Track Manager Skill

Manage the lifecycle of Conductor tracks including status updates, task completion, and phase transitions. All operations follow the Evaluate-Loop process defined in conductor/workflow.md.

MANDATORY: Evaluate-Loop Integration

Every track operation must follow the Evaluate-Loop:

PLAN → EVALUATE PLAN → EXECUTE → EVALUATE EXECUTION → COMPLETE/FIX

Key rules:

1. ALWAYS update plan.md after completing any task (prevents duplicate work across sessions)
2. ALWAYS evaluate before marking anything complete
3. NEVER skip the pre-execution plan evaluation

Trigger Conditions

Use this skill when:

• Checking track status or progress
• Marking tasks as complete
• Transitioning between phases
• Running pre/post execution evaluations
• User mentions: "track status", "mark complete", "next task", "update plan", "evaluate"

Track Structure

conductor/
├── tracks.md           # Master track list
├── authority-matrix.md # Lead Engineer decision boundaries
├── schemas/
│   └── track-metadata.v2.json  # Metadata schema definition
└── tracks/
    └── <track_id>/
        ├── spec.md         # Requirements
        ├── plan.md         # Phased tasks (MUST be kept updated)
        └── metadata.json   # v2 status with loop_state

Metadata v2 Protocol

All tracks use the v2 metadata schema with explicit loop state tracking.

Creating a New Track

Initialize metadata.json with v2 structure:

{
  "version": 2,
  "track_id": "feature-name_20260131",
  "type": "feature",
  "status": "new",
  "created_at": "2026-01-31T00:00:00Z",
  "updated_at": "2026-01-31T00:00:00Z",

  "loop_state": {
    "current_step": "PLAN",
    "step_status": "NOT_STARTED",
    "fix_cycle_count": 0,
    "max_fix_cycles": 3,
    "checkpoints": {
      "PLAN": { "status": "NOT_STARTED" },
      "EVALUATE_PLAN": { "status": "NOT_STARTED" },
      "EXECUTE": { "status": "NOT_STARTED" },
      "EVALUATE_EXECUTION": { "status": "NOT_STARTED" },
      "FIX": { "status": "NOT_STARTED" },
      "BUSINESS_SYNC": { "status": "NOT_STARTED", "required": false }
    }
  },

  "lead_consultations": [],
  "discovered_work": [],
  "blockers": []
}

Updating Loop State

When a step completes, update the checkpoint:

{
  "loop_state": {
    "current_step": "EXECUTE",
    "step_status": "IN_PROGRESS",
    "checkpoints": {
      "PLAN": {
        "status": "PASSED",
        "completed_at": "2026-01-31T10:00:00Z",
        "agent": "loop-planner"
      },
      "EVALUATE_PLAN": {
        "status": "PASSED",
        "completed_at": "2026-01-31T10:30:00Z",
        "verdict": "PASS"
      },
      "EXECUTE": {
        "status": "IN_PROGRESS",
        "started_at": "2026-01-31T11:00:00Z",
        "tasks_completed": 3,
        "tasks_total": 10,
        "last_task": "Task 1.3"
      }
    }
  }
}

Migrating v1 to v2

If a track has v1 metadata (no version field or loop_state):

1. read_file current metadata fields
2. Infer loop state from plan.md content
3. Add v2 structure with inferred values
4. write_file back to metadata.json

Task Status Markers

Marker	Status	Description
[ ]	Pending	Not started
[~]	In Progress	Currently working
[x]	Completed	Done (add commit SHA + summary)
[!]	Blocked	Add note explaining why

Workflow Operations

Before Starting ANY Work

1. read_file tracks.md to see what's already complete
2. read_file the track's plan.md to see what tasks are done vs pending
3. read_file spec.md to understand requirements
4. Evaluate the plan — verify scope matches spec, no overlap with completed tracks

Start a Task

# Before
- [ ] Implement user authentication

# After (mark in progress)
- [~] Implement user authentication

Complete a Task (MANDATORY: update plan.md immediately)

# After completion (add commit SHA + summary of what was done)
- [x] Implement user authentication <!-- abc1234 -->
  - Created src/components/auth/signup-form.tsx
  - Added email/password validation
  - Integrated with mock API client

Update tracks.md

When completing a phase, update conductor/tracks.md:

## Active Tracks

| Track ID | Type    | Status      | Progress  |
| -------- | ------- | ----------- | --------- |
| auth-001 | feature | in_progress | Phase 2/3 |

Phase Transition Rules

1. All tasks in phase must be [x] before moving to next phase
2. Run post-execution evaluation (see Evaluate-Loop in conductor/workflow.md)
3. If evaluation fails → create fix tasks → execute → re-evaluate (loop)
4. If evaluation passes → update metadata.json with completion timestamp
5. Create commit for phase completion
6. Update tracks.md progress column
7. Update conductor/index.md current status

Post-Execution Evaluation Checklist

Before marking a track complete, verify:

Check	Question
Deliverables	Every deliverable in spec.md exists and is functional?
Alignment	Implementation matches what was planned (no scope drift)?
No Regressions	Build passes? No console errors? Existing features work?
Quality	Usability check passes on all user-facing copy?
plan.md Updated	All tasks marked [x] with summaries?
No Leftover	No tasks skipped or left incomplete?

Response Format

After track operations:

## Track Update

**Track**: [track_id]
**Operation**: [started/completed/updated/evaluated]
**Phase**: [phase number] - [phase name]
**Progress**: [completed]/[total] tasks
**Evaluation**: [PASS / FAIL - describe issues]
**Next**: [next task description]