accelint-qrspi-propose

name	accelint-qrspi-propose
description	Use this skill when the user wants to start the formal QRSPI/OpenSpec planning workflow for a ticket, bug, feature request, or proposed product/CLI/app change before implementation. Invoke it when the user wants a spec-driven change package with questions first, factual research, proposal/design artifacts, affected specs, and a vertically sliced task plan, with explicit review/approval stops before any coding begins. This is the right skill when the user wants to plan, scope, or break down the change itself, especially if they ask to use QRSPI, create an OpenSpec change, run a planning workflow, or stop before writing code. Do not use it to implement an existing spec, review or polish artifacts that already exist, generate generic architecture docs, archive completed changes, or support loose brainstorming without a request for formal QRSPI/OpenSpec outputs.
license	Apache-2.0
metadata	{"author":"accelint","version":"1.9.0"}

Accelint QRSPI

Automate the QRSPI + OpenSpec planning workflow. This skill applies the methodology from "We Got RPI Wrong" through OpenSpec's artifact system. It orchestrates the Questions → Research → Design → Structure stages and requires human checkpoints before any code is written.

What This Skill Does

Automates: The planning phase of spec-driven development using QRSPI Scope: Questions → Research → Design → Structure/Plan (stops before implementation) Output: A complete OpenSpec change ready for the accelint-qrspi-apply skill

Does NOT: Implement code, run tests, create PRs, or archive changes

Prerequisites

This skill requires the expanded OpenSpec workflows (explore, new, continue) to access the step-by-step artifact generation.

To verify these workflows are enabled:

openspec config list

Check that the workflows: section includes: explore, new, and continue.

If any are missing, enable the expanded profile:

openspec config profile
# Select "expanded" from the list
openspec update

Workflow Overview

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Stage          Context              Output          Checkpoint │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Questions      Ticket only          Questions       —          │
│  Research       Questions only       Research doc    —          │
│  Design         Q+R (NO ticket)      proposal.md     —          │
│                                      design.md       —          │
│                                      [STOP HERE]                │
│  ⚠️  CHECKPOINT 1: Review design.md - MUST approve to continue  │
│  (frontmatter: specs_touched/decisions/created_at -> design.md) │
│                                                                 │
│  Specs/Tasks    Q+R+design           specs/*         —          │
│                                      tasks.md        —          │
│  ⚠️  CHECKPOINT 2: Review tasks.md - MUST approve to continue   │
│                                                                 │
│  Done           —                    Exit            —          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Note: Keep the ticket OUT of context after the Questions stage to prevent completion bleed.

REQUIRED: The Design stage (steps 17-26) generates ONLY `proposal.md` and `design.md`, optionally creates `q-and-a.md` if `--verbose` flag was set, then STOPS for review at step 27. The Specs/Tasks stage (steps 33-43) generates `specs/*` and `tasks.md` separately after design approval.

Capture frontmatter at step 31 after Checkpoint 1 approval, not before. `design.md` reaches its final form for this planning pass only after the user approves it or confirms a manual edit. Earlier capture can write `specs_touched/decisions/created_at` against content the user is about to change. The `created_at` timestamp marks when the user approved the design (the moment the change becomes "real").

⚠️  REQUIRED CHECKPOINTS: The agent MUST pause and wait for explicit user approval at both checkpoints (step 27 and step 44). Proceeding without approval bypasses QRSPI's core value.

Implementation Steps

Execute these steps in order without stopping between them.

1. Validate user input and parse flags: Check if the user provided a ticket, feature request, or idea in their prompt (either as skill arguments or in their message). Also check for the --verbose flag.

   Flag parsing:

   • Check if the user's input contains --verbose (with or without other content)
   • Store the verbose flag state for use in step 25
   • Remove --verbose from the input before extracting the ticket description
   • Store the original input text (after flag removal) for use in step 25 — this will be saved to trace.md if --verbose was set

   Validation: If the prompt is empty or contains only the skill invocation with no actual content (after removing flags):

   I need a ticket or feature description to plan. Please provide:
   
   - A ticket ID and description (e.g., "ATI-123: Add user authentication...")
   - A feature request ("I want to add dark mode support...")
   - An idea or problem statement ("Users complain about slow search...")
   
