tflo-triage

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           # equivalent to: uv run python scripts/tflo.py claim

Execute (real mutations):

mise run tflo claim --yes     # equivalent to: uv run python scripts/tflo.py 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