todo-management

name	todo-management
description	Use when ideas or tasks surface during work and must be captured, tracked, and routed without losing current-task focus.

Todo Management

Overview

Capture out-of-scope ideas immediately, then return to the active task. Review and route them later without turning capture into an unauthorized context switch.

Announce: "I'm using the todo-management skill to capture this for later."

Reference Router

• Choose when to capture, infer area, and create the full todo file: capture
• List, prioritize, and route pending todos: review and routing
• Link todos into durable state and future plans: cross-reference
• Record a minimal interruption during active work: quick capture
• Apply focus principles and counter rationalizations: principles and red flags

During active execution, load quick capture only. Load the full structure for a durable todo and review/routing only during explicit todo review or planning.

Mandatory Gates

• Scope gate: Capture a newly surfaced item only when it is outside the current approved plan or requested outcome. In-scope defects remain part of current work unless authority or planning is missing.
• Focus gate: Capture, not act. Spend at most 30 seconds during active work: create the minimal record, add its path to STATE.md Deferred Ideas, and continue the current task immediately.
• Artifact gate: Durable todos live at docs/todos/YYYY-MM-DD-<slug>.md with area, priority, source, created date, status, title, description, context, and related paths. Infer ordinary metadata from current context; do not invent product requirements.
• Cross-reference gate: Keep STATE.md and the todo path aligned. During planning, inspect relevant pending todos and ask which, if any, belong in the new plan.
• Action gate: Listing or capturing a todo does not authorize implementation, deletion, or a plan change. Route approved work to /sc-work, exploration to /sc-explore, planning to /sc-plan, deferral to status update, and deletion only when explicitly chosen.
• Hygiene gate: Review by priority and area; mark completed work, defer intentionally, and prune irrelevant items rather than allowing an unbounded backlog.

Integration

Used during executing-plans, brainstorming, code-review, and systematic-debugging. Pair with state-management for deferred ideas and writing-plans for future plan review.