ln-220-story-coordinator

Paths: File paths (references/, ../ln-*) are relative to this skill directory.

Story Coordinator

Type: L2 Domain Coordinator Category: 2XX Planning

Runtime-backed Story planning coordinator. The runtime owns flow control, pause/resume, and worker result tracking.

MANDATORY READ

Load these before execution:

• references/coordinator_runtime_contract.md
• references/story_planning_runtime_contract.md
• references/coordinator_summary_contract.md
• references/environment_state_contract.md
• references/storage_mode_detection.md
• references/problem_solving.md

MANDATORY READ: Load references/researchgraph_mcp_usage.md when the Epic, source docs, or existing Stories cite H/G/run IDs or when a researchgraph layout can change Story decomposition.

Purpose

• assemble Epic planning context
• perform focused standards research when it changes Technical Notes
• build the ideal Story plan before checking existing Stories
• detect routing and mode per epic group
• batch child manifest/artifact preparation before delegation
• delegate creation or replanning to standalone workers

Inputs

Parameter	Required	Description
epicId	Yes	Epic to decompose
autoApprove	No	If false, runtime pauses on preview confirmation

Runtime

Runtime family: story-planning-runtime

Identifier:

• epic-{epicId}

Phases:

1. PHASE_0_CONFIG
2. PHASE_1_CONTEXT_ASSEMBLY
3. PHASE_2_RESEARCH
4. PHASE_3_PLAN
5. PHASE_4_ROUTING
6. PHASE_5_MODE_DETECTION
7. PHASE_6_DELEGATE
8. PHASE_7_FINALIZE
9. PHASE_8_SELF_CHECK

Terminal phases:

• DONE
• PAUSED

Summary flow:

• consume child story-plan-worker artifacts from ln-221 / ln-222
• write coordinator story-plan artifact during PHASE_7_FINALIZE

Phase Map

Phase 1: Context Assembly

Resolve Epic and assemble only the planning inputs that change Story decomposition:

• Epic scope
• success criteria
• known personas and constraints
• project task provider

Checkpoint payload:

• context_ready

Phase 2: Research

Do focused research only when it changes Story Technical Notes or implementation constraints.

Do not let research expand Story scope.

If a researchgraph layout exists, use verify_index first and then query only the relevant goals, hypotheses, evidence, or runs. Use graph results to ground Story scope, readiness, and Technical Notes; do not create new Story scope just because graph debt exists.

Checkpoint payload:

• research_status
• research_file

Phase 3: Plan

Build the ideal Story plan before looking at existing Stories.

Rules:

• vertical slices only
• 5-10 Stories when Epic warrants it
• concise Story statements and observable ACs
• no orchestration prose inside the plan
• delegate ACs must specify what equips the actor (context, instructions, tools, configuration), not just what the actor does

Checkpoint payload:

• ideal_plan_summary

Phase 4: Routing

Route planned Stories to epic groups.

Fast path:

• all Stories stay in the resolved Epic

Pause only when routing is ambiguous or requires confirmation.

Checkpoint payload:

• routing_summary

Phase 5: Mode Detection

Determine mode per epic group:

• CREATE
• REPLAN
• ADD

Checkpoint payload:

• epic_group_modes

Phase 6: Delegate

Phase 6 has two internal steps.

Phase 6a: Prepare delegation

• finalize routing groups
• materialize worker manifests
• precompute run_id and summary_artifact_path for each child
• checkpoint the expected worker set before execution

Phase 6b: Execute delegation

Delegate by group:

• ln-221-story-creator
• ln-222-story-replanner

Workers remain standalone-capable. In managed mode the coordinator starts them through planning-worker-runtime, passes runId + summaryArtifactPath, stores the launch metadata in child_run, then records the resulting worker artifact through record-epic.

Worker summary kind:

• story-plan-worker

Phase 7: Finalize

Finalize only after all expected worker summaries are recorded.

Coordinator output:

• build one story-plan summary for the parent runtime
• write it through node references/scripts/story-planning-runtime/cli.mjs record-plan-summary
• persist the artifact before advancing to PHASE_8_SELF_CHECK

Template compliance gate: Fetch each created Story via the configured tracker provider (getStory operation per references/tracker_provider_contract.md). Run validateTemplateCompliance(description, 'story') from planning-runtime/lib/template-compliance.mjs. All stories must pass (9 sections in order). Record template_compliance_passed in state. Guard blocks SELF_CHECK without it.

