# Implement Task > Execute one task file from docs/specs// end-to-end — ground in the PRD/TechSpec, implement only the slice, and hand back evidence under the execution mode's settlement contract. Starts immediately when assigned, with no confirmation prompt. Use when the user says "run task_03", "execute the next task", "pick up a task", or when an implementation loop or daemon assigns a task file from a spec folder. - Skill: `marcioaltoe/implement-task` (Agent Skill) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add marcioaltoe/implement-task` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/marcioaltoe/implement-task/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Product & Planning - Author: marcioaltoe (https://skillmd.com/u/marcioaltoe) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/marcioaltoe/implement-task --- # Implement task Build exactly one Task from a Spec folder. The Task file defines the slice, acceptance criteria, and Verification contract. Standalone execution owns the full lifecycle; a Roundfix Daemon-assigned turn hands back implementation-ready work for Daemon Verification and settlement. **Being assigned the Task — by the user, a loop, or a Daemon — is the authorization to start.** Begin immediately: no greeting, no plan-approval question, no waiting for a "go". Contradictory requirements, or a stale standalone `in_progress` status, are the only reasons to pause before implementing. ## Execution modes Standalone execution and a Roundfix Daemon-assigned turn share the same Task slice, Result, and evidence requirements, but they have different settlement owners. - In standalone execution, the Agent updates Task status, runs every command in `## Verification`, settles the Task from fresh evidence, and commits only when the user has authorized a commit. - In a Roundfix Daemon-assigned turn, the Daemon is the sole Task-status writer. The Agent must not edit status, run the declared `## Verification` commands, claim a terminal verdict, or commit. It may run focused checks, records implementation and focused-check evidence in `## Result`, and hands back implementation-ready work. The Daemon then runs the complete declared Verification verbatim before settlement. - A Daemon Verification command failure releases Verification Capacity before one Verification Feedback repair turn in the same Agent Session. The Agent repairs the implementation, updates `## Result`, runs focused checks when useful, and hands back again without running declared Verification or settling status. For a Daemon-assigned Task that arrives `in_progress`, start the Task fresh. The work-target lock proves that no live Agent owns it. Do not ask how to resume, and do not normalize or settle its status. ## 1. Load Read the assigned `task_NN.md`, then run the Project Constraint preflight before changing the Task status to `in_progress` in standalone execution: 1. A completed or archived legacy Spec is exempt from forced constraint backfill. Leave its artifacts byte-identical and stop rather than re-executing or rewriting it. 2. For an active Spec, require complete `Project Constraints` sections in the PRD and every present TechSpec. Each must account for identifier strategy, authentication and HTTP, active ADR obligations, and tooling authority as applicable or not applicable with a reason, with an operative `docs/agents/` source path for every row. Stop without changing Task status when any row, reason, or source is missing. 3. Determine whether the assigned Task creates, edits, renames, moves, or deletes repository-tooling configuration, scripts, ignore files, plugin declarations, or version pins. Tooling authorization is not implied by Task assignment, setup approval, or a generic implementation request. 4. Before a tooling Task can start, require express maintainer authorization and an exact bounded repository-relative file list in the PRD and every present TechSpec. The mutation allowlist is those exact paths plus the assigned Task file itself. Missing or conflicting authorization leaves the Task pending and stops execution. 5. Run `git status --short` and capture the pre-existing changed paths before work begins. They remain user-owned and cannot be counted as this Task's changes. After the preflight, standalone execution checks `status`: - `pending` → set `status: in_progress` and proceed. - `in_progress` → a previous session may have died mid-task. Inspect the worktree and git log for partial work, report what you find, and ask how to proceed rather than double-building. - `completed` / `failed` → stop and report; re-running is an explicit human decision. In a Daemon-assigned turn, treat status as Daemon-owned and proceed without editing it. - Read the sections of `_prd.md` and `_techspec.md` named in the task's References, plus `CONTEXT.md` (use its vocabulary in code names and test names) and any referenced ADRs. - **If requirements contradict each other** — task vs spec, spec vs ADR — stop and report the conflict. Guessing buries a spec bug inside an implementation. ## 2. Plan - Build a checklist from Requirements + Acceptance Criteria. - Capture the pre-change signal that proves the task is _not yet_ done — the failing test, the missing behavior, the 404. Without a red starting point you cannot show your change is what turned things green. - **Characterization Tasks use the real boundary, within the bounds the Task declares.