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archflow-groom

Refines backlog stories with acceptance criteria, subtasks, and gates in YAML files.

28|4|Updated Mar 12, 2026
Search Tags:#acceptance criteria#agile#yaml#subtasks#release planning#backlog grooming#story refinement
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/AZidan/archflow --skill archflow-groom-azidan
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: archflow-groom
Source: https://github.com/AZidan/archflow/tree/main/adapters/copilot/.github/skills/archflow-groom
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/AZidan/archflow --skill archflow-groom-azidan

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? Backlog stories often start as bare stubs with just a title and one line, making them impossible to build against. This Skill turns those stubs into ready stories with acceptance criteria, subtasks, and gates, and safely refines stories already committed to a release without destroying verified work. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Backlog grooming: Elicits acceptance criteria and subtasks from the user, derives design/contract gates from true scope, and marks the story ready in backlog.yaml. - Release refinement: Edits stories already in a release file in place, re-deriving gates and regressing status only when a gate reopens, while preserving met/completed flags as verification evidence. - Status safety checks: Halts on done or archived stories, and stops to ask before touching stories that are in progress or under review. - Use Case: A product manager realizes a story in the active release needs a new API endpoint. Running /archflow-groom S2-11 updates the acceptance criteria, flips needs_contract to true, and regresses the story to spec_ready so the contract step runs again before building. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to run /archflow-groom S2-11 to refine that story's acceptance criteria, subtasks, and gates in place.

Frequently Asked Questions about archflow-groom

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I groom a backlog story with acceptance criteria?▼

Run /archflow-groom followed by the story id, such as /archflow-groom S2-11. The skill asks what is in scope, proposes acceptance criteria and subtasks for your correction, then writes them into backlog.yaml and sets the story status to ready.

How do I refine a story that is already in a release?▼

Run /archflow-groom with the story id and it automatically detects the story lives in a release file. It edits the story in place, re-derives design and contract gates from the new scope, and regresses status to spec_ready only if a gate reopened.

Can grooming change a story that is in progress or done?▼

For in_progress or review stories it stops and asks first, since work is being built or verified against current criteria. Done stories cannot be refined at all; the change must be captured as a new story instead.

What happens to verified acceptance criteria when a story is refined?▼

All met and completed flags on surviving items are preserved as verification evidence. If a met criterion itself is changed, it is explicitly reset to unmet and loses its verified_by and verified_at fields.

Does grooming move a story into a release or start a build?▼

No. Grooming only refines scope and leaves the story exactly where it was. Pulling a story into a release is done with /archflow-feature or /archflow-release new, and grooming never creates branches or touches roadmap.yaml.

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