Doccraft Close

doccraft — close a story (transactional)

When to use

• The user wants to close / ship / finish / resolve a specific story and have the planning surface end up consistent — not just the story file.
• Work is moving to any terminal state: done, or a non-promoting terminal like done-no-promote, abandoned, absorbed.
• The user pastes "mark P1.30 done", "close audio-engine/STR-0042", "we shipped the retry flow", or similar.

Not for: authoring or re-scoping a story (use doccraft-story), a general "what's unblocked / fix the queue" sweep with no specific story to close (use doccraft-queue-audit), or recording a decision (use doccraft-adr).

Closing a story is a multi-file transaction. The story file is only step one; the backlog row, the queue row, and (with epics) the parent epic table all describe the same work and drift the moment one is updated without the others. This skill owns the whole transition so a close never lands halfway.

Configuration

Read doccraft.json at invocation. Every key below has a default in this body, so a missing config file is a soft fallback, not an error.

• docsDir — root folder for all docs. Default: docs. Stories, queue, and backlog live at {docsDir}/stories/, {docsDir}/queue.md, {docsDir}/backlog.md.
• story.status — the allowed status: values. The terminal values are whichever of these mean "no longer active work" — done always, plus any the project adds (done-no-promote, abandoned, absorbed). Read this list rather than assuming done is the only terminal state; a story closed as absorbed is just as closed as one marked done.
• queue.tables.suggestedOrder, queue.tables.platformSpikes — heading text used to locate the queue tables. Defaults: Suggested order, Platform spikes. Matched on heading text, not row position.

Multi-package scope

For monorepo projects (a Known package roots block appears above when packages are declared), a story lives under a specific scope — the project root or a declared package's {{DOCS_DIR}}/. For single-root projects no block appears and everything operates on the project-root {{DOCS_DIR}}/.

Resolve the target's scope before touching anything:

• Namespaced id. pkg/STR-NNNN names the package directly — operate in that package's {{DOCS_DIR}}/. An unprefixed id is project-root scoped.
• Explicit package: arg. Honour it.
• Active-file inference. If the user is editing a file under a declared package path, default to that package.

Close the story in its own scope: its story file, its package {{DOCS_DIR}}/queue.md, and its package {{DOCS_DIR}}/backlog.md. Then refresh the root cross-package aggregate (see step 5) so the closed story stops showing up there.

What this skill reads and writes

Reads:

• The target story file's frontmatter (id, status, epic, depends_on, roadmap_ref) and the project's story.status vocabulary.
• The scope's {{DOCS_DIR}}/queue.md and {{DOCS_DIR}}/backlog.md.
• The parent epic file when epic: is set and the epics extension is active.

Writes (Agent mode only):

• The story file — status only (and updated).
• {{DOCS_DIR}}/backlog.md — the matching Status cell.
• {{DOCS_DIR}}/queue.md — remove the closed row, renumber.
• The parent epic file — via the close.epic-update injection (see below).

Mode: propose vs apply

Same contract as doccraft-queue-audit, set by the environment, not by user enthusiasm:

• Apply (Agent mode). The tool can write files — perform the transition and reconcile in the same turn, then report what changed.
• Propose (Ask / read-only mode). The tool cannot write files — emit the exact diff you would apply (which files, which cells, which rows) and stop. NEVER write in Ask mode even if asked; the user applies it themselves.

The close transaction

Run these in order. If any step cannot be completed unambiguously, stop and report (see Stop and report) rather than leaving a partial close.

1. Resolve the target. Locate exactly one story file matching the id / namespaced id / active file. If zero or more than one match, stop and ask — never guess which story to close.

2. Pick the terminal status. Use the status the user named; default to done. It MUST be one of the project's story.status terminal values. Set the story's status and bump updated to today. Do not touch other frontmatter.

3. Backlog Status cell. In the scope's {{DOCS_DIR}}/backlog.md, find the row for this story (by roadmap_ref / id) and set its Status cell to the project's established "closed" phrasing for that terminal state. NEVER mark a backlog row closed when the story file is still todo / in_progress — the backlog follows the story, never leads it.

4. Queue row. In the scope's {{DOCS_DIR}}/queue.md, remove the closed story's row from the Suggested order table and renumber the rows below it. A closed story never stays in the pick-next list.

5. Epic update (injection). If the project uses epics, run the close.epic-update fragment below — mark the story's row in the parent epic's table and roll the epic to a terminal status when its last open child closes. Absent the extension this is a no-op.

6. Reconcile. Run the doccraft-queue-audit invariants over the affected scope (graph checks, queue-order checks, backlog-drift checks) so closing this story did not strand a dependent or leave a stale row elsewhere. In a monorepo, also regenerate the root cross-package aggregate so the closed story is dropped from it. Do not restate the audit rules here — apply the same ones doccraft-queue-audit defines, so the two skills can never reconcile a queue differently.

Stop and report (no edit)

NEVER guess through these — report and let the user decide:

• Ambiguous target. The id / phrase matches zero or several stories.
• Unknown terminal status. The requested status is not a terminal value in story.status. List the valid terminal values.
• Dependent would be stranded. Closing this story leaves a dependent whose only path forward was this story and whose other prerequisites are unfinished — surface it; the close is still valid, but the user should see the downstream impact.
• Working-tree conflict. Uncommitted changes exist in a file you would write. Report the plan; never overwrite in-progress work.

Pre-apply validation

Before writing anything in Agent mode, MUST complete these checks:

1. Single target resolved — exactly one story file matches; scope is determined. If not, stop and ask.
2. Terminal status valid — the chosen status is in the project's story.status terminal set.
3. Backlog row located — the story's backlog row is found before editing its Status cell; if no row exists, note it rather than inventing one.
4. Queue row located — the queue row is found (or confirmed absent) before renumbering.
5. Working-tree clean — for every file to be written; otherwise report and defer to the user.

Invalid examples (do not use)

• Flipping the story status and stopping — leaves the backlog, queue, and epic stale. The whole point of this skill is the full transition.
• Marking a backlog row or epic row closed while the story file is still todo / in_progress — status flows story → backlog/epic, never the reverse.
• Inventing a terminal status not in story.status — extend the vocabulary in doccraft.json first (via doccraft-config).
• Deleting a depends_on edge on a dependent to "unblock" it after a close — never; surface the stranded dependent and let the user decide.
• Writing files in Ask / read-only mode — emit the diff only.
• Creating a commit unless the user asks.

Done condition

The task is complete when:

• Exactly one story's status is set to the intended terminal value and updated is bumped.
• The matching {{DOCS_DIR}}/backlog.md Status cell reflects the closure.
• The story's {{DOCS_DIR}}/queue.md row is removed and rows renumbered.
• If the project uses epics: the parent epic table reflects the closed story (via close.epic-update).
• The doccraft-queue-audit reconcile has run over the affected scope (and the root aggregate refreshed in a monorepo) with no unreported drift.
• Nothing was written in Ask / read-only mode.

References

• doccraft-queue-audit — the reconcile invariants this skill defers to.
• doccraft-story — the frontmatter contract and terminal status vocab.
• {{DOCS_DIR}}/queue.md, {{DOCS_DIR}}/backlog.md — the surfaces reconciled.

Project-specific vocabulary (terminal status values, queue-table headings, docs dir) lives in doccraft.json — the Configuration section lists the keys this skill reads. The defaults in this body apply when no config is present.