to-tickets

To Tickets

Break a plan, spec, or conversation into a set of tickets — tracer-bullet vertical slices, each declaring the tickets that block it.

Process

1. Gather context

Work from whatever is already in the conversation context. If the user passes a reference (a spec path such as .plan/<slug>/spec.md, or any other document) as an argument, fetch it and read it in full.

2. Explore the codebase (optional)

If you have not already explored the codebase, do so to understand the current state of the code. If a CONTEXT.md glossary exists at the repo root, ticket titles and descriptions should use its vocabulary; respect ADRs in docs/adr/ in the area you're touching. If neither exists, proceed silently.

Look for opportunities to prefactor the code to make the implementation easier. "Make the change easy, then make the easy change."

3. Draft vertical slices

Break the work into tracer bullet tickets.

• Each slice cuts a narrow but COMPLETE path through every layer the change touches (e.g. schema, API, UI, tests) — vertical, NOT a horizontal slice of one layer
• A completed slice is demoable or verifiable on its own
• Each slice is sized to fit in a single fresh context window
• Any prefactoring should be done first

Give each ticket its blocking edges — the other tickets that must complete before it can start. A ticket with no blockers can start immediately.

Wide refactors are the exception to vertical slicing. A wide refactor is one mechanical change — rename a column, retype a shared symbol — whose blast radius fans across the whole codebase, so a single edit breaks thousands of call sites at once and no vertical slice can land green. Don't force it into a tracer bullet; sequence it as expand–contract. First expand: add the new form beside the old so nothing breaks. Then migrate the call sites over in batches sized by blast radius (per package, per directory), each batch its own ticket blocked by the expand, keeping the build green batch to batch because the old form still exists. Finally contract: delete the old form once no caller remains, in a ticket blocked by every migrate batch. When even the batches can't stay green alone, keep the sequence but let them share an integration branch that all block a final integrate-and-verify ticket — green is promised only there.

4. Quiz the user

Present the proposed breakdown as a numbered list. For each ticket, show:

• Title: short descriptive name
• Blocked by: which other tickets (if any) must complete first
• What it delivers: the end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work

Ask the user:

• Does the granularity feel right? (too coarse / too fine)
• Are the blocking edges correct — does each ticket only depend on tickets that genuinely gate it?
• Should any tickets be merged or split further?

Iterate until the user approves the breakdown.

5. Save the tickets

Write the approved tickets to .plan/<slug>/tickets.md, all tickets in dependency order (blockers first), each with its "Blocked by" listing the titles it depends on. Use the template below. <slug> is a short kebab-case name for the work — if the tickets came from a spec at .plan/<slug>/spec.md, use the same directory. Create it if needed; .plan/ is committed to version control. Tell the user the path.

If the work came from an existing spec or plan document, reference it at the top of the file — do NOT modify or delete the source document.

Tickets:

A one-line summary of what these tickets build. Reference the source spec if there is one.

Work the frontier: any ticket whose blockers are all done. For a purely linear chain that means top to bottom.

What to build: the end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work, from the user's perspective — not a layer-by-layer implementation list.

Blocked by: the titles of the tickets that gate this one, or "None — can start immediately".

• Acceptance criterion 1
• Acceptance criterion 2

...

Avoid specific file paths or code snippets — they go stale fast. Exception: if a prototype produced a snippet that encodes a decision more precisely than prose can (state machine, reducer, schema, type shape), inline it and note briefly that it came from a prototype. Trim to the decision-rich parts — not a working demo, just the important bits.

Work the frontier one ticket at a time, each in a fresh session: implement the slice, run the project's static checks and tests, review the work (with the review-code skill if it's available in your environment), tick off the acceptance criteria in tickets.md, and commit — then clear context before taking the next ticket.