** When the assigned Task is a characterization Task, exercise the named external surface and record what the real thing does. Do not substitute a fake, mock, fixture, or inferred behavior; the record is the boundary evidence that downstream Tasks may rely on. Before reaching the boundary, confirm the Task states which target you are reaching and that you are reaching that one. Read rather than write, or use the isolated instance the Task creates. Use only the credentials the Task scopes to that target, honour cancellation, and remove what you created even when the Task fails. A write against the real boundary happens only where the Task authorizes that write specifically — recording what a boundary does is not authority to change it, and an unauthorized write is out of scope whatever it would prove. If the Task names no target or no bound, stop and report that rather than choosing one. ## 3. Implement - Stay inside the slice. The PRD's Non-Goals and the task's scope are walls, not suggestions — work that belongs to another task goes in a follow-up note, not in this diff. - Tests first at the seams the TechSpec names (they are pre-agreed; a new seam needs the user's sign-off). Typecheck and run the focused tests frequently; save the full suite for the gate. - Root cause only — no lint/type suppressions, no swallowed errors, no timing hacks. A workaround closes the task and opens a bug. - For an authorized tooling Task, compare the target path with the mutation allowlist before every mutation. Never edit `_tasks.md` or any other Task file. If a required path is absent from the authorization, stop and request a revised Spec instead of widening the list. ## 4. Standalone verify — the gate In standalone execution, evidence comes before terminal status in this order: 1. Run every command in the Task's `## Verification` section verbatim. 2. Run the repository's verify pipeline (`make verify`, or the build/lint/typecheck/test equivalents this repo documents) when the current execution mode requires local completion evidence. 3. Walk Acceptance Criteria one by one: each needs fresh evidence from this session — a command output, a test name that passes, an observed behavior. A green suite is not evidence for a criterion the suite doesn't cover. For every authorized tooling Task, run a changed-file postflight after the last edit. Compare the captured baseline with `git status --short` and `git diff --name-only`, accounting for staged, unstaged, and untracked paths. Every newly changed path must be either one exact authorized path or the assigned Task file. If any other path appears, make no further mutation, set `status: failed`, record the out-of-scope paths in `## Result`, and leave the worktree intact for recovery. A narrow verification never supports a broad claim. If any standalone check fails after honest root-cause attempts: set `status: failed`, record what was tried in `## Result`, and report — a loud failure the scheduler can retry beats a quiet "mostly done". ## 5. Standalone record Append a `## Result` section to the task file: what changed (described by behavior, not file lists), commands run with outcomes, evidence per acceptance criterion, and any follow-ups discovered. Tick the Subtasks and Acceptance Criteria checkboxes that the evidence supports. Set `status: completed`. Never touch `_tasks.md` — it owns graph topology, not progress. ## 6. Standalone commit - Commit only when the user has explicitly authorized it. - Stage only this task's files (`git status --short` first; unrelated changes stay out). - One commit per task, Conventional Commits format, task id in the body for traceability (`spec: / task_02`). - Never push and never open a PR from inside a task — publishing is a separate, explicit action. ## 7. Daemon-assigned handoff 1. Read the assigned Task, PRD, TechSpec, `CONTEXT.md`, active ADRs, and bounded context paths before editing. 2. Implement only the assigned slice. Never edit `_tasks.md`, another Task file, or a path outside an authorized tooling allowlist. 3. Run focused implementation checks while working when useful. Do not run any command from the Task's `## Verification` section. 4. Append or update `## Result` with the implementation and focused-check evidence for every acceptance criterion. Do not use Daemon Verification evidence that has not run yet. 5. Hand back implementation-ready work without editing Task status or claiming `completed`, `failed`, passing Verification, commit readiness, or delivery. 6. Never commit, push, or open a pull request. The Daemon runs declared Verification, writes terminal Task status, and owns the Task commit. ## Anti-patterns - Marking `completed` on "should work" — the status field is read by machines that won't double-check. - Weakening, skipping, or deleting a failing test to get to green. - Fixing "one more thing" spotted along the way — that's a follow-up, not scope. - Re-verifying with stale output from earlier in the session; evidence must postdate the last edit. - Editing other tasks' files or statuses. - In a Daemon-assigned turn, running declared Verification, editing Task status, claiming a terminal verdict, or committing.