init-milestone-skill

To safely initialize a new milestone, you validate the milestone specifications, enforce unique dependencies, and atomically write the milestone artifact and backlog entry to update the live control-state. This process removes manual setup overhead and ensures consistency before any write or activation occurs.

Milestone upsert creates a new milestone artifact or updates an existing one using latest-override semantics driven by timestamps, without altering version or release state. This ensures the most recent milestone configuration overwrites older entries while maintaining pipeline history integrity.

Preventing circular dependencies during milestone registration involves validating the depends_on_milestones list against the live history. The initialization process automatically detects circular references and blocks the write operation if a loop is found, ensuring the milestone backlog remains acyclic.

Appending worktracks to an active milestone requires signal-coverage review to prevent scope creep. The system performs coverage verdicts—fully, partially, or not covered—and demands explicit programmer confirmation before proceeding with the append operation to maintain goal alignment.

Planned versus active milestone activation is computed using activation intent rules, where planned milestones are registered without starting execution and active milestones trigger the pipeline. The system enforces that only one milestone can be active at a time to maintain strict control-state integrity.

Milestone initialization fails without brief-confirm-before-write validation because the system requires explicit confirmation of the generated milestone brief to prevent unauthorized writes. This guardrail ensures all dependency checks, uniqueness rules, and activation states are verified before modifying the live backlog.