to-tickets

To Tickets

Break a plan, spec, or conversation into a set of tickets: tracer-bullet vertical slices, each declaring the tickets that block it.

The issue tracker and triage label vocabulary should have been provided to you. If not, tell the user to run /setup-matt-pocock-skills.

Process

1. Gather context

Work from whatever is already in the conversation context. If the user passes a reference (a spec path, an issue number or URL) as an argument, fetch it and read its full body and comments.

2. Explore the codebase (optional)

If you have not already explored the codebase, do so to understand the current state of the code. Ticket titles and descriptions should use the project's domain glossary vocabulary, and respect ADRs in the area you're touching.

Look for opportunities to prefactor the code to make the implementation easier. "Make the change easy, then make the easy change."

3. Draft vertical slices

Break the work into tracer bullet tickets.

<vertical-slice-rules>

• Each slice cuts a narrow but COMPLETE path through every layer (schema, API, UI, tests): vertical, NOT a horizontal slice of one layer
• A completed slice is demoable or verifiable on its own
• Each slice is sized to fit in a single fresh context window
• Any prefactoring should be done first

</vertical-slice-rules>

Give each ticket its blocking edges: the other tickets that must complete before it can start. A ticket with no blockers can start immediately.

Give each ticket a finish line and a stop condition, because the implementer runs it alone:

• Done means: the acceptance criteria, each one an observation that is false at the starting commit and true when the work is finished ("the test suite passes", "every call site uses the new client"). The implementer keeps going until all of them hold.
• Stop and ask only if: the one situation where the implementer cannot decide alone, for example "a test fails for a reason you can't explain" or "the migration would drop data". Everything else it decides, and records the decision in the PR. If nothing qualifies, write "None: decide and note it in the PR".

Wide refactors are the exception to vertical slicing. A wide refactor is one mechanical change (rename a column, retype a shared symbol) whose blast radius fans across the whole codebase, so a single edit breaks thousands of call sites at once and no vertical slice can land green. Don't force it into a tracer bullet; sequence it as expand–contract. First expand: add the new form beside the old so nothing breaks. Then migrate the call sites over in batches sized by blast radius (per package, per directory), each batch its own ticket blocked by the expand, keeping CI green batch to batch because the old form still exists. Finally contract: delete the old form once no caller remains, in a ticket blocked by every migrate batch. When even the batches can't stay green alone, keep the sequence but let them share an integration branch that all block a final integrate-and-verify ticket; green is promised only there.

4. Quiz the user

Present the proposed breakdown as a numbered list. For each ticket, show:

• Title: short descriptive name
• Blocked by: which other tickets (if any) must complete first
• What it delivers: the end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work
• Stop and ask only if: the situation where the implementer should stop, or "None"

Ask the user:

• Does the granularity feel right? (too coarse / too fine)
• Are the blocking edges correct: does each ticket only depend on tickets that genuinely gate it?
• Should any tickets be merged or split further?

Iterate until the user approves the breakdown.

5. Publish the tickets to the configured tracker

Publish the approved tickets. How depends on the tracker /setup-matt-pocock-skills configured; the tickets are the same either way, only the shape of the blocking edges changes:

• Local files → write one file per ticket under .scratch/<feature-slug>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md, numbered from 01 in dependency order (blockers first). Each file's "Blocked by" lists the numbers/titles it depends on. Use the per-ticket file template below: one ticket per file, never a single combined file.
• A real issue tracker (GitHub, Linear, …) → publish one issue per ticket in dependency order (blockers first) so each ticket's blocking edges can reference real identifiers. Link every ticket to its parent as a native sub-issue, by default, not only "where convenient". When the source was an existing epic or spec issue, that issue is the parent: each ticket must appear in the parent's native sub-issue list (the "Create sub-issue" relationship), not merely named in prose. Wire each blocker as a native blocking edge the same way (mechanics in the issue-tracker doc); the ## Parent / ## Blocked by body sections are a fallback only, for trackers without native sub-issues/dependencies. Apply the ready-for-agent triage label unless instructed otherwise; the tickets are agent-grabbable by construction.

Work the frontier: any ticket whose blockers are all done. For a purely linear chain that means top to bottom.

Do NOT close or modify any parent issue.

Linking a ticket under its parent as a native sub-issue (above) is not "modifying" the parent; it is the point.

<local-ticket-template>

<NN>: <Ticket title>

What to build: the end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work, from the user's perspective, not a layer-by-layer implementation list.

Blocked by: the numbers/titles of the tickets that gate this one, or "None (can start immediately)".

Status: ready-for-agent

Done means:

• Acceptance criterion 1
• Acceptance criterion 2

Stop and ask only if: the one situation the implementer can't decide alone, or "None: decide and note it in the PR".

</local-ticket-template> <issue-template>

Parent

A reference to the parent issue on the tracker (if the source was an existing issue, otherwise omit this section).

What to build

The end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work, from the user's perspective, not layer-by-layer implementation.

Done means

• Acceptance criterion 1
• Acceptance criterion 2

Stop and ask only if

The one situation the implementer can't decide alone, or "None: decide and note it in the PR".

Blocked by

• A reference to each blocking ticket, or "None (can start immediately)".

</issue-template>

In either form, avoid specific file paths or code snippets: they go stale fast. Exception: if a prototype produced a snippet that encodes a decision more precisely than prose can (state machine, reducer, schema, type shape), inline it and note briefly that it came from a prototype. Trim to the decision-rich parts, not a working demo, just the important bits.