Dark Factory

Autonomous execution mode for running multi-step task plans without manual intervention. Dark Factory decomposes a plan into waves of parallel tasks, each verified by independent verifier agents before proceeding.

Concept

Dark Factory is "spec in, software out." You provide a specification, and ARC orchestrates multiple agents to implement it in waves — with consensus gates ensuring quality at each step.

Spec → Planning → Wave 1 → Verify → Wave 2 → Verify → ... → Complete

Starting a Factory Run

arc factory start <spec-file>
arc factory status
arc factory abort

WARNING

Dark Factory is designed for batch operations like codebase migrations, multi-file refactors, and test generation. It runs autonomously — use arc factory abort to halt execution at the next consensus gate.

State Machine

The factory controller follows a strict state machine:

State	Description
idle	No active factory run
planning	Decomposing spec into waves and tasks
executing	Running tasks within the current wave
verifying	Independent verifier agents checking results
gating	Consensus gate — all verifiers must agree to proceed
completed	All waves finished successfully

Wave Model

Tasks within a wave run in parallel. The consensus gate at the end of each wave ensures all verifiers agree before advancing to the next wave.

interface FactorySpec {
  description: string;
  waves: FactoryWave[];
  consensus: {
    minVerifiers: number;      // Minimum verifiers per gate
    unanimousRequired: boolean; // All must agree, or majority
  };
}

interface FactoryWave {
  name: string;
  tasks: FactoryTask[];
  dependsOn?: string[];        // Previous wave names
}

Consensus Gates

At the end of each wave, verifier agents independently review the results. The gate configuration determines how many must agree:

• Unanimous — all verifiers must approve (safest, default)
• Majority — more than half must approve (faster)

If any verifier rejects, the wave is retried or escalated to the user.

Wave Progression

arc factory status

Status output shows:

• Current state (planning/executing/verifying/gating)
• Current wave name and progress
• Tasks completed vs. total per wave
• Verifier results at each gate
• Overall progress percentage

Aborting

arc factory abort

Halts execution at the next consensus gate. Tasks already running will complete, but no new tasks will start. The factory state transitions to idle.

Use Cases

• Codebase migrations — update import paths, API calls, or config formats across hundreds of files
• Multi-file refactors — rename a module, update all references, fix tests
• Test generation — generate unit tests for an entire package
• Documentation — generate or update docs for changed APIs
• Dependency updates — update a dependency and fix all breaking changes

Monitoring

The web dashboard provides real-time factory monitoring via the /api/factory endpoint. The Factory view shows wave progression, task status, and verifier results with live WebSocket updates.

Web Dashboard Factory Controls

The Web Dashboard Factory view goes beyond monitoring — it supports an abort action to halt a running factory at the next consensus gate. This is equivalent to arc factory abort from the CLI.

The Factory view displays:

• Current state (idle/planning/executing/verifying/gating/completed)
• Wave progression with per-task status
• Verifier results at each consensus gate
• Overall progress percentage
• Abort button — stops factory execution at the next gate

WARNING

Aborting from the Web Dashboard behaves identically to the CLI — tasks already running will complete, but no new tasks will start.