Investigate Spike

Investigate Spike

A spike is a time-boxed research task whose deliverable is knowledge, not code. This skill runs the research against the Epic's dedicated clone and leaves a report next to the Epic's other machine-managed data.

Steps

1. Identify the spike item. If the user named one, use it. Otherwise list the Epic's items (node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/monday/list-items.mjs") and look for spike markers — a name starting with Spike / [Spike] / スパイク, or a type/status column that marks spikes on this board. If nothing matches, show the candidates and ask; do not guess. When the board uses a different convention, note it for setup-scrum-context so it can be recorded.

2. Load the question. get-item.mjs <itemId> plus the item's saved updates (.pm/backlog/updates/<itemId>.json) and, if scaffolded, pbi/<itemId>-*/acceptance.md — the spike's question and its "done when we know X" criterion. If the question is ambiguous, confirm it with the user before spending investigation effort.

3. Prepare the code. Run node "${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/repo/sync-repo.mjs" "<groupName>" so the dedicated clone (.pm/repo/repo-state.json → mirrorPath) is current on the epic branch. The clone is the spike's dedicated workspace — never investigate in the user's own development checkout. Read-only: no edits, no branch switching beyond what sync-repo.mjs did.

4. Investigate. Answer the spike question with evidence: trace the relevant code paths in the mirror (file:line citations), consult library docs where the question involves external dependencies, and run read-only commands in the mirror if needed. Delegate broad sweeps to a read-only exploration agent (code-explore) and fold back conclusions. Time-box: when findings are sufficient to decide, stop — a spike ends at "enough to decide", not at exhaustive coverage.

5. Write the report to .pm/reports/spikes/<itemId>-<slug>.html — a self-contained HTML document (inline CSS, no external assets, same conventions as the progress report): the question, what was examined, findings with file:line evidence, options with trade-offs, and a recommendation. Slug: short kebab-case from the item title.

6. Close the loop. Report the recommendation + report path in chat. Offer (user approval required — monday writes are workspace-visible) to post the conclusion and report location as an update on the monday item via the monday-api-mcp server, and/or to set the item's status via update-item-status.mjs.

Failure modes

• No repo configured for the Epic → the spike may still be researchable from docs alone; say the code view is unavailable and ask whether to proceed docs-only or configure the repo first.
• MONDAY_TOKEN missing → scripts exit 1; point to the plugin README.
• Spike question spans a repo other than the Epic's → ask for the repo URL and pass it as sync-repo.mjs --repo-url/--epic-folder overrides rather than silently investigating the wrong codebase.