nav-task

Navigator Task Manager Skill

Create and manage task documentation - implementation plans that capture what was built, how, and why.

When to Invoke

Invoke this skill when the user:

• Says "document this feature", "archive this task"
• Says "create task doc for...", "document what I built"
• Completes a feature and mentions "done", "finished", "complete"
• Starts new feature and says "create implementation plan"

DO NOT invoke if:

• User is asking about existing tasks (use Read, not creation)
• Creating SOPs (that's nav-sop skill)
• Updating system docs (different skill)

Execution Steps

Step 1: Determine Task ID

If user provided task ID (e.g., "TASK-01", "GH-123"):

• Use their ID directly

If no ID provided:

• Read .agent/.nav-config.json for task_prefix
• Check existing tasks: ls .agent/tasks/*.md
• Generate next number: {prefix}-{next-number}
• Example: Last task is TASK-05, create TASK-06

Step 2: Determine Action (Create vs Archive)

Creating new task (starting feature):

User: "Create task doc for OAuth implementation"
→ Action: CREATE
→ Generate empty implementation plan template

Archiving completed task (feature done):

User: "Document this OAuth feature I just built"
→ Action: ARCHIVE
→ Generate implementation plan from conversation

Step 3A: Create New Task (If Starting Feature)

Generate task document from template:

# TASK-{XX}: {Feature Name}

**Status**: 🚧 In Progress
**Created**: {YYYY-MM-DD}
**Assignee**: {from PM tool or "Manual"}

---

## Context

**Problem**:
[What problem does this solve?]

**Goal**:
[What are we building?]

---

## Acceptance Criteria

Concrete, checkable outcomes — written so anyone (human or AI) can verify them.

- [ ] [Specific, observable outcome]
- [ ] [Another outcome]
- [ ] [Edge case handled]

---

## Implementation

### Phase 1: {Name}
**Goal**: [What this phase accomplishes]

**Tasks**:
- [ ] [Specific task]
- [ ] [Another task]

**Files**:
- `path/to/file.ts` - [Purpose]

### Phase 2: {Name}
...

---

## Out of Scope

Explicit non-goals — what this task deliberately does not address.

- [What's deferred to a future task]
- [Adjacent change being avoided]

---

## Technical Decisions

| Decision | Options Considered | Chosen | Reasoning |
|----------|-------------------|--------|-----------|
| [What] | [Option A, B, C] | [Chosen] | [Why] |

---

## Verify

Run these commands to validate the implementation:

```bash
# Run tests
[test command for this feature]

# Type check
[type check command]

# Build
[build command]

---

Done

Observable outcomes that prove completion:

• [Specific file/API exists and exports expected interface]
• [Tests pass - specify count or coverage target]
• [Build succeeds without errors]
• [User-observable behavior works as specified]

---

Refs

• [Source plan / design doc / parent issue]
• [Related ticket]

---

Notes

[Any additional context, links, references]

---

Last Updated: {YYYY-MM-DD}

Save to: `.agent/tasks/TASK-{XX}-{slug}.md`

### Step 3B: Archive Completed Task (If Feature Done)

Generate task document from conversation:

1. **Analyze conversation** (last 30-50 messages):
   - What was built?
   - How was it implemented?
   - What decisions were made?
   - What files were modified?

2. **Generate implementation plan**:

```markdown
# TASK-{XX}: {Feature Name}

**Status**: ✅ Completed
**Created**: {YYYY-MM-DD}
**Completed**: {YYYY-MM-DD}

---

## What Was Built

[1-2 paragraph summary of the feature]

---

## Implementation

### Phase 1: {Actual phase completed}
**Completed**: {Date}

**Changes**:
- Created `src/auth/oauth.ts` - OAuth provider integration
- Modified `src/routes/auth.ts` - Added login/logout endpoints
- Updated `src/config/passport.ts` - Passport configuration

