kata-add-milestone

Add a milestone to an existing project, starting a new milestone cycle, creating the first milestone after project init, or defining what's next after completing work. Triggers include "add milestone", "new milestone", "start milestone", "create milestone", "first milestone", "next milestone", and "milestone cycle".

Safety Notice

This listing is imported from skills.sh public index metadata. Review upstream SKILL.md and repository scripts before running.

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Install skill "kata-add-milestone" with this command: npx skills add gannonh/kata-skills/gannonh-kata-skills-kata-add-milestone

<objective> Add a milestone to the project through unified flow: questioning → research (optional) → requirements → roadmap.

This works for both first milestone (after /kata-new-project) and subsequent milestones (after completing a milestone).

Creates/Updates:

  • .planning/PROJECT.md — updated with new milestone goals
  • .planning/research/ — domain research (optional, focuses on NEW features)
  • .planning/REQUIREMENTS.md — scoped requirements for this milestone
  • .planning/ROADMAP.md — phase structure (creates if first, continues if subsequent)
  • .planning/STATE.md — reset for new milestone (creates if first)

After this command: Run /kata-plan-phase [N] to start execution. </objective>

<execution_context> @./references/questioning.md @./references/ui-brand.md @./references/project-template.md @./references/requirements-template.md @./references/github-mapping.md </execution_context>

<context> Milestone name: $ARGUMENTS (optional - will prompt if not provided)

Load project context: @.planning/PROJECT.md @.planning/STATE.md @.planning/MILESTONES.md @.planning/config.json

Load milestone context (if exists): @.planning/MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md </context>

<process>

Phase 1: Load Context

  • Read PROJECT.md (existing project, Validated requirements, decisions)
  • Read MILESTONES.md (what shipped previously)
  • Read STATE.md (pending todos, blockers)
  • Check for MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md (if exists)

Phase 1.2: Pre-flight Roadmap Format Check

If ROADMAP.md exists, check format and auto-migrate if old:

if [ -f .planning/ROADMAP.md ]; then
  node scripts/kata-lib.cjs check-roadmap 2>/dev/null
  FORMAT_EXIT=$?

  if [ $FORMAT_EXIT -eq 1 ]; then
    echo "Old roadmap format detected. Running auto-migration..."
  fi
fi

If exit code 1 (old format):

Invoke kata-doctor in auto mode:

Skill("kata-doctor", "--auto")

Continue after migration completes.

If exit code 0 or 2: Continue silently.

# Validate config
node scripts/kata-lib.cjs check-config 2>/dev/null || true

Phase 1.5: Optional Brainstorm

Use AskUserQuestion:

  • header: "Brainstorm"
  • question: "Brainstorm ideas before defining milestone goals?"
  • options:
    • "Brainstorm first" — Run explorer/challenger brainstorm session
    • "Skip" — Continue without brainstorming

If "Brainstorm first":

Display:

Launching brainstorm session...

Run /kata-brainstorm

After brainstorm completes, continue to Phase 2.

If "Skip": Continue to Phase 2.

Phase 2: Gather Milestone Goals

If MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md exists:

  • Use features and scope from the context file
  • Present summary for confirmation

If no context file:

  • Present what shipped in last milestone
  • Ask: "What do you want to build next?"
  • Use AskUserQuestion to explore features
  • Probe for priorities, constraints, scope

Phase 3: Determine Milestone Version

  • Parse last version from MILESTONES.md
  • Suggest next version (v1.0 → v1.1, or v2.0 for major)
  • Confirm with user

Phase 4: Update PROJECT.md

Add/update these sections:

## Current Milestone: v[X.Y] [Name]

**Goal:** [One sentence describing milestone focus]

**Target features:**

- [Feature 1]
- [Feature 2]
- [Feature 3]

Update Active requirements section with new goals.

Update "Last updated" footer.

Phase 5: Update STATE.md

## Current Position

Phase: Not started (defining requirements)
Plan: —
Status: Defining requirements
Last activity: [today] — Milestone v[X.Y] started

Keep Accumulated Context section (decisions, blockers) from previous milestone.

Phase 5.5: Create GitHub Milestone (if enabled)

Read GitHub config:

GITHUB_ENABLED=$(node scripts/kata-lib.cjs read-config "github.enabled" "false")

If GITHUB_ENABLED=true:

Step 1: Validate GitHub remote exists

HAS_GITHUB_REMOTE=$(git remote -v 2>/dev/null | grep -q 'github\.com' && echo "true" || echo "false")

If HAS_GITHUB_REMOTE=false:

Use AskUserQuestion to offer repo creation:

  • header: "GitHub Repository"
  • question: "GitHub tracking is enabled but no GitHub remote found. Create a repository now?"
  • options:
    • "Yes, create private repo (Recommended)" — Create private repository and push
    • "Yes, create public repo" — Create public repository and push
    • "Skip for now" — Continue without GitHub integration

If "Yes, create private repo":

gh repo create --source=. --private --push

If successful, set HAS_GITHUB_REMOTE=true and continue to Step 2 (Check authentication).

