gsd-tools Skill | Agent Skills

Load and manage .planning/config.json configuration
Generate deterministic slugs from descriptions (kebab-case, deduplication)
Format timestamps for GSD artifact headers and frontmatter
Resolve paths within the .planning/ directory structure
Parse and normalize phase numbers (integer and decimal)
Manage sequential quick task numbering in .planning/quick/
Initialize and validate .planning/ directory structure
Detect project state (new project, existing project, mid-phase, etc.)

Capabilities

1. Configuration Loading

Load and parse .planning/config.json with defaults:

{
  "profile": "balanced",
  "autoCommit": true,
  "autoVerify": true,
  "planCheckerEnabled": true,
  "maxPlanRevisions": 2,
  "waveParallelization": true,
  "contextMonitor": true,
  "contextWarningThreshold": 70,
  "contextCriticalThreshold": 85,
  "summaryVariant": "standard",
  "tddEnabled": false,
  "questioningDepth": "adaptive"
}

Read config:

cat .planning/config.json

If config does not exist, create with defaults. Merge user overrides with defaults (user values take precedence).

2. Slug Generation

Generate kebab-case slugs from descriptions:

Input:  "Add user authentication with OAuth2"
Output: "add-user-authentication-with-oauth2"

Input:  "Fix bug #123 in payment processing"
Output: "fix-bug-123-in-payment-processing"

Rules:

Lowercase all characters
Replace spaces and special characters with hyphens
Remove consecutive hyphens
Trim leading/trailing hyphens
Maximum 60 characters (truncate at word boundary)
Check for duplicates in target directory, append -2, -3 if needed

3. Timestamp Formatting

Format timestamps for GSD artifacts:

Header:    "2026-03-02T14:30:00Z"
Frontmatter: "2026-03-02"
Filename:  "20260302-143000"
Display:   "Mar 2, 2026 2:30 PM"

4. Path Operations

Resolve paths within .planning/ structure:

Phase directory:    .planning/phase-{N}/
Plan file:          .planning/phase-{N}/PLAN-{M}.md
Summary file:       .planning/phase-{N}/SUMMARY.md
Quick task:         .planning/quick/{NNN}-{slug}/
Debug session:      .planning/debug/{slug}.md
Codebase docs:      .planning/codebase/
Research docs:      .planning/research/
Milestone archive:  milestones/v{X}.{Y}/

5. Phase Number Parsing

Parse integer and decimal phase numbers:

"72"    -> { major: 72, minor: null, display: "72" }
"72.1"  -> { major: 72, minor: 1, display: "72.1" }
"72.2"  -> { major: 72, minor: 2, display: "72.2" }

Decimal phases are inserted phases (e.g., urgent work between phase 72 and 73).

6. Quick Task Numbering

Sequential numbering for quick tasks:

.planning/quick/001-fix-login-bug/
.planning/quick/002-add-rate-limiting/
.planning/quick/003-update-readme/

Scan existing directories, find highest number, increment by 1. Zero-pad to 3 digits.

7. Planning Directory Initialization

Ensure .planning/ directory exists with required structure:

.planning/
  config.json
  PROJECT.md       (if new-project has run)
  REQUIREMENTS.md  (if new-project has run)
  ROADMAP.md       (if new-project has run)
  STATE.md         (always present after init)
  quick/           (created on demand)
  debug/           (created on demand)
  codebase/        (created on demand)
  research/        (created on demand)

8. Project State Detection

Detect current project state for routing:

const states = {
  NO_PROJECT: "No .planning/ directory or no PROJECT.md",
  INITIALIZED: ".planning/ exists with PROJECT.md but no phases started",
  MID_PHASE: "A phase is in progress (has plans but no summary)",
  PHASE_COMPLETE: "Current phase complete, ready for next",
  MILESTONE_READY: "All milestone phases complete, ready for audit",
  BLOCKED: "STATE.md has active blockers"
};

Tool Use Instructions

Reading Configuration

Use Read to load .planning/config.json
Parse JSON and merge with defaults
Return merged configuration object

Generating Slugs

Accept description string as input
Apply slug transformation rules
Use Glob to check for duplicates in target directory
Append deduplication suffix if needed
Return final slug

Initializing Planning Directory

Use Bash to create directory structure with mkdir -p
Use Write to create config.json with defaults if missing
Use Read + Glob to detect existing state
Return initialization status

Process Integration

This skill is used by all GSD processes as the first initialization step:

new-project.js - Initialize .planning/, create config
plan-phase.js - Resolve phase paths, load config for planner settings
execute-phase.js - Load config for executor settings, resolve task paths
quick.js - Generate quick task number and slug, resolve quick task path
debug.js - Generate debug session slug, resolve debug path
progress.js - Detect project state, load config
complete-milestone.js - Resolve milestone archive path
add-tests.js - Resolve phase paths for test generation
research-phase.js - Resolve research output paths

Output Format

{
  "operation": "init|config|slug|path|state",
  "status": "success|error",
  "result": {
    "config": {},
    "slug": "generated-slug",
    "path": "/resolved/path",
    "state": "NO_PROJECT|INITIALIZED|MID_PHASE|..."
  },
  "metadata": {
    "planningDir": ".planning/",
    "configPath": ".planning/config.json",
    "timestamp": "2026-03-02T14:30:00Z"
  }
}

Configuration

| Setting | Default | Description | |---------|---------|-------------| | profile | balanced | Model profile (quality/balanced/budget) | | autoCommit | true | Auto-commit after each task | | autoVerify | true | Auto-verify after phase execution | | planCheckerEnabled | true | Run plan checker before execution | | maxPlanRevisions | 2 | Max plan revision cycles | | waveParallelization | true | Enable wave-based parallel execution | | contextMonitor | true | Enable context window monitoring | | summaryVariant | standard | Summary template variant |

Error Handling

| Error | Cause | Resolution | |-------|-------|------------| | Config parse error | Malformed config.json | Reset to defaults, warn user | | Planning dir not writable | Permission issue | Check filesystem permissions | | Slug collision limit | 10+ duplicates with same slug | Use timestamp suffix instead | | Phase number invalid | Non-numeric phase argument | Show valid format examples | | State detection failure | Corrupt STATE.md | Suggest health command to repair |

Constraints

Never modify files outside .planning/ directory without explicit instruction
Config defaults must be backward-compatible with existing projects
Slug generation must be deterministic (same input = same output, ignoring dedup)
Phase number parsing must handle both integer and decimal formats
Quick task numbering must be sequential with no gaps
All path operations must use forward slashes for cross-platform compatibility

Agent Skills: gsd-tools

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