ADK Development Guide

Development lifecycle guardrails for AI agents using Google ADK and Gemini models.

4-Phase Development Lifecycle

Every ADK agent feature follows this workflow. Skipping phases increases risk of eval failures, infinite loops, and deployment issues.

Phase 1: Understand Spec

Before writing any code:

• Read DESIGN_SPEC.md completely — this is the source of truth
• Identify: agent purpose, required tools, safety constraints, success criteria, edge cases
• Flag ambiguities, contradictions, or missing information before proceeding
• Check if similar agent patterns exist in your project already (avoid duplication)
• Clarify: is this a new agent or an enhancement to an existing one?