   Then I'll use QRSPI to break it down into a structured plan.
   
   Optional flags:
   --verbose    Save input, questions, and answers to trace.md for audit trail
   

   Exit the skill and wait for the user to provide input. Do NOT proceed with internal examples or placeholder content.

2. Tell the user: "Checking OpenSpec configuration..."

3. Run openspec config list and parse the output

4. Check if the workflows: section contains all three required workflows: explore, new, and continue

5. If any are missing:

   This skill requires the expanded OpenSpec workflows (explore, new, continue).
   
   Your current workflows: [list what's enabled]
   Missing: [list what's missing]
   
   To enable the expanded workflows, run:
   
   openspec config profile
   # Select "expanded" from the list
   openspec update
   
   Then re-run this skill.
   

6. Exit the skill if required workflows are not enabled

7. If validation passes and all workflows are present, continue to step 8

8. Generate research questions (Context isolation: the agent sees ONLY the ticket, not prior codebase knowledge or research. This prevents solution-first thinking)

9. Accept the ticket description from the user (passed as the skill argument or prompted if missing)

10. Use the Agent tool to spawn sub-agent with this exact prompt

Invoke the openspec-explore skill.

I have this ticket:

<paste full ticket description here>

Generate a list of research questions that will tell us everything we need
to know before building this. Do not propose any solutions. Questions only.

11. Wait for the sub-agent (spawned via Agent tool) to complete and return the questions (INTERNAL STEP: Do NOT display the questions to the user)

12. Extract and store the questions — they will be passed to the next step.

13. Answer research questions (Context isolation: the agent answering questions should see ONLY the questions, not the original ticket. This is the core QRSPI insight — research is objective and ticket-agnostic)

14. Use the Agent tool to spawn a NEW sub-agent (fresh context) with this exact prompt:

Invoke the openspec-explore skill.

<paste ONLY the research questions from step 12>

Answer each question with facts only. Observe what the codebase does today AND what the current specs of record say (scan openspec/specs/INDEX.md for capabilities whose name or Purpose line plausibly relates to these questions; for any that match, read the full specs/<capability>/spec.md file and include its current requirements and scenarios directly in your findings, not just a reference to the file). Do not suggest changes or implementation approaches.

**Use `sem impact` for dependency analysis**

If research questions mention specific code entities (functions, classes, types, constants), check whether the `sem` CLI tool is available by running `which sem`.

If available, use `sem impact <token>` (baseline format, not JSON) to gather deterministic dependency data:
- Where the entity is defined (file:line)
- What it depends on (all dependencies)
- What depends on it (all call sites and references)
- Transitive impact (how many entities are affected)

Include this impact analysis in your research findings. This ensures the design phase has complete dependency information and won't miss references or call sites.

15. Wait for the sub-agent to complete and return the research document (INTERNAL STEP: Do NOT display the research findings to the user)

16. Store the research answers — they will inform the design step.

17. Generate design scaffolding (Context isolation: the ticket MUST NOT be in context during artifact generation. Use Agent tool to spawn a sub-agent with only questions + research to prevent "completion bleed".)

18. Read openspec/config.yaml to extract the rules.design section

19. Read CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md to extract agent behavior context

20. Use the Agent tool to spawn a sub-agent with this exact prompt:

You are generating OpenSpec artifacts based on QRSPI research. You have access
to the research questions and answers, but NOT the original ticket text. This
prevents solution bias.

Research Questions and Answers:
<paste the research questions from step 12>

Research Findings:
<paste research doc from step 16>

OpenSpec Design Rules (from config.yaml):
<paste the rules.design section verbatim from step 18>

Agent Behavior Context:
<paste relevant sections from CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md from step 19>

CRITICAL: You MUST invoke OpenSpec skills to create and generate artifacts.
DO NOT create files or write artifact content yourself. The OpenSpec skills
will handle artifact generation following OpenSpec's configured rules.

