Agile Workflow Orchestrator

A skill that guides agents through structured agile development workflows by intelligently invoking commands in sequence. Uses checkpoint-based flow control to auto-progress between steps while pausing at key decision points.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

Starting work for the day ("run morning standup", "start my day") Working on a task ("implement next task", "continue working") Completing a development cycle ("finish this task", "prepare PR") Running sprint ceremonies ("start sprint", "end sprint", "retrospective") Resuming interrupted work ("what's next", "where was I")

Do NOT use this skill when:

Running a single specific command (use that command directly) Just checking status (use /status directly) Only doing code review without full cycle (use /review-code directly) Researching or planning without implementation Prerequisites

Before using this skill:

Git repository initialized with worktree support GitHub CLI installed and authenticated (gh auth status) Context network with backlog structure at context-network/backlog/ Task status files at context-network/backlog/by-status/*.md Workflow Types Overview WORKFLOW TYPES ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

TASK CYCLE (Primary) DAILY SPRINT ────────────────────── ────────────────── ────────────────── sync Morning: Start: ↓ sync --last 1d sync --all next → [CHECKPOINT] status --brief groom --all ↓ groom --ready plan sprint-goals implement status ↓ Evening: [CHECKPOINT] checklist End: ↓ discovery sync --sprint review-code sync --last 1d retrospective review-tests audit --sprint ↓ maintenance --deep [CHECKPOINT] ↓ apply-recommendations (if issues) ↓ pr-prep → [CHECKPOINT] ↓ pr-complete ↓ END ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

State Detection

The skill determines current workflow state automatically. No manual tracking needed.

Detection Signals Signal How to Check Indicates Worktree exists git worktree list Task in progress Task branch active git branch --show-current matches task/* Active implementation Uncommitted changes git status --porcelain Active coding PR exists gh pr list --head [branch] In review PR merged gh pr view --json state Ready for cleanup State Matrix STATE DETECTION LOGIC ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Check → State → Next Step ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── No worktree, no in-progress → IDLE → sync, next Worktree exists, uncommitted → IMPLEMENTING → continue implement Worktree exists, all committed → READY_REVIEW → review-code PR open, checks pending → AWAITING_CI → wait or address PR open, checks pass → READY_MERGE → pr-complete PR merged, worktree exists → CLEANUP → pr-complete ─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

For detailed detection algorithms, see references/state-detection.md.

Invocation Patterns

Auto-detect state and continue from where you are

/agile-workflow

Start specific workflow phase

/agile-workflow --phase task-cycle /agile-workflow --phase daily-morning /agile-workflow --phase daily-evening /agile-workflow --phase sprint-start /agile-workflow --phase sprint-end

Resume work on specific task

/agile-workflow --task TASK-123

Preview what would happen without executing

/agile-workflow --dry-run

Task Cycle Phase

The primary workflow for completing a single task from selection to merge.

Step 1: Sync Reality

Ensure context network matches actual project state.

Run: sync --last 1d --dry-run Purpose: Detect drift between documented and actual state Output: Sync report showing completions, partial work, divergences

Step 2: Select Task

Identify the next task to work on.

Run: next Purpose: Find highest priority ready task Output: Task ID, title, branch name suggestion

CHECKPOINT: TASK_SELECTED

Pause to confirm task selection User can accept or choose different task On accept: continue to implementation Step 3: Implement

Test-driven development in isolated worktree.

Run: implement [TASK-ID] Purpose: Create worktree, write tests first, implement, verify Output: Working implementation with passing tests

CHECKPOINT: IMPL_COMPLETE

Pause after implementation completes Show test results and coverage On success: continue to review Step 4: Review

Quality validation of implementation.

Run: review-code --uncommitted Run: review-tests --uncommitted Purpose: Identify quality issues, security concerns, test gaps Output: Review reports with issues and recommendations

CHECKPOINT: REVIEWS_DONE

Display combined review results If critical issues: must address before continuing If no issues: auto-continue to PR prep User decides: apply recommendations now or defer Step 5: Apply Recommendations (Conditional)

Address review findings intelligently.

Run: apply-recommendations [review-output] Purpose: Apply quick fixes now, defer complex changes to tasks Output: Applied fixes + created follow-up tasks

Step 6: Prepare PR

Create pull request with full documentation.

Run: pr-prep Purpose: Validate, document, and create PR Output: PR created with description, tests verified

CHECKPOINT: PR_CREATED

Display PR URL and CI status Wait for CI checks to complete On CI pass + approval: continue to merge On CI fail: stop, address issues Step 7: Complete PR

Merge and cleanup.

