User Input
$ARGUMENTS
You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).
Pre-Execution Checks
Check for extension hooks (before tasks generation):
- Check if
.specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.
- If it exists, read it and look for entries under the
hooks.before_tasks key
- If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
- Filter out hooks where
enabled is explicitly false. Treat hooks without an enabled field as enabled by default.
- For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook
condition expressions:
- If the hook has no
condition field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
- If the hook defines a non-empty
condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
- When constructing slash commands from hook command names, replace dots (
.) with hyphens (-). For example, speckit.git.commit → /speckit-git-commit.
- For each executable hook, output the following based on its
optional flag:
- Optional hook (
optional: true):## Extension Hooks
**Optional Pre-Hook**: {extension}
Command: `/{command}`
Description: {description}
Prompt: {prompt}
To execute: `/{command}`
- Mandatory hook (
optional: false):## Extension Hooks
**Automatic Pre-Hook**: {extension}
Executing: `/{command}`
EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}
Wait for the result of the hook command before proceeding to the Outline.
- If no hooks are registered or
.specify/extensions.yml does not exist, skip silently
Outline
Setup: Run .specify/scripts/powershell/check-prerequisites.ps1 -Json from repo root and parse FEATURE_DIR and AVAILABLE_DOCS list. All paths must be absolute. For single quotes in args like "I'm Groot", use escape syntax: e.g 'I'''m Groot' (or double-quote if possible: "I'm Groot").
Load design documents: Read from FEATURE_DIR:
- Required: plan.md (tech stack, libraries, structure), spec.md (user stories with priorities)
- Optional: data-model.md (entities), contracts/ (interface contracts), research.md (decisions), quickstart.md (test scenarios)
- Note: Not all projects have all documents. Generate tasks based on what's available.
Execute task generation workflow:
- Load plan.md and extract tech stack, libraries, project structure
- Load spec.md and extract user stories with their priorities (P1, P2, P3, etc.)
- If data-model.md exists: Extract entities and map to user stories
- If contracts/ exists: Map interface contracts to user stories
- If research.md exists: Extract decisions for setup tasks
- Generate tasks organized by user story (see Task Generation Rules below)
- Generate dependency graph showing user story completion order
- Create parallel execution examples per user story
- Validate task completeness (each user story has all needed tasks, independently testable)
Generate tasks.md: Use .specify/templates/tasks-template.md as structure, fill with:
- Correct feature name from plan.md
- Phase 1: Setup tasks (project initialization)
- Phase 2: Foundational tasks (blocking prerequisites for all user stories)
- Phase 3+: One phase per user story (in priority order from spec.md)
- Each phase includes: story goal, independent test criteria, tests (if requested), implementation tasks
- Final Phase: Polish & cross-cutting concerns
- All tasks must follow the strict checklist format (see Task Generation Rules below)
- Clear file paths for each task
- Dependencies section showing story completion order
- Parallel execution examples per story
- Implementation strategy section (MVP first, incremental delivery)
Report: Output path to generated tasks.md and summary:
- Total task count
- Task count per user story
- Parallel opportunities identified
- Independent test criteria for each story
- Suggested MVP scope (typically just User Story 1)
- Format validation: Confirm ALL tasks follow the checklist format (checkbox, ID, labels, file paths)
Check for extension hooks: After tasks.md is generated, check if .specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.
- If it exists, read it and look for entries under the
hooks.after_tasks key
- If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
- Filter out hooks where
enabled is explicitly false. Treat hooks without an enabled field as enabled by default.
- For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook
condition expressions:
- If the hook has no
condition field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
- If the hook defines a non-empty
condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
- When constructing slash commands from hook command names, replace dots (
.) with hyphens (-). For example, speckit.git.commit → /speckit-git-commit.