If "Yes, create public repo":

gh repo create --source=. --public --push

If successful, set HAS_GITHUB_REMOTE=true and continue to Step 2 (Check authentication).

If "Skip for now": Display brief note and continue with local milestone initialization:

Continuing without GitHub integration. Run `gh repo create` later to enable.

Do NOT set github.enabled=false in config - user may add remote later.

If HAS_GITHUB_REMOTE=true:

Step 2: Check authentication (non-blocking)

if ! gh auth status &>/dev/null; then
  echo "Warning: GitHub CLI not authenticated. Run 'gh auth login' to enable GitHub integration."
  # Continue without GitHub operations - local milestone still created
else
  # Proceed with milestone creation
fi

Step 3: Check if milestone exists (idempotent)

MILESTONE_EXISTS=$(gh api /repos/:owner/:repo/milestones 2>/dev/null | jq -r ".[] | select(.title==\"v${VERSION}\") | .number" 2>/dev/null)

Step 4: Create milestone if doesn't exist

if [ -z "$MILESTONE_EXISTS" ]; then
  # Extract milestone description (first paragraph of goal, truncated to 500 chars)
  MILESTONE_DESC=$(echo "$MILESTONE_GOALS" | head -1 | cut -c1-500)

  gh api \
    --method POST \
    -H "Accept: application/vnd.github.v3+json" \
    /repos/:owner/:repo/milestones \
    -f title="v${VERSION}" \
    -f state='open' \
    -f description="${MILESTONE_DESC}" \
    2>/dev/null && echo "GitHub Milestone v${VERSION} created" || echo "Warning: Failed to create GitHub Milestone (continuing)"
else
  echo "GitHub Milestone v${VERSION} already exists (#${MILESTONE_EXISTS})"
fi

If GITHUB_ENABLED=false:

Skip GitHub operations silently (no warning needed - user opted out).

Error handling principle:

  • All GitHub operations are non-blocking
  • Missing remote warns but does not stop milestone initialization
  • Auth failures warn but do not stop milestone initialization
  • Planning files always persist locally regardless of GitHub status

Phase 6: Cleanup and Commit

Delete MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md if exists (consumed).

Check planning config:

COMMIT_PLANNING_DOCS=$(node scripts/kata-lib.cjs read-config "commit_docs" "true")
git check-ignore -q .planning 2>/dev/null && COMMIT_PLANNING_DOCS=false

If COMMIT_PLANNING_DOCS=false: Skip git operations

If COMMIT_PLANNING_DOCS=true (default):

git add .planning/PROJECT.md .planning/STATE.md
git commit -m "docs: start milestone v[X.Y] [Name]"

Phase 6.5: Resolve Model Profile

Read model profile for agent spawning:

MODEL_PROFILE=$(node scripts/kata-lib.cjs read-config "model_profile" "balanced")

Default to "balanced" if not set.

Model lookup table:

Agentqualitybalancedbudget
kata-project-researcheropussonnethaiku
kata-research-synthesizersonnetsonnethaiku
kata-roadmapperopussonnetsonnet

Store resolved models for use in Task calls below.

Phase 7: Research Decision

Use AskUserQuestion:

  • header: "Research"
  • question: "Research the domain ecosystem for new features before defining requirements?"
  • options:
    • "Research first (Recommended)" — Discover patterns, expected features, architecture for NEW capabilities
    • "Skip research" — I know what I need, go straight to requirements

If "Research first":

Display stage banner:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Kata ► RESEARCHING ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Researching [new features] ecosystem...

Create research directory:

mkdir -p .planning/research

Display spawning indicator:

◆ Spawning 4 researchers in parallel...
  → Stack research (for new features)
  → Features research
  → Architecture research (integration)
  → Pitfalls research

Read agent instruction files for inlining into Task() prompts:

project_researcher_instructions_content=$(cat ./references/project-researcher-instructions.md)
research_synthesizer_instructions_content=$(cat ./references/research-synthesizer-instructions.md)
roadmapper_instructions_content=$(cat ./references/roadmapper-instructions.md)

Spawn all 4 researchers in a single message containing 4 parallel Task tool calls. All 4 must be in the same response — do NOT wait for one to finish before spawning the next:

Task(prompt="
<agent-instructions>
{project_researcher_instructions_content}
</agent-instructions>

<research_type>
Project Research — Stack dimension for [new features].
</research_type>

<milestone_context>
SUBSEQUENT MILESTONE — Adding [target features] to existing app.

