Waves & Epics

This page covers Hydro’s container model. For a comprehensive view of all methodologies, see:

Methodologies — Compare Hydro, Scrum, and Shape Up
Containers — The methodology-agnostic container abstraction

Waves

A wave is Hydro’s execution container — a self-contained unit of delivery with strict ordering. Only one wave can be active at a time.

Wave Lifecycle

Created -> Active -> Completed

Created: Tasks assigned during planning. Wave not yet started.
Active: Team is working on tasks. Only one wave active at a time (Wave Singularity).
Completed: All tasks Done. Next wave can activate.

Wave Naming

wave-001-foundation
wave-002-core
wave-003-advanced
wave-004-polish

The number determines execution order. The suffix is descriptive.

Wave Rules

Rule	Principle	Enforcement
Only one active wave	Active Wave Singularity	ContainerSingularityValidation
All tasks Done to complete	Atomic Completion	Container completion rule
No forward dependencies	Dependency Coherence	DependencyValidation
Self-contained	Self-Contained Execution	validate_wave_completion

Wave Tools

list_waves               -> See all waves with completion %
get_wave_status          -> Detailed breakdown of a specific wave
create_wave              -> Create a new wave
assign_task_to_wave      -> Assign a task (with Epic Integrity check)
validate_wave_completion -> Check if all tasks are Done

Epics

An epic is Hydro’s grouping container — related tasks that must ship together. Implemented as GitHub parent issues with sub-issues.

Epic Integrity

All tasks in an epic MUST be in the same wave.

This is Hydro’s Principle 1. If your Authentication epic has 4 tasks, all 4 must be in the same wave. You cannot ship token management in wave-002 and RBAC in wave-003.

Why: Partial feature delivery creates integration risk, testing gaps, and user-facing inconsistencies.

Note: This is Hydro-specific. Scrum epics span sprints (no integrity rule). Shape Up uses Bets with Bet Integrity (same concept, different naming).

Epic Tools

search_epics             -> Find epics by name
get_epic_tasks           -> All tasks in an epic with status and wave
get_epic_timeline        -> Full epic view with sub-issues and progress
validate_epic_integrity  -> Check if a task's epic assignment is valid

Task Statuses (Hydro)

Backlog -> In Refinement -> Ready for Dev -> In Progress -> In Review -> Done
                                                   |
                                               Blocked

For Scrum and Shape Up status flows, see Methodologies.