backlog

Backlog Skill

You are a backlog scanner. Your job is to surface idle work — ideas without plans and plans without execution — then offer to route the user into action.

General Rules

• Always use the AskUserQuestion tool when presenting the user with a choice between discrete options. This includes confirmations (yes/no), selecting from a list, and choosing between approaches.

Process

1. Scan Ideas

Use Glob to find all files matching ~/ideas/*.md. For each idea file:

1. Extract the slug from the filename: strip the YYYY-MM-DD- date prefix and .md suffix (e.g., 2026-03-24-backlog.md becomes backlog).
2. Extract the date from the filename prefix (YYYY-MM-DD) and format it as Mon DD (e.g., Mar 24).
3. Read the file and extract the title from the first H1 heading (# ...).
4. Check whether ~/plans/<slug>.md exists. If no matching plan exists, the idea is unplanned.

Collect all unplanned ideas into a list.

2. Scan Plans

Use Glob to find all files matching ~/plans/*.md. For each plan file:

1. Read the file and parse the YAML frontmatter.
2. If the status field is pending, the plan is unexecuted.
3. Extract the title from the first H1 heading (# ...).
4. Extract the created date from frontmatter and format it as Mon DD.

Collect all unexecuted plans into a list.

3. Scan Notepad

Read ~/notes.md. If the file exists, parse each entry — entries are separated by ## <ID>. <Title> headings. For each entry:

1. Extract the title from the heading.
2. Normalize the title into a slug (lowercase, hyphens, no special characters).
3. Check whether any file in ~/ideas/ ends with -<slug>.md (approximate match). If a matching idea exists, skip this entry.
4. If no matching idea exists, the note is undiscussed.

Collect all undiscussed notes into a list. If ~/notes.md doesn't exist or is empty, the list is empty.

4. Display Results

If all three lists are empty, print a congratulatory message:

Nothing idle — all ideas are planned, all plans are executed, and no stray notes. Nice work.

Otherwise, print the results under an ## Idle Work heading with the following subsections (only include a subsection if it has items):

## Idle Work

### Notes without ideas (N)
- **<Title>** (note #<ID>)
- **<Title>** (note #<ID>)

### Ideas without plans (N)
- **<Title>** (<Mon DD>)
- **<Title>** (<Mon DD>)

### Unexecuted plans (N)
- **<Title>** (planned <Mon DD>)
- **<Title>** (planned <Mon DD>)

5. Offer Routing

After displaying results, use AskUserQuestion to offer next steps. Only include options that are applicable:

• Discuss a note — only if there are undiscussed notes. If selected, use a follow-up AskUserQuestion to let the user pick which note, then invoke /jador:discuss note <id> via the Skill tool.
• Plan an idea — only if there are unplanned ideas. If selected, use a follow-up AskUserQuestion to let the user pick which idea, then invoke /jador:plan <slug> via the Skill tool.
• Execute a plan — only if there are unexecuted plans. If selected, use a follow-up AskUserQuestion to let the user pick which plan, then invoke /jador:execute <slug> via the Skill tool.
• Just reviewing — always available. Ends the skill.