Team Outsource

Team Outsource

Create an external issue for a teammate based on a local backlog item or feature.json brief. Writes externalRef.direction: "outbound" back so the item stays linked to the external issue in the local dashboard.

Trigger: /team-outsource, /team-outsource <name>, /team-outsource --paste

Process

Seed task list at start:

TaskCreate with phases:

• PHASE 0: Pre-flight + tracker detection
• PHASE 1: Item selection + brief composition
• PHASE 2: Format selection
• PHASE 3: Assignee + tracker target
• PHASE 4: Confirm preview
• PHASE 5: Create issue
• PHASE 6: Write externalRef back
• PHASE 7: Output

PHASE 0: Pre-flight + tracker detection

Todo: mark PHASE 0 → in_progress.

0. Team-mode gate. Read TEAM_MODE via shared/PROJECT-MODE.md read pattern. If "solo" or absent → show AskUserQuestion (warn-only):

   header: "Solo project"
   question: "This project is marked solo (team.mode). /team-outsource is meant for projects with multiple contributors. Continue anyway?"
   options:
     - label: "Cancel (Recommended)"
       description: "Exit. Toggle to team via the ⚙ button in the backlog or run /core-setup to mark this as a team project."
     - label: "Yes, continue once"
       description: "Proceed with outsourcing for this single invocation."
   multiSelect: false
   

   Cancel → exit. Continue → proceed with PHASE 0 step 1.

1. Read .project/project.json → check team.tracker. Unknown → run gh repo view --json nameWithOwner (success → tracker = "github"). --paste flag present or gh fails → tracker = "paste".

2. Read .project/backlog.json → parse JSON → data.

3. If argument <name> is set → search in data.features by exact name. No match → show "No item found with name {name}" + list of top-3 similar names and exit.

4. Check if found item already has externalRef → show "Already outsourced to {externalRef.type} #{externalRef.id}" and exit (no duplicate issues).

Todo: mark PHASE 0 → completed, PHASE 1 → in_progress.

PHASE 1: Item selection + brief composition

Todo: mark PHASE 1 → in_progress.

If no argument given: show AskUserQuestion (multiSelect=true) of all backlog items with status ∈ {TODO, DEFINED} and without externalRef.direction === "outbound":

#  oauth-callback    DEFINED · API · P1
#  signup-form       TODO · PAGE · P2
#  user-profile      DEFINED · FEATURE · P2

Per selected item — brief composition:

Read .project/features/<name>/feature.json if it exists.

For DEFINED items with feature.json → store briefSource = "feature". For TODO without feature.json → briefSource = "backlog".

Todo: mark PHASE 1 → completed, PHASE 2 → in_progress.

PHASE 2: Format selection

Todo: mark PHASE 2 → in_progress.

AskUserQuestion (single select):

header: "Brief format"
question: "In what form do you want to create the issue?"
options:
  - label: "Technical brief (Recommended)"
    description: "Requirements, architecture, acceptance criteria, file paths. Optimal for DEFINED items with feature.json."
  - label: "User story"
    description: "As <role>, I want <goal>, so that <why>. Plus acceptance criteria. Shorter."
  - label: "Minimal task"
    description: "Title + 1-2 sentence description. Use this for simple TODO items."
multiSelect: false

Set default based on briefSource:

• briefSource === "feature" → default Technical brief
• briefSource === "backlog" → default Minimal task

Compose issue body based on chosen format:

Technical brief:

## Summary

{feature.json#summary or backlog description}

## Acceptance criteria

1. {criterion 1}
2. {criterion 2}
   ...

## Architecture

- {file/component/endpoint hint}
- {additional hints}

## Approach

{technique: TDD / Implementation Only / etc.}

User story:

As {role from summary}, I want {goal}, so that {why}.

## Acceptance criteria

1. {criterion 1}
2. {criterion 2}

Minimal task:

{backlog description or summary — max 2 sentences}

Todo: mark PHASE 2 → completed, PHASE 3 → in_progress.

PHASE 3: Assignee + tracker target

Todo: mark PHASE 3 → in_progress.

GitHub config check:

Read project.json#team.githubProject. If missing or incomplete: ask once via AskUserQuestion:

header: "GitHub project"
question: "Enter your GitHub project details. This will be cached in project.json."