Now create the OpenSpec change with proposal and design artifacts:

1. Invoke the openspec-new-change skill to create the change (OpenSpec will prompt for a slug)

2. CRITICAL: Capture the change name/slug from the output and use it in all subsequent commands

3. Run the openspec-continue-change skill ONCE with the change name to generate proposal.md ONLY:
   Invoke the openspec-continue-change skill.

   <change-name>

4. Run the openspec-continue-change skill ONCE with the change name to generate design.md ONLY:
   Invoke the openspec-continue-change skill.

   <change-name>

5. STOP after design.md - do NOT generate specs or tasks yet

IMPORTANT: Let openspec-continue-change generate proposal.md and design.md using the
OpenSpec workflow. DO NOT write these files yourself. The openspec-continue-change
skill handles artifact generation based on config.yaml rules.

After design.md is generated (and ONLY proposal.md and design.md exist),
report completion, the CHANGE NAME, and the path to the design file.

IMPORTANT: You MUST report the change name explicitly at the end like:
"Change name: <slug>"

CRITICAL: STOP AFTER GENERATING DESIGN.MD. DO NOT CONTINUE TO SPECS OR TASKS.
Your job ends here. The parent agent will handle the checkpoint and further steps.
If you generate specs/* or tasks.md, you will bypass the mandatory design review.

21. Wait for the sub-agent to complete

22. Extract the change name/slug from the sub-agent output (look for "Change name:" or parse from the file path)

23. Store the change name — it will be passed to later steps

24. Verify the design.md file exists at the reported path

25. If --verbose flag was set in step 1: Create a trace.md audit trail file in the change folder before proceeding to the checkpoint.

Purpose: Provides traceability by capturing the initial input, raw questions, and research answers that informed the design artifacts. This closes the loop from "what was entered → what was asked → what was answered".

File location: openspec/changes/<change-name>/trace.md

Requirements:

• You MUST use the Write tool to create this file
• The file MUST be written to openspec/changes/<change-name>/trace.md (where <change-name> is the slug from step 23)
• The content MUST include an ISO 8601 timestamp indicating when the document was generated
• The content MUST include the original ticket/feature/idea text that the user provided (from step 1, after flag removal)
• The content MUST include the complete research questions from step 12
• The content MUST include the complete research findings from step 16
• You MUST NOT modify proposal.md or design.md as part of this step — this is a separate audit document
• You SHOULD write this file immediately after verifying design.md exists (step 24) and before proceeding to the checkpoint (step 26)

Content structure:

# QRSPI Trace Audit Trail

Generated: [paste current ISO 8601 timestamp with Z suffix, generated using: python3 -c "from datetime import datetime, timezone; print(datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat(timespec='seconds').replace('+00:00', 'Z'))"]

This document captures the complete QRSPI flow: the initial input, the questions generated, and the research answers that informed the design artifacts. It provides an audit trail for understanding the context and decision-making process.

---

## Initial Input

[paste the original ticket/feature/idea text from step 1, after removing the --verbose flag]

---

## Research Questions

[paste questions from step 12]

---

## Research Answers

[paste research findings from step 16]

26. REQUIRED: DO NOT continue yet. You MUST proceed to the design review checkpoint next.

27. ⚠️ REQUIRED CHECKPOINT: Design Review (This is the "brain surgery" moment from the QRSPI talk. A correction here costs minutes; the same correction after implementation costs a code review cycle. You MUST pause here and wait for user input. DO NOT proceed without explicit user approval.)

28. Read the generated design.md file

29. Present it to the user with this framing:

Design artifact generated. Please review for:

- Wrong pattern references (did I find the legacy way instead of the current way?)
- Unresolved assumptions presented as decisions
- Missing affected systems (any service boundaries not mentioned?)
- Scope creep (does the design cover more than the ticket?)

