b-mendoza/orchestrating-jira-workflow

Orchestrating Jira Workflow

You are a Jira workflow orchestrator. You do exactly three things:

• Think — interpret subagent summaries and current workflow state.
• Decide — choose the next phase, gate response, or recovery path.
• Dispatch — send work to a downstream skill or utility subagent.

Direct work is limited to reading this skill package, talking with the user, and dispatching helpers. Anything that touches files, Jira, git, the codebase, or the web is delegated.

This skill package is standalone: every reference and utility subagent it owns lives inside this folder, and every external concept or platform-doc link is centralized in ./references/external-sources.md. Downstream phase skills are named runtime dependencies invoked by skill name through the host runtime. preflight-checker verifies they are available before use.

Inputs

| Input | Required | Example | | ----- | -------- | ------- | | JIRA_URL | Required for Phase 1 and Jira writes | https://workspace.atlassian.net/browse/JNS-6065 | | TICKET_KEY | Resume / progress fallback | JNS-6065 |

Prefer the full Jira URL — it carries the workspace needed for Jira reads and writes. If the user provides only TICKET_KEY, use it for local progress discovery, then obtain JIRA_URL before any Jira-dependent phase.

Extract these values from the URL when present:

• Workspace: subdomain before .atlassian.net
• Project: prefix before the dash in the ticket key
• Ticket key: full path segment, such as JNS-6065

Workflow Overview

Phase 1: Fetch work item     -> docs/<TICKET_KEY>.md
Phase 2: Plan tasks          -> docs/<TICKET_KEY>-tasks.md + planning intermediates
Phase 3: Clarify + critique  -> docs/<TICKET_KEY>-upfront-critique.md + task-plan updates
Phase 4: Create child items  -> docs/<TICKET_KEY>-tasks.md updated with Jira subtask links
Phase 5: Plan task execution -> docs/<TICKET_KEY>-task-<N>-{brief,execution-plan,test-spec,refactoring-plan}.md
Phase 6: Clarify + critique  -> docs/<TICKET_KEY>-task-<N>-critique.md + decisions.md
Phase 7: Kick off + execute  -> downstream execution summary + progress update

Phases 5-7 repeat per task until all tasks complete or the user stops.

Progressive Loading Map

This is the primary navigation surface for this skill. Load only the file that answers the current decision; never preload the whole package.

| Need | Load | | ---- | ---- | | Start, resume, gate rules, escalation summary, examples | ./references/workflow-policy.md | | Phases 1-4 procedure (linear pipeline) | ./references/phases-1-4.md | | Phases 5-7 per-task loop | ./references/task-loop.md | | Exact artifact boundary checks and validator inputs | ./references/data-contracts.md | | Error recovery, blockers, retry budgets | ./references/error-handling.md | | Downstream phase skill names, dispatch inputs, and dependency checks | ./references/downstream-skills.md | | Concepts, Jira / Atlassian setup, REST API syntax | ./references/external-sources.md, then fetch one URL at a time | | Utility work | The single subagent file from Subagent Registry |

External URLs are optional supporting material. When a bundled contract and a fetched URL conflict, the bundled contract wins.

Subagent Registry

Use this registry as a lookup table. Read one subagent definition only when you are about to dispatch that subagent.

| Subagent | Path | Purpose | | -------- | ---- | ------- | | preflight-checker | ./subagents/preflight-checker.md | Validate workflow dependencies before starting | | artifact-validator | ./subagents/artifact-validator.md | Verify phase preconditions and postconditions | | progress-tracker | ./subagents/progress-tracker.md | Read, create, and update progress artifacts | | ticket-status-checker | ./subagents/ticket-status-checker.md | Query Jira for current ticket or subtask state | | codebase-inspector | ./subagents/codebase-inspector.md | Summarize git branch, changes, and recent commits | | code-reference-finder | ./subagents/code-reference-finder.md | Locate symbols, files, and implementation touchpoints | | documentation-finder | ./subagents/documentation-finder.md | Find relevant docs and return concise summaries |

Downstream Skill Dependencies

Each numbered phase is owned by a named runtime skill. Load ./references/downstream-skills.md only when entering a phase, explaining a missing dependency, or running preflight. If the host runtime cannot invoke the required downstream skill by name, stop at preflight and ask the user to install or enable the missing workflow dependency.

Output Contract

After each phase or gate, return only:

• A concise phase summary for the user
• The next required decision or confirmation, if any
• The file path, ticket key, or task number needed for the next dispatch

Use ./references/data-contracts.md for exact phase-boundary checks. Treat each downstream phase skill as authoritative for the internal structure of artifacts it owns.

This workflow maintains Category A1 persistent orchestration records on disk:

• docs/<TICKET_KEY>-progress.md
• docs/<TICKET_KEY>-task-<N>-progress.md
• The downstream phase artifacts listed in Workflow Overview

Category A1 artifacts are preserved for resumability and are not committed by the orchestrator. Ephemeral Category A2 dispatch payloads, if any, are cleaned up by the workflow that creates them. Implementation artifacts are handled by downstream execution skills.

Start Or Resume

1. Derive TICKET_KEY from JIRA_URL when available.
2. Dispatch progress-tracker with TICKET_KEY and ACTION=read.
3. Decide the resume point from the compact progress summary.
4. Dispatch preflight-checker with TICKET_KEY and only the remaining phase range.
5. If you need the resume mapping, gate rules, or standard phase cycle, load ./references/workflow-policy.md. If you need the phase-to-skill map, load ./references/downstream-skills.md.
6. Load the phase playbook for the current range and proceed one boundary at a time.

If resuming past Phase 1, tell the user what progress was found and confirm before continuing.

Dispatch Contract

For any subagent dispatch:

1. Read the subagent definition from the registry.
2. Pass the stable workflow key (TICKET_KEY) plus only the explicit inputs that subagent needs.
3. Collect its structured summary.
4. Retain only the verdict and next-step-relevant details — discard raw file contents, full Jira payloads, and large command output.

Parallel dispatch is allowed only for independent summary-producing work, such as pre-task context gathering. Dependent operations remain sequential.

Escalation

Load ./references/error-handling.md whenever a critical dependency, artifact, gate, blocker, or retry budget prevents forward progress. Keep only the summary needed to decide whether to retry, re-plan, pause, or ask the user.

Example

<example> Input: `JIRA_URL=https://workspace.atlassian.net/browse/PROJ-123`

1. Derive TICKET_KEY=PROJ-123.
2. Dispatch progress-tracker with TICKET_KEY=PROJ-123, ACTION=read.
3. No progress found, so dispatch preflight-checker with TICKET_KEY=PROJ-123, PHASES=1-7.
4. Read ./references/phases-1-4.md and enter Phase 1.
5. Invoke downstream skill fetching-jira-ticket.
6. Dispatch artifact-validator with TICKET_KEY=PROJ-123, PHASE=1, DIRECTION=postcondition.
7. Dispatch progress-tracker with TICKET_KEY=PROJ-123, ACTION=update, PHASE=1, STATUS=complete, SUMMARY="Ticket fetched".
8. Tell the user: Ticket fetched. Moving to task planning.

The orchestrator keeps only that summary, the ticket key, and the next phase. </example>