Author a new Manifest contract from a rough idea, a one-liner, OR a link to an existing source of truth — JIRA ticket, Linear issue, Notion page, Confluence doc, GitHub issue, or Figma file. Use when the user says "new contract", "draft PRD", "spec out a feature", "pull contract from this JIRA ticket", or invokes `/contract new` with either prose or a URL. Pre-fills as much of the contract as possible from the source, then asks the user only what's still missing.
Author a new Manifest contract from a rough idea, a one-liner, OR a link to an existing source of truth — JIRA ticket, Linear issue, Notion page, Confluence doc, GitHub issue, or Figma file. Use when the user says "new contract", "draft PRD", "spec out a feature", "pull contract from this JIRA ticket", or invokes `/contract new` with either prose or a URL. Pre-fills as much of the contract as possible from the source, then asks the user only what's still missing.
Contract intake
Your job is to turn a feature idea — however the user expresses it —
into a draft contract the critics can verify. Be opinionated, not
exhaustive. The critics will find the gaps. Aim for a good first
draft in under 5 minutes of user time when the user provides a source
link, or under 10 minutes when starting from prose.
Input modes
Detect which mode the user is in from their input:
Mode A — Source link (preferred when possible)
The user pastes a URL. Detect the type and route:
URL pattern
MCP to use
What to pull
Any JIRA link — browse/<KEY>, …?selectedIssue=<KEY>, …/issues/<KEY> (see below)
Atlassian / JIRA
Summary, Description, AC field, Comments, Attachments, Linked issues, Labels
*.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/<...>
Atlassian / Confluence
Page content, child pages
linear.app/<org>/issue/<KEY>
Linear
Title, Description, Sub-issues, Labels, Project
notion.so/<...>
Notion
Page content, sub-pages, databases
docs.google.com/document/...
Google Drive (if connected)
Document content. If the Google Drive MCP isn't connected, tell the user to paste the doc content as text and continue in Mode B.
github.com/<org>/<repo>/issues/<N>
GitHub
Title, Body, Comments, Labels, Linked PRs
figma.com/file/<...>
Figma
File frames, comments, frame names
JIRA sharable links. Users paste board/deep/share links, not just
browse/<KEY>. Extract the issue key by scanning the whole URL for the first
[A-Z][A-Z0-9]+-\d+ — it covers browse/PROD-1234,
…/boards/12?selectedIssue=PROD-1234, and …/jira/software/c/projects/PROD/issues/PROD-1234.
See reference/JIRA-SYNC.md for the full table. A board link with no key → ask
for the specific ticket.
Then also scan the fetched content for additional embedded links
(Figma frames inside JIRA, Confluence inside Notion, etc.) and fetch
those too. The richest contracts come from following the link chain
one level deep.
Mode B — Free-text description
The user describes the feature in prose. Use the five-question
interview (see "Five-question intake" below).
Mode C — Hybrid
User provides a link AND adds context ("here's the JIRA, but
specifically focus on the mobile parts"). Fetch the link, then take
the user's hint as steering for which behaviors to prioritize.
Process
1. Resolve input — check the MCP first
If a URL was provided, FIRST check whether the relevant MCP is
connected before trying to fetch. If it isn't, invoke the
setup-check skill briefly to inform the user, then offer two
paths:
Connect the MCP and re-run the command.
Continue with free-text intake — paste the description from the
ticket and proceed as Mode B.
Don't fail with a cryptic MCP error. Always give the user a path
forward.
If the MCP is connected, fetch via the appropriate MCP. Examples
for JIRA:
# Get the ticket (issueKey extracted from the link — see reference/JIRA-SYNC.md)
getJiraIssue({ issueKey: "PROD-1234" })
# Get linked / sub-issues
searchJiraIssuesUsingJql({ jql: "parent = PROD-1234" })
(Tool names shown without the mcp__<connector-id>__ prefix — match by name;
load them via ToolSearch first in Cowork where connectors are deferred.)
Acceptance Criteria field, user story bullets, "How it works"
Acceptance criteria
Given/When/Then sections, bullet ACs
Out of scope
Explicit "Out of scope" headers; "Not in this iteration"
Open questions
"Questions" / "TBD" / "@-mention questions in comments"
For Figma frames, list each frame name as a candidate UI state to
reference in commsStates. Don't try to extract actual designs;
just enumerate frame names so the comms-completeness critic can
check coverage.
4. Identify what's still missing
Compare your extracted draft against the contract format:
Is there at least one success metric with a quantitative target?
Are behaviors clearly enumerated, each with at least a draft AC?
Are all platforms in scope mentioned?
Are out-of-scope items explicit (preventing scope creep)?
For anything missing, prepare a SHORT follow-up question. Cap at 3
questions — anything more becomes the critics' job, not intake's.