Existing validated capabilities (DO NOT re-research):
[List from PROJECT.md Validated requirements]

Focus ONLY on what's needed for the NEW features.
</milestone_context>

<question>
What stack additions/changes are needed for [new features]?
</question>

<project_context>
[PROJECT.md summary - current state, new milestone goals]
</project_context>

<downstream_consumer>
Your STACK.md feeds into roadmap creation. Be prescriptive:
- Specific libraries with versions for NEW capabilities
- Integration points with existing stack
- What NOT to add and why
</downstream_consumer>

<quality_gate>
- [ ] Versions are current (verify with Context7/official docs, not training data)
- [ ] Rationale explains WHY, not just WHAT
- [ ] Integration with existing stack considered
</quality_gate>

<output>
Write to: .planning/research/STACK.md
Format: Standard research output forSTACK.md
</output>
", subagent_type="general-purpose", model="{researcher_model}", description="Stack research")

Task(prompt="
<agent-instructions>
{project_researcher_instructions_content}
</agent-instructions>

<research_type>
Project Research — Features dimension for [new features].
</research_type>

<milestone_context>
SUBSEQUENT MILESTONE — Adding [target features] to existing app.

Existing features (already built):
[List from PROJECT.md Validated requirements]

Focus on how [new features] typically work, expected behavior.
</milestone_context>

<question>
How do [target features] typically work? What's expected behavior?
</question>

<project_context>
[PROJECT.md summary - new milestone goals]
</project_context>

<downstream_consumer>
Your FEATURES.md feeds into requirements definition. Categorize clearly:
- Table stakes (must have for these features)
- Differentiators (competitive advantage)
- Anti-features (things to deliberately NOT build)
</downstream_consumer>

<quality_gate>
- [ ] Categories are clear (table stakes vs differentiators vs anti-features)
- [ ] Complexity noted for each feature
- [ ] Dependencies on existing features identified
</quality_gate>

<output>
Write to: .planning/research/FEATURES.md
Format: Standard research output forFEATURES.md
</output>
", subagent_type="general-purpose", model="{researcher_model}", description="Features research")

Task(prompt="
<agent-instructions>
{project_researcher_instructions_content}
</agent-instructions>

<research_type>
Project Research — Architecture dimension for [new features].
</research_type>

<milestone_context>
SUBSEQUENT MILESTONE — Adding [target features] to existing app.

Existing architecture:
[Summary from PROJECT.md or codebase map]

Focus on how [new features] integrate with existing architecture.
</milestone_context>

<question>
How do [target features] integrate with existing [domain] architecture?
</question>

<project_context>
[PROJECT.md summary - current architecture, new features]
</project_context>

<downstream_consumer>
Your ARCHITECTURE.md informs phase structure in roadmap. Include:
- Integration points with existing components
- New components needed
- Data flow changes
- Suggested build order
</downstream_consumer>

<quality_gate>
- [ ] Integration points clearly identified
- [ ] New vs modified components explicit
- [ ] Build order considers existing dependencies
</quality_gate>

<output>
Write to: .planning/research/ARCHITECTURE.md
Format: Standard research output forARCHITECTURE.md
</output>
", subagent_type="general-purpose", model="{researcher_model}", description="Architecture research")

Task(prompt="
<agent-instructions>
{project_researcher_instructions_content}
</agent-instructions>

<research_type>
Project Research — Pitfalls dimension for [new features].
</research_type>

<milestone_context>
SUBSEQUENT MILESTONE — Adding [target features] to existing app.

Focus on common mistakes when ADDING these features to an existing system.
</milestone_context>

<question>
What are common mistakes when adding [target features] to [domain]?
</question>

<project_context>
[PROJECT.md summary - current state, new features]
</project_context>

<downstream_consumer>
Your PITFALLS.md prevents mistakes in roadmap/planning. For each pitfall:
- Warning signs (how to detect early)
- Prevention strategy (how to avoid)
- Which phase should address it
</downstream_consumer>

<quality_gate>
- [ ] Pitfalls are specific to adding these features (not generic)
- [ ] Integration pitfalls with existing system covered
- [ ] Prevention strategies are actionable
</quality_gate>

<output>
Write to: .planning/research/PITFALLS.md
Format: Standard research output forPITFALLS.md
</output>
", subagent_type="general-purpose", model="{researcher_model}", description="Pitfalls research")

