Paths: File paths (references/, ../ln-*) are relative to this skill directory.

Task Coordinator

Type: L2 Domain Coordinator Category: 3XX Planning

Runtime-backed task planning coordinator. The runtime owns readiness gating, pause/resume, and worker result tracking.

MANDATORY READ: Load references/coordinator_runtime_contract.md, references/task_planning_runtime_contract.md, references/coordinator_summary_contract.md, and references/task_plan_worker_runtime_contract.md MANDATORY READ: Load references/environment_state_contract.md, references/storage_mode_detection.md, references/problem_solving.md, and references/creation_quality_checklist.md MANDATORY READ: Load references/agent_delegation_pattern.md when Phase 3 external validation is triggered MANDATORY READ: Load references/researchgraph_mcp_usage.md when the Story references H/G/run IDs or implementation readiness depends on project hypotheses. Tool policy: follow host AGENTS.md MCP preferences; load references/mcp_tool_preferences.md and references/mcp_integration_patterns.md only when host policy is absent or MCP behavior is unclear.

Purpose

• resolve Story context once
• build an ideal implementation task plan before checking existing tasks
• run a deterministic readiness gate
• detect CREATE, ADD, or REPLAN
• delegate to standalone workers

Inputs

Runtime

Runtime family: task-planning-runtime

Identifier:

• story-{storyId}

Phases:

1. PHASE_0_CONFIG
2. PHASE_1_DISCOVERY
3. PHASE_2_DECOMPOSE
4. PHASE_3_READINESS_GATE
5. PHASE_4_MODE_DETECTION
6. PHASE_5_DELEGATE
7. PHASE_6_VERIFY
8. PHASE_7_SELF_CHECK

Terminal phases:

• DONE
• PAUSED

Coordinator stage artifact:

• write summary_kind=pipeline-stage after verification
• ln-1000 consumes this artifact as the Stage 0 completion signal

Phase Map

Phase 1: Discovery

Resolve Story and collect only the inputs required for task planning:

• Story AC
• Technical Notes
• Context
• project architecture and tech stack
• task provider

Do NOT load existing tasks here. Existing tasks load in Phase 4 only.

• For Stories that modify existing code in supported languages, build graph context once:
• index_project(path=project_root)
• analyze_architecture(path=project_root, verbosity="minimal")
• find_symbols + inspect_symbol for named components from Story AC or Technical Notes, but only after narrowing path where possible; if symbol discovery is truncated, refine to name + file or workspace_qualified_name before planning from it
• Use graph context to confirm real affected modules and entrypoints before decomposition
• For Stories that cite hypotheses, goals, or run evidence, run verify_index and then inspect only the referenced H##/G## IDs or proposed candidates.
• Use hex-research to confirm hypothesis implementation status, refinement gaps, and proposal readiness; keep hex-graph as the source for code symbol and module boundaries.

Checkpoint payload:

• discovery_ready

Phase 2: Decompose

Build the ideal task plan from ACs only. Do not read or reference existing tasks.

Order of operations:

1. Build AC-to-Scenario traceability table with these columns: AC | Actor | (1) Trigger | (2) Entry Point | (3) Discovery | (4) Usage Context | (5) Outcome
2. Scan Entry Point, Discovery, and Usage Context cells for buildable artifacts
3. Group buildable artifacts by architectural layer using segment boundaries:

• Foundation: the internal logic, data model, or service that does the work (what Entry Point calls into)
• Invocation: the Entry Point itself — the named mechanism the actor uses
• Knowledge: the Usage Context — what the actor needs to correctly invoke the mechanism
• Wiring: Discovery + integration — how the system finds/loads the mechanism and connects components

1. Each layer group becomes at least one task. A single task MUST NOT span more than one layer unless trivially small.
2. When graph context exists, use it to:

• split tasks by actual modules or symbol ownership, not guessed file groups
• keep dependency order aligned with real callers, framework entrypoints, and public APIs
• enrich Affected Components with real modules/symbols returned by graph analysis

