From cairn
Use when the user wants ONE bounded autonomous cycle — pick a task from docs/todo.md, implement, gate, commit, hand control back. Not a loop; one round and done. Triggers on phrases like "do one task from the punch list", "pick one thing and run it", "finish the Kanban refactor autonomously" when scoped to a single item. For repeating "keep going until I stop you" mode, use the cairn-autonomous-loop skill instead.
How this skill is triggered — by the user, by Claude, or both
Slash command
/cairn:autonomous-roundThe summary Claude sees in its skill listing — used to decide when to auto-load this skill
Drive exactly **one** bounded autonomous cycle. One task, one
Drive exactly one bounded autonomous cycle. One task, one commit, one journal entry, explicit handoff. No re-scheduling, no chaining — when the cycle is done, control goes back to the user.
For repeating cycles, see the sibling
cairn-autonomous-loop skill.
cairn-autonomous-loop, not this skill.The substance — autonomy-level menu, task-pick rules, gate
requirements, hard rules, mid-cycle ask-anyway cases — lives in
<project>/docs/workflow/autonomous-protocol.md.
Read that before proceeding; this skill is a thin orchestration
wrapper over the protocol, specialised for one cycle only.
Summary of the round-specific shape:
docs/todo.md exists).autonomous-planner
sub-agent is available, dispatch it for a recommendation;
otherwise scan docs/todo.md directly per the autonomy
level's rules.review-phase skill is available, invoke it
for quality + security passes.The final action in the session journal (written by this skill's last step) must match the protocol's handoff block:
## Handoff — <timestamp>
**Shipped this round:** <SHA> — <commit subject>.
**Autonomy level used:** <L0/L1/L2/L3/L4>.
**Stopped because:** round complete (single-cycle scope).
**Queued if you want more:** <next bounded tasks, or "nothing
obvious">.
**For your review:** <numbered yes/no questions>.
autonomous-round = this skill. One cycle. Stop.autonomous-loop = sibling skill. Multiple cycles with
checkpoint pauses and wakeup scheduling.Both dispatch the same underlying protocol. Pick the skill that matches what the user asked for; don't try to run a loop through this skill by invoking it repeatedly.
Guides creation, editing, and verification of skills for AI coding agents using test-driven development with subagent scenarios. Use when authoring or debugging skills.
npx claudepluginhub foobarto/cairn --plugin cairn