Increment Planner Skill

Self-contained increment planning for ANY user project after specweave init .

Progressive Disclosure

Load phases as needed to reduce context:

Phase When to Load File

Pre-flight Starting planning phases/00-preflight.md

Project Context Resolving project/board phases/01-project-context.md

Create Increment Creating files phases/02-create-increment.md

Reference Examples, troubleshooting phases/03-reference.md

Quick Reference

Increment Types

Type Use When WIP Limit

feature New functionality Max 2

hotfix Production broken Unlimited

bug Needs RCA Unlimited

change-request Business changes Max 2

refactor Technical debt Max 1

experiment POC/spike Unlimited

Directory Structure

.specweave/increments/####-name/ ├── metadata.json # REQUIRED - create FIRST ├── spec.md # REQUIRED - user stories, ACs ├── plan.md # OPTIONAL - architecture └── tasks.md # REQUIRED - implementation

Workflow Overview

STEP 0: Pre-flight (TDD mode, multi-project, Deep Interview) → Load phases/00-preflight.md → CHECK: Deep Interview Mode enabled?

STEP 0.5: Deep Interview (if enabled) → PM skill loads phases/00-deep-interview.md → Ask 10-40+ questions about architecture, integrations, etc. → Continue until all categories covered

STEP 1: Project Context (resolve project/board) → Load phases/01-project-context.md

STEP 2: Create Increment (via Template API) → Load phases/02-create-increment.md

STEP 3: Guide User (complete in main conversation)

Deep Interview Mode Detection (STEP 0.5)

Check during pre-flight:

Detect deep interview mode

deepInterview=$(jq -r '.planning.deepInterview.enabled // false' .specweave/config.json 2>/dev/null)

if [ "$deepInterview" = "true" ]; then echo "DEEP INTERVIEW MODE: Conduct thorough questioning before spec creation" echo "Categories: architecture, integrations, ui-ux, performance, security, edge-cases" fi

If Deep Interview Mode is enabled:

• Delegate to PM skill with interview phase

• Ask minimum 10 questions (40+ for large features)

• Cover all configured categories

• Only proceed to STEP 1 after interview complete

Critical Rules

1. Project Field is MANDATORY

Every US MUST have Project: field:

US-001: Feature Name

Project: my-app # ← REQUIRED! As a user...

Get project: specweave context projects

2. Use Template Creator API

Direct Write is FORBIDDEN! Use:

specweave create-increment --id "0021-name" --project "my-app"

3. NO Agent Spawning

Skills MUST NOT spawn Task() agents (causes crashes). Guide user to complete in MAIN conversation.

4. Increment Naming

Format: ####-descriptive-kebab-case

✅ 0001-user-authentication ❌ 0001 (no description) ❌ my-feature (no number)

Token Budget

• Quick reference (this file): ~400 tokens

• Each phase: ~300-500 tokens

• Total if all loaded: ~2000 tokens

Load phases on-demand, not all at once!

Delegation

• Pre-flight checks: /sw:increment command handles WIP, discipline

• Spec completion: PM skill (in main conversation)

• Architecture: Architect skill (in main conversation)

• Task generation: Test-aware planner (in main conversation)

Usage

// Direct invocation Skill({ skill: "sw:increment-planner", args: "--description="Add auth"" })

// Via command (recommended - handles pre-flight) /sw:increment "Add user authentication"

NOTE: Use sw: prefix! Plain increment-planner fails.