After all 4 agents complete, spawn synthesizer to create SUMMARY.md:

Task(prompt="
<agent-instructions>
{research_synthesizer_instructions_content}
</agent-instructions>

<task>
Synthesize research outputs into SUMMARY.md.
</task>

<research_files>
Read these files:
- .planning/research/STACK.md
- .planning/research/FEATURES.md
- .planning/research/ARCHITECTURE.md
- .planning/research/PITFALLS.md
</research_files>

<output>
Write to: .planning/research/SUMMARY.md
Format: Standard research output forSUMMARY.md
Commit after writing.
</output>
", subagent_type="general-purpose", model="{synthesizer_model}", description="Synthesize research")

Display research complete banner and key findings:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Kata ► RESEARCH COMPLETE ✓ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Key Findings

Stack additions: [from SUMMARY.md] New feature table stakes: [from SUMMARY.md] Watch Out For: [from SUMMARY.md]

Files: .planning/research/

If "Skip research": Continue to Phase 7.5.

Phase 7.5: Issue Selection

Check for backlog issues:

BACKLOG_COUNT=$(find .planning/issues/open -maxdepth 1 -name "*.md" 2>/dev/null | wc -l | tr -d ' ')

If BACKLOG_COUNT > 0:

Display: "Checking backlog for issues to include in this milestone..."

Build issue options dynamically:

ISSUE_OPTIONS=""
for file in .planning/issues/open/*.md; do
  [ -f "$file" ] || continue
  created=$(grep "^created:" "$file" | cut -d' ' -f2)
  title=$(grep "^title:" "$file" | cut -d':' -f2- | xargs)
  area=$(grep "^area:" "$file" | cut -d' ' -f2)
  provenance=$(grep "^provenance:" "$file" | cut -d' ' -f2)

  # Calculate age
  created_date=$(echo "$created" | cut -dT -f1)
  days_ago=$(( ($(date +%s) - $(date -j -f "%Y-%m-%d" "$created_date" +%s 2>/dev/null || echo $(date +%s))) / 86400 ))
  if [ "$days_ago" -eq 0 ]; then
    age="today"
  elif [ "$days_ago" -eq 1 ]; then
    age="1d ago"
  else
    age="${days_ago}d ago"
  fi

  # Extract GitHub issue number if linked
  github_ref=""
  if echo "$provenance" | grep -q "^github:"; then
    github_ref=" (GitHub $(echo "$provenance" | grep -oE '#[0-9]+')"
  fi

  echo "$file|$title|$area|$age$github_ref"
done

Use AskUserQuestion:

  • header: "Backlog Issues"
  • question: "Include any backlog issues in this milestone's scope?"
  • multiSelect: true
  • options: Build from issue list above, format as "[title]" — [area], [age]
  • Include final option: "None — Start fresh"

For each selected issue (if not "None — Start fresh"):

Store as SELECTED_ISSUES variable for use in Phase 8.

Update STATE.md with milestone scope issues:

  1. Read STATE.md
  2. Find or create "### Milestone Scope Issues" section
  3. Add each selected issue:
### Milestone Scope Issues

Issues pulled into current milestone scope:

- "[issue-title]" (from: [issue-file-path], GitHub: #N if linked)
  1. Write updated STATE.md

Purpose of issue selection:

  • Selected issues become formally tracked as part of the milestone scope
  • They appear in STATE.md under "### Milestone Scope Issues" for the current milestone
  • They inform requirements generation in Phase 8 (planner should consider these issues when generating requirements)
  • They will be visible in progress tracking commands like /kata-track-progress
  • User still defines formal requirements through Phase 8, but selected issues provide explicit scope context

If BACKLOG_COUNT = 0:

Skip silently. Continue to Phase 8.

Phase 8: Define Requirements

Display stage banner:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Kata ► DEFINING REQUIREMENTS ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Load context:

Read PROJECT.md and extract:

  • Core value (the ONE thing that must work)
  • Current milestone goals
  • Validated requirements (what already exists)

If research exists: Read research/FEATURES.md and extract feature categories.

Present features by category:

Here are the features for [new capabilities]:

## [Category 1]
**Table stakes:**
- Feature A
- Feature B

**Differentiators:**
- Feature C
- Feature D

**Research notes:** [any relevant notes]

---

## [Next Category]
...

If no research: Gather requirements through conversation instead.

Ask: "What are the main things users need to be able to do with [new features]?"

