/sprint

description: Sprint lifecycle — plan a sprint, run a retrospective, or generate release notes
argument-hint: "[plan|retro|release-notes] <context>"

/sprint -- Sprint Lifecycle

Three modes covering the sprint lifecycle: **plan** for sprint planning, **retro** for retrospectives, **release-notes** for shipping communication.

Invocation

/sprint plan 2-week sprint, 4 engineers, focus on checkout improvements
/sprint retro [paste team feedback or sprint data]
/sprint release-notes [paste tickets, changelog, or PRD]
/sprint                    # asks which phase you're in

Modes

---

Plan Mode

Prepare for sprint planning with capacity estimation, story selection, and risk identification.

Workflow

**Step 1: Gather Sprint Context**

• Sprint duration (1 or 2 weeks)
• Team composition (engineers, designers, QA — and availability)
• Sprint goal or focus area
• Backlog items to consider (paste, upload, or describe)
• Any carry-over from last sprint
• Known interruptions (holidays, on-call, meetings)

**Step 2: Estimate Capacity**

Apply the **sprint-plan** skill:

• Calculate available engineering hours/points after meetings, on-call, PTO
• Apply a velocity adjustment based on historical data (if provided) or industry standard (70% of theoretical capacity)
• Show capacity breakdown per team member

**Step 3: Select and Sequence Stories**

• Recommend which stories fit within capacity
• Flag dependency chains (A must complete before B starts)
• Identify risks: stories that are underspecified, have external dependencies, or need design input
• Balance quick wins with larger items
• Ensure every story has acceptance criteria

**Step 4: Generate Sprint Plan**

## Sprint Plan: [Sprint Name/Number]

**Duration**: [dates]
**Sprint Goal**: [one sentence]
**Team**: [members and availability]

### Capacity
| Member | Available Days | Points/Hours | Notes |
|--------|--------------|-------------|-------|

**Total capacity**: [X] points/hours
**Recommended commitment**: [Y] points/hours (with buffer)

### Selected Stories
| # | Story | Points | Owner | Dependencies | Risk |
|---|-------|--------|-------|-------------|------|

### Sprint Risks
1. [Risk] — Mitigation: [action]

### Definition of Done
- [ ] Code reviewed
- [ ] Tests passing
- [ ] Deployed to staging
- [ ] QA approved
- [ ] Documentation updated (if applicable)

---

Retro Mode

Facilitate a structured retrospective that produces actionable improvements.

Workflow

**Step 1: Gather Sprint Feedback**

Accept input as:

• Team feedback (pasted from a survey, Slack, or collaborative doc)
• Sprint metrics (velocity, bugs, incidents)
• The user's own observations

Ask: "Which retro format do you prefer?"

• **Start/Stop/Continue** (simple, fast)
• **4Ls** (Liked, Learned, Lacked, Longed for)
• **Sailboat** (Wind = helps, Anchor = slows, Rocks = risks, Island = goals)

**Step 2: Analyze and Structure**

Apply the **retro** skill:

• Categorize feedback into the chosen framework
• Identify themes and patterns
• Separate symptoms from root causes
• Highlight wins worth celebrating

**Step 3: Generate Retro Summary**

## Sprint Retrospective: [Sprint Name]

**Date**: [today]
**Format**: [Start/Stop/Continue | 4Ls | Sailboat]
**Participants**: [if known]

### What Went Well
[Grouped themes with supporting evidence]

### What Didn't Go Well
[Grouped themes with root cause analysis]

### Key Insights
[2-3 patterns that emerged]

### Action Items
| # | Action | Owner | Deadline | Priority |
|---|--------|-------|----------|----------|

### Metrics This Sprint
| Metric | This Sprint | Last Sprint | Trend |
|--------|-----------|------------|-------|

---

Release Notes Mode

Generate user-facing release notes from technical artifacts.

Workflow

**Step 1: Accept Release Content**

Accept:

• Jira/Linear tickets or changelog
• PRD or feature specs
• Git commit messages or PR descriptions
• Team's internal summary of what shipped

**Step 2: Transform**

Apply the **release-notes** skill:

• Translate technical language into user benefits
• Categorize as: New Features, Improvements, Bug Fixes
• Write in the product's voice (ask about tone if not clear)
• Highlight the most impactful change first

**Step 3: Generate Release Notes**

## What's New — [Version/Date]

### Highlights
[1-2 sentence summary of the most important change]

### New Features
- **[Feature Name]** — [user-facing benefit in plain language]

### Improvements
- **[Improvement]** — [what's better now]

### Bug Fixes
- Fixed [issue] that caused [user impact]

### Coming Soon
[Optional teaser for next release]

Save as markdown and offer to format for different channels (blog post, in-app, email, Slack announcement).

Notes

• For plan mode: protect 20% buffer for unplanned work — teams that plan at 100% capacity always miss
• For retro mode: focus on 2-3 high-impact action items, not 10 things nobody will do
• For release notes: always frame changes as user benefits, not technical implementations
• Each mode can chain to the others: plan → (sprint happens) → retro → release-notes