01 / The operating thesis

Chicago Build Loop

Four writers race. Codex reviews. Erlich picks the first clean PR. Jason says yes.

Architecture for Iterate Consulting · design only · HOLD live.

Frame the ask.

Erlich routes the brief.
Dinesh designs when needed.
Jason locks the plates.

02 / Jian-Yang fans out

Cursor cloudbranch 01

pi / terra-gptbranch 02

Antigravitybranch 03

Grok Buildbranch 04

Review all.

Codex reviews each PR
when open.
Review-only.

Pick one.

Erlich takes the first
clean PR. Closes the
other three.

Explicit yes.

Jason authorizes merge.
Gilfoyle deploys if needed,
with Jason’s yes.

One brief → four independent branches One clean ship PR → human approval

Erlich · Chicago PM / PR router Dinesh · design-only Jian-Yang · coding owner Codex · review-only Gilfoyle · deploy / infra Jason · explicit yes before merge/deploy

02 / End-to-end architecture

One loop. Clear ownership.

Design when needed. Race in parallel.
Converge before anything ships.

Define & lock01–02

Build & review03–04

Select & authorize05–06

Ask lands
at Erlich.

Chicago PM receives the ask and routes the work.

Entry / brief

UI needs
design?

Dinesh → Open Design / Astra plates → Jason locks plates.
No UI design needed? Continue.

Conditional / design-only

Four writers.
Concurrent.

Jian-Yang starts FOUR writers on separate branches.

Fan-out / 4 branches

Every PR
gets reviewed.

Codex reviews each PR when open. All four enter the review lane.

Review-only / every PR

First clean
PR wins.

Erlich picks the first clean PR; closes the other three.

Converge / one ship PR

Jason yes.
Then merge.

Gilfoyle deploys if needed. Jason’s explicit yes is required before merge/deploy.

Human gate / no auto-ship

01
Ask lands at Erlich
Chicago PM / PR router
02
UI needs design? design-only
Dinesh → Open Design / Astra plates.
Jason locks plates. Otherwise, continue.
03

Jian-Yang starts FOUR writers

Coding owner · concurrent, separate branches

Cursor cloud pi / terra-gpt Antigravity Grok Build
04
Codex reviews each PR review-only
When open. All four get reviewed.
05
Erlich picks the first clean PR
Closes the other three. Empty CI / billing skips are not “clean”.
06
Jason yes → merge
Gilfoyle · deploy / infra · deploys if needed.
Jason: explicit yes before merge/deploy.

The loop / 6 steps 4 branches → 1 ship PR

Fastest is not enough. First clean is the selection rule. Empty CI / billing skips ≠ clean

ErlichChicago PM / PR router

Dineshdesign-only

Jian-Yangcoding owner

Codexreview-only

Gilfoyledeploy / infra

Jasonexplicit yes before merge/deploy

03 / Writer topology

Four lanes. One finish.

Concurrent by design, isolated by branch.
Harness and model assignments stay explicit.

Jian-Yang · coding owner · starts FOUR concurrent writers

01Concurrent writer

Cursor cloud

Harness + model

Cursor cloud agents (account default model)

Separate branch 01PR → Codex

02Concurrent writer

pi / terra-gpt

Harness + model

pi CLI with terra/gpt

Separate branch 02PR → Codex

03Concurrent writer

Antigravity

Harness + model

Antigravity CLI (agy); Google AI Pro

Separate branch 03PR → Codex

04Concurrent writer

Grok Build

Harness + model

Grok Build on SuperGrok bucket

Separate branch 04PR → Codex

Codex reviews allWhen each PR opens

Erlich picks first cleanCloses other three

Jason gives explicit yesBefore merge/deploy

Race rules separate branches first clean wins one ship PR after pick Codex on all no merge without Jason yes

04 / Redundancy & failover

A stalled lane isn’t a stalled loop.

Keep the race moving.
Never weaken the clean-PR gate.

01 / EXECUTION

Writer resilience

One unavailable.
Three still racing.

Erlich · Chicago PM / PR router Illustrative outage — the same rule applies to any writer

Cursor cloudUsage limit / offline

pi / terra-gptKeeps racing

AntigravityKeeps racing

Grok BuildKeeps racing

If one writer hits a usage limit or is offline, the other three keep racing. Separate branches remain isolated.

