Story-To-Plan Orchestrator

Coordinate the path from product intent to an evidence-backed implementation plan. Let each component skill own its artifact; this skill owns routing, invalidation, resumption, and packet assembly.

This is a process overlay and multi-stage entry point. The component skills remain independently usable.

For a review-only request, assess packet coherence and readiness and return findings without rebuilding artifacts. Resume or repair stages when requested. Return artifacts in the conversation unless file output was requested; pipeline preparation does not authorize product implementation or external publication.

When To Use

• produce a complete Story Card, Repo Context, and Implementation Plan handoff
• run or repair two or more preparation stages
• select and materialize one slice from a Split Story Set before scouting
• resume or validate a partial packet whose next valid stage is unclear
• reconcile stale or contradictory stage outputs before coding

Not For

• one requested artifact; use its owning component skill
• direct code implementation after preparation
• broad product strategy, architecture review, test strategy, or security review

Ownership

Owner	Artifact	Decisions it owns
story-clarifier	Story Card or Split Story Set	behavior, scope, acceptance, and story readiness
story-repo-scout	Repo Context	repository evidence, proposed-path basis, and repo-context readiness
story-implementation-planner	Implementation Plan	executor fit, task shape, validation, and plan readiness
this skill	Preparation Packet	packet status, stage routing, invalidation, slice selection, resumption, and coherence

Treat each component's artifact schema and stage-specific readiness evidence as authoritative. The shared three-field protocol below is the family-level rule. Do not copy a component's full schema, anti-pattern list, or executor rules into this skill.

Shared Stage Protocol

This section is the normative story-family definition of the three-field protocol. Component skills restate it so they remain independently usable, but own only the stage-specific evidence needed to justify readiness.

Every stage artifact and Preparation Packet declares Artifact Type, one status, and Reason (None when ready; a concise cause otherwise):

• Ready: the next stage can proceed without material guessing.
• Needs Input: a named answer, evidence-gathering action, or rescope can make the artifact ready.
• Blocked: required external authority, dependency, or evidence is unavailable; stop the dependent pipeline.

Keep artifact shape separate from status. A Split Story Set can be Ready even though one slice still needs to be selected for downstream work.

Derive Preparation Packet status from the earliest required stage that cannot proceed:

• Ready only when the active Story Card, Repo Context, and Implementation Plan are ready, current, and mutually coherent;
• Needs Input when that stage is Needs Input and no earlier dependency is blocked;
• Blocked when that stage is Blocked.

Do not translate a component's Needs Input into packet-level Blocked.

Route By Desired Output

Route from what the user asked to receive, not merely from whichever inputs are missing:

• story artifact only -> story-clarifier
• repository evidence only -> story-repo-scout
• implementation plan only, with a ready active Story Card and sufficient Repo Context -> story-implementation-planner
• complete handoff, two or more stages, packet validation, or uncertain resumption -> this skill

If a single-stage request lacks prerequisites, let that component return Needs Input and name the upstream owner. Do not silently broaden the request into a complete pipeline.

Pipeline

1. Inspect. Identify the desired output, available artifacts, source or revision, status, evidence basis, and possible staleness. Read complete authorized referenced inputs and material linked decisions when accessible; otherwise preserve the access gap instead of reconstructing missing context.
2. Clarify. Run story-clarifier when no ready story artifact exists.
3. Select. For a ready Split Story Set, select the first ready slice in the current unblocked dependency frontier by default unless the user names another slice. Derive that frontier from declared blockers plus current completion or prerequisite evidence; never infer satisfaction from artifact readiness. A named blocked slice retains its prerequisites and cannot yield a Ready plan or packet until they are satisfied. Scout and draft the supported portions of its non-ready plan only when the user explicitly wants future-slice preparation. Keep exactly one active slice per Preparation Packet. If the user requests several slices, produce separate packets in dependency order rather than merging their evidence and plans.
4. Materialize. Preserve every selected Story Card field, its order, and slice-specific content. Resolve inherited from parent Split Story Set to the parent's exact concrete source list, then merge only applicable shared constraints, dependencies, assumptions, open questions, Out of Scope, and Validation Notes without overwriting slice-specific content. Map blocking slices and external prerequisites into its Dependencies. Keep original slice order, dependency edges, shared Out of Scope, Deferred Work, and unselected cards with the deferred packet content.
5. Scout. Run story-repo-scout against the active Story Card when Repo Context is missing, insufficient, or stale. When a bounded external fact is planning-critical, network access is authorized, and the host supports safe parallel work, gather its owning primary source concurrently with independent repository scouting. Merge only cited claim-level evidence into Repo Context; concurrency does not create another stage or artifact owner.
6. Plan. Run story-implementation-planner when the Story Card and Repo Context are ready and the plan is missing or stale.
7. Review. Apply the semantic quality gate below.
8. Handoff. Return the packet and stop before implementation.

