gsd-manager

by davepoon

Install this Skill

curl -fsSL -o gsd-manager.zip https://skill.seembox.com/api/v1/skills/gsd-manager/download && unzip gsd-manager.zip

SKILL.md About

---
name: gsd-manager
description: "Interactive command center for managing multiple phases from one terminal"
allowed-tools:
  - Read
  - Write
  - Bash
  - Glob
  - Grep
  - AskUserQuestion
  - Skill
  - Task
---

<objective>
Single-terminal command center for managing a milestone. Shows a dashboard of all phases with visual status indicators, recommends optimal next actions, and dispatches work — discuss runs inline, plan/execute run as background agents.

Designed for power users who want to parallelize work across phases from one terminal: discuss a phase while another plans or executes in the background.

**Creates/Updates:**
- No files created directly — dispatches to existing GSD commands via Skill() and background Task agents.
- Reads `.planning/STATE.md`, `.planning/ROADMAP.md`, phase directories for status.

**After:** User exits when done managing, or all phases complete and milestone lifecycle is suggested.
</objective>

<purpose>

Interactive command center for managing a milestone from a single terminal. Shows a dashboard of all phases with visual status, dispatches discuss inline and plan/execute as background agents, and loops back to the dashboard after each action. Enables parallel phase work from one terminal.

</purpose>

<required_reading>

Read the skill content below before starting.

</required_reading>

## 1. Initialize

Bootstrap via manager init:

```bash
INIT=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" init manager)
if [[ "$INIT" == @file:* ]]; then INIT=$(cat "${INIT#@file:}"); fi
```

Parse JSON for: `milestone_version`, `milestone_name`, `phase_count`, `completed_count`, `in_progress_count`, `phases`, `recommended_actions`, `all_complete`, `waiting_signal`, `manager_flags`.

`manager_flags` contains per-step passthrough flags from config:
- `manager_flags.discuss` — appended to `/gsd:discuss-phase` args (e.g. `"--auto --analyze"`)
- `manager_flags.plan` — appended to plan agent init command
- `manager_flags.execute` — appended to execute agent init command

These are empty strings by default. Set via: `gsd-tools config-set manager.flags.discuss "--auto --analyze"`

**If error:** Display the error message and exit.

Display startup banner:

```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► MANAGER
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

{milestone_version} — {milestone_name}
 {phase_count} phases · {completed_count} complete

✓ Discuss → inline    ◆ Plan/Execute → background
 Dashboard auto-refreshes when background work is active.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
```

Proceed to dashboard step.

</step>

## 2. Dashboard (Refresh Point)

**Every time this step is reached**, re-read state from disk to pick up changes from background agents:

```bash
INIT=$(node "$GSD_TOOLS" init manager)
if [[ "$INIT" == @file:* ]]; then INIT=$(cat "${INIT#@file:}"); fi
```

Parse the full JSON. Build the dashboard display.

Build dashboard from JSON. Symbols: `✓` done, `◆` active, `○` pending, `·` queued. Progress bar: 20-char `█░`.

**Status mapping** (disk_status → D P E Status):

- `complete` → `✓ ✓ ✓` `✓ Complete`
- `partial` → `✓ ✓ ◆` `◆ Executing...`
- `planned` → `✓ ✓ ○` `○ Ready to execute`
- `discussed` → `✓ ○ ·` `○ Ready to plan`
- `researched` → `◆ · ·` `○ Ready to plan`
- `empty`/`no_directory` + `is_next_to_discuss` → `○ · ·` `○ Ready to discuss`
- `empty`/`no_directory` otherwise → `· · ·` `· Up next`
- If `is_active`, replace status icon with `◆` and append `(active)`

If any `is_active` phases, show: `◆ Background: {action} Phase {N}, ...` above grid.

Use `display_name` (not `name`) for the Phase column — it's pre-truncated to 20 chars with `…` if clipped. Pad all phase names to the same width for alignment.

Use `deps_display` from init JSON for the Deps column — shows which phases this phase depends on (e.g. `1,3`) or `—` for none.

Example output:

```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► DASHBOARD
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 ████████████░░░░░░░░ 60%  (3/5 phases)
 ◆ Background: Planning Phase 4
 | # | Phase                | Deps | D | P | E | Status              |
 |---|----------------------|------|---|---|---|---------------------|
 | 1 | Foundation           | —    | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ Complete          |
 | 2 | API Layer            | 1    | ✓ | ✓ | ◆ | ◆ Executing (active)|
 | 3 | Auth System          | 1    | ✓ | ✓ | ○ | ○ Ready to execute  |
 | 4 | Dashboard UI & Set…  | 1,2  | ✓ | ◆ | · | ◆ Planning (active) |
 | 5 | Notifications        | —    | ○ | · | · | ○ Ready to discuss  |
 | 6 | Polish & Final Mail… | 1-5  | · | · | · | · Up next           |
```

