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planning-and-task-breakdown

Decomposes specifications into ordered, verifiable implementation tasks with acceptance criteria.

2|Updated Jul 1, 2026
Search Tags:#planning#task breakdown#acceptance criteria#implementation plan#agile#dependency graph#vertical slicing
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/Lazare-Panam/mars-api --skill planning-and-task-breakdown-lazare-panam
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: planning-and-task-breakdown
Source: https://github.com/Lazare-Panam/mars-api/tree/main/Mars.API/.claude/skills/planning-and-task-breakdown
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/Lazare-Panam/mars-api --skill planning-and-task-breakdown-lazare-panam

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

What problem does it solve? Large or vague work items stall implementation and produce tangled results. This Skill turns a spec or clear requirements into a written plan of small, verifiable tasks with explicit acceptance criteria, dependencies, and checkpoints. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Structured Planning Process: Guides read-only plan mode, dependency graph mapping, and vertical slicing so each task delivers working, testable functionality. - Task Templates and Sizing: Provides a task format with acceptance criteria, verification steps, dependencies, and XS-to-XL sizing rules that force oversized work to be split. - Flexible Output Targets: Writes the plan to tasks/plan.md and records tasks in tasks/todo.md by default, or maps them onto an external tracker like GitHub Issues, Jira, or Linear. - Use Case: Given a spec for a user registration feature, produce an ordered task list covering schema, API, and UI slices with checkpoints after each phase. ## Quick Start Ask the agent to break the attached feature spec into an ordered task list with acceptance criteria saved to tasks/plan.md and tasks/todo.md.

Frequently Asked Questions about planning-and-task-breakdown

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

FAQPage Schema
How do I break a large feature spec into implementable tasks?▼

Map the dependency graph first, then slice vertically so each task delivers one complete feature path across schema, API, and UI. Write each task with acceptance criteria, verification steps, dependencies, and a size estimate of S or M.

What is vertical slicing in task breakdown?▼

Vertical slicing builds one complete feature path at a time, such as user registration covering schema, API, and UI together. It avoids horizontal phases where the entire database, then all endpoints, then all UI are built separately without working functionality.

When should a task be broken down further?▼

Split a task when it exceeds one focused session, needs more than three acceptance criteria bullets, touches two independent subsystems, or has "and" in its title. Tasks sized L or larger should always be decomposed into S or M units.

Can tasks be tracked in Jira or GitHub Issues instead of a markdown file?▼

Yes. If the project's agent rules or the user designate an external tracker, create one tracker item per task with acceptance criteria in the body and dependencies via the tracker's linking mechanism. Note the tracker in tasks/plan.md so downstream steps know where to look.

When should I not use a formal task breakdown process?▼

Skip it for single-file changes with obvious scope or when the spec already contains well-defined tasks. The planning process is designed for multi-component work where implementation order and dependencies are not obvious.

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