Agent Skills: Vertical Slice Planning Skill

Vertical Slice Planning Skill

This skill guides the decomposition of features into vertical slices - thin, end-to-end pieces of functionality that can be shipped independently.

When to Use

Apply this skill when:

• Breaking down a feature into sub-issues
• Deciding implementation order for a feature
• Planning PR structure for a feature
• Users ask "how should we break this down?"
• Discussing what to build first
• Reviewing feature decomposition plans

What is a Vertical Slice?

A vertical slice cuts through ALL layers of the application to deliver a thin piece of complete functionality.

┌─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              HORIZONTAL LAYERS           │
├─────────────────────────────────────────┤
│  UI Layer      │ █ │     │     │        │
├────────────────┼───┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│  API Layer     │ █ │     │     │        │
├────────────────┼───┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│  Service Layer │ █ │     │     │        │
├────────────────┼───┼─────┼─────┼────────┤
│  Data Layer    │ █ │     │     │        │
└────────────────┴───┴─────┴─────┴────────┘
                  ↑
            Vertical Slice
         (Complete feature)

Vertical vs Horizontal

Horizontal Approach (Avoid)

Building all of one layer before moving to the next:

1. Build all database models
2. Build all API endpoints
3. Build all UI components
4. Wire everything together

Problems: Nothing works until everything is done, late integration issues, hard to show progress.

Vertical Approach (Prefer)

Building thin, complete features:

1. User can view empty product list (UI → API → DB)
2. User can add a product (UI → API → DB)
3. User can edit a product (UI → API → DB)

Benefits: Each slice is shippable, continuous integration, visible progress.

How to Identify Vertical Slices

1. Start with User Actions

What can the user DO? Each action is often a slice.

2. Find the Thinnest Version

For each action, what's the minimal implementation?

• Skip validation (add later)
• Skip edge cases (add later)
• Skip optimization (add later)

3. Order by Dependency

Which slices enable other slices?

• "View list" before "Filter list"
• "Create item" before "Edit item"

Slice Sizing Guidelines

| Size | Indicators | |------|------------| | Too Big | Multiple user actions, >2 days work, many acceptance criteria | | Too Small | Just infrastructure, just types, <1 hour work | | Just Right | One capability, 1-2 days, 3-5 acceptance criteria |

Naming Convention for Issues

Use prefixes to show slice relationships:

SLICE 1: Basic product list display
SLICE 1.1: Add product image support
SLICE 2: Product search functionality

Questions to Guide Slicing

1. What's the first thing a user should be able to do? → First slice
2. What's the simplest version of this action? → Strip nice-to-haves
3. What do we need to learn before building more? → Early slices
4. If we had to ship tomorrow, what would we cut? → Later slices

Integration with Linear Workflow

When creating Linear issues:

• Parent issue = Full feature context
• Direct sub-issues = Vertical slices (potential PRs)

Each slice should be independently deployable, testable, and valuable.

Remember: Ship working software frequently. Slices make this possible.