Rube De Interstate Skills Project Manager

Project Manager Skill

Create structured GitHub issues optimized for LLM agent execution first, human readability second.

Every issue produced by this skill follows the Agent-Optimized Issue Format — structured sections with consistent headers, machine-parseable acceptance criteria, explicit file paths, verification methods, and clear scope boundaries.

Activation

This skill activates when users want to create work items for an agent team. Recognize these signals:

Core Workflow

1. Classify → 2. Discover → 3. Explore Codebase → 4. Draft → 5. Review → 6. Create

Step 1: Classify Issue Type

Use AskUserQuestion to determine the issue type:

Question: "What type of work is this?"
Options:
  - Bug: Something is broken or behaving incorrectly
  - Feature: New functionality or enhancement to existing behavior
  - Epic: Large initiative requiring 3+ coordinated tasks
  - Refactor: Improve code structure without changing behavior
  - New Project: Build something from scratch (includes tech stack decisions)
  - Chore/Research: Maintenance, dependency updates, spikes, investigations

If the user's initial message already makes the type obvious (e.g., "there's a crash when..."), skip this step and classify automatically. State your classification and proceed.

Step 2: Type-Specific Discovery

Run the question flow for the classified type. See references/WORKFLOWS.md.

Key principles:

• Use AskUserQuestion for structured choices (max 4 questions per call, 2-4 options each)
• Use follow-up conversation for open-ended details
• Batch related questions together to minimize round-trips
• If user says "you decide" or similar, make a reasonable choice and note it as [AGENT-DECIDED: rationale]
• Mark gaps as [NEEDS CLARIFICATION: question] — don't guess on ambiguous requirements

Step 3: Codebase Exploration

Before drafting, explore the codebase to enrich the issue with concrete details:

• Find relevant files: Use Glob and Grep to identify files that will need modification
• Understand current patterns: Read existing code to align implementation hints with actual architecture
• Check for related work: Search for TODOs, existing tests, related components
• Verify assumptions: Confirm that proposed changes don't conflict with existing code

This step is critical — agents executing the issue will perform better with accurate file paths and pattern-aware implementation hints.

Step 4: Draft the Issue

Use the appropriate template from references/TEMPLATES.md.

Agent-first formatting rules:

1. Sections are contracts — every section header means something. Agents parse them.
2. Acceptance criteria are tests — write them as verifiable assertions: VERIFY: [condition]
3. File paths are absolute from repo root — src/auth/login.ts, not "the login file"
4. Approach is sequential — numbered steps an agent follows linearly
5. Scope is explicit — "In Scope" and "Out of Scope" prevent agents from over-engineering
6. Dependencies are linked — Blocked by: #N and Blocks: #N
7. Constraints are non-negotiable — performance targets, backwards compatibility, etc.

Write the draft to a temp file: /tmp/issue-body.md

Step 5: Review

Present the draft to the user with a summary:

• Title
• Type and labels
• Key acceptance criteria
• File scope

Ask: "Ready to create this issue, or want to adjust anything?"

For epics: also present the sub-issue breakdown before creating.

Step 6: Create

gh issue create --repo OWNER/REPO \
  --title "<type-prefix>: <description>" \
  --body-file /tmp/issue-body.md \
  --label "<type-label>"

Title prefixes by type:

On failure: Save draft to /tmp/issue-draft-{timestamp}.md, report error.

For epics: create the parent issue first, then sub-issues with Part of #EPIC_NUMBER references.

Report all created issue URLs to the user.

Quality Checklist

Before creating any issue, verify:

• Title is concise and action-oriented (imperative mood)
• Acceptance criteria are testable — not vague ("improve performance" → "response time < 200ms")
• Implementation hints reference real files found via codebase exploration
• Scope boundaries are explicit (In/Out of Scope sections)
• Dependencies are identified and linked
• No external context required — issue is self-contained
• Uncertainty is marked with [NEEDS CLARIFICATION: ...]
• Agent-decided items are marked with [AGENT-DECIDED: rationale]

Duplicate Check

Before creating, always search for existing issues:

gh issue list --search "keywords" --state all --limit 10

If similar issue exists → inform user, suggest linking instead of duplicating.

Repo Detection

Detect the current repo automatically:

gh repo view --json nameWithOwner -q .nameWithOwner

If not in a git repo or no remote → ask user for the target repo.

Templates & Workflows

• references/WORKFLOWS.md — Type-specific question flows
• references/TEMPLATES.md — Agent-optimized issue templates

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