# To Tickets > Break a spec into one-outcome tickets with durable dependencies - Skill: `sdc-workshop/to-tickets` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 2 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add sdc-workshop/to-tickets` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/sdc-workshop/to-tickets/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: SDC-Workshop (https://skillmd.com/u/sdc-workshop) - Updated: 2026-09-22 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/sdc-workshop/to-tickets --- # To tickets Break an accepted plan or spec into implementation tickets. `to-tickets` is the canonical installed name. If the user says `/to-ticket`, interpret that singular term as their request for this canonical workflow; do not promise a separate registered command. Read and apply [the shared agent workflow](../implement/references/agent-workflow.md) before ticket planning. The full chain is `grill-with-docs → to-spec → to-tickets → implement → code-review`. Here, `accepted` and `approved` mean that the current spec, ADR, or durable workflow record contains product and architecture authority. They do not require a new user approval when no product decision or new external authority remains. ARCHITECT owns specifications, architecture, contracts, decomposition, and affected revisions. ORCHESTRATOR directs and reviews tickets. CODING agents alone edit implementation deliverables. Apply the current runtime profile from the shared workflow. ARCHITECT and ORCHESTRATOR may inspect code, run read-only checks, and edit planning or review records, but CODING alone edits implementation code, tests, scripts, runtime configuration, generated code, and integration conflicts. Select identities through supported runtime controls. A role name in a prompt or an unsupported YAML field does not configure a model, and an unavailable named role is not silently substituted or granted broader authority. ## Process ### 1. Gather context Work from the accepted spec revision and the conversation context. If the user supplies a spec path, issue number, or URL, read its full body and comments through the configured source. Explore the repository when needed. Use the domain glossary and relevant ADRs, inspect existing behavior and tests, and preserve the highest useful test seam. Do not repeat a user quiz about ticket granularity or blocking edges. The accepted spec is the product and architecture decision. After independent work, ask only about an unresolved product decision or new external authority. If the spec is missing required contracts or contains a conflict, report the concrete gap to ARCHITECT and hold the affected package rather than inventing a decision. ### 2. Validate the package frontier Every package must have stable requirement IDs, acceptance evidence, a spec revision, resolved contracts, explicit exclusions, and dependency implications before dispatch. Keep one verifiable outcome per ticket and size it for one fresh ORCHESTRATOR implementation context, including worker handoff, `/code-review`, supervisory acceptance, and completion recording. Aim for comparable, manageable complexity. ORCHESTRATOR may narrow a worker assignment inside the ticket; ARCHITECT approves ticket or dependency changes. Preserve vertical slices that are independently demoable or verifiable. Keep prefactoring inside a real end-to-end slice when possible. A wide mechanical refactor is sequenced as expand, migrate batches, and contract. Each migrate batch remains green while the old form exists, and the contract ticket blocks on every migrate batch. If batches cannot stay green independently, use an integration-and-verify ticket that all relevant batches block. Carry the relevant [repository-backed acceptance contract](../implement/references/agent-workflow.md#repository-backed-acceptance-contract) references and acceptance outcomes into the existing ticket and handoff. Include supported record references, compatibility, preservation, and relevant failure or rollback outcomes. ORCHESTRATOR verifies the evidence before dispatch; any synthetic fixture work belongs to the same CODING assignment. ### 3. Draft durable tickets Use one stable ticket identity per outcome and preserve its lineage across revisions, workers, renaming, splitting, and fresh contexts. Record the spec revision, requirement IDs, contract and dependency state, ownership, candidate/base evidence, checks, status, `retry_policy`, `execution_round`, `round_attempts_started`, `attempts_started`, `architect_returns_used`, remaining budget, and next action before transitions. Missing state must be recovered from durable history or reported unavailable, never guessed as zero. Each worker handoff has exactly