speckit-tasks

name	speckit-tasks
description	Generate an actionable, dependency-ordered tasks.md for the feature based on available design artifacts.
argument-hint	Optional task generation constraints
compatibility	Requires spec-kit project structure with .specify/ directory
metadata	{"author":"github-spec-kit","source":"templates/commands/tasks.md"}
user-invocable	true
disable-model-invocation	false

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Pre-Execution Checks

Check for extension hooks (before tasks generation):

• Check if .specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.
• If it exists, read it and look for entries under the hooks.before_tasks key
• If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
• Filter out hooks where enabled is explicitly false. Treat hooks without an enabled field as enabled by default.
• For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook condition expressions:
  • If the hook has no condition field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
  • If the hook defines a non-empty condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
• When constructing slash commands from hook command names, replace dots (.) with hyphens (-). For example, speckit.git.commit → /speckit-git-commit.
• For each executable hook, output the following based on its optional flag:
  • Optional hook (optional: true):

    ## Extension Hooks
    
    **Optional Pre-Hook**: {extension}
    Command: `/{command}`
    Description: {description}
    
    Prompt: {prompt}
    To execute: `/{command}`
    

  • Mandatory hook (optional: false):

    ## Extension Hooks
    
    **Automatic Pre-Hook**: {extension}
    Executing: `/{command}`
    EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}
    
    Wait for the result of the hook command before proceeding to the Outline.
    

• If no hooks are registered or .specify/extensions.yml does not exist, skip silently

Outline

1. Setup: Run .specify/scripts/bash/check-prerequisites.sh --json from repo root and parse FEATURE_DIR and AVAILABLE_DOCS list. All paths must be absolute. For single quotes in args like "I'm Groot", use escape syntax: e.g 'I'''m Groot' (or double-quote if possible: "I'm Groot").

2. Load design documents: Read from FEATURE_DIR:

   • Required: plan.md (tech stack, libraries, structure), spec.md (user stories with priorities)
   • Optional: data-model.md (entities), contracts/ (interface contracts), research.md (decisions), quickstart.md (test scenarios)
   • Note: Not all projects have all documents. Generate tasks based on what's available.

3. Execute task generation workflow:

   • Load plan.md and extract tech stack, libraries, project structure
   • Load spec.md and extract user stories with their priorities (P1, P2, P3, etc.)
   • If data-model.md exists: Extract entities and map to user stories
   • If contracts/ exists: Map interface contracts to user stories
   • If research.md exists: Extract decisions for setup tasks
   • Generate tasks organized by user story (see Task Generation Rules below)
   • Generate dependency graph showing user story completion order
   • Create parallel execution examples per user story
   • Validate task completeness (each user story has all needed tasks, independently testable)

4. Generate tasks.md: Use .specify/templates/tasks-template.md as structure, fill with:

   • Correct feature name from plan.md
   • Phase 1: Setup tasks (project initialization)
   • Phase 2: Foundational tasks (blocking prerequisites for all user stories)
   • Phase 3+: One phase per user story (in priority order from spec.md)
   • Each phase includes: story goal, independent test criteria, tests (if requested), implementation tasks
   • Final Phase: Polish & cross-cutting concerns
   • All tasks must follow the strict checklist format (see Task Generation Rules below)
   • Clear file paths for each task
   • Dependencies section showing story completion order
   • Parallel execution examples per story
   • Implementation strategy section (MVP first, incremental delivery)

5. Report: Output path to generated tasks.md and summary:

   • Total task count
   • Task count per user story
   • Parallel opportunities identified

Context for task generation: $ARGUMENTS

The tasks.md should be immediately executable - each task must be specific enough that an LLM can complete it without additional context.

Task Generation Rules

CRITICAL: Tasks MUST be organized by user story to enable independent implementation and testing.