- For each executable hook, output the following based on its
optional flag:
- Optional hook (
optional: true):## Extension Hooks
**Optional Hook**: {extension}
Command: `/{command}`
Description: {description}
Prompt: {prompt}
To execute: `/{command}`
- Mandatory hook (
optional: false):## Extension Hooks
**Automatic Hook**: {extension}
Executing: `/{command}`
EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}
- If no hooks are registered or
.specify/extensions.yml does not exist, skip silently
Context for task generation: $ARGUMENTS
The tasks.md should be immediately executable - each task must be specific enough that an LLM can complete it without additional context.
Task Generation Rules
CRITICAL: Tasks MUST be organized by user story to enable independent implementation and testing.
Tests are OPTIONAL: Only generate test tasks if explicitly requested in the feature specification or if user requests TDD approach.
Checklist Format (REQUIRED)
Every task MUST strictly follow this format:
- [ ] [TaskID] [P?] [Story?] Description with file path
Format Components:
- Checkbox: ALWAYS start with
- [ ] (markdown checkbox)
- Task ID: Sequential number (T001, T002, T003...) in execution order
- [P] marker: Include ONLY if task is parallelizable (different files, no dependencies on incomplete tasks)
- [Story] label: REQUIRED for user story phase tasks only
- Format: [US1], [US2], [US3], etc. (maps to user stories from spec.md)
- Setup phase: NO story label
- Foundational phase: NO story label
- User Story phases: MUST have story label
- Polish phase: NO story label
- Description: Clear action with exact file path
Examples:
- ✅ CORRECT:
- [ ] T001 Create project structure per implementation plan
- ✅ CORRECT:
- [ ] T005 [P] Implement authentication middleware in src/middleware/auth.py
- ✅ CORRECT:
- [ ] T012 [P] [US1] Create User model in src/models/user.py
- ✅ CORRECT:
- [ ] T014 [US1] Implement UserService in src/services/user_service.py
- ❌ WRONG:
- [ ] Create User model (missing ID and Story label)
- ❌ WRONG:
T001 [US1] Create model (missing checkbox)
- ❌ WRONG:
- [ ] [US1] Create User model (missing Task ID)
- ❌ WRONG:
- [ ] T001 [US1] Create model (missing file path)
Task Organization
From User Stories (spec.md) - PRIMARY ORGANIZATION:
- Each user story (P1, P2, P3...) gets its own phase
- Map all related components to their story:
- Models needed for that story
- Services needed for that story
- Interfaces/UI needed for that story
- If tests requested: Tests specific to that story
- Mark story dependencies (most stories should be independent)
From Contracts:
- Map each interface contract → to the user story it serves
- If tests requested: Each interface contract → contract test task [P] before implementation in that story's phase
From Data Model:
- Map each entity to the user story(ies) that need it
- If entity serves multiple stories: Put in earliest story or Setup phase
- Relationships → service layer tasks in appropriate story phase
From Setup/Infrastructure:
- Shared infrastructure → Setup phase (Phase 1)
- Foundational/blocking tasks → Foundational phase (Phase 2)
- Story-specific setup → within that story's phase
Phase Structure
- Phase 1: Setup (project initialization)
- Phase 2: Foundational (blocking prerequisites - MUST complete before user stories)
- Phase 3+: User Stories in priority order (P1, P2, P3...)
- Within each story: Tests (if requested) → Models → Services → Endpoints → Integration
- Each phase should be a complete, independently testable increment
- Final Phase: Polish & Cross-Cutting Concerns
1---2name: speckit-tasks3description: Generate an actionable, dependency-ordered tasks.md for the feature based on available design artifacts.4---5
6
7## User Input
8
9```text
10$ARGUMENTS
11```
12
13You **MUST** consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).
14
15## Pre-Execution Checks
16
17**Check for extension hooks (before tasks generation)**:
18- Check if `.specify/extensions.yml` exists in the project root.
19- If it exists, read it and look for entries under the `hooks.before_tasks` key
20- If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
21- Filter out hooks where `enabled` is explicitly `false`. Treat hooks without an `enabled` field as enabled by default.
22- For each remaining hook, do **not** attempt to interpret or evaluate hook `condition` expressions:
23 - If the hook has no `condition` field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
24 - If the hook defines a non-empty `condition`, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
25- When constructing slash commands from hook command names, replace dots (`.`) with hyphens (`-`). For example, `speckit.git.commit` → `/speckit-git-commit`.