02 / QUALITY

Same ship gate

Availability is not
evidence of quality.

Codex reviews each open PR

Review-only. No writer bypass.

Erlich picks first clean

Empty CI / billing skips are not “clean”.

Jason’s explicit yes

Required before merge/deploy.

03 / HANDOFF

Grok Bot usage

Leftover-work path.
Separate from the race.

~80%Grok Bot usage

Leftover handoff

StarrClaw / popstarr / Neo

Erlich routes the handoff. No on-demand burn.

Routing owner: Erlich. Coding owner: Jian-Yang. Threshold shown is a policy marker, not live telemetry.

05 / Cross-desk load balance

More capacity. Not another bot.

A CoS-to-CoS relay through Slack.
Dallas is the overflow path, not the default race.

Route to Dallas when Chicago capacity is tight OR The job fits Dallas full-stack · e.g. Bolton on pi

Chicago

Origin desk

Chicago CoS

Recognizes the capacity constraint or Dallas fit. Relays the brief to Dallas CoS in the Slack room.

Brief relay / desk coordination

Local four-writer loop remains the default

Slack bridge

Shared coordination room

Chicago CoS ↔ Dallas CoS

#iterate-ord-dfw-rsw-cos Relay the brief here · CoS-to-CoS bridge

CoS mirrors also use
#iterate-chicago-dallas-cos

A desk handoff, not a second Chicago coder bot

Dallas

Overflow desk

Dallas CoS

Receives the relayed brief for Dallas full-stack work. Coordinates the Dallas-side desk response.

Full-stack fit / e.g. Bolton on pi

Additional desk capacity, outside the default race

grok-desk CURRENT.md

Remains the week notebook handshake.

Chicago CoS ↔ Dallas CoS

Slack carries the relay.

The notebook handshake stays in place.

Overflow path, not default race. No second Chicago coder bot. No change to Jason’s merge/deploy approval gate.

07 / Lifecycle arc

From concept to deployment.

Architecture for Iterate Consulting · design only · HOLD live.
Four stages. Clear ownership. No auto-ship.

Skip design if no UI

Concept

Ask lands
at Erlich.

Brief framed.
Ready for design
or execution.

Intake / brief

Erlich — Chicago PM / PR router

Design

If UI: Dinesh
shapes the plates.

Open Design / Astra
→ Jason locks plates

Design-only lane

Dinesh — design-only

Execution

Jian-Yang launches
four concurrent writers.

Separate branches
Cursor cloud · pi/terra-gpt
Antigravity · Grok Build

Codex reviews each PR.
Erlich picks first clean;
closes the other three.

Race detail → plates 02 / 03

Jian-Yang — coding owner · Codex — review-only

Deployment

Human approval gate

Jason explicit yes
→ merge

Gilfoyle deploys if needed.

No auto-ship

Jason — explicit yes · Gilfoyle — deploy / infra

One lifecycle / explicit handoffs

Frame the ask. Lock the design. Race the build. Ship only with a human yes.

Failover

Other writers keep racing.
→ plate 04

Dallas Slack overflow

Overflow side path — not default race.
→ plate 05

Chicago Build Loop

Frame the ask.

Review all.

Pick one.

Explicit yes.

One loop. Clear ownership.

Ask landsat Erlich.

UI needsdesign?

Four writers.Concurrent.

Every PRgets reviewed.

First cleanPR wins.

Jason yes.Then merge.

Ask lands at Erlich

UI needs design? design-only

Jian-Yang starts FOUR writers

Codex reviews each PR review-only

Erlich picks the first clean PR

Jason yes → merge

Four lanes. One finish.

Cursor cloud

pi / terra-gpt

Antigravity

Grok Build

A stalled lane isn’t a stalled loop.

Writer resilience

Same ship gate

Codex reviews each open PR

Erlich picks first clean

Jason’s explicit yes

Grok Bot usage

StarrClaw / popstarr / Neo

More capacity. Not another bot.

Chicago

Chicago CoS

Slack bridge

Chicago CoS ↔ Dallas CoS

Dallas

Dallas CoS

grok-desk CURRENT.md

Slack carries the relay.

From concept to deployment.

Concept

Design

Execution

Deployment

Ask lands
at Erlich.

UI needs
design?

Four writers.
Concurrent.

Every PR
gets reviewed.

First clean
PR wins.

Jason yes.
Then merge.