Requested fields (free text each):

1. Owner + repo (default: gh repo view --json nameWithOwner)
2. Default assignee GitHub username (can be empty)
3. Project board number (optional — for ProjectV2 linking, fill in if working on a GitHub Project)

Write filled-in fields to project.json#team.githubProject.

Assignee selection:

header: "Assignee"
question: "Who do you want to assign this to?"
options:
  - label: "{defaultAssignee} (Recommended)"
    description: "Cached default — change via project.json#team.githubProject.defaultAssignee"
  - label: "Other username"
    description: "Type a GitHub username"
  - label: "No assignee"
    description: "Create issue without assignment"
multiSelect: false

If defaultAssignee is empty → skip "cached default" option, show "Other username" + "No assignee" directly.

Todo: mark PHASE 3 → completed, PHASE 4 → in_progress.

PHASE 4: Confirm preview

Todo: mark PHASE 4 → in_progress.

Show issue preview:

ISSUE PREVIEW
══════════════════════════════════════════════════
Tracker:    github (owner/repo)
Title:      {feature name or backlog name}
Assignee:   @{username}
Labels:     {phase as label, e.g. P1}

Body:
  ## Summary
  {first 3 lines of body}
  ...
══════════════════════════════════════════════════

AskUserQuestion (single select):

header: "Confirm"
question: "Create issue with the above content?"
options:
  - label: "Create (Recommended)"
  - label: "Cancel"
multiSelect: false

Todo: mark PHASE 4 → completed, PHASE 5 → in_progress.

PHASE 5: Create issue

Todo: mark PHASE 5 → in_progress.

GitHub:

Write body to temporary file:

cat > /tmp/team-outsource-body-{name}.md << 'EOF'
{composed body}
EOF

Create issue:

gh issue create \
  -R {owner}/{repo} \
  --title "{title}" \
  --body-file /tmp/team-outsource-body-{name}.md \
  --assignee {username} \
  --label "{phase}"

Skip --assignee flag if no assignee chosen. Capture stdout for issue URL + number.

Jira/Linear/paste:

Show body in terminal:

ISSUE BODY — copy the text below to {tracker}

────────────────────────────────────────────────────
{title}

{body}
────────────────────────────────────────────────────

After creating: paste the issue URL below.

AskUserQuestion free text: paste URL → parse id via:

• GitHub: /(\d+)$/
• Jira: /([A-Z]+-\d+)/
• Linear: /([A-Z]+-\d+)/

On parse error: show "Could not extract ID from URL — enter manually?" and ask again.

Todo: mark PHASE 5 → completed, PHASE 6 → in_progress.

PHASE 6: Write externalRef back

Todo: mark PHASE 6 → in_progress.

Re-read .project/backlog.json directly before writing (Prettier/linters may have modified the file in the meantime).

Find feature by name → update externalRef field:

{
  "type": "github",
  "id": "456",
  "url": "https://github.com/owner/repo/issues/456",
  "itemId": null,
  "assignees": ["alice"],
  "labels": ["P1"],
  "direction": "outbound",
  "syncedStatus": "open",
  "syncedAt": "YYYY-MM-DD",
  "split": null
}

Set data.updated to today. Edit the JSON back into .project/backlog.json (see shared/BACKLOG.md § Writing).

If .project/features/<name>/feature.json exists: also add externalRef there (1:1 copy).

Todo: mark PHASE 6 → completed, PHASE 7 → in_progress.

PHASE 7: Output

Todo: mark PHASE 7 → in_progress.

OUTSOURCED

  {name}  →  {tracker} #{id}
  {url}

  Assignee:  @{username}
  Status:    {backlog status} · marked as outbound

  Next: monitor via /team-verify once there are commits on this branch

Todo: mark PHASE 7 → completed.

Restrictions

• No bidirectional sync — external status updates do not automatically come back to the backlog
• Skip items that already have an externalRef (both inbound and outbound) — no duplicate issues
• One item at a time for technical brief / user story formats. Multi-select OK for minimal-task batch
• Backlog status does not change on outsourcing — externalRef.direction is the signal, not the status column
• paste flow: minimal URL validation — user is responsible for correct paste

Tracker-support matrix

Terminal Formatting

• NEVER use blockquote syntax (>) for displaying content in user-facing output
• Backticks only for actual code, file paths, and command references

Language

Follow skills/shared/LANGUAGE.md for output language rules.