**Recommendations section:**

If `all_complete` is true:

```
╔══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╗
║  MILESTONE COMPLETE                                          ║
╚══════════════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝

All {phase_count} phases done. Ready for final steps:
  → /gsd:verify-work — run acceptance testing
  → /gsd:complete-milestone — archive and wrap up
```

Ask user via AskUserQuestion:
- **question:** "All phases complete. What next?"
- **options:** "Verify work" / "Complete milestone" / "Exit manager"

Handle responses:
- "Verify work": `Skill(skill="gsd-verify-work")`  then loop to dashboard.
- "Complete milestone": `Skill(skill="gsd-complete-milestone")` then exit.
- "Exit manager": Go to exit step.

**If NOT all_complete**, build compound options from `recommended_actions`:

**Compound option logic:** Group background actions (plan/execute) together, and pair them with the single inline action (discuss) when one exists. The goal is to present the fewest options possible — one option can dispatch multiple background agents plus one inline action.

**Building options:**

1. Collect all background actions (execute and plan recommendations) — there can be multiple of each.
2. Collect the inline action (discuss recommendation, if any — there will be at most one since discuss is sequential).
3. Build compound options:

**If there are ANY recommended actions (background, inline, or both):**
   Create ONE primary "Continue" option that dispatches ALL of them together:
   - Label: `"Continue"` — always this exact word
   - Below the label, list every action that will happen. Enumerate ALL recommended actions — do not cap or truncate:
     ```
     Continue:
       → Execute Phase 32 (background)
       → Plan Phase 34 (background)
       → Discuss Phase 35 (inline)
     ```
   - This dispatches all background agents first, then runs the inline discuss (if any).
   - If there is no inline discuss, the dashboard refreshes after spawning background agents.

**Important:** The Continue option must include EVERY action from `recommended_actions` — not just 2. If there are 3 actions, list 3. If there are 5, list 5.

4. Always add:
   - `"Refresh dashboard"`
   - `"Exit manager"`

Display recommendations compactly:

```
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
▶ Next Steps
───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

Continue:
  → Execute Phase 32 (background)
  → Plan Phase 34 (background)
  → Discuss Phase 35 (inline)
```

**Auto-refresh:** If background agents are running (`is_active` is true for any phase), set a 60-second auto-refresh cycle. After presenting the action menu, if no user input is received within 60 seconds, automatically refresh the dashboard. This interval is configurable via `manager_refresh_interval` in GSD config (default: 60 seconds, set to 0 to disable).

Present via AskUserQuestion:
- **question:** "What would you like to do?"
- **options:** (compound options as built above + refresh + exit, AskUserQuestion auto-adds "Other")

**On "Other" (free text):** Parse intent — if it mentions a phase number and action, dispatch accordingly. If unclear, display available actions and loop to action_menu.

Proceed to handle_action step with the selected action.

</step>

## 4. Handle Action

### Refresh Dashboard

Loop back to dashboard step.

### Exit Manager

Go to exit step.

### Compound Action (background + inline)

When the user selects a compound option:

1. **Spawn all background agents first** (plan/execute) — dispatch them in parallel using the Plan Phase N / Execute Phase N handlers below.
2. **Then run the inline discuss:**

```
Skill(skill="gsd-discuss-phase", args="{PHASE_NUM} {manager_flags.discuss}")
```

After discuss completes, loop back to dashboard step (background agents continue running).

### Discuss Phase N

Discussion is interactive — needs user input. Run inline with any configured flags:

```
Skill(skill="gsd-discuss-phase", args="{PHASE_NUM} {manager_flags.discuss}")
```

After discuss completes, loop back to dashboard step.

### Plan Phase N

Planning runs autonomously. Spawn a background agent that delegates to the Skill pipeline with any configured flags:

```
Task(
  description="Plan phase {N}: {phase_name}",
  run_in_background=true,
  prompt="You are running the GSD plan-phase workflow for phase {N} of the project.

Working directory: {cwd}
Phase: {N} — {phase_name}
Goal: {goal}
Manager flags: {manager_flags.plan}

Run the plan-phase Skill with any configured manager flags:
Skill(skill=\"gsd-plan-phase\", args=\"{N} --auto {manager_flags.plan}\")

This delegates to the full plan-phase pipeline including local patches, research, plan-checker, and all quality gates.

Important: You are running in the background. Do NOT use AskUserQuestion — make autonomous decisions based on project context. If you hit a blocker, write it to STATE.md as a blocker and stop. Do NOT silently work around permission or file access errors — let them fail so the manager can surface them with resolution hints. Do NOT use --no-verify on git commits."
)
```

Display:

```
◆ Spawning planner for Phase {N}: {phase_name}...
```

Loop back to dashboard step.