26- For each executable hook, output the following based on its `optional` flag:
27 - **Optional hook** (`optional: true`):
28 ```
29 ## Extension Hooks
30
31 **Optional Pre-Hook**: {extension}
32 Command: `/{command}`
33 Description: {description}
34
35 Prompt: {prompt}
36 To execute: `/{command}`
37 ```
38 - **Mandatory hook** (`optional: false`):
39 ```
40 ## Extension Hooks
41
42 **Automatic Pre-Hook**: {extension}
43 Executing: `/{command}`
44 EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}
45
46 Wait for the result of the hook command before proceeding to the Outline.
47 ```
48- If no hooks are registered or `.specify/extensions.yml` does not exist, skip silently
49
50## Outline
51
521. **Setup**: Run `.specify/scripts/powershell/check-prerequisites.ps1 -Json` from repo root and parse FEATURE_DIR and AVAILABLE_DOCS list. All paths must be absolute. For single quotes in args like "I'm Groot", use escape syntax: e.g 'I'''m Groot' (or double-quote if possible: "I'm Groot").
53
542. **Load design documents**: Read from FEATURE_DIR:
55 - **Required**: plan.md (tech stack, libraries, structure), spec.md (user stories with priorities)
56 - **Optional**: data-model.md (entities), contracts/ (interface contracts), research.md (decisions), quickstart.md (test scenarios)
57 - Note: Not all projects have all documents. Generate tasks based on what's available.
58
593. **Execute task generation workflow**:
60 - Load plan.md and extract tech stack, libraries, project structure
61 - Load spec.md and extract user stories with their priorities (P1, P2, P3, etc.)
62 - If data-model.md exists: Extract entities and map to user stories
63 - If contracts/ exists: Map interface contracts to user stories
64 - If research.md exists: Extract decisions for setup tasks
65 - Generate tasks organized by user story (see Task Generation Rules below)
66 - Generate dependency graph showing user story completion order
67 - Create parallel execution examples per user story
68 - Validate task completeness (each user story has all needed tasks, independently testable)
69
704. **Generate tasks.md**: Use `.specify/templates/tasks-template.md` as structure, fill with:
71 - Correct feature name from plan.md
72 - Phase 1: Setup tasks (project initialization)
73 - Phase 2: Foundational tasks (blocking prerequisites for all user stories)
74 - Phase 3+: One phase per user story (in priority order from spec.md)
75 - Each phase includes: story goal, independent test criteria, tests (if requested), implementation tasks
76 - Final Phase: Polish & cross-cutting concerns
77 - All tasks must follow the strict checklist format (see Task Generation Rules below)
78 - Clear file paths for each task
79 - Dependencies section showing story completion order
80 - Parallel execution examples per story
81 - Implementation strategy section (MVP first, incremental delivery)
82
835. **Report**: Output path to generated tasks.md and summary:
84 - Total task count
85 - Task count per user story
86 - Parallel opportunities identified
87 - Independent test criteria for each story
88 - Suggested MVP scope (typically just User Story 1)
89 - Format validation: Confirm ALL tasks follow the checklist format (checkbox, ID, labels, file paths)
90
916. **Check for extension hooks**: After tasks.md is generated, check if `.specify/extensions.yml` exists in the project root.
92 - If it exists, read it and look for entries under the `hooks.after_tasks` key
93 - If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, skip hook checking silently and continue normally
94 - Filter out hooks where `enabled` is explicitly `false`. Treat hooks without an `enabled` field as enabled by default.
95 - For each remaining hook, do **not** attempt to interpret or evaluate hook `condition` expressions:
96 - If the hook has no `condition` field, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable
97 - If the hook defines a non-empty `condition`, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
98 - When constructing slash commands from hook command names, replace dots (`.`) with hyphens (`-`). For example, `speckit.git.commit` → `/speckit-git-commit`.
