Backlog

Backlog

docs/backlog/ at a repo root holds work that is real but not being done now: a defect a change did not introduce, drift with no user-visible symptom, a fix whose blast radius exceeded its value, an idea worth keeping. One file per item. It is the maintainer's own list — it never gates anything and never reaches a contributor.

The directory path is fixed, so every invocation in a repo reads and writes one predictable store.

Git only. The lifecycle is expressed in Git — git rm to close an item, branch detection before writing, staging and committing the file. Outside a Git repository, say so plainly and stop; do not improvise an equivalent in another VCS.

Item format

docs/backlog/<slug>.md. The slug names the defect, not the file it lives in (reopen-fallback-ignores-frontmost.md), so it can be cited from a commit and dedupe is a filename check.

---
worth: later
where: internal/window/library.go:537
added: 2026-08-05
---
# reopen fallback ignores the last-frontmost window

`reopen`'s fallback ignores which window was last frontmost once `frontmost` is nil, so a multi-window
user's last-window capture replays only when the exited window happened to be `windows.first`. Surfaced
reviewing PR #370; the fix touches restore ordering, which is why it was deferred rather than done inline.

Three frontmatter fields, written once and rewritten only as Appending below allows:

• worth: yes | no | later — the triage call, and the field the list is ordered by:
  • yes — the value is agreed and it should be fixed. Says nothing about schedule: an item blocked on an upstream release is still yes if nobody disputes it is worth doing.
  • later — the value decision itself is unresolved, not the work. The body must name the unknown or the condition that would settle it; without that it is a yes or a no in disguise.
  • no — a decision not to fix, kept so the same finding is not rediscovered and re-argued by the next review that touches the file. Keep a no only while that rationale still earns its place; once it does not, delete the file rather than carrying it.
• where: path:line — omit when the item is not anchored to one place. Its path narrows the dedupe search alongside the slug and the line is a navigation hint that moves. Compare paths only when both items have where; two items missing it are not thereby the same item.
• added: YYYY-MM-DD — never updated, so it reads as age. A year-old item is itself information. Zero-pad it so the values sort lexically.

The H1 is the title. The body below it has no required sections — repro, what was tried, the review that surfaced it, links, a snippet, in whatever shape suits. A two-line item stays two lines, a gnarly one gets a page. Two items owe one sentence each, which a two-line body can carry: a later names the unknown that would settle its value decision, and a no records why the fix was rejected, without which it cannot do the anti-rediscovery job it is kept for.

Lifecycle

Create the file. When the work lands, git rm it in the commit that lands the fix — not a separate cleanup commit. There is no checkbox, no in-progress marker: the staged deletion is the state. Dropping an item decided against is the same operation with a different reason.

Briefing an item

Both argument forms below put the same four things on screen before asking anything about an item, as ordinary output rather than inside the AskUserQuestion. The widget covers roughly five lines above itself, so the question text still names the item and carries the one-line reason for its recommendation.

• Summary — what the item is and why it was filed, in your own words, one or two sentences. Not the H1 restated and not the body pasted back.
• Effort — what the fix costs: the files and call sites it touches, whether a test already covers the path, and whether it is mechanical or a design decision still to be made.
• Blast radius — what else the change can reach. Callers, generated files, anything sharing the code path, and whether it reverts cleanly. "Contained" is a claim about what depends on the code, so check before making it.
• Materiality — who is affected today, how badly, and what leaving it costs. Most items have no user-visible symptom; say so rather than inflating one.

Each of the last three is ONE line carrying a word and the fact behind it — the word alone asks the user to take the call on trust, the fact is what lets him disagree with it, and the length is what keeps the briefing readable above its question. Judge all four against the repo as it stands rather than against the item's own account: the reasoning in a file goes stale the same way its where does.

Every item as the argument

/workflow:backlog --all walks every current item to a disposition. Check this mode before slug handling. An argument that starts with - is option syntax, so a file whose name begins with - cannot be reached as a slug; all.md is still an ordinary slug and unaffected.

1. Glob docs/backlog/*.md from the repo root and read every file in full. Keep worth: no items in the walk: worth informs the recommendation, it does not filter the list.
2. Before asking anything, verify every where and analyze each item's value, complexity, and blockers. Identify explicit blockers and relationships between items, ask about real prerequisites before their dependents, and carry each relationship into EVERY affected item's briefing — a prerequisite's own materiality rises because fixing it unblocks another, so the context runs both ways. The serial flow decides one item at a time, so a relationship is context for a question rather than a joint decision. For a blocker outside the backlog, recommend leaving the item and name the blocker.
3. Take the items ONE AT A TIME: print that item's briefing, ask about it alone with AskUserQuestion with the recommended disposition first, carry out the answer, and only then move to the next. Never brief several items and ask afterwards — a batch of briefings is a wall of text with no decision attached to any of it, and the answer to one item routinely changes the next. Number them, item N of M, so the walk's length is visible from the first question. Use the concrete actions from the list flow below rather than a single action for the whole list.
4. Carry out each answer before asking about the next item. Immediately before an accepted fix or drop — both mutate, a leave does not — re-read the item and verify its where again, because an earlier fix may have moved or changed it. If that materially changes the recommendation or any part of the briefing, print the updated briefing and ask about that item again — an answer given against a briefing now known to be stale is not an answer to act on. Apply the usual tests, formatters, and linters, and git rm a fixed or dropped item under the lifecycle rule above.
5. Continue until every item has a disposition. Never auto-commit. If the user later authorizes commits, default to one commit per independent fix with its item deletion; pure drops may share one backlog-only cleanup commit.