### Execute Phase N

Execution runs autonomously. Spawn a background agent that delegates to the Skill pipeline with any configured flags:

```
Task(
  description="Execute phase {N}: {phase_name}",
  run_in_background=true,
  prompt="You are running the GSD execute-phase workflow for phase {N} of the project.

Working directory: {cwd}
Phase: {N} — {phase_name}
Goal: {goal}
Manager flags: {manager_flags.execute}

Run the execute-phase Skill with any configured manager flags:
Skill(skill=\"gsd-execute-phase\", args=\"{N} {manager_flags.execute}\")

This delegates to the full execute-phase pipeline including local patches, branching, wave-based execution, verification, and all quality gates.

Important: You are running in the background. Do NOT use AskUserQuestion — make autonomous decisions. Do NOT use --no-verify on git commits — let pre-commit hooks run normally. If you hit a permission error, file lock, or any access issue, do NOT work around it — let it fail and write the error to STATE.md as a blocker so the manager can surface it with resolution guidance."
)
```

Display:

```
◆ Spawning executor for Phase {N}: {phase_name}...
```

Loop back to dashboard step.

</step>

## 5. Background Agent Completion

When notified that a background agent completed:

1. Read the result message from the agent.
2. Display a brief notification:

```
✓ {description}
  {brief summary from agent result}
```

3. Loop back to dashboard step.

**If the agent reported an error or blocker:**

Classify the error:

**Permission / tool access error** (e.g. tool not allowed, permission denied, sandbox restriction):
- Parse the error to identify which tool or command was blocked.
- Display the error clearly, then offer to fix it:
  - **question:** "Phase {N} failed — permission denied for `{tool_or_command}`. Want me to add it to settings.local.json so it's allowed?"
  - **options:** "Add permission and retry" / "Run this phase inline instead" / "Skip and continue"
  - "Add permission and retry": Use `Skill(skill="update-config")` to add the permission to `settings.local.json`, then re-spawn the background agent. Loop to dashboard.
  - "Run this phase inline instead": Dispatch the same action inline via the appropriate Skill — use `Skill(skill="gsd-plan-phase", args="{N}")` if the failed action was planning, or `Skill(skill="gsd-execute-phase", args="{N}")` if the failed action was execution. Loop to dashboard after.
  - "Skip and continue": Loop to dashboard (phase stays in current state).

**Other errors** (git lock, file conflict, logic error, etc.):
- Display the error, then offer options via AskUserQuestion:
  - **question:** "Background agent for Phase {N} encountered an issue: {error}. What next?"
  - **options:** "Retry" / "Run inline instead" / "Skip and continue" / "View details"
  - "Retry": Re-spawn the same background agent. Loop to dashboard.
  - "Run inline instead": Dispatch the action inline via the appropriate Skill — use `Skill(skill="gsd-plan-phase", args="{N}")` if the failed action was planning, or `Skill(skill="gsd-execute-phase", args="{N}")` if the failed action was execution. Loop to dashboard after.
  - "Skip and continue": Loop to dashboard (phase stays in current state).
  - "View details": Read STATE.md blockers section, display, then re-present options.

</step>

## 6. Exit

Display final status with progress bar:

```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
 GSD ► SESSION END
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━

{milestone_version} — {milestone_name}
 {PROGRESS_BAR} {progress_pct}%  ({completed_count}/{phase_count} phases)

Resume anytime: /gsd:manager
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
```

**Note:** Any background agents still running will continue to completion. Their results will be visible on next `/gsd:manager` or `/gsd:progress` invocation.

</step>

</process>

<success_criteria>
- [ ] Dashboard displays all phases with correct status indicators (D/P/E/V columns)
- [ ] Progress bar shows accurate completion percentage
- [ ] Dependency resolution: blocked phases show which deps are missing
- [ ] Recommendations prioritize: execute > plan > discuss
- [ ] Discuss phases run inline via Skill() — interactive questions work
- [ ] Plan phases spawn background Task agents — return to dashboard immediately
- [ ] Execute phases spawn background Task agents — return to dashboard immediately
- [ ] Dashboard refreshes pick up changes from background agents via disk state
- [ ] Background agent completion triggers notification and dashboard refresh
- [ ] Background agent errors present retry/skip options
- [ ] All-complete state offers verify-work and complete-milestone
- [ ] Exit shows final status with resume instructions
- [ ] "Other" free-text input parsed for phase number and action
- [ ] Manager loop continues until user exits or milestone completes
</success_criteria>

<context>
No arguments required. Requires an active milestone with ROADMAP.md and STATE.md.

Project context, phase list, dependencies, and recommendations are resolved inside the workflow using `gsd-tools.cjs init manager`. No upfront context loading needed.
</context>

<process>
Execute the manager workflow steps embedded above end-to-end.
Maintain the dashboard refresh loop until the user exits or all phases complete.
</process>