← nTra/How it works

Spec-driven, start to finish.Four steps. Four sign-offs.

Agree the brief, approve the design and plan, lock what done means, then build, cross-check and merge. Every task your AI agents build traces back to a requirement your business signed off.

The loop

One loop.
Re-enter it with the next requirement.

Every loop ends where it began, with new intent. Checks between steps keep the work honest; a person signing off at each step keeps the team in control.

your idea↓shipped product01Brief02Plan03Criteria04Merge
Step 01
Agree the brief
A discovery chat builds the brief with you, and a person approves it before anything is planned.
Deep dive ↓
step person signs off active flow
Step 01

Agree the brief

capture

nTra interviews you about the product and fills in the brief as you talk: why, what, how and guardrails. Missing answers are flagged, a depth score shows what is still thin, and Atlas brings in what it already knows about your code and documents.

What happens
01
Discovery
nTra asks the questions a senior product manager would ask, one at a time, and records your answers.
02
Brief
The brief builds as you talk. A depth score shows what would make it stronger.
03
Approve
A person approves the brief. Nothing is planned or built before that.
Where in nTra
DiscoveryBriefAtlas
Human role
◆ The business or product owner approves the brief
Artifacts produced
Approved brief
Open questions
Personas and success definition
Depth score
Agree the brief · visualized
Slack threadDiscovery callBrief.pdfCodebaseCONTEXT GRAPH? × 3
Step 02

Approve the design and plan

design

Artifacts, Canvas and Grooming start from the same approved brief, so the documents, the screens and the plan agree from the first line. The design is approved at a saved version, and a change after that needs approval again. Each epic is approved before its tasks are written, and nTra checks that every requirement is covered.

What happens
01
Artifacts
The brief becomes a BRD, a design doc and the architecture, each with its own version history.
02
Canvas
Screens and flows on an editable canvas, drawn from the brief or imported from Figma, approved at a saved version.
03
Plan
Epics wait for Approve or Skip. Approving one writes its tasks, and Task doctor flags gaps and duplicates.
Where in nTra
ArtifactsCanvasGroomingAtlas
Human role
◆ Product, design and tech leads approve the design and each epic
Artifacts produced
BRD and design doc
Approved screens
Epics and stories
Coverage against the requirements
Approve the design and plan · visualized
SYSTEMWebAPIAuthDBSURFACEGROOMING11 tasks · 3 lanes · 2 gates
Step 03

Lock what done means

specify

Each task carries acceptance criteria written as Given, When, Then, what is out of scope, and the decisions already made. It stays tied to the requirement it came from, so the work that comes back can be checked against what was agreed.

What happens
01
Criteria
What a user can do when the task is done, as Given, When, Then.
02
Scope
What this task does not cover, so the agent does not wander into the next one.
03
Decisions
Choices already made, such as the test runner or package manager, written down once.
Where in nTra
GroomingTask doctor
Human role
◆ Tasks are written when a person approves their epic
Artifacts produced
Acceptance criteria
Out of scope
Decisions resolved
Link to the requirement
Lock what done means · visualized
TASK-23 · ACCEPTANCE CRITERIAGivena fresh clone with pnpm install doneWhenI run the migration and the seedThenthe tables exist and the seed data loadsOUT OF SCOPE · DECISIONS · REQUIREMENT◆ accepted
Step 04

Build, cross-check, merge

execute

Start a task from the Board and pick where it runs: your own machine through the nTra CLI, or a separate cloud machine for each run. Claude Code, Codex, Gemini, Copilot, Kiro or Antigravity does the work, following the rules you set once in the Agent kit. The Console shows every step and logs every action, nTra re-runs the checks itself, and a second AI provider reviews the change before it waits for your merge. Progress posts back to the tracker your team already uses: Jira, Azure DevOps, Linear or GitHub Issues.

What happens
01
Board
Start a task and choose where it runs: your machine through the nTra CLI, or the cloud.
02
Console
Each run moves through prepare, plan, implement, review, independent review and finalize. Watch it or step in.
03
Merge
The pull request waits on your approval and your merge. nTra never pushes to main on its own, and production stays behind whatever release gate your team uses.
Where in nTra
MaestroBoardConsoleAgent kit
Human role
◆ Engineering reviews and merges the pull request; production releases stay behind your own gate
Artifacts produced
Branch and pull request
Log of every action
Independent review notes
Tracker updates in Jira, Azure DevOps, Linear or GitHub
Build, cross-check, merge · visualized
nTraconsole · TASK-2314 of 15 stepschecks · re-run by nTraall passingindependent reviewsecond AI · no blockersgithub.com/acme/apppull request openedmerge⏸ waiting on your engineer
Walkthrough

One requirement, end to end —
"employees can see their leave balance."

An example in sixteen steps, from the first question to the merge that waits on your engineer. Every ◆ is a person signing off.

nTra · loop trace
› "employees can see their leave balance"
▍
step 01 / 16● 01 · Brief
Human in the loop

Four sign-offs.
You stay in control.

nTra waits for a person at every step. Nothing merges until one of your engineers approves it.

1
After Step 01
The brief
Business · Product owner

Approved once it says what you actually want. Nothing is planned or built before that.

2
After Step 02
The design
Product · Design

Approved at a saved version. A change after approval shows as changed until someone approves again.

3
After Step 03
Each epic
Product · Tech lead

Approving an epic writes its tasks, each with acceptance criteria, scope and the decisions already made.

4
After Step 04
The merge
Engineering

Pull requests land in your repo. Nothing merges until an engineer approves, and production stays behind your release gate.

Validation layer

Every hand-off is
checked before it moves.

BriefPlan
Discovery
Open questions answered
Depth score shows what is thin
A person approves the brief
PlanTasks
Grooming · Task doctor
Every requirement covered
Approved screens planned
Gaps and duplicates flagged
TasksBuild
Grooming
Acceptance criteria written
Scope and decisions recorded
Linked to its requirement
BuildMerge
Maestro · Console
Checks re-run by nTra
Test coverage meets your threshold
Independent review by a second AI
An engineer approves the merge

See it on one of
your own features.

Bring a real requirement. We’ll take it from conversation to a signed-off, reviewed pull request.

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