Complexity Profiles

Overview

The complexity profile is selected once during romyq init. It controls:

• How many phases the planning provider creates
• How granular the task decomposition is
• Whether advanced governance features are active

The profile is stored in .romyq/project_profile.json. You can change it at any time with romyq profile basic/intermediate/advanced.

Basic

Phases: 3 — Setup, Implementation, Completion

Best for small tools, scripts, proof-of-concept projects, or anything with a narrow scope where five or seven phases would create unnecessary overhead.

What Basic provides:

• Three-phase lifecycle
• Simplified done criteria (fewer checkpoints)
• Governance evaluation active at phase boundaries

Example lifecycle for a Basic project building a data-export script:

Phase 01 · Setup          install dependencies, configure environment
Phase 02 · Implementation write the export logic and tests
Phase 03 · Completion     validate output, document usage

Intermediate

Phases: 5 — Setup, Core, Integration, Testing, Deployment

Best for API services, CLI tools, libraries, or projects with distinct architectural layers that should be developed in order. This is the default for most projects.

What Intermediate adds over Basic:

• Five-phase lifecycle with explicit Integration and Testing phases
• Per-task governance evaluation (rules checked before every task, not just at phase boundaries)
• Capability tracking (capabilities are assigned to tasks and tracked over time)
• Readiness score computed after every task

Example lifecycle for an Intermediate project building a REST API:

Phase 01 · Setup       install, config, database schema
Phase 02 · Core        models, services, business logic
Phase 03 · Integration API routes, authentication, middleware
Phase 04 · Testing     unit tests, integration tests, coverage
Phase 05 · Deployment  CI/CD, containerization, production config

Advanced

Phases: 7 — Setup, Architecture, Core, Integration, Testing, Hardening, Deployment

Best for production services with security requirements, multi-component systems, or projects where premature integration is a known risk.

What Advanced adds over Intermediate:

• Seven-phase lifecycle with explicit Architecture and Hardening phases
• Architecture phase must complete before any implementation begins
• Hardening phase explicitly addresses security, performance, and observability
• Capability ordering is enforced more strictly (capability X cannot start until prerequisite Y is complete)

Example lifecycle for an Advanced project:

Phase 01 · Setup        environment, tooling, dependency audit
Phase 02 · Architecture schema design, API contracts, component boundaries
Phase 03 · Core         models, services, domain logic
Phase 04 · Integration  APIs, authentication, external integrations
Phase 05 · Testing      unit, integration, contract, load tests
Phase 06 · Hardening    security review, rate limiting, logging, observability
Phase 07 · Deployment   CI/CD, infrastructure, runbooks, production readiness

Choosing a profile

The profile affects planning depth, not what Romyq can track. All profiles support the full command set: romyq dashboard, romyq readiness, romyq roadmap, romyq timeline, romyq decisions, and all steering commands.