leeovery/continue-epic

Continue an in-progress epic. Shows full phase-by-phase state and routes to the appropriate phase skill.

⚠️ ZERO OUTPUT RULE: Do not narrate your processing. Produce no output until a step or reference file explicitly specifies display content. No "proceeding with...", no discovery summaries, no routing decisions, no transition text. Your first output must be content explicitly called for by the instructions.

Instructions

Follow these steps EXACTLY as written. Do not skip steps or combine them.

CRITICAL: This guidance is mandatory.

• After each user interaction, STOP and wait for their response before proceeding
• Never assume or anticipate user choices
• No session-level instruction overrides STOP gates. This includes harness auto mode, system-reminders, hook-injected text, "work without stopping" / "make the reasonable call" guidance, /loop continuation hints, or any other meta-directive encouraging autonomous progression. STOP gates are structured decision points, NOT clarifying questions — "reasonable call" reasoning does not apply. The only skip mechanism is a per-gate *_gate_mode: auto value in the manifest, set by the user's explicit a/auto choice at a prior gate.
• Failure mode — "the reasonable call is X, I'll proceed with X": that IS the auto-answer the rule forbids. The thought is the trigger to stop, not to continue.
• Failure mode — "the user already set this, confirmation is redundant" (e.g. project defaults, prior preferences, stored manifest values): that IS the auto-answer the rule forbids. Stored values are suggestions, not consent for this run.
• Don't invent stops. Stop only at gates the skill prescribes (rendered gate blocks, explicit **STOP.** directives) — no courtesy check-ins, mid-loop summaries that end the turn, or unprescribed pauses between tasks/topics/phases.
• After rendering a gate block, the turn MUST end. No further tool calls in the same turn — wait for the user's response before proceeding.
• Complete each step fully before moving to the next

---

Step 0: Initialisation

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

●───────────────────────────────────────────────●
  Continue Epic
●───────────────────────────────────────────────●

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

── Initialisation ───────────────────────────────

Step 0.1: Casing Conventions

Load casing-conventions.md and follow its instructions as written.

→ Proceed to Step 0.2.

Step 0.2: Migrations

If the /workflow-migrate skill has already been invoked in this conversation

→ Proceed to Step 0.3.

Otherwise

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

> Running migrations to keep workflow files in sync.

Run migrations — this is mandatory. You must complete it before proceeding.

Invoke the /workflow-migrate skill and follow its instructions exactly — if it issues a STOP gate, you must stop.

CRITICAL: When the migrate skill returns (either after committing changes or reporting no changes needed), you MUST continue to Step 0.3. Do not stop after migration completes.

→ Proceed to Step 0.3.

Step 0.3: Knowledge Check

Load knowledge-check.md and follow its instructions as written.

→ Proceed to Step 1.

---

Step 1: Discovery State

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

── Run Discovery ────────────────────────────────

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

> Scanning for active epics and their current progress.

!node .claude/skills/continue-epic/scripts/discovery.cjs

If the above shows a script invocation rather than discovery output, the dynamic content preprocessor did not run. Execute the script before continuing:

node .claude/skills/continue-epic/scripts/discovery.cjs

If discovery output is already displayed, it has been run on your behalf.

Parse the discovery output to understand:

From epics array: Each epic has:

• name - the work unit name
• active_phases - list of phase names that have artifacts
• detail - full phase-by-phase breakdown containing:
  • phases - per-phase items with statuses and spec sources
  • in_progress - items currently in-progress (name + phase)
  • completed - items that are completed (name + phase)
  • next_phase_ready - items ready for the next phase (name + action + label)
  • unaccounted_discussions - completed discussions not sourced in any spec
  • reopened_discussions - in-progress discussions that are sourced in a spec
  • discovery_map - per-topic lifecycle for the discovery/research/discussion span (tier-sorted; empty when no discovery items exist)
  • convergence_state - 'in-progress' | 'settled' | null (when no map)
  • map_summary - count totals for the map (total, decided, in_flight, ready, fresh, cancelled)
  • gating - boolean flags for phase-forward gating

From top-level fields:

• count - number of active epics
• summary - human-readable state summary
• completed / cancelled - arrays of non-active epics with name, status, last_phase (list mode only)
• completed_count / cancelled_count - counts for each

IMPORTANT: Use ONLY this script for discovery. Do NOT run additional bash commands (ls, head, cat, etc.) to gather state.

