Work Backlog Item

Work Backlog Item

Take a backlog item from .claude/BACKLOG.md and feed it into the SAM planning pipeline (/python3-development:add-new-feature).

Arguments

$ARGUMENTS is a case-insensitive title substring matching a backlog item.

Examples:

/work-backlog-item Error Recovery
/work-backlog-item regex false positive
/work-backlog-item validate-task-file

Workflow

Step 1: Find the Backlog Item

Read .claude/BACKLOG.md. Search for an H3 heading (### ...) whose text contains $ARGUMENTS (case-insensitive).

If zero matches: report "No backlog item found matching: {$ARGUMENTS}" and stop. If multiple matches: list all matches and ask the user to pick one.

Record which priority section (P0, P1, P2, Ideas) the item belongs to.

Step 2: Extract Item Fields

From the matched item, extract these fields (all are bold-key: value format on separate lines):

If the item already has a **Plan**: field, report: "This item already has a plan at {path}. Use /python3-development:implement-feature {path} to execute it." and stop.

Step 3: Auto-Groom (if needed)

Check if a grooming manifest exists for this item:

1. Search .claude/grooming-reports/ for files containing the item title
2. Search conversation context for a recent /groom-backlog-item output matching this item

If no grooming context exists:

Skill(skill="groom-backlog-item", args="{item title}")

Capture the grooming output (context manifest with Related Research, Supporting Skills, Related Agents, Prior Work, Dependencies, Blockers, Suggested First Steps).

Step 4: Compose Feature Request

Build the feature request string that will become $ARGUMENTS for add-new-feature:

## Backlog Item: {title}

**Source**: {source}
**Priority**: {priority section - P0/P1/P2/Ideas}
**Added**: {added date}

### Description

{description text}

### Research Questions

{research_first text, or "None" if absent}

### Suggested Location

{suggested_location text, or "To be determined during architecture phase" if absent}

### Grooming Context

{full context manifest from Step 3, if available}

Step 5: Invoke SAM Planning

Skill(skill="python3-development:add-new-feature", args="{composed feature request}")

This runs the full SAM workflow: discovery, codebase analysis, architecture spec, task decomposition, validation, context manifest.

Step 6: Update Backlog with Plan Reference

After add-new-feature completes, identify the task file it created by searching:

Glob(pattern="plan/tasks-*-{slug}*")

Where {slug} is derived from the item title (lowercased, spaces to hyphens).

Add a **Plan**: field to the backlog item in .claude/BACKLOG.md:

### SAM: {item title}

**Source**: {source}
**Added**: {added date}
**Plan**: plan/tasks-{N}-{slug}.md
**Description**: {description}

Update last-updated: in the BACKLOG.md YAML frontmatter to today's date.

Step 7: Report Next Steps

Backlog item "{title}" is now planned.

- Plan file: plan/tasks-{N}-{slug}.md (or plan/tasks-{N}-{slug}/ directory)
- To execute: /python3-development:implement-feature {slug}
- To check status: /python3-development:implementation-manager status . {slug}

Error Handling

• Item not found: list available items from BACKLOG.md with their priority sections
• Multiple matches: present numbered list, ask user to choose
• Grooming fails: proceed without grooming context, note the gap in the feature request
• add-new-feature fails: report the failure, do not update BACKLOG.md
• Plan file not found after add-new-feature: search plan/ directory broadly, ask user to confirm the path

Example Session

> /work-backlog-item Error Recovery

Found: "SAM: Error Recovery / Rollback Procedures" (P1)
No grooming manifest found. Running /groom-backlog-item first...

[grooming output]

Composing feature request from backlog item + grooming context...
Invoking /python3-development:add-new-feature...

[SAM phases run]

Updated BACKLOG.md with Plan: plan/tasks-2-error-recovery.md

Next steps:
- To execute: /python3-development:implement-feature error-recovery
- To check status: /python3-development:implementation-manager status . error-recovery