| name | sift-backlog |
| description | Triage and organize backlog tasks into actionable plans. Use when asked to review the backlog, prioritize tasks, create plans from backlog items, or move tasks from backlog to open status. Handles the full workflow of listing backlog tasks, grouping related tasks into plans, setting priorities and dependencies, activating plans, and changing task status from backlog to open. |
Sift Backlog
Triage backlog tasks: prioritize, group into plans, set dependencies, and activate.
Overview
- List backlog tasks (
el task backlog)
- Clarify and enrich each task (titles, descriptions)
- Identify groupings and create draft plans
- Add tasks to plans and set dependencies
- Activate plans
- Set task status to open
Workflow
Step 1: List Backlog Tasks
el task backlog
Step 2: Clarify and Enrich Tasks
Backlog tasks often have only a brief title with no description. Before organizing, ensure each task is well-defined.
For each task, evaluate:
- Is the title clear and actionable?
- Is there a description? Check with
el task describe <task-id> --show
- Is the scope unambiguous?
If the title is unclear, update it:
el update <task-id> --title "Clear, actionable title"
Add a description with context, scope, and acceptance criteria:
el task describe <task-id> --content "Description with:
- What needs to be done
- Why it matters
- Acceptance criteria
- Any relevant context"
Use your best judgment to interpret tasks and make reasonable decisions about scope, grouping, and priority. You have context about the codebase, project patterns, and typical development practices—leverage this knowledge rather than deferring to the user for routine decisions.
Only ask the user for clarity when absolutely necessary:
- The task is fundamentally ambiguous (multiple mutually exclusive interpretations)
- Critical business logic or user-facing behavior that could go wrong in meaningful ways
- External dependencies or integrations you cannot verify
Do NOT ask about:
- Implementation details you can reasonably infer
- Priority or grouping decisions—use your judgment
- Standard development practices (testing, code style, etc.)
- Tasks where a reasonable interpretation exists
Step 3: Create Draft Plans
Group related tasks into plans using your best judgment. Plans start as drafts (tasks won't be dispatched until activated).
Grouping guidance:
- Group tasks that share a common theme, feature area, or goal
- Consider technical dependencies when grouping (tasks that touch the same files/modules)
- Separate unrelated work into distinct plans for parallel execution
- Don't over-group—if tasks are truly independent, separate plans enable better parallelism
- Don't under-group—related tasks benefit from shared context and coordinated execution
el plan create --title "Plan Name"
Example:
el plan create --title "Authentication Improvements"
Step 4: Add Tasks to Plans
el plan add-task <plan-id> <task-id>
Example:
el plan add-task el-abc123 el-task1
el plan add-task el-abc123 el-task2
Step 5: Set Dependencies Between Tasks
Use blocks dependency when one task must complete before another can start.
el dependency add <blocked-id> <blocker-id> --type blocks
Semantics: The first ID is blocked BY the second ID. The blocker must complete first.
Example: Task 2 can't start until Task 1 completes:
el dependency add el-task2 el-task1 --type blocks
Step 6: Update Priorities
Set priorities based on your assessment of impact, urgency, and dependencies. Use your judgment—you don't need user confirmation for routine prioritization.
Priority guidance:
- Critical (1): Blocking issues, security vulnerabilities, production bugs
- High (2): Important features with deadlines, significant user impact
- Medium (3): Standard feature work, most tasks default here
- Low (4): Nice-to-haves, minor improvements, tech debt
- Minimal (5): Backlog cleanup, documentation, exploratory work
el update <task-id> --priority <1-5>
| Value | Level |
|---|
| 1 | Critical |
| 2 | High |
| 3 | Medium |
| 4 | Low |
| 5 | Minimal |
Step 7: Activate Plans
Once tasks are organized with dependencies set, activate plans to enable dispatch.
el plan activate <plan-id>
Step 8: Set Task Status to Open
Move tasks from backlog to open so they become ready for work.
el update <id> --status open
Other Actions
Close obsolete tasks:
el task close <id> --reason "Won't do: <reason>"
Defer tasks:
el task defer <id> --until <date>
View existing plans:
el plan list
View tasks in a plan:
el plan tasks <plan-id>
Tips
- Use your best judgment for grouping, prioritization, and task interpretation—don't defer routine decisions to the user
- Only escalate to the user when ambiguity is fundamental and could lead to wasted work (mutually exclusive interpretations, critical business decisions)
- Make reasonable inferences about implementation details, scope, and priority based on codebase context
- Create plans before setting dependencies to avoid dispatch race conditions
- Always activate plans after dependencies are set
- Focus on oldest backlog items first (sorted by creation date)
- Every task should have a clear title and description before activation
- When uncertain about a minor detail, make a reasonable choice and document it in the task description—workers can ask if needed
