visual-task Skill | Agent Skills

GOAL Create a Mermaid flowchart implementation plan for delegating to a sub-agent. The plan must include clear decision points with "exit ramps" - paths where the sub-agent should STOP and report back to the manager rather than attempting to solve unexpected issues on its own.

WHEN TO USE

Before delegating implementation work to expert-coder or other sub-agents
For any task that has potential failure modes or requires specific conditions to be met
When you want the sub-agent to abort early if assumptions don't hold

SCOPE CHECK - BEFORE BUILDING THE DIAGRAM

This diagram represents ONE delegation to ONE sub-agent. This SHOULD be a SMALL step in your full plan, DO NOT delegate your full plan to one sub-agent. Each delegated visual-task diagram should address a single concern with 3-8 action steps.

Before building the diagram, check: does your planned task combine independent concerns? Examples of independent concerns:

Core logic changes vs call-site updates
Production code vs test updates
Different modules that don't depend on each other's changes
Validation logic vs API endpoints that use it

If yes, STOP and create separate diagrams for each concern.

A task CAN touch many files if the change is mechanical and uniform (e.g., updating a type signature propagated across 50 call sites). The key question: does it require making independent design decisions about separate concerns? If yes, split it.

MERMAID SYNTAX

flowchart TD
    Start[Start: Brief task description] --> Step1[First action step]
    Step1 --> Check1{Step 1 successful?}
    Check1 -->|yes| Step2[Second action step]
    Check1 -->|no| Abort1[[ABORT: Report - step 1 failed because X]]
    Step2 --> Check2{Step 2 successful?}
    Check2 -->|yes| Step3[Third action step]
    Check2 -->|no| Abort2[[ABORT: Report - step 2 failed because Y]]
    Step3 --> Check3{Step 3 successful?}
    Check3 -->|yes| End[End: Expected outcome]
    Check3 -->|no| Abort3[[ABORT: Report - step 3 failed because Z]]

NODE SHAPES

Actions/steps: [square brackets]
Decisions/conditions: {curly braces}
ABORT points: [[double brackets]] - sub-agent must stop and report back
End states: [square brackets]

CRITICAL RULES

EVERY action step MUST be followed by a decision diamond
- Pattern: Step[Do X] --> Check{X successful?}
- This is mandatory - no chains of action steps without verification
- BAD: Step1 --> Step2 --> Step3 (no verification)
- GOOD: Step1 --> Check1{OK?} --> Step2 --> Check2{OK?} --> Step3
Every decision diamond MUST have TWO paths:
- -->|yes| continues to next step (success path)
- -->|no| leads to an ABORT node (failure path)
ABORT nodes must be labeled clearly:
- [[ABORT: Report - <specific reason>]]
- Examples:
  - [[ABORT: Report - migration failed to apply]]
  - [[ABORT: Report - expected file not found]]
  - [[ABORT: Report - tests failing after change]]

OUTPUT FORMAT Include the mermaid diagram in your delegation prompt to the sub-agent:

Follow this implementation plan. At each decision point (diamond), verify the condition.
If ANY condition fails, STOP immediately and report back with the ABORT message from that decision point.

[mermaid diagram here]

EXAMPLE - Adding a database column with projection update

flowchart TD
    Start[Start: Add site_id to projection_patients] --> M1[Add migration: ALTER TABLE ADD site_id]
    M1 --> M1Check{Migration created successfully?}
    M1Check -->|yes| M2[Populate site_id via JOIN from aggregates]
    M1Check -->|no| Abort1[[ABORT: Report - migration creation failed]]
    M2 --> M2Check{Data populated correctly?}
    M2Check -->|yes| M3[Add NOT NULL constraint and index]
    M2Check -->|no| Abort2[[ABORT: Report - data population failed]]
    M3 --> M3Check{Constraint and index applied?}
    M3Check -->|yes| P1[Update PatientProjection.fs UPSERT]
    M3Check -->|no| Abort3[[ABORT: Report - constraint/index failed]]
    P1 --> P1Check{Projection updated successfully?}
    P1Check -->|yes| T1[Run existing tests]
    P1Check -->|no| Abort4[[ABORT: Report - projection update failed]]
    T1 --> T1Check{Tests pass?}
    T1Check -->|yes| End[End: site_id column added]
    T1Check -->|no| Abort5[[ABORT: Report - tests failing, describe failures]]

Agent Skills: visual-task

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