| name | m-pm-ticket |
| description | PM ticket authoring at the right altitude — turn a bug report, feature ask, or an over-technical draft into ONE clean ticket/work item that stops at Problem, Impact, Reproduction, and Acceptance Criteria, stripping engineering diagnosis (root cause, code, file:line, commit hashes, proposed fix) and leaving it to engineering. Works against Jira or Azure DevOps via the m-board provider layer; creates the ticket only after a confirm gate. Triggers: write a ticket, pm ticket, create work item, ado ticket, jira ticket, bug ticket at the right altitude, de-technify this ticket, file a bug, report a bug, raise a ticket, bug report, feature request, my ticket is too technical, clean up this ticket, acceptance criteria, problem impact reproduction, ticket too engineering-heavy. |
PM Ticket — Author at the Right Altitude
TL;DR — Detect provider + load config (−1) → capture input, always confirm assignee + sprint/iteration (0) → altitude scan: CUT diagnosis/fix, KEEP observations (1) → rewrite into the PM template (2) → AC quality gate: observable, black-box (3) → show draft, user confirms (4) → create on the board via the provider's MCP tools (5) → if scope spans stacks/teams, offer /m-story-breakdown (6) → deliver (7).
A PM ticket describes what is wrong and how we'll know it's fixed — not why it's broken or how to fix it. Diagnosis is engineering's job; pre-deciding it in the ticket narrows their options and is often wrong. This skill keeps the ticket at PM altitude and hands the rest off.
Do NOT create any ticket until the Phase 4 gate has passed. All board work uses the provider's MCP tools — never a CLI.
The altitude line (the heart of this skill)
| KEEP — PM owns it | CUT — engineering owns it |
|---|
| Problem — the user-visible symptom in plain language | Root cause / diagnosis — why it happens |
| Impact — who's hit, how often, how badly | Code references — file:line, function names, commit hashes |
| Reproduction — steps, expected, actual, environment | Proposed fix — code blocks, new functions, refactors |
| Observations — factual what was seen | Interpretation of those observations |
| Acceptance Criteria — observable, black-box outcomes | Implementation-level AC — internal field names, DB paths, module internals |
| Context — reporter, related tickets, attachments | Internal-mechanism scope notes |
The test for a line: could the PM have written it without reading the source code? If yes → keep. If it required opening the repo → it's a diagnosis or a fix → cut it (engineering will rediscover it, correctly, and own it).
Keep observations, cut interpretations. "The change held in the open browser tab but was gone in a fresh session" is an observation — keep it (great repro evidence). "So it's client-side state, not the database" is a diagnosis — cut it.
Phase −1 — Provider Detection & Config
Delegate provider detection to the m-board skill: read m-board/SKILL.md and run its detection procedure (this skill's config.json "provider" key wins; else discover via tool search; else ask once). Then read m-board/providers/<provider>.md for the concrete creation tool names, query language, and type/field mapping. If no board MCP is reachable, say so and stop.
Resolve config by trying in order, stopping at the first hit: <project skills root>/m-pm-ticket/config.json → its config.example.json → <global skills root>/m-pm-ticket/config.json → <skill-dir>/config.example.json. Announce the resolved source once; if only the example was found, tell the user once to copy it to config.json and customise.
Config shape (see config.example.json): provider, defaultProject, defaultIssueType (usually Bug or Task), contentLanguage, defaultPriority, alwaysAddLabels, defaultAssignee, and engineeringHandoffLabel (label/tag added when diagnosis was stripped, e.g. needs-triage). defaultAssignee may be a single value or a project → assignee map (e.g. { "PROJ": "pm@example.com" }); when it's a map, the matching entry is only the suggested value when asking (Phase 0), never applied silently.
Phase 0 — Capture the Input
Detect the entry mode: A — repair a draft (user pasted an over-technical ticket → lint it up to altitude), B — author fresh (prose bug/feature description), C — from a file (Read the path, then treat as A). Then emit this block and stop for confirmation:
TICKET INTAKE
======================================================
Mode: [A repair | B author | C file: <path>]
Kind: [Bug | Feature | Improvement] → ticket type: <from config.defaultIssueType or kind>
Target project: [KEY] (config.defaultProject; ask if unset)
One-liner: [the ticket in a single sentence]
Reporter / source: [name, channel, date — if given]
Related: [ticket keys / links — if given]
Assignee: [ALWAYS ASK — suggest config.defaultAssignee if set, else "unassigned"]
Sprint/iteration: [ALWAYS ASK — name/number, or "backlog" / "none"]
Unknowns to confirm: [anything you'd otherwise have to invent]
======================================================
Always ask the user for assignee and sprint/iteration — every ticket, even when a default exists (offer it as the suggestion, don't apply it silently). If the input lacks something a PM ticket needs (impact, expected behaviour, repro) — ask, do not invent.
