nhouseholder/progress-tracker

Progress Tracker — Multi-Step Visibility

When This Fires

This skill activates when all of these are true:

1. There are 3+ distinct tasks/steps being worked on (use TodoWrite as the signal)
2. A task was just completed or failed
3. The user hasn't received a progress update in the last 2+ task completions

Does NOT fire for:

• Single-task work
• Quick fixes or Q&A
• When the user is actively directing each step (they can see progress themselves)

What to Display

At natural milestones (every 2-3 completed tasks, or on failure), show a compact progress line:

Progress: 4/7 tasks done | ~12min elapsed | 2 remaining

On Task Failure

Progress: 3/7 tasks done | 1 FAILED (retrying) | 3 remaining

On Completion

All 7 tasks complete | ~18min total

Rules

1. One line only. Never multi-line progress updates. Never paragraphs explaining progress.
2. Don't count for the user. If there are only 2 tasks, don't show progress — it's obvious.
3. Time is approximate. Use "~" prefix. Don't track to the second.
4. Merge with response-recap. If response-recap is also firing, let response-recap handle it — don't double up. Progress-tracker adds the numbers, response-recap adds the narrative.
5. TodoWrite is the source of truth. Read the current todo list to get task counts. Don't maintain a separate counter.
6. Cost tracking. If you have cost data from claude -p JSON output or from tool results that include cost, include it: | ~$0.45 cost. Otherwise omit — don't guess.

Anti-Patterns

• Showing progress after every single task (too noisy)
• Multi-line progress displays with boxes and bars (save that for the orchestrator CLI)
• Estimating remaining time (unreliable, creates false expectations)
• Tracking progress for trivial work (adds overhead with no value)

Integration with Orchestrator

When running inside the external coder/orchestrator.py, progress tracking is handled by the orchestrator's print_progress() function. This skill is for interactive Claude Code sessions where the orchestrator isn't running — it fills the same visibility gap but inside the conversation.