Build order

A story map says what to build. The build order says in what order. Agents take stories in that order, so the foundations get built before the features that need them, and nobody has to choose the next story by hand every time.

The build order

Each story can have a build sequence: #1, #2, #3 and on. That number is its place in the build order.

• Stories are ordered release by release: every story in release 1 before any in release 2.
• A story without a number is not yet sequenced. Agents get unsequenced stories last, and get_build_order leaves them out.
• An agent asked to build a story by name can still start it. A story that wasn't in the build order is added at the end.

You set the order on the Plan tab. When there isn't one yet, Plan asks No build order yet — how should we start? and offers Generate build order or Add in map order. When new stories arrive later, it offers to Slot them in without moving anything already ordered. Every option is a proposal: you review the whole order, then Save order. You can also drag stories into place.

Your agent can do the same with the Put my stories in build order prompt from the Prompt library. It proposes an order, waits for you to confirm it, then saves it with update_stories.

Dependencies

A story can depend on other stories. It isn't handed out to an agent until the stories it depends on are built (dev complete or approved). A dependency that's cancelled, or no longer on the map, doesn't hold anything up.

Agents set dependencies with the dependencies field of update_stories.

Phases

Within a release, dependencies split the build order into phases:

• Phase 1 is every story with nothing to wait for in its release.
• Phase 2 is every story whose dependencies are all in phase 1, and so on.

The stories in one phase don't depend on each other, so several agents can build them at once. Dependencies on stories in an earlier release don't count here, because that release is built first. If the dependencies form a loop, there are no phases until you break it.

Before agents build

Each project sets what a person must do before an agent may build a story. It's called Before agents build:

Setting	An agent can build a story…
Nothing	…at any time. A story that isn't in the build order yet is added to the end of it.
Spec	…once a person has marked it ready for dev.
Spec + plan	…once an approver has approved its plan. Agents can still write plans for any story.

New projects start on Spec + plan. A workspace sets it in Workspace settings → Plans, for every project at once or one at a time. On a personal project you are the only approver, and it can't be changed from a screen yet.

start_story refuses a story the setting holds back, and says what it's waiting for.

Build runs

A build run is a batch of stories a person approves once, for agents to work through. It's named R- and a number, for example R-7. Approving a run counts as the approval for every story in it, so its stories aren't held at Before agents build one by one.

Setting	What it does
Agents at once	How many of its stories may be in progress at the same time.
When a story is blocked	Skip it and carry on, or Stop the run.
Then the next phase	When the run was made from a phase: once it's built, line up the next phase as a new run for you to approve. It never starts on its own.

An agent works through a run with next_in_run. Each call starts the next story it can take: not built, not blocked, not held by another agent, and with its dependencies built. When the run is complete, paused, stopped or full, the call says so and the agent stops. get_run reads the whole run in one call.

A run moves through these states: Waiting for approval, Building, Paused, Stopped, Cancelled and Complete. Pausing or cancelling lets stories already being built finish, and hands out nothing new. See The Plan tab.

Who is building what

Several agents can build at once, so a story in progress records which agent session holds it. The claim refreshes every time that session calls IntentDocs. If a session goes quiet for two hours, the story reads as stalled and another agent can take it over. Each session builds one story at a time.

What's next

• MCP: get_build_order returns the whole order at once. complete_story returns the next story in the build order when it finishes one.
• CLI: npx intentdocs next shows a story already in progress first. Otherwise it picks the first sequenced story whose dependencies are done, by build sequence, then release, priority and effort.

Release readiness

Before building a release, check_release_readiness checks every story in it. Missing acceptance criteria, and finished stories with no passing evidence or evidence older than the code, are gaps that make the release not ready. A missing plan is reported as advice, not a gap. Without a release number it checks the current release.