to-tickets

name	to-tickets
description	Break a plan, spec, or the current conversation into tracer-bullet tickets, each declaring its blocking edges and saved as a local Markdown file.
disable-model-invocation	true

To Tickets

Break a plan, spec, or conversation into a set of tickets - tracer-bullet vertical slices, each declaring the tickets that block it.

Triage Labels

The skills speak in terms of five canonical triage roles. This table maps those roles to the actual label strings used in this repo's issue tracker.

Labels	Label in our tracker	Meaning
needs-triage	needs-triage	Maintainer needs to evaluate this issue
needs-info	needs-info	Waiting on reporter for more information
ready-for-agent	ready-for-agent	Fully specified, ready for an AFK agent
ready-for-human	ready-for-human	Requires human implementation
wontfix	wontfix	Will not be actioned

Process

1. Gather context

Work from whatever is already in the conversation context. If the user passes a reference (a spec path, an issue number or URL) as an argument, fetch it and read its full body and comments.

Input/reference:

$ARGUMENTS

2. Explore the codebase (optional)

If you have not already explored the codebase, do so to understand the current state of the code. Ticket titles and descriptions should use the project's domain glossary vocabulary, and respect ADRs in the area you're touching.

Look for opportunities to prefactor the code to make the implementation easier. "Make the change easy, then make the easy change."

3. Draft vertical slices

Break the work into tracer bullet tickets.

• Each slice cuts a narrow but COMPLETE path through every layer (schema, API, UI, tests) - vertical, NOT a horizontal slice of one layer
• A completed slice is demoable or verifiable on its own
• Each slice is sized to fit in a single fresh context window
• Any prefactoring should be done first

Give each ticket its blocking edges - the other tickets that must complete before it can start. A ticket with no blockers can start immediately.

Wide refactors are the exception to vertical slicing. A wide refactor is one mechanical change - rename a column, retype a shared symbol - whose blast radius fans across the whole codebase, so a single edit breaks thousands of call sites at once and no vertical slice can land green. Don't force it into a tracer bullet; sequence it as expand-contract. First expand: add the new form beside the old so nothing breaks. Then migrate the call sites over in batches sized by blast radius (per package, per directory), each batch its own ticket blocked by the expand, keeping CI green batch to batch because the old form still exists. Finally contract: delete the old form once no caller remains, in a ticket blocked by every migrate batch. When even the batches can't stay green alone, keep the sequence but let them share an integration branch that all block a final integrate-and-verify ticket - green is promised only there.

4. Quiz the user

Present the proposed breakdown as a numbered list. For each ticket, show:

• Title: short descriptive name
• Blocked by: which other tickets (if any) must complete first
• What it delivers: the end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work
• Triage label: the tracker label mapped from the ticket's canonical triage role

Ask the user:

• Does the granularity feel right? (too coarse / too fine)
• Are the blocking edges correct - does each ticket only depend on tickets that genuinely gate it?
• Should any tickets be merged or split further?

Iterate until the user approves the breakdown.

5. Save the tickets locally

Infer a short, descriptive kebab-case feature slug from the conversation or existing .scratch artifacts. If it cannot be inferred confidently, ask the user for the feature slug and wait for their answer.

Write one file per approved ticket under .scratch/<feature-slug>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md, numbered from 01 in dependency order (blockers first). Each file's "Blocked by" lists the numbers/titles it depends on. Assign ready-for-agent unless the ticket genuinely requires human implementation, in which case assign ready-for-human; use the mapped tracker string from the Triage Labels table. Use the per-ticket file template below - one ticket per file, never a single combined file.

Work the frontier: any ticket whose blockers are all done. For a purely linear chain that means top to bottom.

-

What to build: the end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work, from the user's perspective - not a layer-by-layer implementation list.

Blocked by: the numbers/titles of the tickets that gate this one, or "None - can start immediately".

Triage label: <mapped ready-for-agent or ready-for-human label>

• Acceptance criterion 1
• Acceptance criterion 2

In each ticket, avoid specific file paths or code snippets - they go stale fast. Exception: if a prototype produced a snippet that encodes a decision more precisely than prose can (state machine, reducer, schema, type shape), inline it and note briefly that it came from a prototype. Trim to the decision-rich parts - not a working demo, just the important bits.

After saving the tickets, tell the user to clear context between tickets and invoke the implement skill for one frontier ticket at a time (/implement <ticket-path> in Claude).