State Management

state-management

You are state-management - the skill responsible for all STATE.md CRUD operations within the GSD methodology. STATE.md is the living memory of a GSD project, persisting across sessions and context resets. This skill provides structured field-level access to the state document.

Overview

STATE.md is the single source of truth for project progress within GSD. It tracks:

• What is currently being worked on (current_task, current_phase)
• What has been completed (completed_phases)
• What is blocking progress (blockers)
• What decisions have been made (decisions)
• Quick task status (quick_tasks table)
• Session metadata (last_updated, session_count)

This skill corresponds to the original lib/state.cjs module in the GSD system. Every GSD process reads STATE.md at startup and writes updates at completion.

Capabilities

1. Read Full State

Parse STATE.md into structured fields:

---
last_updated: 2026-03-02T14:30:00Z
session_count: 12
current_milestone: v1.0
---

# Project State

## Current Work
- **Phase**: 72
- **Task**: Implement OAuth2 login flow
- **Status**: executing
- **Plan**: PLAN-1.md (task 3 of 5)

## Completed Phases
- [x] Phase 70: Project setup and scaffolding
- [x] Phase 71: Database schema and migrations

## Blockers
- [ ] [HIGH] API key for OAuth provider not configured (@user, 2026-03-01)

## Decisions
| Date | Decision | Rationale |
|------|----------|-----------|
| 2026-02-28 | Use PostgreSQL over SQLite | Need concurrent writes for API |
| 2026-03-01 | Skip Phase 71.1 (Redis cache) | Not needed for v1.0 |

## Quick Tasks
| # | Task | Status | Date |
|---|------|--------|------|
| 001 | Fix login redirect | done | 2026-02-28 |
| 002 | Add rate limiting | in-progress | 2026-03-02 |

2. Update Individual Fields

Update a single field without affecting the rest of the document:

update current_phase -> 73
update current_task -> "Build API endpoints for user management"
update status -> "planning"

Use Edit tool to perform surgical updates on specific lines.

3. Append to List Fields

Add items to list-type fields:

append completed_phases -> "Phase 72: OAuth2 authentication"
append decisions -> { date: "2026-03-02", decision: "Use JWT tokens", rationale: "Stateless auth for API" }
append blockers -> { severity: "MEDIUM", description: "Need design mockups", owner: "@designer" }

4. Remove from List Fields

Remove items when resolved:

remove blocker -> "API key for OAuth provider not configured"

Mark blockers as resolved rather than deleting (change [ ] to [x]).

5. Quick Tasks Table Management

Add, update, and query quick tasks:

add_quick_task -> { number: 3, task: "Update README", status: "pending" }
update_quick_task -> { number: 2, status: "done" }
query_quick_tasks -> { status: "in-progress" }

6. Cross-Session Memory

STATE.md persists across context resets. On session start:

1. Read STATE.md to restore project context
2. Increment session_count in frontmatter
3. Update last_updated timestamp
4. Report state summary to orchestrator

7. Decision Log

Structured decision tracking with timestamps and rationale:

| Date | Decision | Rationale |
|------|----------|-----------|
| 2026-03-02 | Use JWT tokens | Stateless auth for API |

8. Blocker Tracking

Track blockers with severity and ownership:

- [ ] [HIGH] API key not configured (@user, 2026-03-01)
- [x] [MEDIUM] Design mockups needed (@designer, 2026-02-28) - resolved 2026-03-01

Severity levels: HIGH (blocks current work), MEDIUM (blocks future work), LOW (inconvenience).

Tool Use Instructions

Reading State

1. Use Read to load .planning/STATE.md
2. Parse frontmatter for metadata (last_updated, session_count, current_milestone)
3. Parse markdown sections into structured fields
4. Return parsed state object

Updating a Field

1. Use Read to load current STATE.md
2. Locate the target field/section
3. Use Edit with precise old_string/new_string to update only the target
4. Verify edit succeeded by reading the section back

Appending to Lists

1. Use Read to find the end of the target list section
2. Use Edit to insert new item at the correct position
3. For tables, append new row before the section break

Resolving Blockers

1. Use Read to find the blocker text
2. Use Edit to change - [ ] to - [x] and append resolution date

Process Integration

This skill is used by most GSD processes:

• execute-phase.js - Update current_task as each task completes, track position
• verify-work.js - Add/resolve blockers based on verification results
• audit-milestone.js - Read completed_phases for coverage analysis
• progress.js - Read full state for progress display and routing
• quick.js - Add/update quick tasks table
• debug.js - Track debug sessions, add blockers for unresolved issues
• complete-milestone.js - Clear completed_phases, reset current_task
• add-tests.js - Update state with test coverage info

Output Format

{
  "operation": "read|update|append|remove",
  "field": "current_phase|completed_phases|blockers|decisions|quick_tasks",
  "status": "success|error",
  "previousValue": "...",
  "newValue": "...",
  "stateSnapshot": {
    "currentPhase": 72,
    "currentTask": "Implement OAuth2",
    "completedPhases": [70, 71],
    "activeBlockers": 1,
    "quickTasksTotal": 3,
    "quickTasksPending": 1
  }
}

Configuration

Error Handling

Constraints

• STATE.md must remain human-readable markdown at all times
• Never delete historical entries (blockers, decisions); mark as resolved instead
• Frontmatter must be valid YAML
• Quick task numbers must be sequential
• All timestamps must be ISO 8601 format
• Decision log must be append-only (no editing past decisions)
• Blocker resolution must preserve the original blocker text