Gh Project Charter

gh-project-charter

Project charter management skill for GitHub Projects V2. Creates, updates, and maintains project charter documents that define goals, scope, success criteria, and change history.

Prerequisites

• gh-project-shared utilities (for gh CLI checks and config)
• Project created via gh-project-setup (recommended)

Commands

create

Create a new project charter from the minimal template.

gh-project-charter.sh create --project "My Project" --number 1 --goals "Build a CLI tool for project management"

Options:

• --project NAME - Project name (required)
• --number NUM - GitHub project number (required)
• --goals "text" - Initial goals description

Output: docs/project-charter.md

update-section

Update an existing section in the charter.

# Replace section content entirely
gh-project-charter.sh update-section "Goals" --replace "New goals text here"

# Append to a subsection
gh-project-charter.sh update-section "In Scope" --append "- New deliverable item"

Options:

• --replace "text" - Replace the section content entirely
• --append "text" - Append content to a subsection

add-section

Add a new optional section to the charter (inserted before Change Log).

gh-project-charter.sh add-section "Timeline" --content "Q1: Design phase\nQ2: Implementation"

Options:

• --content "text" - Content for the new section

log-change

Add an entry to the Change Log section.

gh-project-charter.sh log-change "Expanded scope to include API integration"

view

Display the current project charter.

gh-project-charter.sh view

Progressive Enhancement Workflow

The charter skill supports progressive enhancement -- start minimal and add detail as the project evolves:

1. Create a charter with basic goals
2. Update sections as scope becomes clearer
3. Add sections (Timeline, Risks, Dependencies) when needed
4. Log changes to maintain an audit trail

# Day 1: Create minimal charter
gh-project-charter.sh create --project "Auth Rewrite" --number 5 --goals "Replace legacy auth with OAuth2"

# Week 1: Define scope
gh-project-charter.sh update-section "In Scope" --append "- OAuth2 provider integration"
gh-project-charter.sh update-section "In Scope" --append "- Token refresh mechanism"
gh-project-charter.sh update-section "Out of Scope" --append "- SAML support (future phase)"

# Week 2: Add timeline
gh-project-charter.sh add-section "Timeline" --content "- Week 1-2: Design\n- Week 3-4: Implementation\n- Week 5: Testing"
gh-project-charter.sh log-change "Added timeline after sprint planning"

# Ongoing: Track scope changes
gh-project-charter.sh update-section "In Scope" --append "- Session management migration"
gh-project-charter.sh log-change "Added session management to scope per stakeholder request"

Coordination with Operations

The gh-project-operations skill's coordinator detects scope-changing operations (milestone additions, epic labels) and suggests updating the charter. When notified:

1. Review the suggested change
2. Update the relevant charter section
3. Log the change for audit trail

Template Structure

The minimal charter template includes:

Optional sections added via add-section:

• Timeline (milestones, deadlines)
• Deliverables (specific outputs)
• Risks & Assumptions
• Dependencies (blockers, prerequisites)
• Resources (team, budget)
• Communication Plan

Library Functions

When sourcing scripts directly:

charter-create.sh

• generate_charter(name, num, purpose) - Generate a charter from the template
• populate_template(template, name, num) - Replace template placeholders
• add_changelog_entry(file, entry) - Add a timestamped change log entry

charter-sections.sh

• update_section(file, section, content) - Replace section content
• add_to_section(file, section, content) - Append to a subsection
• add_new_section(file, section, content) - Insert a new section before Change Log
• get_section(file, section) - Extract section content

Integration Points

• gh-project-shared: Uses gh-check.sh and gh-auth.sh for prerequisite validation
• gh-project-setup: Charters are created after project setup
• gh-project-operations: Operations coordinator suggests charter updates on scope changes