99 - For each executable hook, output the following based on its `optional` flag:
100 - **Optional hook** (`optional: true`):
101 ```
102 ## Extension Hooks
103
104 **Optional Hook**: {extension}
105 Command: `/{command}`
106 Description: {description}
107
108 Prompt: {prompt}
109 To execute: `/{command}`
110 ```
111 - **Mandatory hook** (`optional: false`):
112 ```
113 ## Extension Hooks
114
115 **Automatic Hook**: {extension}
116 Executing: `/{command}`
117 EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}
118 ```
119 - If no hooks are registered or `.specify/extensions.yml` does not exist, skip silently
120
121Context for task generation: $ARGUMENTS
122
123The tasks.md should be immediately executable - each task must be specific enough that an LLM can complete it without additional context.
124
125## Task Generation Rules
126
127**CRITICAL**: Tasks MUST be organized by user story to enable independent implementation and testing.
128
129**Tests are OPTIONAL**: Only generate test tasks if explicitly requested in the feature specification or if user requests TDD approach.
130
131### Checklist Format (REQUIRED)
132
133Every task MUST strictly follow this format:
134
135```text
136- [ ] [TaskID] [P?] [Story?] Description with file path
137```
138
139**Format Components**:
140
1411. **Checkbox**: ALWAYS start with `- [ ]` (markdown checkbox)
1422. **Task ID**: Sequential number (T001, T002, T003...) in execution order
1433. **[P] marker**: Include ONLY if task is parallelizable (different files, no dependencies on incomplete tasks)
1444. **[Story] label**: REQUIRED for user story phase tasks only
145 - Format: [US1], [US2], [US3], etc. (maps to user stories from spec.md)
146 - Setup phase: NO story label
147 - Foundational phase: NO story label
148 - User Story phases: MUST have story label
149 - Polish phase: NO story label
1505. **Description**: Clear action with exact file path
151
152**Examples**:
153
154- ✅ CORRECT: `- [ ] T001 Create project structure per implementation plan`
155- ✅ CORRECT: `- [ ] T005 [P] Implement authentication middleware in src/middleware/auth.py`
156- ✅ CORRECT: `- [ ] T012 [P] [US1] Create User model in src/models/user.py`
157- ✅ CORRECT: `- [ ] T014 [US1] Implement UserService in src/services/user_service.py`
158- ❌ WRONG: `- [ ] Create User model` (missing ID and Story label)
159- ❌ WRONG: `T001 [US1] Create model` (missing checkbox)
160- ❌ WRONG: `- [ ] [US1] Create User model` (missing Task ID)
161- ❌ WRONG: `- [ ] T001 [US1] Create model` (missing file path)
162
163### Task Organization
164
1651. **From User Stories (spec.md)** - PRIMARY ORGANIZATION:
166 - Each user story (P1, P2, P3...) gets its own phase
167 - Map all related components to their story:
168 - Models needed for that story
169 - Services needed for that story
170 - Interfaces/UI needed for that story
171 - If tests requested: Tests specific to that story
172 - Mark story dependencies (most stories should be independent)
173
1742. **From Contracts**:
175 - Map each interface contract → to the user story it serves
176 - If tests requested: Each interface contract → contract test task [P] before implementation in that story's phase
177
1783. **From Data Model**:
179 - Map each entity to the user story(ies) that need it
180 - If entity serves multiple stories: Put in earliest story or Setup phase
181 - Relationships → service layer tasks in appropriate story phase
182
1834. **From Setup/Infrastructure**:
184 - Shared infrastructure → Setup phase (Phase 1)
185 - Foundational/blocking tasks → Foundational phase (Phase 2)
186 - Story-specific setup → within that story's phase
187
188### Phase Structure
189
190- **Phase 1**: Setup (project initialization)
191- **Phase 2**: Foundational (blocking prerequisites - MUST complete before user stories)
192- **Phase 3+**: User Stories in priority order (P1, P2, P3...)
193 - Within each story: Tests (if requested) → Models → Services → Endpoints → Integration
194 - Each phase should be a complete, independently testable increment
195- **Final Phase**: Polish & Cross-Cutting Concerns