| name | task-append |
| description | Capture one or more tasks into the domain-driven backlog as new `draft`s from human input of ANY quality — a polished spec or a half-formed brain-dump both welcome. Trigger whenever the user wants to record, capture, add, jot down, or "note for later" a task, idea, feature, or piece of work into the backlog — e.g. "add a task to…", "capture this…", "put this on the backlog", "we should also…", "remember to…", "new task:", or /task-append. Accepts several tasks at once when the input is split by markdown document delimiters (a line containing only `---`) — each block becomes its own draft. Mints the next id per task via tasks.sh, writes tasks/NNNN-slug.md with minimal frontmatter, and does NOT interview, size, or wire dependencies (that is /task-refine's job). The low-friction front door to the backlog. Requires a tasks/ backlog (domain-driven workflow); do NOT trigger for read-only backlog questions ("what's next?", "what's the status?" — those are /whats-next and /task-status), for refining an existing task, or for ad-hoc code edits.
|
| argument-hint | <the idea(s), in any form — one dump, or several separated by --- lines> |
| model | sonnet |
| allowed-tools | Read, Write, Bash(mkdir -p tasks), Bash(bash */skills/task-status/tasks.sh *), Bash(date *) |
Task Append — Capture Draft(s)
You capture one or more tasks into the backlog as drafts. This is a capture step, not a design step. Do not interview, do not assess completeness, do not add dependencies or a context — /task-refine does all of that. Your job is to get the human's idea(s) onto disk faithfully and with the least friction, so nothing is lost in the moment it occurs to them.
Raw, incomplete, or unpolished input is explicitly fine. If the human hands you a one-liner, capture the one-liner. If they hand you a rambling brain-dump, preserve it. Never demand more before saving.
Splitting the input into tasks
First decide how many tasks the input holds. A line containing only --- (a markdown document delimiter) separates one task from the next. Split the input on such lines into blocks, trim surrounding blank lines from each block, and drop any empty blocks. Each remaining block is one task. Input with no --- delimiter is a single task — the common case.
Then run the steps below once per block, minting a fresh id for each (mint → write → mint the next), so each task lands in its own tasks/NNNN-slug.md.
Steps (per task block)
- Ensure the backlog exists:
mkdir -p tasks (only needed once).
- Mint the id: run
bash <skills-root>/task-status/tasks.sh next-id (the helper is a sibling skill directory; <skills-root> is the directory this skill lives in). Use the returned 4-digit id. Because next-id is derived from the files on disk (max existing id + 1), always mint the id after the previous task's file has been written, so each task gets a distinct id.
- Derive a title and slug. Make a short imperative title from the block (invent a reasonable one if the block is a raw dump). The slug is the title lowercased, non-alphanumerics collapsed to single hyphens.
- Get the timestamp:
date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ.
- Write
tasks/NNNN-slug.md with exactly this shape:
---
id: "NNNN"
title: <title>
status: draft
context: ""
created: <ISO8601 UTC>
completed: ""
depends_on: []
related_adrs: []
related_documents: []
split_into: []
---
## Outcome
<what the human wants to be true when this is done — restate their input; if it was a raw dump, capture it verbatim under a "Raw capture" note below rather than polishing it away>
### Why this matters
<if the human said; otherwise leave a TODO for /task-refine>
### Acceptance criteria
<if the human gave any; otherwise leave a TODO for /task-refine>
## Notes
<the raw input, verbatim, if it was unstructured>
## Closing
<filled at implementation by /task-cycle — leave as-is>
### Manual testing
<filled at implementation by /task-cycle — leave as-is>
### Deviations from plan
<filled at implementation by /task-cycle — leave as-is>
Write id, status, and context as quoted strings; keep depends_on, related_adrs, related_documents, and split_into as JSON-style lists (the tasks.sh helper normalizes either form, but quoting ids avoids YAML octal surprises).
After writing
Confirm each captured task in one line: its id, its title, and that it is a draft (one line per task when several were captured). Then remind the human once that /task-refine will turn each into a ready todo (interviewing them, sizing it, wiring dependencies, and checking it against the domain). Do not refine them now.
