work-item-workflow

name	work-item-workflow
description	Work item workflow for implementation. Use when starting work on a GitHub issue or Azure DevOps work item to verify assignee, dependencies, priority, and capacity. Do not use for creating new work items (use work-item-creation), for suggesting the next task (use next-task), or when the work source is only tasks.md without an issue/work item.

Work Item Workflow

Work Source Detection

Analyze the user's input to determine the source:

• GitHub Issue: user mentions an issue (e.g., "implement issue #42", "#15")
• Azure DevOps Work Item: user mentions a work item (e.g., "work item 1234", "task 5678")
• tasks.md: no issue/work item mentioned, skip this skill

Reading the Work Item

1. Identify platform: Read .memory/board-config.md or detect from remote (git config --get remote.origin.url)
2. Get current user:
   • GitHub: gh api user --jq '.login'
   • Azure DevOps: az account show --query user.name -o tsv or ask the user
3. Read work item via MCP: Extract title, description, assignee, acceptance criteria, state, and tags/labels

Required Checks

Execute in order. If any check blocks, STOP and inform the user.

1. Assignee check

Situation	Action
Assigned to another dev	STOP: "Work item already assigned to [name]."
No assignee	Assign current user (see below), then inform: "Assigned this task to you."
Assigned to the current user	Proceed

When the work item has no assignee, do not skip this step. Execute the assignment before moving to the State update check:

• GitHub: Call github/issue_write with method: "update", the issue number, and assignees: ["<current-user-login>"] (the login obtained in step "Get current user").
• Azure DevOps: Call ado/wit_update_work_item to set the System.AssignedTo field to the current user.

If the assignment call fails (permission error, user lookup empty, API error), STOP and report the failure rather than silently proceeding to later checks. The downstream flow (state update, branch creation, PR linkage) assumes the work item is owned by the current user.

2. State update

• Move the task to active state:
  • GitHub: Add label status:in-progress
  • Azure DevOps: Change State per process template (invoke board-config skill for details)
• Check the parent User Story:
  • If the parent US is not in progress, update it as well
  • Inform: "User Story #[ID] moved to In Progress."

3. Dependency check

• GitHub: Look for "Depends on: #NNN" in the body
• Azure DevOps: Look for links of type "Predecessor"
• For each unfinished dependency (open issue / state != Done|Closed):

  This task has unfinished dependencies:
  
  - #[ID]: [title] (state: [state])
  
  [V] View dependency details
  [O] Work on another task
  [I] Ignore and continue anyway (not recommended)
  

4. Priority check

• Search for available tasks (no assignee, same feature)
• If there are tasks with higher priority available:

  There are higher priority tasks available:
  
  - #[ID]: [title] (P1)
  
  Requested task: #[ID] (P2)
  
  [P] Pick the higher priority task (recommended)
  [C] Continue with the requested task
  

5. Capacity check

• Search for in-progress tasks assigned to the current user
• If the user already has 3 or more tasks in progress:

  You already have [N] tasks in progress:
  
  - #[ID]: [title]
  
  [F] Finish a task before picking up another (recommended)
  [C] Continue and pick up another task
  

tasks.md (when no issue/work item is mentioned)

1. Identify the current feature by checking the docs/features/ directory. If the user specified a feature, use it.
2. Read tasks.md for the task list and execution plan
3. Proceed with the implementation flow

Main Execution Rule

Developers should work on only one task at a time. Work happens at the task level, not at the feature, user story, or epic level directly.

Board Synchronization

When synchronizing with the board, the agent should:

1. List ALL issues/work items in the repository/project
2. Identify feature-related issues using multiple strategies:
   • By label/tag: feature:<name>, type:user-story, type:task
   • By title: contains the feature name or keywords
   • By content: mentions files or concepts from the plan
3. Classify found issues:
   • With copilot-generated label: Issues created by the agent (managed)
   • Without labels, related: Manual issues that appear related
   • Without labels, unrelated: Issues from other features/contexts
4. For unlabeled issues that appear related, ask the user:
   • Add labels and incorporate into the plan
   • Ignore (not from this feature)
   • Mark as duplicate of a planned task
5. Map current state: User Stories and Tasks (open, in progress, closed)
6. Present summary to user with comparison between board and plan

Cascade Closure

When synchronizing with the board, check and propose cascade closures:

Condition	Action
All tasks of a User Story closed	Propose closing the User Story
All User Stories of a Feature closed	Propose closing the Feature
All Features of an Epic closed	Propose closing the Epic

Closure Rules

• Always ask before closing (do not close automatically)
• Show summary of what will be closed
• Validate that there are no orphan tasks/US before closing

Work Item Hierarchy

GitHub

• Use sub-issues for parent-child hierarchy
• For dependencies between tasks, use the "Dependencies" section in the body: Depends on: #123

Azure DevOps

• Parent-Child: use ado/wit_add_child_work_items
• Dependencies: use ado/wit_work_items_link with link type Predecessor/Successor