refine-backlog

refine-backlog is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from mpazik/Binder. It costs 29 tokens per session (1,291 once invoked), scanned A, original, MIT.

A backlog-cleanup workflow for draft tasks. A backlog is a list of planned work, and the Definition of Ready is the set of details a task should have before it can be started.

In plain words
What is it for?
Reading draft tasks, checking existing and cancelled work, merging or cancelling overlaps, filling missing fields, classifying tasks, and moving ready items to pending.
Why use it?
It reduces duplicate tasks, missing information, poor classification, and unclear links between related work before drafts become pending tasks.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/mpazik/binder/refine-backlog
Any agent
npx skills add mpazik/Binder --skill refine-backlog
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/mpazik/Binder

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Per session 29 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 1,291 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00029 $0.01291
Opus 5 $0.00015 $0.00646
Sonnet 5 $0.00006 $0.00258
Haiku 4.5 $0.00003 $0.00129

Measured 3d ago against content hash c898aefee993, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

refine-backlog scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured 3d ago.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

examples/workflow/skills/refine-backlog/SKILL.md · 130 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 130 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Refine draft tasks to meet the Definition of Ready so they can move from draft to pending.

$ARGUMENTS

If specific tasks were given above, focus on those. Otherwise, work through the draft tasks listed below.

Draft Tasks

!binder search type=Task status=draft -f "key,title,taskType,priority,size,partOf" --format tsv

If no drafts are listed above, tell the user there's nothing to refine and stop.

Refinement Steps

For each task, work through these steps. Use binder read <key> --format yaml to inspect full details first.

Draft tasks from capture may already have fields set. Respect what's there -- only fill gaps unless user said otherwise.

1. Duplicate Check

  • Compare against existing tasks, features, and concepts in Context below
  • Also check cancelled tasks — don't recreate something deliberately cancelled
  • If overlap found:
    • Exact duplicate → cancel the draft, link to the existing one
    • Partial overlap → merge the unique parts into the existing task, cancel the draft
    • Related but distinct → keep both, link with relatesTo

2. Classify

  • Set taskType if missing — match to the closest category (fix, feat, tweak, refactor, perf, agent, build, docs, test)
  • Set size if missing — small: few files, no design decisions. medium: several files, 1-2 decisions. large: multiple commits, non-trivial decisions required.
  • Set priority if missing — p0=Blocker, p1=Urgent, p2=High, p3=Medium (default), p4=Low
  • Set module if missing — which part of the codebase this belongs to
  • Set sourceFiles if relevant files are obvious from the description

3. Describe

  • Improve title if unclear (2-7 words, no verb prefix, max 70 chars)
  • Write description if missing (1-2 sentences with enough context)

4. Definition of Ready

Required for all tasks: title, taskType, size, priority, module, description. Additional by size:

  • medium+ tasks: add constraints
  • large tasks: add outOfScope

Additional by type:

  • feat tasks: add acceptanceCriteria with testable scenarios
  • fix tasks: add acceptanceCriteria (how to verify the fix)
  • refactor tasks: add constraints stating what behavior must not change

Read the full file on GitHub · 130 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. 3d ago First seen · 130 lines · 29 tokens per session scan A c898aefee993

Subscribe to this mod's changes

refine-backlog is a skill published in the GitHub repository mpazik/Binder (40 stars, last pushed 11d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 29 tokens to every session and 1,291 once invoked, about $0.0001 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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