For each capability mentioned:

  • Ask clarifying questions to make it specific
  • Probe for related capabilities
  • Group into categories

Scope each category:

For each category, use AskUserQuestion:

  • header: "[Category name]"
  • question: "Which [category] features are in this milestone?"
  • multiSelect: true
  • options:
    • "[Feature 1]" — [brief description]
    • "[Feature 2]" — [brief description]
    • "[Feature 3]" — [brief description]
    • "None for this milestone" — Defer entire category

Track responses:

  • Selected features → this milestone's requirements
  • Unselected table stakes → future milestone
  • Unselected differentiators → out of scope

Identify gaps:

Use AskUserQuestion:

  • header: "Additions"
  • question: "Any requirements research missed? (Features specific to your vision)"
  • options:
    • "No, research covered it" — Proceed
    • "Yes, let me add some" — Capture additions

Generate REQUIREMENTS.md:

Create .planning/REQUIREMENTS.md with:

  • v1 Requirements for THIS milestone grouped by category (checkboxes, REQ-IDs)
  • Future Requirements (deferred to later milestones)
  • Out of Scope (explicit exclusions with reasoning)
  • Traceability section (empty, filled by roadmap)

REQ-ID format: [CATEGORY]-[NUMBER] (AUTH-01, NOTIF-02)

Continue numbering from existing requirements if applicable.

Requirement quality criteria:

Good requirements are:

  • Specific and testable: "User can reset password via email link" (not "Handle password reset")
  • User-centric: "User can X" (not "System does Y")
  • Atomic: One capability per requirement (not "User can login and manage profile")
  • Independent: Minimal dependencies on other requirements

Present full requirements list:

Show every requirement (not counts) for user confirmation:

## Milestone v[X.Y] Requirements

### [Category 1]
- [ ] **CAT1-01**: User can do X
- [ ] **CAT1-02**: User can do Y

### [Category 2]
- [ ] **CAT2-01**: User can do Z

[... full list ...]

---

Does this capture what you're building? (yes / adjust)

If "adjust": Return to scoping.

Commit requirements:

Check planning config (same pattern as Phase 6).

If committing:

git add .planning/REQUIREMENTS.md
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
docs: define milestone v[X.Y] requirements

[X] requirements across [N] categories
EOF
)"

Phase 8.5: Collision Check

Check for duplicate phase numeric prefixes across all state directories. Collisions cause find ... -name "01-*" | head -1 to return wrong directories.

DUPES=$(for state in active pending completed; do
  ls .planning/phases/${state}/ 2>/dev/null
done | grep -oE '^[0-9]+' | sort -n | uniq -d)

# Include flat directories (unmigrated projects)
FLAT_DUPES=$(ls .planning/phases/ 2>/dev/null | grep -E '^[0-9]' | grep -oE '^[0-9]+' | sort -n | uniq -d)

ALL_DUPES=$(echo -e "${DUPES}\n${FLAT_DUPES}" | sort -nu | grep -v '^$')

If ALL_DUPES is empty: Continue silently to Phase 9.

If collisions found:

Display:

⚠ Duplicate phase prefixes detected: [list]

Phase directories share numeric prefixes across milestones. This causes
phase lookup commands to return wrong directories.

Use AskUserQuestion:

  • header: "Collisions"
  • question: "Duplicate phase prefixes found. Migrate to globally sequential numbering?"
  • options:
    • "Migrate now" — Run /kata-doctor to fix collisions, then recalculate NEXT_PHASE before continuing
    • "Skip" — Continue without fixing (phase lookups may return wrong results)

If "Migrate now":

Run /kata-doctor to perform migration:

Skill("kata-doctor")

After doctor completes, recalculate NEXT_PHASE from the newly renumbered directories.

If "Skip":

Display:

⚠ Skipping migration. Run `/kata-doctor` to fix collisions later.

Continue to Phase 9.

Phase 9: Create Roadmap

Display stage banner:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Kata ► CREATING ROADMAP ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

◆ Spawning roadmapper...

Determine starting phase number:

Phase numbers are globally sequential across milestones. Scan all existing phase directories to find the highest phase number, then start this milestone's phases at highest + 1:

ALL_PHASE_DIRS=""
for state in active pending completed; do
  [ -d ".planning/phases/${state}" ] && ALL_PHASE_DIRS="${ALL_PHASE_DIRS} $(find .planning/phases/${state} -maxdepth 1 -type d -not -name "${state}" 2>/dev/null)"
done
HIGHEST=$(echo "$ALL_PHASE_DIRS" | tr ' ' '\n' | grep -oE '/[0-9]+' | grep -oE '[0-9]+' | sort -n | tail -1)
NEXT_PHASE=$((HIGHEST + 1))

Pass NEXT_PHASE as the starting phase number to the roadmapper.

