groom git:20260907.bca5297A

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---
name: groom
description: Turn a rough idea into a scoped, labeled GitHub issue ready for the delivery pipeline. Use when the owner wants to capture a todo, feature, or bug as a real backlog item with scope, acceptance criteria, and a priority. Grills shape-defining ambiguity (one question at a time, stated recommended default) rather than just drafting around it, verifies bug reports read-only before scoping them, and offers a type:docs fast-track label for documentation-only work. First stage of the flow delivery workflow (see docs/workflow.md).
argument-hint: [rough idea — a todo, feature, or bug]
---

# groom — rough idea → scoped GitHub issue

You are the PM/lead in the main session. Turn the owner's rough idea into one well-scoped
GitHub issue, labeled and ready for `/spec-flow:activate`. This is interactive: you draft, the owner
refines. Stay in the foreground — no worktrees, no implementation.

## Steps

1. **Understand the idea — grill shape-defining ambiguity, don't just draft around it.** Read the
   owner's description. For anything that changes the *shape* of the work (scope boundaries, which
   of several plausible interpretations is meant, whether this is really two ideas bundled into
   one), treat it as a short interview, not a form to fill in around:
   - **One question at a time** — the owner can't usefully answer a batch.
   - **State your own recommended answer alongside every question** — a default they can accept in
     one word instead of composing an answer from scratch ("I'd scope this to X and leave Y for
     later — sound right?", not just "what should this cover?").
   - **Order dependent questions before the questions that depend on them.** Don't ask a detail
     question whose relevance hinges on an earlier, still-open one.
   - **Don't draft the issue until shape-defining ambiguity is actually resolved.** This is the one
     place `groom` diverges from "prefer a sensible draft the owner edits," below: get confirmation
     on what the work *is* before writing it up, not after.
   For everything else — a detail a sensible default clearly covers, or a fact you can look up
   yourself (existing code, other issues, prior art) — don't ask; state the default/finding in the
   draft and let the owner redline it. Over-asking is its own failure mode.

2. **For bug reports: verify before you draft.** If the idea describes something not working
   (symptoms, expected vs. actual behavior), don't draft acceptance criteria from an unconfirmed
   report. `groom` stays foreground with no worktree and makes no code changes (see **Rules**), so
   verification here is strictly **read-only** — run the reporter's described repro steps (a
   command, an existing test, a specific input) directly in the primary checkout and observe
   whether the symptom actually occurs:
   - **Reproduces** → note the confirmed repro (command + observed output) in the eventual Notes/
     context section; proceed.
   - **Doesn't reproduce** → say so plainly, with what you tried and what actually happened, and
     ask the owner what's missing (one question — e.g. "what environment/version does this need?")
     before drafting AC from a report you couldn't confirm.
   - **No repro steps given at all** → ask for them (one question, with a guessed default if you
     have one — "I'm guessing this happens when X — is that right, or what actually triggers it?")
     before attempting anything.
   - **Not practically verifiable here** (needs a live external service, specific hardware, a
     production-only condition) → say so, and proceed with the report as given, flagged
     **unverified** in Notes/context — so the architect consult at `activate` treats the premise as
     unconfirmed, not settled fact.
   Matters most for a report you didn't personally observe — an externally filed bug, or one
   relayed secondhand — where nothing has actually confirmed it's real yet.

3. **Docs-only? Offer the fast track.** If the idea is purely documentation — README, a docs/
   mdBook tree, comments, no behavior change — say so and offer to label it `type:docs` (recommend
   yes; a low-stakes default the owner can accept in one word). `activate` and `implement` both
   skip most of their heavyweight machinery for a `type:docs` issue — no architect design consult,
   no design-choice stop, no review panel, and (for most content-only docs work — the label
   alone doesn't decide this; `activate` step 5 judges it from the issue's own scope) no OpenSpec
   spec generated at all — while still stopping at both owner seams as normal; see **Docs fast
   path** in `docs/workflow.md`. Not sure it's docs-only, or it touches behavior at all (even
   indirectly — e.g. a config example that has to stay in sync with real defaults)? Leave it
   unlabeled; the full pipeline is the safe default.

