Autopilot

Autopilot is Nyzhi’s fully autonomous execution mode. Give it an idea, and it runs through five phases — expansion, planning, execution, QA, and validation — without requiring manual intervention. Progress is persisted between phases, so interruptions never lose work.

Quick start

/autopilot Add rate limiting to the API with per-user quotas and a Redis backend

The agent takes over and works through all five phases, persisting state between each so you can resume anytime.

The five phases

1. Expansion

The agent takes your initial idea and expands it into a full specification:

• Clarifies requirements and constraints
• Identifies edge cases and dependencies
• Produces a structured requirements document

The output is stored as requirements in the autopilot state.

2. Planning

Using the expanded requirements, the agent creates a detailed execution plan:

• Breaks the work into discrete, ordered steps
• Identifies files to create or modify
• Notes testing strategy and verification criteria

The plan is stored and can be reviewed later via /plan.

3. Execution

The agent executes the plan step by step:

• Creates and modifies files
• Runs commands
• Uses all available tools
• Logs each action in the execution log

This is the longest phase. The agent works through the plan items sequentially, adapting if it encounters issues.

4. QA

After execution, the agent reviews its own work:

• Runs verification checks (build, test, lint)
• Reviews code for correctness and quality
• Identifies remaining issues
• May make additional fixes

QA results are stored for the validation phase.

5. Validation

The final phase verifies everything is complete:

• Confirms all requirements are met
• Ensures tests pass
• Produces a validation report
• Marks the autopilot as Complete

State persistence

Autopilot state is saved to .nyzhi/state/autopilot.json in the project directory:

• Resume anytime — If the process is interrupted, resume from the last completed phase
• Full context — State includes the original idea, current phase, requirements, plan, execution log, QA results, and validation report

{
  "idea": "Add rate limiting...",
  "phase": "Execution",
  "requirements": "...",
  "plan": "...",
  "execution_log": ["..."],
  "qa_results": null,
  "validation_report": null
}

Phase transitions

Expansion → Planning → Execution → QA → Validation → Complete
                                                         │
                                          (or)  → Cancelled

Autopilot advances one phase at a time. Each phase must complete before the next begins. You can cancel at any time, which sets the phase to Cancelled.

Cancellation

To cancel an in-progress autopilot:

• Press Ctrl+C during execution
• The state is saved with phase Cancelled

To clear saved state and start fresh:

/clear
/autopilot <new idea>

Related features

See verification for how build, test, and lint checks are run during QA and validation.