery output. Include user types, business rules, and tech preferences.

Specification

SPEC

Creates detailed technical specifications from the discovery output.

Produces

REST API endpoints with methods, paths, auth requirements
Database schema with tables, columns, indexes, relationships
UI pages with routes, components, and layouts
Authentication strategy (JWT, OAuth, sessions)
Error handling patterns
Infrastructure recommendations

Input

Discovery phase results + your project description

Estimated Cost

10,000 - 30,000 tokens (~$0.02 - $0.10)

Duration

20-60 seconds

💡 Tip:Review the discovery output before running SPEC. If features are missing, edit the discovery data or re-run with a more detailed prompt.

Implementation Plan

PLAN

Breaks the spec into actionable epics and stories for development.

Produces

Epics (groups of related features)
Stories with titles, descriptions, and complexity (S/M/L)
Acceptance criteria for each story
Files affected by each story
Dependencies between stories
Implementation order (which stories to build first)
Risk assessment with mitigations

Input

Specification + Discovery results

Estimated Cost

15,000 - 40,000 tokens (~$0.03 - $0.15)

Duration

30-90 seconds

💡 Tip:The plan is what drives the autonomous build in VS Code. Each story becomes a task for the AI agent.

Agent (Code Generation)

AGENT

AI agent implements the plan by writing actual production code.

Produces

Source code files (frontend, backend, database)
Configuration files (package.json, tsconfig, etc.)
Test files (unit, integration)
Documentation (README, API docs)
CI/CD configuration

Input

Full plan synced to VS Code via .mindaeonrules/foundry-project.md

Estimated Cost

Varies — 50K to 500K+ depending on project size

Duration

5-60 minutes

💡 Tip:Enable auto-approve mode in the extension for fully unattended builds. The agent works through stories in batches of 5.