Run: pr-complete [PR-NUMBER] Purpose: Merge PR, delete branch, remove worktree, update status Output: Task marked complete, cleanup done

For detailed task-cycle instructions, see references/phases/task-cycle.md.

Daily Phase

Quick sequences for start and end of workday.

Morning Standup (~5 min) Run sequence: 1. sync --last 1d --dry-run # What actually happened yesterday 2. status --brief --sprint # Current sprint health 3. groom --ready-only # What's ready to work on

Output: Clear picture of today's priorities

Evening Wrap-up (~10 min) Run sequence: 1. checklist # Ensure nothing lost 2. discovery # Capture learnings 3. sync --last 1d # Update task statuses

Output: Knowledge preserved, state synchronized

For detailed daily instructions, see references/phases/daily.md.

Sprint Phase

Ceremonies for sprint boundaries.

Sprint Start (~60 min) Run sequence: 1. sync --all # Full reality alignment 2. groom --all # Comprehensive grooming 3. plan sprint-goals # Architecture and goals 4. status --detailed # Baseline metrics

Output: Sprint plan with groomed, ready backlog

Sprint End (~90 min) Run sequence: 1. sync --sprint # Final sprint sync 2. retrospective # Capture learnings 3. audit --scope sprint # Quality review 4. status --metrics # Sprint metrics 5. maintenance --deep # Context network cleanup

Output: Sprint closed, learnings captured, ready for next

For detailed sprint instructions, see references/phases/sprint.md.

Checkpoint Handling

Checkpoints are pauses for human decision-making.

Checkpoint Behavior

At each checkpoint:

Summarize what just completed Show key results and any issues Present next steps Wait for user input Checkpoint Responses Response Action "continue" / "proceed" / "yes" Move to next step "stop" / "pause" Save state, exit workflow "back" Re-run previous step "skip" Skip current step (use cautiously) Custom input May adjust next step parameters Auto-Continue Conditions

Some checkpoints can auto-continue when conditions are met:

Checkpoint Auto-Continue If IMPL_COMPLETE All tests pass, build succeeds REVIEWS_DONE No critical or high severity issues PR_CREATED CI passes, required approvals obtained

For detailed checkpoint handling, see references/checkpoint-handling.md.

Command Reference

Each workflow step uses embedded command instructions:

Command Reference Purpose sync references/commands/sync.md Reality synchronization groom references/commands/groom.md Task refinement next references/commands/next.md Task selection implement references/commands/implement.md TDD implementation review-code references/commands/review-code.md Code quality review review-tests references/commands/review-tests.md Test quality review apply-recommendations references/commands/apply-recommendations.md Triage and apply fixes pr-prep references/commands/pr-prep.md PR creation pr-complete references/commands/pr-complete.md PR merge and cleanup discovery references/commands/discovery.md Learning capture retrospective references/commands/retrospective.md Post-work analysis maintenance references/commands/maintenance.md Context network cleanup Example: Complete Task Cycle

Scenario: Start of day, implement next available task

Invocation:

/agile-workflow --phase task-cycle

Flow:

Agent: Detecting current state... No worktree found, checking ready tasks...

Agent: Running sync --last 1d --dry-run [Sync output: 0 tasks completed but undocumented]

Agent: Running next Found: TASK-042 - Add user preferences endpoint Priority: High | Size: Small | Branch: task/TASK-042-preferences

   ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════╗
   ║  CHECKPOINT: Task Selection               ║
   ╠═══════════════════════════════════════════╣
   ║  Selected: TASK-042                       ║
   ║  Proceed with implementation?             ║
   ║                                           ║
   ║  [continue] [stop] [other task]           ║
   ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════╝

User: continue

Agent: Creating worktree at .worktrees/TASK-042/ Running implement TASK-042 [Implementation proceeds with TDD...]

   Tests: 12 passing
   Coverage: 87%
   Build: Success

   ╔═══════════════════════════════════════════╗
   ║  CHECKPOINT: Implementation Complete      ║
   ╠═══════════════════════════════════════════╣
   ║  All tests passing, ready for review      ║
   ║  Proceed to code review?                  ║
   ║                                           ║
   ║  [continue] [stop]                        ║
   ╚═══════════════════════════════════════════╝

[Flow continues through review, PR, merge...]

Limitations Requires context network with specific backlog structure GitHub-centric (uses gh CLI for PR operations) Single-task focus (parallel task work not orchestrated) Manual intervention needed when CI fails or conflicts occur Related Skills skill-maker - Create new skills following agentskills.io spec research-workflow - For research tasks before implementation