1. Verify foundation-first ordering and 1-8 task count
2. Save the traceability table and layer grouping to .hex-skills/task-planning/{identifier}_traceability.md

Rules:

• implementation tasks only
• 1-8 tasks
• no tests or refactoring tasks here
• preserve foundation-first order
• assign meaningful verification intent
• infrastructure-only tasks do not satisfy ACs that require something to use that infrastructure
• an invocation-layer task does not satisfy ACs that require the actor to know how to use that mechanism — that is a knowledge-layer artifact
• see #17b, #17c, #17d in creation_quality_checklist.md

Checkpoint payload:

• ideal_plan_summary
• traceability_table_path

Phase 3: Readiness Gate

Score the plan before delegation.

#### Step 1: Self-score

Scoring policy:

• 6-7 -> continue
• 4-5 -> PAUSED for approval or improvement
• <4 -> blocked until plan is corrected

Self-check: verify each layer (Foundation, Invocation, Knowledge, Wiring) has at least one task when the traceability table contains buildable artifacts in the corresponding segments.

#### Step 2: Conditional external traceability validation

Run this step only when at least one trigger is true:

• readiness score is 4-5
• mode looks ambiguous (ADD vs REPLAN)
• AC-to-task coverage is incomplete
• task boundaries or layer ownership still conflict after self-score

If triggered:

1. Run agent health check: node references/agents/agent_runner.mjs --health-check --json
2. If advisor agent available:

a. Build validation prompt from references/agents/prompt_templates/traceability_validator.md b. Fill placeholders with Phase 1 discovery and Phase 2 output c. Save filled prompt to .hex-skills/task-planning/{identifier}_traceability_prompt.md d. Launch agent via agent_runner.mjs:

      node references/agents/agent_runner.mjs \
        --agent {advisor_agent} \
        --prompt-file .hex-skills/task-planning/{identifier}_traceability_prompt.md \
        --output-file .hex-skills/task-planning/{identifier}_traceability_result.json \
        --cwd {project_dir}

e. Parse result JSON for gaps f. For each MISSING gap: readiness_score -= 1 g. For each BUNDLED gap: readiness_score -= 0.5 h. If MISSING gaps found: re-enter Phase 2. Max 1 re-decomposition.

1. If no agent available: log and keep the local score with degraded confidence.

If not triggered:

• set traceability_validation = self_check_only
• advance without external validation

Checkpoint payload:

• readiness_score
• readiness_findings
• traceability_validation — one of: agent_validated, self_check_only, redecomposed

Phase 4: Mode Detection

Detect:

• CREATE
• ADD
• REPLAN

Pause when mode is ambiguous.

Checkpoint payload:

• mode_detection

Phase 5: Delegate

Single mutation handoff. Delegate to exactly one worker:

• ln-301-task-creator
• ln-302-task-replanner

Managed delegation sequence:

1. Compute childRunId = {parent_run_id}--{worker}--{storyId}.
2. Compute childSummaryArtifactPath = .hex-skills/runtime-artifacts/runs/{parent_run_id}/task-plan/{worker}--{storyId}.json.
3. Materialize child manifest at .hex-skills/task-planning/{worker}--{storyId}_manifest.json.
4. Start task-plan-worker-runtime with both --run-id and --summary-artifact-path.
5. Checkpoint child_run metadata before invoking the worker.
6. Invoke the worker through Skill tool with both transport inputs.
7. Read only the final task-plan artifact and record it through runtime record-plan.

Coordinator context to pass to workers:

• idealPlan: the full ideal plan from Phase 2
• traceabilityTablePath: path to materialized traceability table
• discoveryContext: Phase 1 findings
• In ADD mode: specify which tasks to create

Phase 6: Verify

Verify the worker result and the resulting task set only. Do not reopen decomposition unless verification proves the worker output is invalid.

Template compliance gate: Fetch each created Task via the configured tracker provider (getTask operation per references/tracker_provider_contract.md). Run validateTemplateCompliance(description, 'task') from planning-runtime/lib/template-compliance.mjs. All tasks must pass (7 sections in order). Record template_compliance_passed in state. Guard blocks SELF_CHECK without it.