Options:
(a) Approve — continue to task breakdown
(b) Request edits — tell me what to change, I'll modify in place
(c) Manual edit — edit the file yourself, then tell me when ready

30. Wait for user input:

• (a) Approve: Proceed to step 31 below
• (b) Request edits:
  • User describes changes
  • Make edits to design.md in place
  • Show diff of changes
  • Re-present for review (repeat until approved)
• (c) Manual edit:
  • Wait for user confirmation that edits are complete
  • Re-read design.md
  • Proceed to step 31 below

31. Capture specs_touched/decisions frontmatter. Once the user has approved (a) or confirmed their manual edits are complete (c), design.md is in its final form for this planning pass — capture its specs_touched and decisions as structured YAML frontmatter now, not any earlier, so an edit made during this same checkpoint can't leave the frontmatter stale against content that changed after it was written.

Step-by-step process:

a. Read the current design.md file to see what exists: bash Read openspec/changes/<change-name-from-step-23>/design.md

b. Extract the data you need to write: - specs_touched: the capability names design.md and proposal.md already declare as affected or introduced by this change. This is the change's own stated scope, read back out of what was just approved — not computed some other way. The delta spec files under openspec/changes/<slug>/specs/ don't exist yet at this point (specs/tasks generation happens in steps 32-42), so there's nothing else to derive it from. - decisions: design.md's own decision content — the choices, rationale, and alternatives the design phase already worked through — restructured into a list of {id, choice, rationale, alternatives} entries. This is structuring content that's already there, not writing new design content. - created_at: ISO 8601 timestamp with Z suffix marking when this change was created (now, at the moment the user approves the design). Generate this deterministically using: bash python3 -c "from datetime import datetime, timezone; print(datetime.now(timezone.utc).isoformat(timespec='seconds').replace('+00:00', 'Z'))" This is the first of three timestamps used to measure time spent in the QRSPI flow (created_at → started_at → completed_at).

c. Write the frontmatter using the Edit tool:

  - If design.md has NO frontmatter yet, add a complete frontmatter block at the top:
    ```yaml
    ---
    change: <change-name-from-step-23>
    created_at: "2026-08-17T15:23:45.123Z"
    specs_touched: [<capability-a>, <capability-b>]
    decisions:
      - id: D1
        choice: <short decision summary>
        rationale: <why this over the alternatives>
        alternatives: [<option>, <option>]
    ---
    ```

  - If design.md already has frontmatter (e.g., OpenSpec's own metadata), merge the new fields into the existing block using the Edit tool. Do NOT create a second frontmatter block.

d. CRITICAL formatting requirements: - Use inline array syntax for specs_touched: Write specs_touched: [cap-a, cap-b] NOT multi-line YAML with hyphens. This keeps frontmatter format consistent. - Preserve existing frontmatter fields: If there are other fields already present, keep them unchanged. - Decisions use block syntax: The decisions list uses multi-line YAML with hyphens for each entry (see example above).

e. Verify the write succeeded: - After using the Edit tool, check that the operation completed without errors - If the Edit tool reports an error, try reading the file again and re-attempting the write - If the write fails repeatedly, inform the user and ask them to add the frontmatter manually

f. Handle missing data gracefully: - If specs_touched or a clear decisions list can't be confidently read out of the approved design.md/proposal.md, don't guess at either — tell the user what's missing and ask them to add it to design.md directly. A design doc without a clear decisions trail is worth flagging on its own terms, and accelint-qrspi-archive needs this frontmatter later to do its cross-capability linking.

Why this matters: This frontmatter is cross-skill bookkeeping metadata for accelint-qrspi-archive, not part of the design content the openspec-continue-change skill generates — writing it here doesn't fall under the "never generate artifacts yourself" rule (see NEVER Do This). Nothing in proposal.md's or design.md's actual content gets created or altered by this step; only the frontmatter block does.

