case-management

name	case-management
description	Manage knowledge work using CMMN (Case Management Model and Notation) primitives including Cases, Stages, Tasks, Sentries, and Milestones. Use for discretionary workflows, research projects, consulting engagements, creative work, or any knowledge-intensive work requiring flexible orchestration. Integrates with pm-orchestration for AI-driven case lifecycle management.

Case Management (CMMN)

Orchestrate knowledge-intensive work using a case-based approach. Cases adapt to reality rather than forcing reality into rigid plans, making them ideal for research, consulting, creative projects, and complex discretionary workflows.

No-Technical-Debt Rule

This skill forbids placeholders of any kind:

• No TODO/FIXME/XXX/HACK/STUB markers
• No stubs, mocks-as-implementations, or empty handlers
• No raise NotImplementedError / throw new Error("not implemented")
• No pass or placeholder logic

If an issue blocks progress, request explicit user feedback with options and a recommendation.

When to Use This Skill

1. Discretionary Work: Outcome is clear but path is uncertain (research, design)
2. Knowledge Reification: Raw notes need to become formal specifications or assets
3. Hybrid Teams: Coordinating mix of human experts and AI specialists
4. Complex Workflows: Multiple stages with event-driven transitions
5. Asset Formation: Work products should become reusable organizational capital

Core Concepts

CMMN Primitives

Primitive	Purpose	Example
Case	Container for knowledge work	"Market Research Q1", "Feature X Design"
Stage	Logical grouping of tasks	"Discovery", "Analysis", "Recommendations"
Task	Unit of work (discretionary or mandatory)	"Interview stakeholders", "Write spec"
Sentry	Event-driven conditional trigger	"When 3 interviews complete, activate analysis"
Milestone	Observable achievement	"Discovery complete", "Spec approved"

Artifact Pipeline (Four Reification Stages)

Cognitive Artifact → Intellectual Artifact → Information Product → Intellectual Capital
(notes, sketches) → (specs, designs)      → (software, reports) → (organizational assets)

Key Principle: Artifacts MUST progress through stages in order. No "teleportation" — every transition requires provenance via TransitionTokens.

Workflow: Creating a Case

Step 1: Define Desired Outcome

Every case starts with a clear, measurable goal:

case:
  id: "case-<year>-<seq>"
  title: "<Project Name>"
  desiredOutcome: "<Specific, measurable outcome statement>"
  context: "<Background and rationale>"
  stakeholders:
    - name: "<Name / Role>"
      role: "Owner"
    - name: "<Name / Role>"
      role: "Contributor"

Quality check:

• ❌ Bad: desiredOutcome: "Make things better"
• ✅ Good: desiredOutcome: "All 17 skills unified into plugin; 5 commands working; plugin validates"

Step 2: Define Stages

stages:
  - id: "<stage-id>"
    name: "<Stage Name>"
    type: "mandatory"          # mandatory | discretionary | repeatable
    entryCriteria:
      - "<condition>"
    exitCriteria:
      - "<measurable condition>"

Step 3: Define Tasks

tasks:
  - id: "<task-id>"
    name: "<Atomic, verifiable task name>"
    type: "process"            # process | human | case
    stage: "<stage-id>"
    assignedTo: "<agent-id or human-role>"
    isDiscretionary: false
    activationSentry:
      conditions:
        - "<prerequisite-task-id>.status == 'complete'"

Step 4: Configure PM-Agent

pmAgent:
  caseId: "<case-id>"
  capabilities:
    taskActivation: true
    artifactTracking: true
    sovereignGateEnforcement: true
  rules:
    - trigger: "sentry-fired"
      action: "activate-task"
    - trigger: "artifact-created"
      action: "record-transition-token"
    - trigger: "capitalization-flow"
      action: "request-sovereign-signature"

Step 5: Track Artifacts

artifacts:
  - id: "<artifact-id>"
    name: "<Artifact Name>"
    stage: "IntellectualArtifact"   # CognitiveArtifact | IntellectualArtifact | InformationProduct | IntellectualCapital
    case: "<case-id>"
    createdBy: "<agent-id>"
    provenance:
      - transition: "CognitiveArtifact → IntellectualArtifact"
        transitionToken: "<token-id>"
        timestamp: "<ISO 8601>"

Governance Policies

No Teleportation

Artifacts cannot skip pipeline stages. Every transition must have a provenance token.

# ❌ VIOLATION: Missing IntellectualArtifact stage
artifact:
  stage: "InformationProduct"
  provenance: []

# ✅ VALID: Complete provenance chain
artifact:
  stage: "InformationProduct"
  provenance:
    - transition: "CognitiveArtifact → IntellectualArtifact"
      transitionToken: "token-001"
    - transition: "IntellectualArtifact → InformationProduct"
      transitionToken: "token-002"

Sovereign Gate

High-impact capital conversions require human signature:

• Trigger: Artifact transitions to IntellectualCapital
• Action: PM-Agent requests SignatureToken from human sovereign
• Enforcement: Transition cannot proceed without explicit human approval

Single Agent Control

AI members are managed exclusively by PM-Agent. Case members cannot self-assign tasks or activate stages.

Common Case Patterns

Development Case (Spec-First)

case:
  title: "<Feature Name>"
  stages:
    - Ideation (brainstorm, spike)
    - Specification (ADR, SDS, SEA-DSL)
    - Implementation (codegen)
    - Testing (unit, integration)
    - Deployment (CI/CD)

Research Case

case:
  title: "<Research Topic>"
  stages:
    - Literature Review
    - Hypothesis Formation
    - Experiment Design
    - Data Collection
    - Analysis
    - Publication

Consulting Case

case:
  title: "<Engagement Name>"
  stages:
    - Discovery (stakeholder interviews)
    - Current State Analysis
    - Future State Design
    - Recommendations
    - Handoff

Integration with Other Plugin Skills

Skill	Integration
cognitive-artifacts	Use Kanban boards to visualize case stages; Checklists for task completion
pm-orchestration	PM-Agent manages task lifecycle within cases
conversation-to-spec	Cases open automatically after Phase 5 validation
internal-comms	Generate 3P updates from case progress; incident reports from blockers

IFL Provenance Tokens

Every case state transition creates an immutable TransitionToken:

transitionTokens:
  - id: "<token-id>"
    case: "<case-id>"
    transition: "Created → Active"
    timestamp: "<ISO 8601>"
    "ifl:hash": "sha256:<64-char-hex>"