Common gaps to ask about:
Success metric target ("the JIRA says 'increase conversion' — by
how much, in what window?")
Platform scope ("the ticket has a mobile label — both iOS and
Android, or just one?")
Out-of-scope ("anything from the description we're not doing in
this iteration?")
5. Five-question intake (Mode B fallback)
If no link was provided OR the link's content is too sparse to
auto-extract, fall back to the five-question interview:
What problem does this solve, for whom, and why now?
Which platforms — web, iOS, Android, server, email — are in scope?
What's the single quantitative success metric and target?
What are the 2–5 main user behaviors this feature introduces?
What's explicitly out of scope?
Ask all five in one round, not back-and-forth.
6. Draft the contract
Use the format in reference/CONTRACT-FORMAT.md at the plugin root. Required
sections:
YAML frontmatter, written in two labelled groups so the author
knows what's theirs (see CONTRACT-FORMAT "Editing a contract"):
a # ── YOU AUTHOR (edit these) ── group (id, title, changeType,
platforms, createdBy) and a # ── MANIFEST MANAGES — don't edit ──
group (status=draft, complexity=null, revision=1, the cycle-time
timestamps initialized to null, fix counters, guard/rollout fields,
bugFollowups). Keep optional blocks (rollbackTriggers, rolloutPlan)
out unless needed — note they're optional and deletable.
changeType — set bug-fix when the source is a bug (JIRA bug
issue type, a link/description that says "fix"/"broken"/"regression",
or an existing-behavior defect); else feature. This is the single
biggest guard against over-engineering a small bug — a bug-fix
contract scaffolds and verifies lean (see below).
source: field in frontmatter pointing back to the original
JIRA/Linear/Notion URL — this is the audit trail
## Goal
## Success metrics — at least one for a feature, with eventName
placeholder if the user doesn't know it yet. For bug-fix: OMIT
this section (or write one line: "the bug no longer reproduces; a
regression test covers it"). Do NOT invent a new analytics event for
a bug fix.
## Behaviors — each as ### B<N>. <Imperative description> with
placeholder fields for instrumentation, perfBudget, commsStates. For
a bug-fix, keep behaviors minimal and use instrumentation: none
unless the bug is literally "we aren't measuring X". Don't enumerate
speculative edge cases — put them in Out of scope as follow-ups.
## Acceptance criteria — at least one Given/When/Then per
behavior, numbered AC1, AC2, ...
## Diagrams — optional: add a Mermaid flowchart only when a
branching/state/multi-actor flow makes the contract clearer; skip it
for a simple change or a bug-fix. (It renders in IDE markdown preview,
or via /contract diagram <ID> → standalone HTML.)
## Out of scope
## Open questions — explicitly note anything the user or the
source couldn't answer
7. Write the file
Write to .manifest/contracts/<ID>.md.
8. Link back to the source
If the input was a JIRA/Linear/etc URL, post a comment on the source
ticket linking to the contract:
mcp__atlassian__add-comment({
issueKey: "PROD-1234",
body: "📋 Manifest contract drafted: [<ID>](<repo-url>/.manifest/contracts/<ID>.md). Run `/contract verify <ID>` to surface gaps."
})
This makes the contract discoverable from JIRA and creates a
two-way link.
9. Offer to auto-verify
After writing the file, tell the user:
"Draft saved to .manifest/contracts/<ID>.md."
"Pre-filled from: . Confidence: <high|medium|low>
based on how complete the source was."
"Open the file, edit anything off, then run /contract verify <ID>
to surface gaps. Or want me to run verify now?"
If the user says yes, chain immediately to /contract verify.
Be opinionated
If the user says "web and app", default to [web, ios, android]
and ask them to remove the ones not in scope. Over-coverage is
safer.
If they don't have a success metric, propose one based on the
feature type and ask them to confirm. Don't leave it blank — the
instrumentation-coverage critic will block readiness.
For each behavior, propose a draft Given/When/Then AC.
For JIRA tickets where the Description is a one-liner, treat it
as Mode B (free-text) and ask the five questions — don't fake
detail you don't have.
Anti-patterns
Don't fabricate behaviors or success metrics that aren't in the
source. If the JIRA ticket is sparse, ask the user, don't
hallucinate.
Don't ask 20 questions; cap at 5 in Mode B or 3 in Mode A.
Don't auto-promote after writing. Promotion is a deliberate human
action (it starts the SLA timer and freezes a revision).
Don't try to fill in instrumentation or perf budgets — those are
critic jobs once the basics are in place.
Don't promise the contract is complete; tell the user critics
will catch gaps.
Don't write the contract before showing the user the extracted
draft for confirmation when in Mode A. They need a chance to
correct extraction errors.
