Platform Requirements

Sequant is currently designed around GitHub as the issue tracking and code hosting platform. This document explains the dependency, provides workarounds for non-GitHub users, and outlines the roadmap for multi-platform support.

Current GitHub Dependency

Sequant uses the GitHub CLI (gh) for:

• Issue fetching — Reading issue details, labels, and comments
• Progress updates — Posting plan and status comments to issues
• PR creation — Creating pull requests from feature branches
• Workflow triggers — Extracting acceptance criteria from issue bodies

Why GitHub?

GitHub was chosen as the initial platform because:

1. Mature CLI — The gh CLI provides comprehensive API access
2. Issue-PR linking — Native support for “Closes #123” syntax
3. Widespread adoption — Most open-source projects use GitHub
4. API consistency — Stable, well-documented API

Workarounds for Non-GitHub Users

If your team uses GitLab, Bitbucket, or another platform, you can still use Sequant with manual issue tracking.

Option 1: Manual Issue Mode

Create issues manually and reference them by description instead of number:

# Instead of:
/spec 123

# Use a description:
/spec "Add user authentication with OAuth"

The workflow phases will still function, but:

• No automatic issue comments (plans, progress updates)
• No automatic PR linking
• You’ll need to manually copy outputs to your issue tracker

Option 2: GitHub Mirror

Some teams maintain a GitHub mirror for issue tracking while using another platform for code:

1. Create a GitHub repository for issues only
2. Run Sequant workflows against GitHub issues
3. Manually sync PRs to your main platform

This provides full Sequant functionality but requires maintaining two systems.

Option 3: Local Tracking

Use Sequant without any remote issue tracker:

1. Create local markdown files for issues in issues/ directory
2. Reference issues by filename: /spec issues/add-auth.md
3. Track progress in the same files

Example local issue format:

issues/add-auth.md

# Add user authentication

## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Users can sign up with email
- [ ] Users can log in with password
- [ ] Sessions expire after 24 hours

## Progress
- [ ] Spec complete
- [ ] Implementation started
- [ ] QA passed

Roadmap: Multi-Platform Support

Support for additional platforms is planned in phases:

Phase 2: Provider Abstraction (Planned)

Create an IssueProvider interface that abstracts platform-specific operations:

interface IssueProvider {
  fetchIssue(id: string): Promise<Issue>;
  postComment(id: string, body: string): Promise<void>;
  createPullRequest(options: PROptions): Promise<PR>;
}

This will allow swapping providers without changing skill logic.

Phase 3: GitLab Support (Planned)

GitLab will be the first alternative platform, using the glab CLI:

# Future usage
sequant init --provider gitlab

Key considerations:

• GitLab issues have similar metadata (labels, milestones, comments)
• glab CLI provides equivalent functionality to gh
• GitLab merge requests map to GitHub PRs

Phase 4: Bitbucket Support (Future)

Bitbucket support is under consideration:

• No official CLI (would use REST API directly)
• Different issue/PR model (Jira integration common)
• Lower priority due to complexity

Contributing

Want to help add support for your platform? See the contribution guidelines and:

1. Open an issue describing your platform’s requirements
2. Propose an IssueProvider implementation
3. Include test coverage for the new provider

Related Issues

• #7 - Support GitLab and Bitbucket