**Key Code**:
```typescript
// Example of key implementation
export const oauthLogin = async (req, res) => {
  // Implementation details
};

Phase 2: {Next phase}

...

---

Technical Decisions

Decision	Options	Chosen	Reasoning
Auth library	next-auth, passport.js, auth0	passport.js	Better control over OAuth flow, smaller bundle
Token storage	localStorage, cookies, sessionStorage	httpOnly cookies	XSS protection, automatic transmission
Session store	memory, Redis, PostgreSQL	Redis	Fast, scalable, separate from DB

---

Files Modified

• src/auth/oauth.ts (created) - OAuth integration
• src/routes/auth.ts (modified) - Added auth endpoints
• src/config/passport.ts (created) - Passport setup
• tests/auth.test.ts (created) - Auth tests
• README.md (updated) - OAuth setup instructions

---

Challenges & Solutions

Challenge: OAuth callback URL mismatch

• Problem: Redirects failed in production
• Solution: Added environment-specific callback URLs
• Commit: abc1234

Challenge: Session persistence across restarts

• Problem: Users logged out on server restart
• Solution: Redis session store
• Commit: def5678

---

Testing

• ✅ Unit tests: src/auth/*.test.ts (15 tests, 100% coverage)
• ✅ Integration tests: OAuth flow end-to-end
• ✅ Manual testing: Tested with Google, GitHub providers

---

Documentation

• ✅ README updated with OAuth setup instructions
• ✅ Environment variables documented in .env.example
• ✅ API endpoints documented in docs/api.md

---

Verify

Commands executed to validate:

# Actual commands run during verification
npm test src/auth
npm run type-check
npm run build

Results: All passed ✅

---

Done

Outcomes confirmed:

• src/auth/oauth.ts exports OAuth provider integration
• All tests pass (15 tests, 100% coverage)
• Build succeeds without errors
• OAuth login/logout flows work correctly

---

Related

SOPs Created:

• .agent/sops/integrations/oauth-setup.md

System Docs Updated:

• .agent/system/project-architecture.md (added auth section)

---

Completed: {YYYY-MM-DD} Implementation Time: {X hours/days}

Save to: `.agent/tasks/TASK-{XX}-{slug}.md`

### Step 3.5: Verify Interpretation (ToM Checkpoint - Archive Mode Only) [EXECUTE]

**IMPORTANT**: This step MUST be executed when archiving tasks (not creating new ones).

**Before committing archive documentation, confirm interpretation with user**.

**Display verification** (only for ARCHIVE action):

I extracted this from our session: ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

What was built:

• {FEATURE_SUMMARY}

Key decisions captured:

• {DECISION_1}: {REASONING_1}
• {DECISION_2}: {REASONING_2}

Files changed: {COUNT} total

• {FILE_1} ({ACTION}: {PURPOSE})
• {FILE_2} ({ACTION}: {PURPOSE})

Challenges solved:

• {CHALLENGE_1}: {SOLUTION_1} ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

Corrections needed? [Enter to proceed / type corrections]

**Always verify for ARCHIVE** because:
- Extracting from conversation is inference-based
- User may have made decisions not explicitly stated
- Some files may have been modified outside conversation
- Ensures accurate historical record

**Skip verification for CREATE** because:
- Template is mostly empty
- User fills in details themselves
- No inference risk

### Step 4: Update Navigator Index

Edit `.agent/DEVELOPMENT-README.md` to add task to index:

```markdown
## Active Tasks

- **TASK-{XX}**: {Feature Name} (Status: In Progress/Completed)
  - File: `.agent/tasks/TASK-{XX}-{slug}.md`
  - Started: {Date}
  - [Completed: {Date}]

Keep index organized (active tasks first, completed below).

Step 4.5: Sync to Knowledge Graph (v6.0.0+)

If knowledge graph exists, sync task to graph:

PLUGIN_DIR="${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT:-$HOME/.claude/plugins/cache/navigator-marketplace/navigator}"
[ -d "$PLUGIN_DIR" ] || PLUGIN_DIR="$HOME/.claude/plugins/marketplaces/navigator-marketplace"
if [ -f ".agent/knowledge/graph.json" ]; then
  python3 "$PLUGIN_DIR/skills/nav-graph/functions/task_to_graph.py" \
    --action add \
    --task-path ".agent/tasks/TASK-{XX}-{slug}.md" \
    --graph-path .agent/knowledge/graph.json
fi

What this does:

• Extracts concepts from task content (auth, api, testing, etc.)
• Adds task node to graph with status and concepts
• Creates implements edges from task to concepts
• For completed tasks: Extracts Technical Decisions as decision memories

Output:

Added task: TASK-XX
Title: {Feature Name}
Status: completed
Concepts: auth, api, testing
Decisions extracted: 2

This makes the task queryable via "What do we know about auth?" and preserves architectural decisions as persistent memories.