these six labels: `Goal`, `Current state`, `Relevant files`, `Constraints`, `Done when`, and `Checks to run`. Include the actual CODING model and effort, ticket revision and attempt, accepted evidence, remaining budget, exclusive file ownership, ORCHESTRATOR supervisor, ARCHITECT authority, and interface contracts in those fields. Independent CODING workers may run concurrently only within one ticket and with exclusive files or separate worktrees; serialize shared-file edits. ORCHESTRATOR reconciles interfaces and directs an integrator when needed. Peer workers may communicate about interfaces with ORCHESTRATOR copied or promptly informed. Peers cannot grant scope or ownership changes. ORCHESTRATOR verifies the actual combined changes and checks before sending evidence to ARCHITECT. ```markdown # - Spec revision: Lineage: Requirement IDs: retry_policy: two-attempt-rounds-v2 execution_round: <1-3> round_attempts_started: <0-2> attempts_started: <0-6> architect_returns_used: <0-2> What to build: Blocked by: Contracts and dependency state: Scope exclusions: Ownership and review: CODING ; ORCHESTRATOR ; ARCHITECT Remaining budget: Status: ready-for-agent, in progress, on hold, blocked, or exhausted ## Handoff to implement Goal: Current state: Relevant files: Constraints: Done when: Checks to run: ## Acceptance criteria - [ ] ``` The six handoff labels are the worker interface. Keep acceptance criteria objective and traceable to requirements. Avoid stale implementation details and code snippets except for a decision-rich prototype shape needed to define a contract. ### 4. Publish tickets and work the frontier Publish only with existing tracker setup and the user's publishing authority. If no tracker is configured or authority is absent, write a local draft with one file per ticket under `.scratch//issues/`, or the configured tracker-equivalent location. Number local files from `01` in dependency order. Preserve native blocking links on a real tracker, or list stable ticket identities in each local `Blocked by` field. Apply `ready-for-agent` when the configured tracker supports it. Do not send external comments or publish without that authority. Do not close or modify a parent issue as part of ticket creation or routine ticket execution. ARCHITECT may revise the parent spec and affected dependent tickets during an authorized return cycle. Work the frontier one ticket per fresh context, clearing between them. Only a ticket whose blockers are complete is eligible. Before dispatch, persist its identity, revision, attempt transition, owner, dependencies, base/candidate state, checks, and next action. After each individual ticket passes implementation, `/code-review`, supervisory acceptance, and completion recording, persist a handoff and end that ticket's workers before starting `/implement` on the next eligible ticket. Carry only the next ticket, spec/ADR references, compact dependency and budget state, repository revision, and relevant accepted evidence into the next context. Use a supported fresh invocation such as `fork_turns: "none"` with an explicit supported model and effort, or a new isolated ORCHESTRATOR invocation with no inherited transcript. A follow-up to ORCHESTRATOR, a model change, summarization, or compaction is not a fresh ticket context. Do not clear mid-ticket. If the runtime cannot start a fresh invocation, save the handoff and report that exact capability gap without claiming a reset. Do not run two tickets concurrently. Do not clear context while workers are writing the current ticket. An unavoidable restart carries the same ticket identity, revision, attempt counters, current candidate or base evidence, ownership, and next action. It does not count as a new ticket or reset its budget. Do not create an unsolicited user-facing task to work around the fresh-context boundary. ### 5. Handle failure, returns, and dependency changes Each round permits two CODING attempts. The first failed attempt receives a focused second attempt under the current ticket. After two failed attempts in the round, ORCHESTRATOR sends its evidence and recommendation to ARCHITECT. ARCHITECT approves or revises the ticket and affected dependent tickets, then returns it for execution. Permit at most two ARCHITECT returns and six total attempts. The second return opens the final two-attempt round. A failed sixth attempt exhausts the ticket. Define done separately. CODING submits owned changes and evidence. ORCHESTRATOR independently verifies accuracy, compliance, completeness, integration, and acceptance evidence. ARCHITECT checks that record against the current spec. Supervisors never edit implementation deliverables, and routine authorized work does not wait for user approval.