Spawn roadmapper agent with context:

Task(prompt="
<agent-instructions>
{roadmapper_instructions_content}
</agent-instructions>

<planning_context>

**Project:**
@.planning/PROJECT.md

**Requirements:**
@.planning/REQUIREMENTS.md

**Research (if exists):**
@.planning/research/SUMMARY.md

**Config:**
@.planning/config.json

**Previous milestones (shipped context):**
@.planning/MILESTONES.md

</planning_context>

<instructions>
Create roadmap for milestone v[X.Y]:
1. Continue phase numbering from the highest existing phase number + 1 (globally sequential across milestones). The starting phase number is provided as NEXT_PHASE.
2. Derive phases from THIS MILESTONE's requirements (don't include validated/existing)
3. Map every requirement to exactly one phase
4. Derive 2-5 success criteria per phase (observable user behaviors)
5. Validate 100% coverage of new requirements
6. Write files immediately (ROADMAP.md, STATE.md, update REQUIREMENTS.md traceability)
7. Include "Planned Milestones" section in ROADMAP.md if user mentioned future milestone ideas
8. Use ○ symbol for planned milestones in overview, 🔄 for current, ✅ for completed
9. Include planned milestones in Progress Summary table with "Planned" status
10. Return ROADMAP CREATED with summary

Write files first, then return. This ensures artifacts persist even if context is lost.
</instructions>

<format_conventions>
Milestones overview uses these symbols:
- ✅ for shipped milestones
- 🔄 for current/in-progress milestone
- ○ for planned milestones

Completed milestone details blocks MUST include:
- Summary line: ✅ v[X.Y] [Name] — SHIPPED [DATE]
- **Goal:** line
- Phase checkboxes with plan counts and dates
- [Full archive](milestones/v[X.Y]-ROADMAP.md) link

Progress Summary table includes planned milestones with "Planned" status and "—" for metrics.
</format_conventions>
", subagent_type="general-purpose", model="{roadmapper_model}", description="Create roadmap")

Handle roadmapper return:

If ## ROADMAP BLOCKED:

  • Present blocker information
  • Work with user to resolve
  • Re-spawn when resolved

If ## ROADMAP CREATED:

Read the created ROADMAP.md and present it nicely inline:

---

## Proposed Roadmap

**[N] phases** | **[X] requirements mapped** | All milestone requirements covered ✓

| #     | Phase  | Goal   | Requirements | Success Criteria |
| ----- | ------ | ------ | ------------ | ---------------- |
| [N]   | [Name] | [Goal] | [REQ-IDs]    | [count]          |
| [N+1] | [Name] | [Goal] | [REQ-IDs]    | [count]          |
...

### Phase Details

**Phase [N]: [Name]**
Goal: [goal]
Requirements: [REQ-IDs]
Success criteria:
1. [criterion]
2. [criterion]

[... continue for all phases ...]

---

CRITICAL: Ask for approval before committing:

Use AskUserQuestion:

  • header: "Roadmap"
  • question: "Does this roadmap structure work for you?"
  • options:
    • "Approve" — Commit and continue
    • "Adjust phases" — Tell me what to change
    • "Review full file" — Show raw ROADMAP.md

If "Approve": Continue to commit.

If "Adjust phases":

  • Get user's adjustment notes

  • Re-spawn roadmapper with revision context:

    Task(prompt="
<agent-instructions>
{roadmapper_instructions_content}
</agent-instructions>

<revision>
User feedback on roadmap:
[user's notes]

Current ROADMAP.md: @.planning/ROADMAP.md

Update the roadmap based on feedback. Edit files in place.
Return ROADMAP REVISED with changes made.
</revision>
", subagent_type="general-purpose", model="{roadmapper_model}", description="Revise roadmap")

  • Present revised roadmap

  • Loop until user approves

If "Review full file": Display raw cat .planning/ROADMAP.md, then re-ask.

Commit roadmap (after approval):

Check planning config (same pattern as Phase 6).

If committing:

git add .planning/ROADMAP.md .planning/STATE.md .planning/REQUIREMENTS.md
git commit -m "$(cat <<'EOF'
docs: create milestone v[X.Y] roadmap ([N] phases)

Phases:
[N]. [phase-name]: [requirements covered]
[N+1]. [phase-name]: [requirements covered]
...

All milestone requirements mapped to phases.
EOF
)"

Phase 9.5: Create Phase Issues (if enabled)

1. Check github.enabled - Skip silently if false

If GITHUB_ENABLED=false: Skip to Phase 10.