Checkpoint payload:

• verification_summary
• final_result
• template_compliance_passed

After verification succeeds, write a Stage 0 coordinator artifact with:

• stage=0
• story_id
• status=completed
• final_result
• story_status
• readiness_score
• warnings

Phase 7: Self-Check

Confirm:

• phase coverage
• readiness gate was respected
• worker result was recorded
• verification completed
• Stage 0 coordinator artifact was recorded

Checkpoint payload:

• pass
• final_result

Pending Decisions

Use runtime PAUSED + pending_decision for:

• ambiguous ADD vs REPLAN
• readiness approval for score 4-5
• missing critical Story context

Worker Contract

Workers:

• do not know the coordinator
• do not read runtime state
• remain standalone
• managed runs require both runId and summaryArtifactPath
• return the shared task-plan summary envelope and write the artifact before terminal outcome

Expected summary kind:

• task-plan

Worker Invocation (MANDATORY)

Host Skill Invocation: Skill(skill: "...", args: "...") is mandatory delegation.

• Claude: call the Skill tool exactly as shown.
• Codex: if no Skill tool exists, locate the named skill in available skills, read its SKILL.md, treat args as $ARGUMENTS, execute that skill workflow, then return here with its result/artifact.
• Do not inline worker logic or mark the worker complete without executing the target skill.

node references/scripts/task-plan-worker-runtime/cli.mjs start --skill {worker} --story {storyId} --manifest-file .hex-skills/task-planning/{worker}--{storyId}_manifest.json --run-id {childRunId} --summary-artifact-path {childSummaryArtifactPath}
node references/scripts/task-planning-runtime/cli.mjs checkpoint --story {storyId} --phase PHASE_5_DELEGATE --payload '{"child_run":{"worker":"{worker}","run_id":"{childRunId}","summary_artifact_path":"{childSummaryArtifactPath}"}}'
Skill(skill: "{worker}", args: "{storyId} --ideal-plan {idealPlanJSON} --traceability {tablePath} --discovery {discoveryJSON} --run-id {childRunId} --summary-artifact-path {childSummaryArtifactPath}")
Read {childSummaryArtifactPath}
node references/scripts/task-planning-runtime/cli.mjs record-plan --story {storyId} --payload '{...task-plan summary...}'

TodoWrite format (mandatory)

- Phase 1: Discover Story context (pending)
- Phase 2: Build ideal task plan (pending)
- Phase 3: Run readiness gate (local score first, external validation only if triggered) (pending)
- Phase 4: Detect mode (pending)
- Phase 5: Start child runtime, checkpoint child metadata, and perform the single worker handoff (pending)
- Phase 6: Verify worker result (pending)
- Phase 7: Self-check (pending)

Critical Rules

• Build the ideal plan before looking at existing tasks.
• Readiness gate is the only source of delegation readiness.
• Do not create test or refactoring tasks in this skill.
• Do not keep approval state in chat-only form.
• Consume worker summaries, not free-text worker prose.
• If Story affects existing code and hex-graph is available, do one graph discovery pass before decomposition.
• Use graph output to reduce planning ambiguity; do not invent affected components when symbol or module evidence is available.

Definition of Done

• [ ] Runtime started with Story-scoped identifier
• [ ] Discovery checkpointed
• [ ] Ideal plan checkpointed
• [ ] Readiness gate checkpointed
• [ ] Mode detection checkpointed
• [ ] Child task-plan runtime started with deterministic runId
• [ ] Child run metadata checkpointed before delegation
• [ ] Task-plan worker summary recorded
• [ ] Verification checkpointed
• [ ] Template compliance passed for all created Tasks
• [ ] Final result recorded
• [ ] Self-check passed

Meta-Analysis

Optional reference: load references/meta_analysis_protocol.md only when the user asks for post-run meta-analysis or protocol-formatted run reflection.

Skill type: planning-coordinator. When requested, run after all phases complete. Output to chat using the protocol format.

Version: 4.0.0 Last Updated: 2026-02-03