Generate and Plan New Code Tracks

This skill creates a new Conductor track (feature, bug fix, chore, or refactor) with a detailed specification and phased implementation plan. It first runs pre-flight checks verifying Conductor is initialized (conductor/product.md, conductor/tech-stack.md, conductor/workflow.md exist, suggesting /conductor:setup if not) and loads those files for product, technical, and TDD/commit-preference context.

It classifies the track type (Feature, Bug, Chore, or Refactor) then gathers specification details interactively, one question per turn, waiting for the user's response each time, with a maximum of 6 questions tailored by track type. Feature tracks are asked for a summary, a user story ("As a [user type], I want to [action] so that [benefit]"), 3-5 acceptance criteria, dependencies, explicit out-of-scope boundaries, and optional technical considerations. Bug tracks are asked for a summary, reproduction steps, expected-vs-actual behavior, affected areas, and an optional root-cause hypothesis. Chore/refactor tracks are asked for a summary, motivation, success criteria, and risk assessment.

It generates a track ID in the format {shortname}_{YYYYMMDD} (e.g. user-auth_20250115), validated for uniqueness against conductor/tracks.md with a counter suffix on collision. It generates conductor/tracks/{trackId}/spec.md from a fixed template (summary, context, user story or problem description, acceptance criteria checklist, dependencies, out of scope, technical notes) and presents it for user approval (proceed, edit inline, or start over) before generating conductor/tracks/{trackId}/plan.md - a phased plan with tasks and a verification checklist per phase, following typical structure (Setup/Foundation, Core Implementation, Integration, Polish), including test-writing tasks before implementation tasks for TDD-configured projects. The plan also goes through user review (proceed, edit, add more phases, or start over).

After plan approval, it creates the full track directory (spec.md, plan.md, metadata.json, index.md), registers the track in conductor/tracks.md and conductor/index.md's Active Tracks section, and reports the created files with next steps (review the spec/plan, run /conductor:implement {trackId}, run /conductor:status). Error handling: if directory creation fails, it halts without registering in tracks.md; if any file write fails, it cleans up the partial track and reports the error; if the tracks.md update itself fails, it warns the user to register the track manually.

{
  "id": "{trackId}",
  "title": "{Track Title}",
  "type": "feature|bug|chore|refactor",
  "status": "pending",
  "created": "ISO_TIMESTAMP",
  "updated": "ISO_TIMESTAMP",
  "phases": {
    "total": 0,
    "completed": 0
  },
  "tasks": {
    "total": 0,
    "completed": 0
  }
}

Use this skill when starting a new feature, bug fix, chore, or refactor that needs a formal specification and phased implementation plan tracked through Conductor.

Not for tasks unrelated to creating a new track, or when a different domain or tool is needed.

Inputs: a brief description of the work (feature, bug, chore, or refactor) and answers to up to 6 clarifying questions tailored to the track type.

Outputs: a new track directory at conductor/tracks/{trackId}/ containing an approved spec.md, a phased plan.md with verification checkpoints, metadata.json, and index.md, registered in conductor/tracks.md and the project's Active Tracks index.

Conductor's conductor/product.md, conductor/tech-stack.md, conductor/workflow.md, conductor/tracks.md, and conductor/index.md; chains into /conductor:implement and /conductor:status.

Teams using Conductor who need to formally specify and plan a new feature, bug fix, chore, or refactor before implementation begins.