timeline-planning

name	timeline-planning
description	Use when asked for a project timeline, schedule, sprint plan, or Gantt chart, or after breaking work into issues - converts issue estimates and dependencies into a Mermaid Gantt chart with phases, milestones, and critical path

Timeline Planning Skill

Generate Mermaid Gantt charts that visualize project timelines, task scheduling, phases, and milestones based on GitHub issues and their estimates.

When to Use

Activate this skill when:

• User asks "what would the timeline look like?"
• User says "create a Gantt chart", "show me the project schedule"
• After running the issue-decomposition skill, to visualize scheduling of the resulting issues
• During sprint planning to allocate work

Mermaid Gantt Syntax

Basic Structure

gantt
    title Project Timeline
    dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD

    section Phase 1
    Task A :a, 2025-01-15, 2d
    Task B :b, after a, 3d

    section Phase 2
    Task C :c, after b, 2d

Key Elements

• title - Chart title
• dateFormat - How dates are parsed
• section - Groups related tasks
• Task format: Name :id, start, duration

Estimate to Duration Conversion

Convert T-shirt size estimates to days:

Estimate	Duration	Notes
Small	1d	Single-day task
Medium	3d	Few days of work
Large	5d	Almost a week
XL	8d	Full week+

Adjust based on team velocity, complexity indicators, and buffer for unknowns.

Task States

Modifier	Meaning	Example
done	Completed	Task A :done, a, 2025-01-15, 2d
active	In progress	Task B :active, b, after a, 3d
crit	Critical path	Task C :crit, c, after b, 5d
milestone	Milestone	MVP :milestone, m, after c, 0d

Timeline Patterns

Reusable Gantt patterns (linear project, parallel workstreams, milestones, critical path) are in gantt-patterns.md.

Timeline Generation Process

Step 1: Gather Issues

Prerequisite: fetch the open issues with gh issue list --state open --json number,title,labels,body (requires the gh CLI), or ask the user to paste the issue list.

Gather the following from project issues:

• Issue titles
• Estimates or labels indicating size
• Dependencies or blocking relationships

Step 2: Determine Start Date

• Use today's date as default start
• Or ask user for preferred start date
• Consider sprint boundaries

Step 3: Convert Estimates

Transform issue estimates to durations:

#101 [Small] → 1d
#102 [Medium] → 3d
#103 [Large] → 5d

Step 4: Respect Dependencies

Order tasks based on blocking:

#101 → start immediately
#102 blocked by #101 → after #101
#103 blocked by #102 → after #102

Step 5: Group into Phases

Organize tasks into logical sections: Setup/Foundation, Core Features, Testing, Polish.

Step 6: Generate Gantt Chart

Create the Mermaid syntax with all tasks, dependencies, and phases.

Date Formats

Format	Example
YYYY-MM-DD	2025-01-15
after id	after a
Nd	3d - duration in days

Best Practices

1. Use sections - Group related tasks for clarity
2. Show dependencies - Use after id to chain tasks
3. Mark milestones - Highlight key deliverables
4. Indicate critical path - Use :crit for must-do-first tasks
5. Keep titles short - Fit in the chart view
6. Add buffer - Include slack for unknowns

Example Output

For a set of issues about user authentication:

gantt
    title User Authentication System
    dateFormat YYYY-MM-DD

    section Foundation
    Setup auth module       :a, 2025-01-20, 1d
    Database schema         :b, after a, 1d

    section Core Auth
    Registration endpoint   :c, after b, 3d
    Login endpoint          :d, after b, 3d
    Password reset          :e, after c, 2d

    section Security
    JWT implementation      :f, after d, 2d
    Rate limiting           :g, after f, 1d

    section Testing
    Unit tests              :h, after e g, 2d
    Integration tests       :i, after h, 2d

    section Milestone
    Auth Complete           :milestone, m1, after i, 0d

Handling Edge Cases

No Estimates

If issues lack estimates:

• Use Medium (3d) as default
• Flag for user to review

Circular Dependencies

If dependencies form a loop:

• Error and ask user to resolve
• Cannot generate valid timeline

Too Many Tasks

If > 20 tasks:

• Group into summary tasks
• Suggest breaking into phases

After Generating Timeline

• Show total project duration
• Identify the end date
• Flag if timeline exceeds any stated deadlines
• Offer to save the chart to a markdown file in the repo
• Suggest adding milestones if missing