socketdev decomposing-tickets
Break a plan into tracer-bullet tickets — each a thin vertical slice through
ALL layers end-to-end (schema → API → UI → tests), demoable on its own — never a
horizontal slice of one layer. Adapted from mattpocock/to-tickets. The natural
output of grilling-plan → authoring-spec → this.
1. Gather + explore
Work from the conversation context (or fetch the referenced issue/plan). Explore
the codebase so issue titles use the project's domain vocabulary
(rg the affected modules). Look for prefactors — "make the change easy, then
make the easy change."
2. Draft vertical slices
Each slice: a narrow but COMPLETE path through every layer, verifiable on its own, with prefactoring done first. For a findings report, one slice per true-positive finding (or a tight cluster), each independently landable.
3. Quiz the user
Present the breakdown as a numbered list — title, blocked by (which slices must land first), user stories covered. Ask: is the granularity right? are the dependencies correct? merge/split any? Iterate until approved.
4. Prose + doctrine pass (before publishing)
Every issue body is a public-facing surface. Run the prose skill over each body
and apply prose-style-and-doctrine:
lead with the point, no throat-clearers/filler, evidence over assertion, state the
positive directly. Public-surface hygiene
(public-surface-hygiene):
no real customer/company name, no private repo, no Linear ref, and never a bare
#N in the prose (it auto-links to an unrelated issue) — write the full URL or
org/repo#N.
5. Publish in dependency order
Publish blockers first so you can reference real issue identifiers in each
"Blocked by" field. Default tracker is GitHub via gh issue create; use the
Linear MCP save_issue tool if the repo tracks work in Linear. Apply the
ready-for-agent triage label unless told otherwise. Publishing is mutating +
outward-facing — confirm the tracker + label before the first create.
Completion criterion
Every approved slice is published in dependency order with real "Blocked by"
references, each body has passed the prose + doctrine pass, and no body leaks a
private name or bare #N.
Handoff
Take an approved, ready-for-agent slice to opening-pr.