| name | tflo-triage |
| description | Pick the next Trello card to work on. Scores open cards on the Intelliforia board, claims the top one, moves it to In-Progress, creates the branch, writes FSM state. Use when the user says "what should I work on?", "tflo start", "claim next ticket", or when the orchestrator loops idle → triage. Mutates Trello + git on claim. |
tflo-triage — Pick the next ticket
Overview
Scores cards on the Intelliforia Trello board (https://trello.com/b/jLl1NE0Z/intelliforia), claims the top one, and hands off to tflo-implement with the FSM at phase: implementing.
Scoring + mutation logic lives in scripts/tflo.py. This SKILL is the orchestrator's contract for how to invoke it and route the outcome.
Preconditions
_bmad/memory/tflo/current-ticket.md does not exist. Absence of that file is the FSM's idle marker; there is no phase: idle value.- No ticket is in the
escalated state. Check the last entry of _bmad/memory/tflo/tickets/*/transitions.jsonl for any unresolved to: escalated. If found, surface to the user before claiming. Triage MUST NOT claim past an unacknowledged escalation.
TRELLO_API_KEY, TRELLO_TOKEN, TRELLO_BOARD_ID env vars are set (exported from ~/.config/zshyzsh/secrets.zsh).- We're in the intelliforia repo on a sane base branch (
main or staging, not a stale ticket branch).
- Hindsight recall has been run for the
intelliforia bank this session (orchestrator's responsibility per global instructions; triage assumes it's done).
Invocation modes
Triage runs in one of two modes depending on the caller. The SKILL behaves differently for each.
| Mode | Caller | Behavior |
|---|
| Manual | User typed /tflo-triage or asked "what should I work on?" | Run dry-run, present ranking, ask once before claiming. HITL confirmation is appropriate here because the user is browsing. |
| Autonomous | Orchestrator looping from idle (Otto, /loop, autopilot) | Run dry-run for the log, then claim the top card with --yes. No HITL. If preconditions fail, abort the loop iteration and surface to the next idle check, do NOT pause to ask. |
Detection heuristic: if the immediately-preceding turn was a user typing /tflo-triage or an exploratory question, treat as manual. If the preceding context is an orchestrator hand-off from tflo-create-pr resetting FSM to idle, treat as autonomous.
Capabilities
Dry-run (read-only, no mutations)
mise run tflo:dry-run
Output: markdown table with rank, total score, type, card name, list position, and the per-component score breakdown (Pos / Pri / Bug / Free / Mine).
Underlying script flags (use directly if mise isn't available):
uv run python scripts/tflo.py dry-run --list-name 'To-Do' --limit 10 --format table
Use when:
- Manual mode — show the ranking before claiming.
- Autonomous mode — log the ranking before the claim so the run record has it.
- The user is browsing the backlog and not yet committed to claiming.
Claim the top card
Score the source list, move the top card from To-Do to In-Progress, create branch, write current-ticket.md, post a Trello comment.
Preview (no mutations):
mise run tflo claim
Execute (real mutations):
mise run tflo claim --yes
Output on success:
✓ Claimed [N] '<card name>'
Branch: <idShort>-<kebab-name> (checked out)
Memory: <path to current-ticket.md>
After successful claim, FSM is at phase: implementing. Hand off to tflo-implement.
Manual pick (specific card)
Not implemented as a CLI flag. Workaround: drag the preferred card to position #1 in To-Do, then claim. Position dominates scoring, so #1 always wins. If you find yourself doing this often, it's a signal to add a --card-id flag to scripts/tflo.py claim.
Failure modes
| Symptom | Meaning | Action |
|---|
current-ticket.md exists at <path> | A previous ticket is in flight | Run mise run tflo abort --yes to release it, or invoke the orchestrator's resume capability. |
Unresolved escalated transition in tickets/*/transitions.jsonl | Prior ticket escalated to human, never acknowledged | Surface to user. Do NOT claim. |
List not found on board: 'To-Do' | Board structure changed | Re-run mise run tflo:list-lists, update scripts/tflo.py defaults if needed. |
Missing required env var: TRELLO_* | Creds missing | Source ~/.config/zshyzsh/secrets.zsh or set env vars manually. |
| HTTP 401 / 403 from Trello | Token expired or revoked | Regenerate Trello token, update env. |
| HTTP 5xx | Trello transient | Retry once. If persistent, surface to human. |
Inputs
Dry-run flags (scripts/tflo.py dry-run):
--list-name TEXT — list to score (default To-Do)--limit INTEGER — top N to display (default 10)--format [table|json] — output format (default table)
Claim flags (scripts/tflo.py claim):
--source-list TEXT — list to draw from (default To-Do)--target-list TEXT — list to move into (default In-Progress)--yes — execute mutations (without this flag, dry-run only)
Outputs
_bmad/memory/tflo/current-ticket.md written with FSM state. Includes previous_list + claimed_from_branch for abort reversibility.- New git branch checked out, named
<idShort>-<kebab-name>, capped at 60 chars.
- Comment posted on the Trello card announcing the claim.
- First entry appended to
_bmad/memory/tflo/tickets/<idShort>/transitions.jsonl.
Handoff
After successful claim: orchestrator invokes tflo-implement. current-ticket.md is the source of truth for what to implement (notably the type field, which drives the implement chain).
Related
- Reverse a claim:
mise run tflo abort --yes (returns card to source list, deletes FSM, drops branch)
- Orchestrator:
tflo-agent-orchestrator
- Module plan:
_bmad-output/planning-artifacts/module-plan-trello-lifecycle-2026-05-06.md
- Autonomous-mode contract for the full chain:
feedback_tflo_autonomous_no_clarification.md in user memory