Checkpoint payload:

• final_result
• template_compliance_passed

Phase 8: Self-Check

Confirm:

• phase coverage
• planned vs produced Story counts
• no missing epic groups

Checkpoint payload:

• pass
• final_result

Pending Decisions

Use runtime PAUSED + pending_decision for:

• missing context
• routing confirmation
• ambiguous ADD vs REPLAN
• preview confirmation when autoApprove=false

Do not hold these decisions only in chat.

Worker Contract

Workers:

• do not know the coordinator
• do not read runtime state
• remain standalone
• may receive summaryArtifactPath
• return shared summary envelope either way

Expected summary kind:

• child workers: story-plan-worker
• coordinator output: story-plan

Worker Invocation (MANDATORY)

Host Skill Invocation: Skill(skill: "...", args: "...") is mandatory delegation.

• Claude: call the Skill tool exactly as shown.
• Codex: if no Skill tool exists, locate the named skill in available skills, read its SKILL.md, treat args as $ARGUMENTS, execute that skill workflow, then return here with its result/artifact.
• Do not inline worker logic or mark the worker complete without executing the target skill.

Phase	Worker	Context
6	ln-221-story-creator	CREATE or ADD path
6	ln-222-story-replanner	REPLAN path

node references/scripts/planning-worker-runtime/cli.mjs start --skill {worker} --identifier {identifier} --manifest-file {workerManifestPath} --run-id {childRunId} --summary-artifact-path {childSummaryArtifactPath}
child_run = { skill, run_id, identifier, summary_artifact_path }
childSummaryArtifactPath = .hex-skills/runtime-artifacts/runs/{parent_run_id}/story-plan-worker/{worker}--{identifier}.json
Skill(skill: "{worker}", args: "{identifier} --ideal-plan {idealPlanJSON} --epic {epicId} --run-id {childRunId} --summary-artifact-path {childSummaryArtifactPath}")
Read {childSummaryArtifactPath}
node references/scripts/story-planning-runtime/cli.mjs record-epic --epic {epicId} --payload-file {childSummaryArtifactPath}
node references/scripts/story-planning-runtime/cli.mjs record-plan-summary --epic {epicId} --payload-file {coordinatorSummaryPath}

TodoWrite format (mandatory)

- Phase 1: Assemble context (pending)
- Phase 2: Research only what changes Technical Notes (pending)
- Phase 3: Build ideal Story plan (pending)
- Phase 4: Route Stories by Epic (pending)
- Phase 5: Detect mode per group (pending)
- Phase 6a: Prepare delegation batch (pending)
- Phase 6b: Execute worker(s) sequentially (pending)
- Phase 7: Finalize result (pending)
- Phase 8: Self-check (pending)

Critical Rules

• Build the ideal plan before checking existing Stories.
• Use research only to improve Technical Notes and implementation realism.
• Do not keep routing or preview approvals in chat-only state.
• Batch only read-only preparation. Do not parallelize Story mutations across routed groups unless runtime semantics explicitly allow it.
• Do not create or update Stories directly when a worker should do it.
• Consume worker summaries, not free-text worker prose.

Definition of Done

• Runtime started with Epic-scoped identifier
• Context assembly checkpointed
• Research checkpointed or explicitly minimal
• Ideal plan checkpointed
• Routing checkpointed
• Mode detection checkpointed
• All expected worker summaries recorded
• Coordinator story-plan summary recorded
• Final result checkpointed
• Template compliance passed for all created Stories
• Self-check passed

Meta-Analysis

Optional reference: load references/meta_analysis_protocol.md only when the user asks for post-run meta-analysis or protocol-formatted run reflection.

Skill type: planning-coordinator. When requested, run after all phases complete. Output to chat using the protocol format.

Reference Files

• references/environment_state_contract.md
• references/storage_mode_detection.md
• references/replan_algorithm.md

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Version: 5.0.0 Last Updated: 2026-02-03