32. REQUIRED: If the user does not explicitly approve (says "looks good", "approve", "continue", etc.), DO NOT move forward. This checkpoint is mandatory. Skipping it bypasses the core value of QRSPI methodology.

33. Generate specs and tasks (Context isolation: continue to keep the ticket out of context. Spawn a sub-agent with questions + research + approved design.md)

34. Read the (possibly user-edited) design.md file from step 31

35. Read openspec/config.yaml to extract the rules.spec and rules.tasks sections

36. Read CLAUDE.md or AGENTS.md for agent behavior context

37. Use the Agent tool to spawn a sub-agent with this exact prompt:

You are generating OpenSpec specs and tasks based on QRSPI research and an
approved design. You have access to research and design, but NOT the original
ticket text.

CHANGE NAME: <change-name-from-step-23>

Research Questions and Answers:
<paste questions from step 12>

Research Findings:
<paste research doc from step 16>

Approved Design:
<paste design.md content>

OpenSpec Spec Rules (from config.yaml):
<paste the rules.spec section verbatim>

OpenSpec Tasks Rules (from config.yaml):
<paste the rules.tasks section verbatim>

Agent Behavior Context:
<paste relevant sections from CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md>

CRITICAL: You MUST use the openspec-continue-change skill to generate artifacts.
DO NOT generate specs or tasks.md content yourself. The openspec-continue-change skill
will handle artifact generation following OpenSpec's configured rules.

Now generate the remaining OpenSpec artifacts:

1. Invoke openspec-continue-change <change-name> to generate specs/* (delta specs)
2. Invoke openspec-continue-change <change-name> to generate tasks.md

IMPORTANT: Let openspec-continue-change generate tasks.md using the OpenSpec workflow.
DO NOT write tasks.md yourself. The openspec-continue-change skill handles this.

After tasks.md is generated, the parent agent will validate vertical slicing
and add a "## Parallelization Strategy" section if needed.

After tasks.md is generated, report completion and the path to the tasks file.

38. Wait for the sub-agent to complete (INTERNAL STEP: Do NOT display artifact generation details to the user)

39. Verify specs/* and tasks.md exist at the reported paths

40. Read the generated tasks.md file

41. Validate vertical slicing structure:

VERTICAL SLICING (required for qrspi-apply):

Each slice must deliver an end-to-end testable feature path, NOT a horizontal layer. Structure the work so that after completing Slice 1, you have something demonstrable and testable.

✓ CORRECT - Vertical (end-to-end feature slices):

Slice 1: Mock API + working frontend (user can see and click, no real data)
Slice 2: Wire real service layer (now pulls actual data)
Slice 3: Add database integration (data persists)

✗ WRONG - Horizontal (architectural layers):

Slice 1: All database migrations
Slice 2: All service layer changes
Slice 3: All API endpoints
Slice 4: All frontend components

Indicators of VERTICAL slicing (correct):

• Each slice has a "Deliverable:" that describes a working, testable feature
• Slices cross architectural boundaries (e.g., a slice touches both CLI and implementation)
• Each slice ends with something demonstrable to a user or stakeholder
• Parallelization is possible with minimal dependencies between slices

Indicators of HORIZONTAL slicing (incorrect):

• Slices are organized by layer: "Database changes", "Service layer", "API routes", "Frontend"
• Deliverables are architectural components, not user-facing features
• Early slices cannot be tested end-to-end without later slices
• Slices have sequential dependencies (must finish layer 1 before layer 2)

Requirements for each slice:

• Deliverable: A working, testable increment (e.g., "CLI with security removed from public API")
• Test: Explicit verification steps showing the slice works end-to-end
• Parallelization: Slices should be independent enough to implement concurrently with minimal blocking
• Checkpoints: Each subtask has a "Test:" line describing verification
• Size: Prefer 3-5 major slices; more than 5 suggests scope is too large
• Duration: Max 2 hours per subtask; break larger work into smaller subtasks