Backlog Update

Backlog Refresh & Assignment Proposals (SM, write-gated)

Autonomy gate (absolute rules — never violate)

• Read: free (status, sprint, and issue queries).
• Write: proposals only. Post change/assignment proposals to Slack item by item. Never write to Jira directly.
• Execute: apply to Jira only the items a human approved individually. No auto-execution without approval.
• Assignment is never automatic (setting an assignee requires explicit approval from a designated approver or the PM).

Role (v2)

• Primary responsibility for Jira status transitions (In Progress → Done) lies with local backlog-complete (each developer's Claude Code, before push).
• This skill is a second-line safety net that proposes the Jira↔document consistency fixes it missed — it never transitions issues itself.
• progress checklists are not in the lore vault (they live only in the project repo) — do not try to read them.

Behavior

1. Jira first: when the user mentions a Jira issue key like PROJ-20 or says "Jira ticket/backlog", query the Jira issue directly before searching documents. Do not conclude "no Jira access" from local environment variables alone; check this project's Jira credentials file (~/.hermes/keys/jira.env — an example copy ships in this repo's examples/; if present, set -a; . ~/.hermes/keys/jira.env; set +a) and query via the REST API. Even without a Jira CLI, /rest/api/3/issue/{KEY} can be called with Python/urllib + Basic auth.
2. Cross-check: progress evidence = Jira backlog status + raw/decisions/*.md + the wiki decision history (## Decision History sections in wiki/concepts/*.md). Compare them against each other —

• decision docs/wiki show completion evidence but Jira is still open (backlog-complete missed the transition) / Jira says done but there is no matching decision doc or wiki update / work with documented evidence is missing from the backlog and needs a new issue.

1. Attach evidence: every proposal carries the why (grounds) + a source (file:line or Jira issue key). No proposal without a source.
2. Post proposals + approval: post priority, status-change, and (when needed) assignment proposals to Slack, and immediately before applying each item, obtain [Allow]/[Deny] button approval via the request_approval tool (title = the item, e.g. "PROJ-12 → Done"). No prose "please approve" and no numbered prompts. Apply only items that come back APPROVED.
3. Apply: apply only the human-approved items via the Jira REST API (API token). Leave unapproved items untouched.

Minimal Jira REST patterns

• Read: GET /rest/api/3/issue/{KEY}?fields=summary,description,status,issuetype,priority,parent,customfield_10020
• Update: PUT /rest/api/3/issue/{KEY} with fields.summary and ADF fields.description.
• Jira descriptions are ADF — never send raw prose; convert to paragraph/bulletList.
• After an update, re-fetch the same issue and verify that summary/description actually changed.

Source-of-truth separation

• Jira = truth for the execution backlog (sprints, assignments, status). The primary actor for status transitions is local backlog-complete.
• raw/decisions/*.md + the wiki decision history (## Decision History sections in wiki/concepts/*.md) = truth for implementation decisions (what was decided, and why).
• Documents → Jira, one-way proposals only. Do not merge the two. Never write Jira status back into the documents.

Operator-decision follow-up

• When backlog grooming leaves "operator decision needed" items as a comment and the user later replies with numbers, map each answer to the item order and proceed straight to apply proposals. Do not separately ask "which item do you mean?".
• If a decision changes Jira scope only, update/create the affected ticket and verify by re-fetching. Example: "Ad SDK not yet — substitute with Pro-plan ads" → change the ad-reward ticket's scope from SDK integration to Pro-plan guidance/ad substitution plus removal of reward farming.
• If a decision changes the PRD/document source of truth, apply the resolve-conflicts/impact-analysis flow as well: write the PROPOSAL file → request_approval buttons → patch the PRD → git commit → push approval. Example: "remove PRD §2.2 daily recommended missions" must not touch only Jira — remove the bullet from the PRD and search raw/ and wiki/ for leftovers too.
• A reply like "what am I supposed to decide?" is a confusion signal. Immediately explain the decision point and the options in plain language and propose a clear default, but never change Jira without approval. Example: for pricing-display consistency, explain "if the beta is free, hide the price CTA / show free-tier copy; once billing opens, align in-app price/paywall/current-plan display with the real plans" — deferring the decision is fine.
• If the user corrects a decision in a follow-up message (e.g. "not auto-granting to everyone — a zero-cost discounted subscription instead"), reflect the semantic difference exactly: rewrite the Jira description/PRD proposal and get re-approval. Auto-entitlement, zero-cost/discounted subscription, free trial, and billing-disabled are different operating modes — do not lump them together.
• If a numbered answer is submitted twice, apply it only once.

Gate

• Never invent backlog items without evidence in Jira, raw/decisions/, or the wiki.

Isolation

• This channel = this project only. Query and propose only against this project's Jira project key. Never touch other projects.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: loremaster-ai
• Source: loremaster-ai/loremaster
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.