2. Check github.issue_mode (auto | ask | never):

ISSUE_MODE=$(node scripts/kata-lib.cjs read-config "github.issue_mode" "auto")

  • If "never": Skip phase issue creation silently, continue to Phase 10

  • If "ask": Use AskUserQuestion to prompt:

    • header: "GitHub Phase Issues"
    • question: "Create GitHub Issues for each phase in this milestone?"
    • options:
      • "Yes" — Create issues for all phases
      • "No" — Skip issue creation for this milestone

  • If "auto" or user approved "Yes": Proceed with creation

3. Create phase label (idempotent):

gh label create "phase" --color "0E8A16" --description "Kata phase tracking" --force 2>/dev/null || true

4. Get milestone number (from Phase 5.5):

# Extract VERSION from current milestone
VERSION=$(grep -E "Current Milestone:|🔄" .planning/ROADMAP.md | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)?' | head -1 | tr -d 'v')
if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
  echo "Warning: Could not determine milestone version from ROADMAP.md. Skipping phase issue creation."
  exit 0
fi

MILESTONE_NUM=$(gh api /repos/:owner/:repo/milestones --jq ".[] | select(.title==\"v${VERSION}\") | .number" 2>/dev/null)
if [ -z "$MILESTONE_NUM" ]; then
  echo "Warning: Could not find GitHub Milestone v${VERSION}. Skipping phase issue creation."
  # Continue without phase issues - skip to Phase 10
fi

5. Parse phases from ROADMAP.md (for this milestone only):

The ROADMAP.md structure uses:

  • Milestone headers: ### v1.1.0 GitHub Integration (Planned) or ### v{VERSION} {Name} (Status)
  • Phase headers: #### Phase N: Phase Name
  • Goal line: **Goal**: description text
  • Requirements line: **Requirements**: REQ-01, REQ-02 (optional)
  • Success criteria: **Success Criteria** (what must be TRUE): followed by numbered list
# Find the milestone section and extract phases
ROADMAP_FILE=".planning/ROADMAP.md"

# Extract VERSION from current milestone
VERSION=$(grep -E "Current Milestone:|🔄" "$ROADMAP_FILE" | grep -oE 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+)?' | head -1 | tr -d 'v')
if [ -z "$VERSION" ]; then
  echo "Warning: Could not determine milestone version. Skipping phase issue creation."
  exit 0
fi

# Get line numbers for milestone section boundaries
MILESTONE_START=$(grep -n "^### v${VERSION}" "$ROADMAP_FILE" | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)
NEXT_MILESTONE=$(awk -v start="$MILESTONE_START" 'NR > start && /^### v[0-9]/ {print NR; exit}' "$ROADMAP_FILE")

# If no next milestone, use end of file
if [ -z "$NEXT_MILESTONE" ]; then
  NEXT_MILESTONE=$(wc -l < "$ROADMAP_FILE")
fi

# Extract phase blocks within this milestone section
# Each phase starts with "### Phase N:" or "#### Phase N:" and ends at next phase or section boundary
PHASE_HEADERS=$(sed -n "${MILESTONE_START},${NEXT_MILESTONE}p" "$ROADMAP_FILE" | grep -nE "^#{3,4} Phase [0-9]")

# Process each phase
echo "$PHASE_HEADERS" | while IFS= read -r phase_line; do
  # Extract phase number and name from "#### Phase N: Name"
  PHASE_NUM=$(echo "$phase_line" | sed -E 's/.*Phase ([0-9.]+):.*/\1/')
  PHASE_NAME=$(echo "$phase_line" | sed -E 's/.*Phase [0-9.]+: (.*)/\1/')

  # Get relative line number within milestone section
  PHASE_REL_LINE=$(echo "$phase_line" | cut -d: -f1)
  PHASE_ABS_LINE=$((MILESTONE_START + PHASE_REL_LINE - 1))

  # Find next phase or section end
  NEXT_PHASE_LINE=$(sed -n "$((PHASE_ABS_LINE+1)),${NEXT_MILESTONE}p" "$ROADMAP_FILE" | grep -nE "^#{2,4} (Phase |v[0-9])" | head -1 | cut -d: -f1)
  if [ -z "$NEXT_PHASE_LINE" ]; then
    PHASE_END=$NEXT_MILESTONE
  else
    PHASE_END=$((PHASE_ABS_LINE + NEXT_PHASE_LINE - 1))
  fi

  # Extract phase block
  PHASE_BLOCK=$(sed -n "${PHASE_ABS_LINE},${PHASE_END}p" "$ROADMAP_FILE")

  # Extract goal (line starting with **Goal**:)
  PHASE_GOAL=$(echo "$PHASE_BLOCK" | grep "^\*\*Goal\*\*:" | sed 's/\*\*Goal\*\*: *//')

