/speckit.tasks

description: Generate an actionable, dependency-ordered tasks.md for the feature based on available design artifacts.

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You **MUST** consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Outline

1. **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").

2. **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/ (API endpoints), research.md (decisions), quickstart.md (test scenarios)
• Note: Not all projects have all documents. Generate tasks based on what's available.

3. **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 endpoints 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)

4. **Generate tasks.md**: Use `.specify.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)

5. **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)

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**:

1. **Checkbox**: ALWAYS start with `- [ ]` (markdown checkbox) 2. **Task ID**: Sequential number (T001, T002, T003...) in execution order 3. **[P] marker**: Include ONLY if task is parallelizable (different files, no dependencies on incomplete tasks) 4. **[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

5. **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

1. **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
• Endpoints/UI needed for that story
• If tests requested: Tests specific to that story
• Mark story dependencies (most stories should be independent)

2. **From Contracts**:

• Map each contract/endpoint → to the user story it serves
• If tests requested: Each contract → contract test task [P] before implementation in that story's phase

3. **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

4. **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 in