Pi Crew Research-Driven Development (RDD) Pipeline

The RDD pipeline uses pi-crew’s durable multi-agent teams for a 5-phase workflow: Explore (scout codebase), Analyze (research best practices), Design (architect solution), Implement (write code), Validate (run tests). The agentic reasoning step is the Analyze phase: the analyst agent evaluates multiple approaches against project-specific criteria and makes a recommendation the designer must follow.

BUSINESS PROBLEM

AI coding agents implement based on training data, which may be outdated. RDD ensures every feature is built on current research: the agent actively researches before writing code. According to Stack Overflow's 2025 Developer Survey, 45% of developers report shipping features built on assumptions that later proved incorrect because they relied on outdated API documentation or AI training data. RDD pipelines eliminate this by mandating active research before implementation.

WHO BENEFITS

Tech leads wanting research-backed implementation decisions. Developers in fast-moving ecosystems. Teams wanting documented rationale for architectural decisions.

HOW IT WORKS

1. Explore Phase (Scout agent — 5-10 min) Input: Repository path + task description Action: Scout agent traverses codebase, maps architecture, documents relevant modules and their relationships Output: Architecture document with module dependency graph

2. Analyze Phase (Research agent — 8-15 min) Input: Architecture document + task requirements Action: Research agent searches web docs, official API references, community best practices for relevant solutions Output: Research document with 3-5 approaches evaluated against project criteria

3. Design Phase (Architect agent — 5-10 min) Input: Research document with evaluated approaches + architecture context Action: Architect agent designs implementation plan following recommended approach with file-by-file breakdown Output: Implementation plan with file-level specifications

4. Implement Phase (Developer agent — 10-30 min) Input: Implementation plan with file specifications Action: Developer agent writes code following design (TDD style: test first, then implementation) Output: Implemented code with passing tests

5. Validate Phase (Tester agent — 3-8 min) Input: Implemented code + test suite + acceptance criteria Action: Tester agent runs tests, validates feature against acceptance criteria, checks for regressions Output: Test results with pass/fail per acceptance criterion

6. Review Gate (Reviewer agent — 2-5 min) Input: Implementation + test results + design document Action: Reviewer confirms every requirement has been addressed, code quality meets standards Output: Review approval or revision requests

7. Documentation (Writer agent — 3-5 min) Input: Implementation details + design decisions + research findings Action: Writer agent produces documentation covering feature usage, design decisions with research rationale Output: Documentation with design decision records

TOOL INTEGRATION

pi-crew (baphuongna, MIT) with explore, analyst, architect, developer, tester agents. Pi CLI v0.69+. Git for version control.

ROI METRICS

1. Research-backed decisions: 0% (AI guesses) → 100% (active research)
2. Implementation rework: 30-40% → <10%
3. Architecture docs: No rationale → documented research findings
4. First-week win: First RDD feature with research artifacts and validated implementation

CAVEATS

1. Research phase adds 15-30 minutes (moderate). Use only for non-trivial tasks.
2. Web research depends on search API quality (moderate).
3. RDD produces more artifacts (minor). Maintain process for these.