Skip to content

breakdown

skillnew

a task list where every story ships on its own

Turning a spec and plan into small, traceable tasks, grouped so each user story is a working slice.

how it fires

You never type a command. Describe your problem in your own words and MasterMind recognizes it and applies this skill. Power users can invoke it directly with /breakdown.

the rule it routes on
Use when a feature with a spec and a plan needs its ordered task list: "break this into tasks", "make the task list", "what are the steps to build this?", "generate tasks.md", a feature folder with plan.md and no tasks.md, or a task list made stale by a spec or plan change. Not for a feature with no plan (that's `blueprint`), not for one session's to-do list.

🧠 MasterMind ▸ breakdown

what this skill does

This is the real text MasterMind follows: generated from the source, not a summary of it.

The problem this solves

Ask an AI to build a feature and it usually works in layers: every database table, then every service, then every screen. It is a natural order and a dangerous one, because nothing runs until the last layer lands, so every integration problem is discovered at once, at the end.

How it actually works

MasterMind writes tasks.md in the feature folder, from the spec and the plan:

  • Grouped by user story, in priority order. Each story is a vertical slice through every layer it needs, ending in a checkpoint that runs that story’s independent test. After the first story you have something that works, not a finished layer waiting on the rest.
  • One line per task, in a fixed shape: an ID, whether it can run in parallel, which story it serves, the exact file, and the requirement IDs it satisfies. That shape is what later lets MasterMind check that every requirement has a task, and later still, that every task really has code.
  • Constraints copied in. A field with a length limit or allowed values carries that rule into its task, so it is not left to memory at build time.
  • Tests only when they are required, by your project’s rules, the spec, or you. Otherwise every change is still verified end to end, and tests are offered afterwards.

Before writing the file, MasterMind checks that every requirement and acceptance criterion maps to at least one task, and reports any that do not. An existing task list with ticked boxes is amended, never regenerated, so progress is not lost.

When it fires

“Break this into tasks.” “What are the steps to build the invitations feature?” “The plan changed, update the task list.”

🧠 MasterMind ▸ cutting the plan into tasks, one story at a time
   └ breakdown · setup → foundation → story slices → polish

When it does not fire

  • A feature with no plan yet. The plan comes first, from blueprint.
  • A quick to-do list for one session. That is just conversation; it needs no file.

What you get

An ordered, traceable task list that build works through, where each story is usable the moment its checkpoint passes.