Speckit Tasks

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Pre-Execution Checks

Check for extension hooks (before tasks generation):

• Check if .specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.
• If it exists, read it and look for entries under the hooks.before_tasks key
• If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
• Filter out hooks where enabled is explicitly false. Treat hooks without an enabled field as enabled by default.
• For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook condition expressions:
• If the hook has no condition field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
• If the hook defines a non-empty condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
• When constructing slash commands from hook command names, replace dots (.) with hyphens (-). For example, speckit.git.commit → /speckit-git-commit.
• For each executable hook, output the following based on its optional flag:
• Optional hook (optional: true):

``` ## Extension Hooks

Optional Pre-Hook: {extension} Command: /{command} Description: {description}

Prompt: {prompt} To execute: /{command} ```

• Mandatory hook (optional: false):

``` ## Extension Hooks

Automatic Pre-Hook: {extension} Executing: /{command} EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}

Wait for the result of the hook command before proceeding to the Outline. ```

• If no hooks are registered or .specify/extensions.yml does not exist, skip silently

Outline

1. Setup: Run .specify/scripts/bash/setup-tasks.sh --json from repo root and parse FEATUREDIR, TASKSTEMPLATE, and AVAILABLE_DOCS list. FEATURE_DIR and TASKS_TEMPLATE must be absolute paths when provided. AVAILABLE_DOCS is a list of document names/relative paths available under FEATURE_DIR (for example research.md or contracts/). For single quotes in args like "I'm Groot", use escape syntax: e.g 'I'\''m Groot' (or double-quote if possible: "I'm Groot").

1. Load design documents: Read from FEATURE_DIR:

• Required: plan.md (tech stack, libraries, structure), spec.md (user stories with priorities)
• Optional: data-model.md (entities), contracts/ (interface contracts), research.md (decisions), quickstart.md (test scenarios)
• Note: Not all projects have all documents. Generate tasks based on what's available.

1. Execute task generation workflow:

• Load plan.md and extract tech stack, libraries, project structure
• Load spec.md and extract user stories with their priorities (P1, P2, P3, etc.)
• If data-model.md exists: Extract entities and map to user stories
• If contracts/ exists: Map interface contracts to user stories
• If research.md exists: Extract decisions for setup tasks
• Generate tasks organized by user story (see Task Generation Rules below)
• Generate dependency graph showing user story completion order
• Create parallel execution examples per user story
• Validate task completeness (each user story has all needed tasks, independently testable)

1. Generate tasks.md: Read the tasks template from TASKSTEMPLATE (from the JSON output above) and use it as structure. If TASKSTEMPLATE is empty, fall back to .specify/templates/tasks-template.md. Fill with:

• Correct feature name from plan.md
• Phase 1: Setup tasks (project initialization)
• Phase 2: Foundational tasks (blocking prerequisites for all user stories)
• Phase 3+: One phase per user story (in priority order from spec.md)
• Each phase includes: story goal, independent test criteria, tests (if requested), implementation tasks
• Final Phase: Polish & cross-cutting concerns
• All tasks must follow the strict checklist format (see Task Generation Rules below)
• Clear file paths for each task
• Dependencies section showing story completion order
• Parallel execution examples per story
• Implementation strategy section (MVP first, incremental delivery)

1. Report: Output path to generated tasks.md and summary:

• Total task count
• Task count per user story
• Parallel opportunities identified
• Independent test criteria for each story
• Suggested MVP scope (typically just User Story 1)
• Format validation: Confirm ALL tasks follow the checklist format (checkbox, ID, labels, file paths)

1. Check for extension hooks: After tasks.md is generated, check if .specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.

• If it exists, read it and look for entries under the hooks.after_tasks key
• If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
• Filter out hooks where enabled is explicitly false. Treat hooks without an enabled field as enabled by default.
• For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook condition expressions:
• If the hook has no condition field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
• If the hook defines a non-empty condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
• When constructing slash commands from hook command names, replace dots (.) with hyphens (-). For example, speckit.git.commit → /speckit-git-commit.
• For each executable hook, output the following based on its optional flag:
• Optional hook (optional: true):

``` ## Extension Hooks

Optional Hook: {extension} Command: /{command} Description: {description}

Prompt: {prompt} To execute: /{command} ```

• Mandatory hook (optional: false):

``` ## Extension Hooks

Automatic Hook: {extension} Executing: /{command} EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command} ```

• If no hooks are registered or .specify/extensions.yml does not exist, skip silently

Context for task generation: $ARGUMENTS

The tasks.md should be immediately executable - each task must be specific enough that an LLM can complete it without additional context.

Task Generation Rules

CRITICAL: Tasks MUST be organized by user story to enable independent implementation and testing.

Tests are OPTIONAL: Only generate test tasks if explicitly requested in the feature specification or if user requests TDD approach.

Checklist Format (REQUIRED)

Every task MUST strictly follow this format:

- [ ] [TaskID] [P?] [Story?] Description with file path

Format Components:

1. Checkbox: ALWAYS start with - [ ] (markdown checkbox)
2. Task ID: Sequential number (T001, T002, T003...) in execution order
3. [P] marker: Include ONLY if task is parallelizable (different files, no dependencies on incomplete tasks)
4. [Story] label: REQUIRED for user story phase tasks only

• Format: [US1], [US2], [US3], etc. (maps to user stories from spec.md)
• Setup phase: NO story label
• Foundational phase: NO story label
• User Story phases: MUST have story label
• Polish phase: NO story label

1. Description: Clear action with exact file path

Examples:

• ✅ CORRECT: - [ ] T001 Create project structure per implementation plan
• ✅ CORRECT: - [ ] T005 [P] Implement authentication middleware in src/middleware/auth.py
• ✅ CORRECT: - [ ] T012 [P] [US1] Create User model in src/models/user.py
• ✅ CORRECT: - [ ] T014 [US1] Implement UserService in src/services/user_service.py
• ❌ WRONG: - [ ] Create User model (missing ID and Story label)
• ❌ WRONG: T001 [US1] Create model (missing checkbox)
• ❌ WRONG: - [ ] [US1] Create User model (missing Task ID)
• ❌ WRONG: - [ ] T001 [US1] Create model (missing file path)

Task Organization

1. From User Stories (spec.md) - PRIMARY ORGANIZATION:

• Each user story (P1, P2, P3...) gets its own phase
• Map all related components to their story:
• Models needed for that story
• Services needed for that story
• Interfaces/UI needed for that story
• If tests requested: Tests specific to that story
• Mark story dependencies (most stories should be independent)

1. From Contracts:

• Map each interface contract → to the user story it serves
• If tests requested: Each interface contract → contract test task [P] before implementation in that story's phase

1. From Data Model:

• Map each entity to the user story(ies) that need it
• If entity serves multiple stories: Put in earliest story or Setup phase
• Relationships → service layer tasks in appropriate story phase

1. From Setup/Infrastructure:

• Shared infrastructure → Setup phase (Phase 1)
• Foundational/blocking tasks → Foundational phase (Phase 2)
• Story-specific setup → within that story's phase

Phase Structure

• Phase 1: Setup (project initialization)
• Phase 2: Foundational (blocking prerequisites - MUST complete before user stories)
• Phase 3+: User Stories in priority order (P1, P2, P3...)
• Within each story: Tests (if requested) → Models → Services → Endpoints → Integration
• Each phase should be a complete, independently testable increment
• Final Phase: Polish & Cross-Cutting Concerns

Source & license

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

• Author: merllinsbeard
• Source: merllinsbeard/merlin-skills
• License: MIT

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