Phase 1 — Altitude Scan (CUT / KEEP / ASK)
Walk the input against the altitude line and report explicitly — this is where the value is:
ALTITUDE SCAN
------------------------------------------------------
KEEP (PM altitude): · [line / fact] → maps to [Problem | Impact | Reproduction | AC | Context]
CUT (engineering owns): · [root cause / code / file:line / commit / proposed fix] — reason: [diagnosis | fix | internal mechanism]
DEMOTE (observation inside an interpretation): · was: "[interpretation]" → keep only: "[bare observation]"
ASK (needed, not present): · [missing impact / expected behaviour / frequency …]
------------------------------------------------------
If everything was already at altitude, say so. Resolve every ASK with the user before Phase 2. Never carry a CUT item into the ticket body "just in case."
Phase 2 — Rewrite into the PM Template
Produce the ticket in config.contentLanguage; section labels stay as below.
Summary: <plain user-facing symptom, no stack tag, no "fix"> (imperative for features)
## Problem
<What the user experiences, in plain language. No "because", no mechanism.>
## Impact
- Who: <roles / customers affected>
- Frequency: <every time | intermittent | once — as observed>
- Severity: <blocks work | annoying | cosmetic — business framing>
## Steps to Reproduce
1. <action>
**Expected:** <what should happen>
**Actual:** <what happens instead — observation only>
**Environment:** <browser / OS / role / data condition actually observed>
## Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] <observable, black-box outcome>
## Out of Scope
- <explicitly excluded — optional>
## Context
- Reported by: <name, channel, date> · Related: <ticket keys / links> · Attachments: <if any>
Rules: Summary names the symptom, never the fix. Problem says what, never why — a sentence with "because", a file path, or a function name is in the wrong section. Reproduction is observed fact only. No code blocks, file:line, or commit hashes anywhere in the body.
Phase 3 — Acceptance-Criteria Gate (observable & black-box)
Every AC line must pass all three or get rewritten: Observable — a non-engineer could verify it by using the product. Black-box — no internal names (DB tables, fields, modules, functions); rephrase to the user-visible effect. Outcome, not method — the end state, never how to achieve it. Show any before→after rewrite briefly. An AC statable only in engineering terms is a verification note for engineering — drop it (they'll add their own).
Phase 4 — Show Draft & Confirm (User Gate)
Present the full ticket exactly as it will be created, plus a one-line footer: Will create: <type> in <PROJECT> · priority <P> · assignee <name|unassigned> · sprint <name|backlog> · labels [<…>, <engineeringHandoffLabel if diagnosis was stripped>] and Cut N engineering items — engineering will own diagnosis. Wait for explicit approval. Edits → re-present and wait again. No board write yet.
Phase 5 — Create on the Board
Follow m-board/providers/<provider>.md (from Phase −1) for the concrete flow — resolving the site/org, confirming the ticket type exists in the target project (no match → ask, never invent), creating with the Phase 2 Markdown body, resolving the assignee to an account/identity (ambiguous → ask, don't guess), and setting the sprint/iteration. If the sprint field can't be resolved, create without it and tell the user to set it in the board UI — never fail the create over the sprint. Add config.alwaysAddLabels plus engineeringHandoffLabel when diagnosis was stripped. On a create failure (required field, rejected value), surface the exact error and ask — do not loop-retry with the same input. Record the returned key + URL.
Phase 6 — Breakdown Handoff (offer, don't assume)
If the ticket's scope clearly spans multiple stacks/teams or holds several independent deliverables, offer: "This spans [X + Y] — want /m-story-breakdown to split it into per-stack dev tickets under this one?" Pass the new ticket key. A single-deliverable bug needs no breakdown — say so and stop.
Phase 7 — Delivery
Emit a DONE block: created key + URL, ticket type, project, priority/labels, and Check: created ok · altitude ok (N eng items cut) · AC observable ok. If creation failed, report the error verbatim under Failed: — do not retry silently.
Worked example (over-technical draft → correctly-altituded ticket): see references/example.md.
Never Do
- Create a ticket before the Phase 4 gate passes.
- Create a ticket without confirming assignee and sprint/iteration — always ask, even when a default exists.
- Put root cause, a proposed fix, code blocks,
file:line, or commit hashes in the ticket — that's diagnosis, and it's engineering's call.
- Keep an interpretation of an observation — keep the observation, drop the verdict.
- Invent impact, frequency, expected behaviour, or AC that isn't in the input — ask instead.
- Write acceptance criteria in engineering terms — they must be observable and black-box.
- Decide a ticket "needs breakdown" and do it here — offer
/m-story-breakdown and let the user choose.
- Loop-retry a failing create without changing the input — surface the error and stop.
- Reach the board through a CLI — provider MCP tools only.
