Hands-on labs · EN / FR · Windows + PowerShell + VS Code

Idea to production, with an AI team and a human in charge

You will use the ai-team-sdlc GitHub Copilot plugin: an orchestrator and ten specialist agents that design, build, test and deploy an app, with quality gates at every step and one mandatory human sign-off.

Start with Lab 0 See the lab map

What you will build

In the recorded run, the agents build Pinch: a small, pretty and fully bilingual (EN/FR) recipe scaler with a cook mode. It has no backend and no secrets, so it is safe to build, review and deploy in a few hours.

• Scale a recipe to any number of servings, with sensible rounding.
• Convert between metric and imperial units.
• Cook mode: large text, tick off steps, build a shopping list.
• Bilingual UI: every string exists in English and French, enforced by a gate.

The app lives in its own repository, ai-sdlc-labs-pinch, with a checkpoint tag at the end of every lab.

The lifecycle at a glance

1. 💡 Kickoff Idea product brief
2. 🧭 Plan Plan design · prototype · spec review
3. 🔨 Build Build build · lint · unit
4. ✅ Test Test qa · review · security
5. 🔐 Sign-off Sign-off mandatory human approval
6. 🚀 Deploy Deploy pre-deploy · smoke · rollback-ready
7. 📦 Shipped Production DONE

Two loops you will meet in the labs

Gate fail: when a quality gate fails, the work goes back to the Build phase and the owning agent fixes it. Changes requested: at sign-off, a human can send the work back to Build. Any change after approval resets the sign-off.

Meet the team

Eleven ait- agents work as one team. Humans stay in the loop at every phase.

• 🎯
  Orchestratorait-sdlc-orchestratorSplits the work into tasks, dispatches agents, enforces the gates.
• 🎨
  Product Designerait-product-designerUser journeys, wireframes, a clickable prototype.
• 📋
  Product Ownerait-product-ownerRequirements, acceptance criteria, backlog.
• 🏛️
  Architectait-architectTechnical spec, data model, decisions (ADRs).
• 💻
  Backend Devait-backend-devServer logic, APIs, persistence, tests.
• 🖥️
  Frontend Devait-frontend-devUI, accessibility, client state, tests.
• 🧪
  QA / Testait-qa-testTest plan, acceptance checks, regressions.
• 🔎
  Code Criticait-code-reviewerFinds blocking defects before sign-off.
• 🛡️
  Security / RAIait-security-raiSecrets, dependencies, threats, responsible AI.
• ⚙️
  DevOpsait-devopsCI/CD, release checks, rollback plan.
• 📝
  Scribeait-scribeKeeps the decisions and the change log tidy.

The labs

Lab	Title	Duration	Level
0	Prerequisites and setup	20 min	Beginner
1	From idea to brief	25 min	Beginner
2	Design and prototype	35 min	Beginner
3	Requirements and architecture	35 min	Intermediate
4	Build in slices	60 min	Intermediate
5	QA, critic review and security	45 min	Intermediate
6	Human sign-off and changes requested	30 min	Intermediate
7	Deploy to production	30 min	Intermediate
8	Resume, recover and tear down	25 min	Intermediate

Two ways to learn

Follow the recorded run

Read each lab, then jump to its checkpoint: a Git tag in the Pinch repository that holds the exact result of the recorded run. Cheap, fast and repeatable. Use it to learn how the gates and artifacts look without spending credits.

Bring your own idea

Run every lab on your own product idea in your own repository. The agents' output will differ from the recorded run, and that is expected. A full lifecycle run can use about 2,000 credits and 2 to 3 hours.

Mind the budget

Agents run with broad permissions and real model credits. Read the cost note in Lab 0 before you start a long run.