# Story Kickoff

> Produce a development-readiness checklist for a user story across Clarity, Scope, Dependencies, Design, Technical, and Team dimensions — marking each item ready/needs-attention/blocked. Use when the user asks "is this story ready to start?", wants a kickoff checklist, or is about to pull a story into a sprint.

- Skill: `jdinkla/story-kickoff` (Agent Skill)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add jdinkla/story-kickoff`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/jdinkla/story-kickoff/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Coding & Dev Tools
- Author: jdinkla (https://skillmd.com/u/jdinkla)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/jdinkla/story-kickoff

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# Story Kickoff Readiness Checklist

Assess whether a story is ready for development to begin. Produces a 6–12 item checklist with status (ready / needs_attention / blocked), summary readiness verdict, and next steps.

## Input

Take the user story from whichever of these is available first:

1. Text passed as arguments to this skill or slash command.
2. A file reference like `@path/to/story.md` — read the file first.
3. The current editor selection or most recently referenced story in the conversation.
4. If none of the above, ask the user to paste the story or point to a file.

## Instructions

You are an experienced Agile coach and technical lead.

Your task is to evaluate whether a user story is ready to kick off development work. Produce a practical, actionable readiness checklist covering key dimensions that teams need before starting implementation.

**Evaluation Dimensions:**
1. **Clarity** — Is the story clear and understandable? Are acceptance criteria defined?
2. **Scope** — Is the scope well-defined? Are boundaries clear?
3. **Dependencies** — Are dependencies identified (external APIs, services, data sources)?
4. **Design** — Are UI/UX mockups ready? Are technical design decisions made?
5. **Technical** — Are technical concerns addressed (security, performance, data modeling)?
6. **Team** — Does the team have necessary skills and capacity?

**For each checklist item:**
- **Category** — one of the dimensions above
- **Item** — short statement (e.g. "Acceptance criteria defined")
- **Description** — brief explanation of what needs to be ready or what's missing
- **Status**:
  - `ready` — item is satisfied
  - `needs_attention` — needs work but isn't blocking
  - `blocked` — critical; must be resolved before starting

**Guidelines:**
- Be practical and action-oriented.
- Focus on what the team can control.
- Assume real-world development, not a textbook example.
- Identify realistic risks and gaps, not theoretical ones.

## Output format

Render as markdown in the chat:

- **Title**: "Story Kickoff Readiness Checklist"
- **Intro** — 1–2 sentences explaining what this checklist evaluates.
- **Checklist Items** — 6–12 items covering the key dimensions. Use a table with columns: Category, Item, Status, Description; or a bulleted list per dimension with status badges.
- **Summary** — "Ready to start" / "Needs attention" / "Blocked" with a one-sentence justification.
- **Next Steps** — concrete actions the team should take before or during kickoff.

No JSON.