Tests are MANDATORY: Every unit of implementation generates exactly two tasks as an inseparable pair:

• [TEST] <description> — write failing test(s) for this behaviour only, no implementation
• [IMPL] <description> — implement to pass those tests (must reference paired [TEST] task ID)

No [IMPL] task may exist without a paired [TEST] task. No [TEST] task may exist without a paired [IMPL] task. Schema migrations and pure setup tasks that genuinely have no testable behaviour are the only exception — document the exception explicitly in the task entry itself.

Checklist Format (REQUIRED)

Every task MUST strictly follow this format:

- [ ] [TaskID] [TEST|IMPL] [P?] [Story?] Description with file path

Format Components:

1. Checkbox: ALWAYS start with - [ ] (markdown checkbox)
2. Task ID: Sequential number (T001, T002, T003...) in execution order
3. [TEST] or [IMPL] label: REQUIRED for all behavioural tasks
   • [TEST] — this task writes failing test(s) only, no implementation
   • [IMPL] — this task writes implementation only, to pass the paired [TEST] task's tests
   • Setup/infrastructure tasks with no testable behaviour: NO type label (document exemption in description)
4. [P] marker: Include ONLY if task is parallelizable (different files, no dependencies on incomplete tasks)
5. [Story] label: REQUIRED for user story phase tasks only
   • Format: [US1], [US2], [US3], etc. (maps to user stories from spec.md)
   • Setup phase: NO story label
   • Foundational phase: NO story label
   • User Story phases: MUST have story label
   • Polish phase: NO story label
6. Description: Clear action with exact file path. [IMPL] tasks must reference their paired [TEST] task ID.

Examples:

• ✅ CORRECT: - [ ] T001 Create project structure per implementation plan (no test — infrastructure setup)
• ✅ CORRECT: - [ ] T010 [TEST] [P] [US1] Write failing tests for createWidget endpoint in tests/integration/widgets.test.ts
• ✅ CORRECT: - [ ] T011 [IMPL] [US1] Implement createWidget service in src/services/widgets.service.ts (depends on T010)
• ✅ CORRECT: - [ ] T004 Create schema migration for Widget model (no test required — schema migration)
• ❌ WRONG: - [ ] T010 [US1] Write tests for createWidget (missing [TEST] type label)
• ❌ WRONG: - [ ] T011 [US1] Implement createWidget (missing [IMPL] type label, missing dependency reference)
• ❌ WRONG: T001 [TEST] Create test (missing checkbox)
• ❌ WRONG: - [ ] [TEST] [US1] Write tests (missing Task ID)
• ❌ WRONG: - [ ] T010 [TEST] [US1] Write tests for createWidget (missing file path)

Task Organization

1. From User Stories (spec.md) - PRIMARY ORGANIZATION:

   • Each user story (P1, P2, P3...) gets its own phase
   • Map all related components to their story:
     • Models needed for that story
     • Services needed for that story
     • Interfaces/UI needed for that story
     • If tests requested: Tests specific to that story
   • Mark story dependencies (most stories should be independent)

2. From Contracts:

   • Map each interface contract → to the user story it serves
   • If tests requested: Each interface contract → contract test task [P] before implementation in that story's phase

3. From Data Model:

   • Map each entity to the user story(ies) that need it
   • If entity serves multiple stories: Put in earliest story or Setup phase
   • Relationships → service layer tasks in appropriate story phase

4. From Setup/Infrastructure:

   • Shared infrastructure → Setup phase (Phase 1)
   • Foundational/blocking tasks → Foundational phase (Phase 2)
   • Story-specific setup → within that story's phase

Phase Structure

• Phase 1: Setup (project initialization)
• Phase 2: Foundational (blocking prerequisites - MUST complete before user stories)
• Phase 3+: User Stories in priority order (P1, P2, P3...)
  • Within each story: [TEST] tasks (may be [P] relative to each other) → paired [IMPL] tasks
  • Each phase should be a complete, independently testable increment
• Final Phase: Polish & Cross-Cutting Concerns