A slug as the argument

/workflow:backlog <slug> names one item: docs/backlog/<slug>.md, the file name without its extension. Read that file alone, verify its where the same way step 2 below does when it has one, print the briefing above for it, and go straight to the fix-or-drop question — skip the listing, which is not what was asked for. A slug matching no file is a mistake worth saying plainly: report it and list what is there instead of guessing at the nearest name.

Reading and working the list

1. Glob docs/backlog/*.md from the repo root and read each file's frontmatter and H1. If the directory does not exist, say so plainly and offer to start one — do not create it empty.

2. Verify before reporting. where goes stale when a file is renamed or a line moves. For each item that has one, check the location still exists and still says what the item claims; report a stale item as stale rather than as work. An item without where has nothing to verify — carry it through as-is.

3. Report every item, one line each — yes first, then later, then no, oldest added first within each group. Include where for the items that have one. Do not editorialize; the item already carries its reasoning.

4. Offer concrete actions with AskUserQuestion, never prose, with a recommendation first:

   • fix a named item now — name the specific item in the option label, not "fix something";
   • drop a named item — a no whose rationale has stopped earning its place;
   • leave it — report only, nothing changes.

   With more than four items, group them across several questions rather than truncating the list.

5. On "fix it now": do the work under the usual gates — tests, formatters, linters — and git rm the file in the same commit. Never auto-commit.

Appending

When a run produces deferred items, offer to append them; never write silently.

Never add a backlog item to an unrelated work branch. Repo-wide notes dropped into someone else's in-progress branch get swept into that branch's diff or vanish with it. Check the branch before creating the directory or writing any file:

1. Detect the repository's default branch: read git symbolic-ref refs/remotes/origin/HEAD and strip the refs/remotes/origin/ prefix. If that command fails or returns nothing — it exits non-zero when the ref is not symbolic, which is the usual signal — fall back to two ordered passes with git rev-parse --verify, remote first and complete before local: refs/remotes/origin/master, then refs/remotes/origin/main, then refs/remotes/origin/trunk; only if none of the three resolves, try refs/heads/master, then refs/heads/main, then refs/heads/trunk. Never interleave the two passes per candidate — a repo migrated to main can keep a stale local master, and checking local master before remote main picks the dead branch as the default. Probe the full ref paths, so a tag of the same name cannot answer for a branch.
2. Compare it with git branch --show-current. If no default branch was found at all, say so and take the "anywhere else" case below: there is nothing to compare against, so the answer must come from the user rather than from a guess.
   • On the default branch — write in place.
   • Anywhere else — report the current branch by name, or detached HEAD at <sha> when the command returns nothing, and ask whether to write in this checkout anyway. On yes, write here. On no, change nothing: do not create a branch, a worktree, or a temp checkout, do not switch the current checkout, and do not pick a destination the user did not name.

Dedupe before writing. The where path and the slug find the candidates; what settles it is the defect each one claims. A shared path is not a duplicate on its own, since one file holds several unrelated defects, and the trailing line moves with any edit above it. A pre-existing defect surfaces in every review that touches its file, so the same item arrives repeatedly. If it is already there, say so and leave it alone. If the new sighting sharpens the description or changes the worth call, edit that file in place rather than adding a second one.

Create docs/backlog/ if it does not exist — after the branch check above, never before it.

When the files are written, read git diff --cached --name-only before offering anything. Nothing has been staged yet at that point, so anything it lists is pre-existing — including another backlog file from an earlier run. If it lists anything at all, do not commit: report what is staged and let the user resolve it, because a plain git commit would sweep it in alongside the item. With an empty index, offer the next step with AskUserQuestion, staging the exact paths this invocation created or edited and not the directory — an item bundled with the run's other changes violates the rule below. Never commit without that answer. Offer commit and push together: a backlog item is notes with no code in it, and unpushed it stays invisible from every other machine, so the push is part of filing rather than an upsell.

Rules

• Never post a backlog item to a PR, MR, or issue thread unless the user explicitly asks. These are the maintainer's cleanup notes; surfacing them on a contributor's change reads as scope pressure.
• Never auto-commit an item file, and never commit it alongside unrelated work.
• Do not fix an item without being asked. Reading the backlog is not permission to work it.
• Prefer deleting to demoting for an item nobody will ever do and whose reasoning nobody needs — say so and offer to drop it. This does not reach a no that is still doing its job of stopping a rediscovery; that one stays.