4. **Delegate the refinement to the `product-manager` agent.** Spawn the `product-manager`
   subagent with the owner's raw idea, any clarifications from step 1, and the verification verdict
   from step 2 if this is a bug. It returns a structured refinement —
   problem statement, in/out scope, **testable WHEN/THEN acceptance criteria**, open questions, and
   context (`file:line`, duplicates). Bring that refinement back to the owner, loop on their edits,
   and treat the result as the source for the issue body. (You own the *what/why*; design — the
   *how* — comes later, from the `architect` at `/spec-flow:activate`.)

5. **Draft the issue body** from the refinement, with these sections:
   - **Scope** — what's in, and explicitly what's out.
   - **Acceptance criteria** — a checklist of observable outcomes (these become the spec's
     scenarios later, when a spec gets generated at all — see the Docs fast path exception below —
     so make them testable).
   - **Notes / context** — links, constraints, related code (`file:line`), related issues, and —
     for a bug — the step-2 verification verdict (confirmed repro, or flagged unverified/couldn't
     reproduce).
   Keep it tight. A full spec usually comes later in `/spec-flow:activate` (a content-only
   `type:docs` issue skips that artifact — see **Docs fast path** in `docs/workflow.md` — but still
   reviews this same scope + acceptance criteria at Seam 1); either way, this is the contract for
   *what* and *why*, not *how*.

6. **Set priority.** Propose a priority and confirm with the owner. Exactly one of
   `P0` (drop everything) / `P1` (high) / `P2` (normal) / `P3` (low/someday) — never zero,
   never two.

7. **Create the issue:**
   ```bash
   gh issue create --title "<concise title>" --body "<the drafted body>" \
     --label "<P0|P1|P2|P3>" --label "status:ready"
   ```
   If the owner accepted the docs-fast-track offer at step 3, add `--label "type:docs"` too.

8. **Verify and report.** Confirm the created issue carries exactly one `P?` label and
   `status:ready` (plus `type:docs` if applicable):
   ```bash
   gh issue view <N> --json number,title,labels
   ```
   Report the issue number and URL. Suggest `/spec-flow:activate <N>` when the owner wants to start it.

## Rules

- Exactly one priority label. If the owner doesn't pick, recommend one and confirm before creating.
- **Every line traces back to the owner.** A scope boundary or acceptance criterion goes in the
  issue only if the owner said it, or you showed it to them and they kept it. Reading the code
  tells you what a criterion *could* be; it never authorises adding one. When your repo reading
  turns up something the owner did not raise — a config path to honour, a test harness to extend,
  a concrete example value — name it as a proposal in the draft review and mark it as yours, so
  they can cut it in one word. Silence is not agreement. An issue that carries rules nobody asked
  for sends the whole pipeline off building them.
- Don't groom the same idea twice — search open issues first (`gh issue list --search`) if it
  might already exist.
- Acceptance criteria are the seed of the spec's `#### Scenario:` blocks (when a spec gets
  generated at all — see the Docs fast path exception above) — write them as observable WHEN/THEN
  outcomes where you can.
- Keep titles concrete and short — the OpenSpec change name is `issue-<N>` (deterministic, not
  derived from the title), so the title only has to be a good title, not double as a slug source.
- When you cite an issue or PR, always write it as `<number>: <title>`, on its own line with a `-`
  prefix — the owner does not track raw numbers. Never run several together inline in a sentence.
- **Bug verification (step 2) is read-only, always.** No worktree, no file writes, no commits —
  run existing commands/tests and observe; if verifying would require changing anything, that's
  past `groom`'s scope, not a reason to skip verification (fall back to "not practically verifiable
  here" instead).
- **`type:docs` is conservative by default.** Only offer it when the idea is unambiguously
  documentation-only; when genuinely unsure, don't offer it — the full pipeline (architect consult,
  full review panel) is always safe to run on a docs change, just slower. The fast path is an
  opt-in speedup, never something inferred without asking.