Bd Issue Pop

bd-issue-pop command

Apply this command workflow. Treat any text after its invocation as the command input.

Pop a bead (epic) into a worktree branch, decompose it into child beads, then hand off to /do-work. Mirrors the gh flow: this command sets up, /do-work does the work, and its last pass merges the PR and closes the epic.

Two stores, and keeping them separate matters. The epic's code lands on the one bd-<id>-<slug> branch and merges via its single PR. The bead tracker lives in the shared main-repo database — worktrees reach it through a .beads/redirect — and persists with bd sync. Bead status never rides the code branch.

Input

$ARGUMENTS

A bead ID. Without one, run bd list and ask which.

Phase 0-2 -- Sync, fetch, gather context

gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner   # <owner>/<repo>, for Phase 5
git pull && bd sync
git branch --show-current                             # must be main, not a worktree
bd show <id>

Stop if you are not on main in the main checkout, or if the bead is already done. Show the bead's title and description.

Read docs/VISION.yaml, docs/ARCHITECTURE.yaml, docs/road-map.yaml, docs/constitutions/design.yaml where they exist, plus the READMEs relevant to the bead. Probe the build tool once — its output gates every later mage step, and a repo without mage skips them silently:

mage -l 2>/dev/null || true

Run the consistency check if one exists (mage audit, or mage analyze where it is named that way) and mage stats if present. Summarize the project state.

Phase 3 -- Propose Breakdown

Decompose the bead into child beads — the beads-native equivalent of an epic's sub-issues. For each child, specify:

• Title and type (documentation or code)
• Required Reading: mandatory list of files
• Files to Create/Modify: explicit file list
• Structure: Requirements, Design Decisions (optional), Acceptance Criteria
• Estimated LOC for code children
• Dependencies: which sibling children must finish first
• Code task sizing: 300-700 lines of production code, no more than 5 files per child

Present the children and their dependency ordering explicitly (a short list or a small graph — "C depends on A, B") for approval. This is the single interactive pause. Do not create any beads until the user agrees.

If the natural breakdown is a single unit of work, say so — no child beads are created; the parent bead is worked directly (the single-unit path in Phase 4).

Phase 4 -- Create the worktree and the bead graph

After approval, slug the title (kebab-case, ≤30 chars) and set up:

git checkout main
git fetch origin main
git merge --ff-only origin/main          # branch from current code, not a stale main
git worktree add ../bd-<id>-<slug> -b bd-<id>-<slug>
cd ../bd-<id>-<slug>
bd sync                                  # writes the worktree redirect, rebuilds from issues.jsonl
bd update <id> --status in_progress && bd sync

The fetch matters twice over here. git worktree add branches from whatever main points at with no complaint about its age, and bd sync rebuilds the bead graph from issues.jsonl — which lives on main, so a stale checkout gives a stale graph as well as a stale base. --ff-only rather than pull: a diverged main is a state to report, not one to resolve on the user's behalf. Re-check the bead is still open here if the approval in Phase 3 took a while (bd show <id>); the gh sibling learned that the hard way.

bd sync is what wires beads to the worktree: one database lives in the main checkout, and the worktree reaches it through a local .beads/redirect. If bd still cannot find it, write the relative path to the main repo's .beads/ into that file — it is gitignored, never commit it.

Every bd change is tracker state in the shared database. Persist with bd sync, which writes and pushes issues.jsonl; never git add .beads/ on the code branch.

For a multi-child breakdown, create each child labelled with the parent id — that label is what scopes /do-work's ready queue to this epic — then wire the dependency edges so the parent stays blocked until its children finish:

bd create "<child title>" --label <id>     # capture <child-id>
bd dep add <child-id> <prereq-child-id>    # one per prerequisite
bd dep add <id> <child-id>                 # parent depends on the child
bd sync

For a single-unit breakdown, create no children; /do-work works the parent bead directly.

Commit the marker on the branch and push:

git commit --allow-empty -m "Pop <id>: <title> into worktree

Children: <child ids>          # omit when there are none

Skill: bd-issue-pop
Called-by: <invoking skill, or 'user'>"
git push -u origin bd-<id>-<slug>

Working the epic — run /do-work repeatedly

Popping built the worktree and the bead graph; /do-work does the work, one ready child per pass, on the shared branch. It detects beads mode, takes the next child from the parent-scoped queue (bd ready --label <id>), implements it under the real-work bar (no stubs), records Actual LOC, and closes it with bd update --status done, which unblocks its dependents.

Only ever implement beads belonging to this epic — never one from another epic that happens to be ready.

One worktree, one PR per epic. A child too big to finish gets split into siblings under this epic in the same worktree; /do-work never pops again. When the last child closes, /do-work runs Phase 5 automatically.

Phase 5 -- Merge and Close the Epic

The last /do-work pass reaches this automatically after it closes the final child. It opens the PR, merges it to main, closes the epic, and cleans up — no manual step. (Verify first that every child is done and the work is real; do not merge a stub branch.)

1. Close the epic in the tracker. All children are done, so its dependencies are satisfied. This is a tracker update in the shared database, persisted with bd sync — not a commit on the code branch (beads has no git auto-close, and the code PR carries only code):

   bd ready --label <id>   # this epic's children — none should remain
   bd update <id> --status done
   bd sync                 # writes and pushes issues.jsonl from the shared db
   

2. Open a pull request against main for the code:

   gh pr create --repo <owner>/<repo> \
     --base main \
     --head bd-<id>-<slug> \
     --title "bd-<id>: <title>" \
     --body "$(cat <<'EOF'
   ## Summary
   
   <2-3 sentence summary of what this delivered>
   
   ## Changes
   
   <bulleted list of what was produced>
   
   ## Test plan
   
   <if a consistency-check target is available:>
   - [ ] the consistency check (`mage audit` / `mage analyze`) passes
   - [ ] All tests pass
   - [ ] Documentation reviewed for consistency
   
   Bead: <id>
   Actual LOC: <n> (est <m>)
   EOF
   )"
   

3. Merge the pull request and delete the remote branch:

   gh pr merge --repo <owner>/<repo> --merge --delete-branch
   

4. From the main repo directory, pull the merged code and sync beads (the tracker already reflects the closed epic and children — bd sync reconciles it):

   cd -                    # back to the main repo checkout on `main`
   git pull origin main
   bd sync
   

5. Remove the worktree and delete the local branch:

   git worktree remove ../bd-<id>-<slug>
   git branch -d bd-<id>-<slug>
   

6. Report the PR URL, that it merged, and that the epic and its children are closed.

Skill Tracing

Each skill records provenance as git trailers on the commits it authors:

• bd-issue-pop marker commits carry Skill: bd-issue-pop and Called-by: user.
• do-work implementation commits carry Skill: do-work and Called-by: bd-issue-pop.