Step 5: Update PM Tool (If Configured)

If PM tool is Linear:

create_comment({
  issueId: "TASK-XX",
  body: "📚 Implementation plan documented: .agent/tasks/TASK-XX-feature.md"
})

If PM tool is GitHub:

gh issue comment {ISSUE-NUMBER} -b "📚 Implementation plan: .agent/tasks/TASK-XX-feature.md"

If PM tool is none: Skip PM update.

Step 6: Confirm Success

Show completion message:

✅ Task documentation created!

Task: TASK-{XX} - {Feature Name}
File: .agent/tasks/TASK-{XX}-{slug}.md
Size: {X} KB (~{Y} tokens)

📋 Contains:
- Implementation phases
- Technical decisions
- Files modified
- [If archived: Challenges & solutions]
- [If archived: Testing & documentation]

🔗 Navigator index updated
[If PM tool: PM tool comment added]

To reference later:
Read .agent/tasks/TASK-{XX}-{slug}.md

Task Document Template Structure

For New Tasks (Planning)

1. Context (problem/goal)
2. Acceptance criteria (- [ ] checkable outcomes)
3. Implementation (phases)
4. Out of scope (explicit non-goals)
5. Technical decisions (to be made)
6. Verify + Done (validation + completion)
7. Refs (sources/related)

For Completed Tasks (Archive)

1. What was built (summary)
2. Implementation (actual phases)
3. Technical decisions (what was chosen)
4. Files modified
5. Challenges & solutions
6. Testing & documentation

Common Use Cases

Starting New Feature

User: "Create task doc for payments integration"
→ Generates TASK-07-payments.md
→ Empty template for planning
→ User fills in as they work

Completing Feature

User: "Document the auth feature I just finished"
→ Analyzes conversation
→ Generates TASK-06-auth.md
→ Complete implementation record
→ Archives for future reference

Mid-Feature Update

User: "Update TASK-05 with OAuth decision"
→ Reads existing TASK-05-auth.md
→ Adds to Technical Decisions section
→ Preserves rest of document

Error Handling

Navigator not initialized:

❌ .agent/tasks/ directory not found

Run /nav:init to set up Navigator structure first.

Task ID already exists (for creation):

⚠️  TASK-{XX} already exists

Options:
1. Read existing task
2. Use different ID
3. Archive/overwrite existing

Your choice [1-3]:

Insufficient context to archive:

⚠️  Not enough conversation context to generate implementation plan

Consider:
- Provide more details about what was built
- Manually create task doc
- Skip archiving

Continue with template? [y/N]:

Success Criteria

Task documentation is successful when:

• Task file created in .agent/tasks/
• Filename follows convention: TASK-{XX}-{slug}.md
• Contains all required sections
• Navigator index updated
• PM tool updated (if configured)
• User can reference task later

Scripts

generate_task.py: Create task documentation from conversation

• Input: Conversation history, task ID
• Output: Formatted task markdown

update_index.py: Update DEVELOPMENT-README.md task index

• Input: New task info
• Output: Updated index

Best Practices

Good task slugs:

• oauth-implementation (descriptive)
• stripe-payment-flow (clear purpose)
• user-profile-page (specific feature)

Bad task slugs:

• feature (too vague)
• fix (not descriptive)
• task1 (meaningless)

When to create task docs:

• ✅ Starting major feature (> 1 day work)
• ✅ Completing any feature (archive)
• ✅ Complex implementation (capture decisions)
• ❌ Tiny bug fixes (use SOPs instead)
• ❌ Exploratory work (wait until direction clear)

Notes

Task docs are living documents:

• Created when starting feature (template)
• Updated during implementation (decisions)
• Finalized when complete (archive)

They serve as:

• Planning tool (before implementation)
• Progress tracker (during implementation)
• Historical record (after completion)
• Knowledge base (for team/future)

This skill provides same functionality as /nav:doc feature command but with natural language invocation.