Progress

Progress

Run this skill after the user explicitly invokes $progress, or when an already-established persistent goal contract requires $progress recovery at a continuation, resume, compaction, or handoff. Do not infer the latter from an ordinary planning request. Treat the planning system as manually selected project memory: reconcile it with direct instructions and repository evidence before relying on it. In goal mode, keep two independent truths: the project queue says what the project should do next, while the goal contract says what the active run is authorized to execute.

A request may authorize more than one phase. Finish and validate each phase, then redispatch the next authorized operation through this entry point; recover goal authority before execution. A planning-only phase never grants implementation or delivery authority by itself.

Resolve the Work System

1. Read applicable AGENTS.md files and inspect git status.
2. Determine the planning scope before selecting files. Use the user-named scope or index. During concurrent worktree work, select the current worktree's isolated namespace from the parallel-worktree workflow. Otherwise use the ordinary unscoped namespace.
3. Classify the request before selecting work:
   • explicit goal mode, a supplied Goal contract, or a named goal-state path selects goal execution;
   • continuing, resuming, implementing, handing off, starting, or completing current work is execution-affecting;
   • briefing or discussing a roadmap, future implementation, or proposed plan with the user before implementation selects planning review;
   • orienting, auditing, capturing, reordering, scheduling, or otherwise editing only the project queue is project-plane work;
   • an explicit instruction to leave the active goal untouched and perform separate project work selects ordinary project mode. Do not infer this override from a bare request to continue.
4. Check the resolved scope's conventional goals/ path for schema-valid goal state, not arbitrary project documents named goals. Implicit recovery requires Status: active, a matching Planning scope, and an Original contract block containing the complete required fields from Outcome through Delivery, including a Goal state path that names that file. An explicit goal-mode or path invocation with malformed state fails closed; otherwise ignore schema-invalid files for dispatch. Activate the goal overlay for explicit goal execution or when an execution-affecting request has one recoverable active goal. Leave it off for project-plane-only work and an explicit separate-work override; those paths may keep the queue truthful but cannot silently start goal work. If a planning-only request grows into implementation, dispatch again before the first implementation action. In goal mode, read both Goal contract and Goal execution before selecting candidate work.
5. Within that scope, use an existing index when it matches the work-queue model. Prefer ROADMAP.md for ordinary work and the scoped roadmap for parallel work. Use PLAN.md only when it clearly routes project work. When only standalone legacy progress documents exist, report that they need the organize branch's explicit migration before another workflow can use them.
6. Read the selected index. In goal mode, recover the goal file and test its terminal condition before opening a project item's contents. If work remains, choose the goal status's current or next in-scope result, classify it from the contract and index metadata, and only then read the allowed work-item files needed by the workflow. Project Current may help locate or reconcile an included result but never selects it. Outside item links need not be opened merely to establish that they are outside.
7. Inspect recent history, code, tests, or diffs only far enough to verify material status claims. Treat conflicts as staleness to report or repair, not as restrictions imposed by the documents.

Resolution is complete when project current/next are identified, goal current/next are separately known when applicable, and any material conflict between documentation and repository state is known.

Separate Authorization from Project Order

• A roadmap, Current link, ordered plan, task, branch, PR, review finding, or newly written plan never adds work to an active goal.
• In goal mode, check the candidate against the durable goal contract before starting every new plan, work branch, PR, review program, or independently reviewable outcome.
• Allow explicitly included work and the smallest bounded work necessary for an included completion condition. Honor decision authority explicitly persisted in the effective contract. Record useful outside work for later. Ask before ambiguous work not covered by that authority or materially expansive work.
• When the final included condition is satisfied, update both truth planes, complete the goal, and return before consulting the next project item.
• If the goal contract cannot be recovered exactly, fail closed. Do not infer scope from the project queue or reconstruct authority from conversation fragments.

Keep Plans Coherent at Write Time

Whenever any progress workflow creates a plan or materially revises its intended outcome, behavior, architecture, compatibility, migration, rollout, or acceptance conditions, read End-state planning and apply it before writing. Reconstruct the settled target, remove historical residue, preserve real obligations and their exit conditions, and write one coherent plan in the same operation. Do not require a separate review command or a second user invocation after the edit.

This gate does not apply to a routine evidence update, next-action refresh, queue reorder, lifecycle transition, or typo fix that leaves the planned end state unchanged. When it does apply, ask only for a load-bearing product or external-contract decision that the user's instructions and repository evidence cannot resolve. Respect the selected workflow's existing mutation and goal authority; coherence review never expands what may be edited or implemented.

Keep One Work Queue per Scope

• Keep each index compact: a Current slot, an ordered Plans queue, and an unordered Tasks pool.
• For ordinary work, store the index at ROADMAP.md, scheduled work at plans/<stable-slug>.md, and unscheduled work at tasks/<stable-slug>.md. Preserve an established todo/ or todos/ directory as the task pool instead of creating a duplicate convention.
• During concurrent worktree work, give every concurrently edited worktree a distinct roadmap and distinct plan and task subdirectories. Apply the naming and ownership rules in the parallel-worktree workflow.
• Persist plan order only in the selected index. Keep sequence numbers out of filenames and item files.
• List every active item in a scope exactly once: current, queued, or pooled. An item in Current is absent from its former list until it stops being current.
• Make each item file the source of truth for its Outcome, Current state, and Next action. Add scope, checklist, decisions, or validation only when they carry continuation value.
• On completion, record the result in the item, remove it from the active index, and retain the unlisted file as concise history.

Select a Workflow

Goal execution is a conditional authorization overlay, not a replacement for project work management. When goal mode is active and the request reviews, changes, or implements project work, read exactly one primary workflow below in addition to the goal resources. When the request only initializes, recovers, amends, or completes goal state, the goal workflow is sufficient.

• Organize work — initialize the system; capture, start, reorder, schedule, unschedule, or complete items.
• Orient to work — report current, next, blocked, or stale work without modifying the repository.
• Brief planned work — explain what comes next and how the plan is written so the user can judge whether it matches their intent; surface consequential review notes and apply only explicitly approved planning changes.
• Continue work — select and implement one substantial coherent slice while keeping its item current.
• Hand off work — compress the present session into a durable item and next action without implementing.

When the user is actually coordinating multiple git worktrees, also read Parallel worktrees. Keep that exception out of ordinary runs.

Finish Coherently

Before ending a mutating workflow, verify that every path in each touched index exists, each active item appears exactly once within its scope, plan numbering is continuous, and every touched item states an evidence-backed current state and concrete next action. For every new or materially revised plan, also verify that the written target passed the end-state planning gate without requiring a follow-up review invocation. During parallel work, also verify that the current worktree changed only its own planning namespace. Keep transcripts and routine session logs out of the files. In goal mode, also verify that the original contract remains unchanged except for explicit recorded amendments, status names only in-scope next work, and completion does not start the project queue's next item. Report changed planning files, validation performed, and the next in-scope action, completion, or blocker.