decomposing-tickets

name	decomposing-tickets
description	Break a plan, spec, or findings report into independently-grabbable vertical-slice tracker tickets.
user-invocable	true
metadata	{"internal":true}

decomposing-tickets

Break a plan into tracer-bullet tickets — each a thin vertical slice through ALL layers end-to-end (schema → API → UI → tests), demoable on its own — never a horizontal slice of one layer. Adapted from mattpocock/to-tickets. The natural output of grilling-plan → authoring-spec → this.

1. Gather + explore

Work from the conversation context (or fetch the referenced issue/plan). Explore the codebase so issue titles use the project's domain vocabulary (rg the affected modules). Look for prefactors — "make the change easy, then make the easy change."

2. Draft vertical slices

Each slice: a narrow but COMPLETE path through every layer, verifiable on its own, with prefactoring done first. For a findings report, one slice per true-positive finding (or a tight cluster), each independently landable.

3. Quiz the user

Present the breakdown as a numbered list — title, blocked by (which slices must land first), user stories covered. Ask: is the granularity right? are the dependencies correct? merge/split any? Iterate until approved.

4. Prose + doctrine pass (before publishing)

Every issue body is a public-facing surface. Run the prose skill over each body and apply prose-style-and-doctrine: lead with the point, no throat-clearers/filler, evidence over assertion, state the positive directly. Public-surface hygiene (public-surface-hygiene): no real customer/company name, no private repo, no Linear ref, and never a bare #N in the prose (it auto-links to an unrelated issue) — write the full URL or org/repo#N.

5. Publish in dependency order

Publish blockers first so you can reference real issue identifiers in each "Blocked by" field. Default tracker is GitHub via gh issue create; use the Linear MCP save_issue tool if the repo tracks work in Linear. Apply the ready-for-agent triage label unless told otherwise. Publishing is mutating + outward-facing — confirm the tracker + label before the first create.

Completion criterion

Every approved slice is published in dependency order with real "Blocked by" references, each body has passed the prose + doctrine pass, and no body leaks a private name or bare #N.

Handoff

Take an approved, ready-for-agent slice to opening-pr.