  # Extract requirements (line starting with **Requirements**:) - may not exist
  REQUIREMENT_IDS=$(echo "$PHASE_BLOCK" | grep "^\*\*Requirements\*\*:" | sed 's/\*\*Requirements\*\*: *//')

  # Extract success criteria (numbered list after **Success Criteria**)
  # Convert to checklist format: "  1. item" -> "- [ ] item"
  SUCCESS_CRITERIA_AS_CHECKLIST=$(echo "$PHASE_BLOCK" | \
    awk '/^\*\*Success Criteria\*\*/{found=1; next} found && /^  [0-9]+\./{print} found && /^\*\*/{exit}' | \
    sed -E 's/^  [0-9]+\. /- [ ] /')

  # --- Issue creation code (step 6) ---

  # Check if issue already exists (idempotent)
  # gh issue list --milestone only searches open milestones; use API to include closed
  REPO_SLUG=$(gh repo view --json nameWithOwner --jq '.nameWithOwner' 2>/dev/null)
  MS_NUM=$(gh api "repos/${REPO_SLUG}/milestones?state=all" --jq ".[] | select(.title==\"v${VERSION}\") | .number" 2>/dev/null)
  EXISTING=""
  if [ -n "$MS_NUM" ]; then
    EXISTING=$(gh api "repos/${REPO_SLUG}/issues?milestone=${MS_NUM}&state=all&labels=phase&per_page=100" \
      --jq "[.[] | select(.title | startswith(\"Phase ${PHASE_NUM}:\"))][0].number" 2>/dev/null)
  fi

  if [ -n "$EXISTING" ]; then
    echo "Phase ${PHASE_NUM} issue already exists: #${EXISTING}"
  else
    # Build issue body using temp file (handles special characters safely)
    cat > /tmp/phase-issue-body.md << PHASE_EOF
## Goal

${PHASE_GOAL}

## Success Criteria

${SUCCESS_CRITERIA_AS_CHECKLIST}
$([ -n "$REQUIREMENT_IDS" ] && echo "
## Requirements

${REQUIREMENT_IDS}")

## Plans

<!-- Checklist added by /kata-plan-phase (Phase 4) -->
_Plans will be added after phase planning completes._

---
<sub>Created by Kata | Phase ${PHASE_NUM} of milestone v${VERSION}</sub>
PHASE_EOF

    # Create issue
    gh issue create \
      --title "Phase ${PHASE_NUM}: ${PHASE_NAME}" \
      --body-file /tmp/phase-issue-body.md \
      --label "phase" \
      --milestone "v${VERSION}" \
      2>/dev/null && echo "Created issue: Phase ${PHASE_NUM}: ${PHASE_NAME}" || echo "Warning: Failed to create issue for Phase ${PHASE_NUM}"
  fi
done

6. Display summary (after loop):

◆ GitHub Phase Issues: [N] created for milestone v${VERSION}

Error handling principle: All operations are non-blocking. Missing milestone, auth issues, or creation failures warn but do not stop the milestone flow.

IMPORTANT: Use temp file approach (--body-file) to handle special characters in phase goals. Direct --body strings break with quotes/backticks.

Phase 10: Done

Present completion with next steps:

━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Kata ► MILESTONE INITIALIZED ✓ ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Milestone v[X.Y]: [Name]

ArtifactLocation
Project.planning/PROJECT.md
Research.planning/research/
Requirements.planning/REQUIREMENTS.md
Roadmap.planning/ROADMAP.md

If GITHUB_ENABLED=true and milestone created:

| GitHub | Milestone v${VERSION} created |

[N] phases | [X] requirements | Ready to build ✓

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

▶ Next Up

Phase [N]: [Phase Name] — [Goal from ROADMAP.md]

/kata-plan-phase [N] — plan the next phase

<sub>/clear first → fresh context window</sub>

Also available:

  • /kata-discuss-phase [N] — discuss first

───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

</process>

<success_criteria>

  • PROJECT.md updated with Current Milestone section
  • STATE.md reset for new milestone
  • MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md consumed and deleted (if existed)
  • Research completed (if selected) — 4 parallel agents spawned, milestone-aware
  • Requirements gathered (from research or conversation)
  • User scoped each category
  • REQUIREMENTS.md created with REQ-IDs
  • kata-roadmapper spawned with phase numbering context
  • Roadmap files written immediately (not draft)
  • User feedback incorporated (if any)
  • ROADMAP.md created with globally sequential phase numbers (continuing from highest existing)
  • All commits made (if planning docs committed)
  • User knows next step is /kata-discuss-phase [N]

Atomic commits: Each phase commits its artifacts immediately. If context is lost, artifacts persist. </success_criteria>

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