turnstile-breakdown

Breakdown

Process

1. Look up <id> (from $ARGUMENTS) in turnstile/backlog.yml.
   • Found in a sprint file instead: refuse; sprint items are already committed scope.
   • Not found anywhere: refuse; suggest /turnstile:refine <idea> to create it first.
   • type: task: refuse; tasks are leaves. A too-big task means the parent story's breakdown is wrong -- revisit that instead.
2. Decide the child type: epic parent -> story children; story parent (explicit or absent type) -> task children.
3. Search the vault (brain, decisions, architecture, item notes) for notes related to the item's topic. Surface anything relevant, including conflicts.
4. Read the item's design doc -- turnstile/designs/DS-<n>.md (<n> from <id> = C-<n>), falling back to legacy names (turnstile/designs/<id>-*-design.md, turnstile/designs/<id>.md) -- plus the parent epic's design when breaking a story with a parent. No design doc: refuse and direct the user to /turnstile:refine -- breakdown decomposes an approved design, it does not invent one.
5. Draft 2-8 children. Each: clear title, one-paragraph description, non-empty acceptance_criteria, a points estimate, an assignee (inherit the parent's unless told otherwise). Children must partition the parent's scope: together they cover its acceptance criteria, no two overlap. If the scope honestly fits in one child, say so and recommend skipping breakdown.
6. Present the full proposal (every child, every field) for explicit approval. Revise and re-present on requested changes. Write nothing until approved.
7. Once approved, per the templates reference:
   • Mint child ids: scan turnstile/backlog.yml, turnstile/sprint.yml, turnstile/sprints/*.yml (plus legacy turnstile/sprint-*.yml) for existing C-<N> ids; children get C-<max+1>, C-<max+2>, ... For each id, check no DS-<n> design (or legacy equivalent) already exists -- an abandoned draft may hold it; if so, warn the user and skip to the next free id. Never overwrite silently.
   • Write each child's design doc and item note as one pass per child -- they cross-link.
   • Update the parent's item note: add each child under a Children: list, add them to related, set updated to today. (A legacy parent with no item note: create one now in its type's folder.)
   • Append each child to turnstile/backlog.yml, and update the parent there: it is now a container -- if its status was ready, set it back to idea (containers never enter sprints), and set updated to today.
   • Before finishing, confirm every [[wikilink]] added resolves (list_unresolved_links); an unresolved link is a click-trap that mints a stray note.
8. If the dialogue surfaced something worth remembering (a scoping decision, a rejected split and why), dispatch brain-curator with a short description.
9. Tell the user the breakdown is recorded and each child needs /turnstile:spec <child-id> to become ready.