scope-backlog-item

name	scope-backlog-item
description	Turn a raw backlog item into a turnkey recipe or an owner ask — chase its origin, state the fuller picture, classify buildable/owner-gated/dead, write the sized recipe with acceptance + traps, and retarget the baton. Makes the standing 'when no executable work is left, plan' order turnkey.

scope-backlog-item

When the executable backlog is empty and the standing order is "when no executable work is left, plan," this skill turns a raw backlog item into a turnkey recipe the next session can build cold without re-deriving anything. It is the planning counterpart to intake: intake reasons a fresh owner ask forward; this reasons an existing backlog item forward into a buildable slice — chase its origin, state the fuller picture, classify it, and write the recipe or the owner ask.

What this does

Takes one backlog item (an ideas file, a friction flag on a session card, a baton entry, a routed order) and produces exactly one of:

• a sized, turnkey recipe a session can pick up cold and build to green,
• a six-field owner ask (WHAT / WHERE / HOW / WHY / UNBLOCKS / VERIFY, plus RISK) when the item is owner-gated,
• a dead / superseded disposition with the reason, or
• a needs-planning split into a smallest-buildable first slice plus the remainder.

Then it retargets the baton so the next session lands on the freshly-scoped slice.

Invocation

/scope-backlog-item <the item — a path, a baton entry, or a one-line description>

Instructions

1. CHASE THE ORIGIN. Follow every reference the item names to its source — the session card that raised it, the ideas file, the friction flag, the order — and read them at HEAD, not from memory. The origin holds the real constraint the one-line item compresses away; scoping without it reproduces the near-miss the item came from. If the item names no origin, say so and scope from the text you have.

2. STATE THE FULLER PICTURE (understand-and-reflect). In two or three sentences, reason the item forward to the fuller shape its origin implies — the surrounding constraints, the likely intended scope, the follow-on it points at. A wrong assumption stated here costs one line to correct; the same assumption found after an hour of building costs the hour.

3. CLASSIFY into exactly one bucket:

   • buildable-now — contained, reversible, test-coverable in one session; go to step 4.
   • needs-planning — real but too big for one slice; split into the smallest buildable first slice plus the remainder, and scope the first slice through step 4.
   • owner-gated — irreversible / external / product-intent / console-or-secret; write it as a six-field owner ask (WHAT / WHERE / HOW / WHY / UNBLOCKS / VERIFY, RISK marker, paste-ready) and stop — do not build.
   • dead — superseded, already shipped, or wrong; record the disposition plus a one-line reason.

4. WRITE THE RECIPE so a cold session needs nothing else:

   • Size — S / M / L against a single session.
   • Steps — the ordered build path (files to touch, the seam, the guard).
   • Acceptance — the exact command(s) that prove it green (the repo's verify line plus any gate).
   • Traps — the specific footguns this item will hit. Always check these three, which bite every new-doc recipe:
     • badge token — a new doc placed under docs/ needs a Status badge in its first 12 lines, and the token must come from the docs-gate's allowed set (binding, reference, plan, historical, ideas, audit, owner-guidance, living-ledger, archive); an invented token reds the gate.
     • reachability — a new doc must be reachable by a markdown link from a read-path root (docs/AGENT_ORIENTATION.md or docs/current-state.md, or a README they reach) or it fails the reachable leg, unless it is badged historical or archive.
     • docs-gate — run the kit gate before pushing; it catches both of the above plus dead links.

5. RETARGET THE BATON. Update the coordinator's Next-2 baton in control/status.md so the next session's first slice is this freshly-scoped item, naming the recipe (or its planning-doc path). Leave the baton pointing at real, cold-startable work — that is the whole output.

Report format

Report the item, its origin trail, the fuller picture, the classification with reason, and the recipe or owner ask verbatim, plus the baton line you wrote.

Declared capabilities: read (the origin refs, the backlog, the docs-gate rules).