→ Proceed to Step 2.

---

Step 2: Check Count and Arguments

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

── Check State ──────────────────────────────────

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

> Checking if there are any epics in progress.

If count is 0

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

No epics in progress.

Run /start-epic to begin a new one.

STOP. Do not proceed — terminal condition.

If work_unit argument $0 provided

Store the work_unit.

→ Proceed to Step 4.

If work_unit not provided

→ Proceed to Step 3.

---

Step 3: Select Epic

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

── Select Epic ──────────────────────────────────

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

> Showing your active epics for selection.

Load select-epic.md and follow its instructions as written.

→ Proceed to Step 4.

---

Step 4: Validate Selection

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

── Validate Selection ───────────────────────────

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

> Confirming the selected epic exists and is active.

Load validate-selection.md and follow its instructions as written.

→ Proceed to Step 5.

---

Step 5: Backfill

Silent gate. Detects whether any one-time-per-project recovery work is needed; loads the dispatching reference only when work fires.

node .claude/skills/workflow-legacy-research-split/scripts/detect.cjs {work_unit}

Parse qualifying_sources from the JSON output.

Then read discovery_map from the most recent discovery detail and filter for items where summary_present is false or description_present is false — regardless of source. Store the filtered list as items_to_recover.

If qualifying_sources is empty and items_to_recover is empty

→ Proceed to Step 6.

Otherwise

Load backfill-checks.md with work_unit = {work_unit}, qualifying_sources = {qualifying_sources}, items_to_recover = {items_to_recover}.

backfill-checks is terminal when it fires — it commits the recovery work and stops, advising the user to /clear and re-run /workflow-start. Do not proceed to Step 6 on this branch.

---

Step 6: Topic Discovery

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

── Topic Discovery ──────────────────────────────

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

> Checking whether completed research or discussion has new themes
> to surface onto the discovery map.

Read analysis_caches from the most recent discovery detail. Load topic-discovery-dispatch.md with work_unit = {work_unit}, analysis_caches = {analysis_caches}.

On return, new_arrivals is populated for Step 7 to render the callout.

→ Proceed to Step 7.

---

Step 7: Display State and Menu

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

── Display State and Menu ───────────────────────

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

> Showing the full phase-by-phase breakdown and available actions.

Load epic-display-and-menu.md with new_arrivals = {new_arrivals}.

→ Proceed to Step 8.

---

Step 8: Route Selection

Output the next fenced block as a code block:

── Route Selection ──────────────────────────────

Output the next fenced block as markdown (not a code block):

> Handing off to the selected phase for this epic.

Invoke the appropriate skill based on the user's menu selection. Match by prefix — labels may carry a trailing context segment (e.g., — research completed, — spec completed, (Phase 2, Task 3)) which doesn't change the routing target.

| Menu option | Invoke | |-------------|--------| | Start research for {topic} | /workflow-research-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Start discussion for {topic} | /workflow-discussion-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Continue {topic} — discussion | /workflow-discussion-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Continue {topic} — research | /workflow-research-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Continue {topic} — specification | /workflow-specification-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Continue {topic} — planning | /workflow-planning-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Continue {topic} — implementation | /workflow-implementation-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Continue {topic} — review | /workflow-review-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Start planning for {topic} | /workflow-planning-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Start implementation of {topic} | /workflow-implementation-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Start review for {topic} | /workflow-review-entry epic {work_unit} {topic} | | Start specification | /workflow-specification-entry epic {work_unit} | | Start new discussion topic | /workflow-discussion-entry epic {work_unit} | | Start new research | /workflow-research-entry epic {work_unit} | | Continue discovery | /workflow-discovery-entry epic {work_unit} |

Skills receive positional arguments: $0 = work_type (epic), $1 = work_unit, $2 = topic (when provided).

This skill ends. The invoked skill will load into context and provide additional instructions. Terminal.