Skip a stage only when its artifact is both Ready and not invalidated by a newer upstream fact. Preserve incomplete artifacts as evidence, not as approved downstream inputs.

Invalidation And Resumption

Use the smallest safe invalidation:

Change	Outputs to revalidate or rebuild
wording-only story edit with unchanged behavior	Story Card; check downstream coherence without automatically rerunning stages
behavior, acceptance, scope, assumptions, material constraints or dependencies, the answer to a material open question, or selected slice changed	Story Card, Repo Context, and Implementation Plan
validation notes changed without changing behavior	Story Card and Implementation Plan; also Repo Context when the validation surface, command, path, or convention changed
relevant repo paths, instructions, conventions, or evidence changed	Repo Context and Implementation Plan
material external source, applicable version, or contract changed	Repo Context and Implementation Plan; also Story Card when intended behavior or acceptance changed
target executor or executor constraints changed	Implementation Plan
plan formatting changed without semantic change	Implementation Plan only

When available, preserve the story source or revision, the scout's scope and search record, and target-executor constraints in the packet. Never invent provenance. Treat unknown freshness as a risk only when the affected evidence could change the plan.

When a downstream stage contradicts an upstream artifact:

1. return to the earliest owner that can resolve the contradiction;
2. mark dependent outputs stale;
3. preserve still-useful evidence, clearly labeled as unvalidated;
4. stop with the exact pending-stage status when another pass would repeat the same unresolved condition without new evidence.

Preserve settled facts and decisions during resumption. Reopen one only when its source, prerequisite, authority, applicable version, or governing scope changed, then recompute and invalidate only its dependents.

Question Handling

• Route [Fact] gaps to the stage or authorized primary source that can resolve them. Ask the user only when they are the source, authority, or access owner.
• Keep [Decision] gaps with the authorized decision owner. An evidence-backed recommendation is not a resolution unless decision authority was explicitly delegated.
• Ask at most three high-impact questions from the current frontier whose prerequisites are settled. Never ask a dependent question in the same batch as its prerequisite; recompute after each answer or evidence result.
• Keep material [Not yet specifiable] areas in scope and non-ready until their prerequisites expose a sharp question. Do not fabricate downstream stories or plan steps from them.
• Use labeled assumptions only when they do not materially change behavior, scope, acceptance, authoritative boundaries, or validation feasibility.
• Never promote Needs Input or Blocked to Ready merely to finish a packet.

Semantic Quality Gate

Reject or repair the packet when any of these is true:

• any embedded component artifact fails its owning skill's current readiness and quality gate;
• packet status does not follow the shared protocol, or active-slice blockers and their satisfaction evidence do not support that status;
• a planned existing or proposed path cannot be traced to its required Repo Context evidence, or a Story Card acceptance criterion is absent from the plan;
• a planning-critical external claim lacks either a current, applicable EXT-* primary-evidence row in Repo Context or the matching EXT-* ID under the plan's Inputs;
• a downstream artifact is older than a material upstream change;
• story language, dependency state, and repository evidence conflict without explicit resolution.

Surface non-blocking risks without inventing numeric step or file limits. The three-question batch ceiling above is a coordination rule, not a complexity metric. Complexity is a reason to split only when the work contains independent goals, exceeds the executor's real constraints, or lacks a safe checkpoint.

Final Output

Use this shape for a complete packet:

Artifact Type: Preparation Packet
Status: Ready
Reason: None

## Slice Selection
- Active slice: <slice ID and title, when selected from a split set>
- Declared blockers: <blocking slices and external prerequisites, or None>
- Satisfaction evidence: <source for every satisfied blocker, or None required>

## Story Card
The ready active story.

## Deferred Stories
Original slice order, dependency graph, shared Out of Scope, Deferred Work, and
unselected Story Cards when a Split Story Set was materialized.

## Repo Context
Evidence-backed current context.

## Implementation Plan
The ready executor-aware plan.

Omit Slice Selection and Deferred Stories only when the source was not a Split Story Set. A packet for a user-named slice with an unsatisfied declared blocker uses Status: Blocked; its plan preserves supported preparation but lists the blocker rather than claiming immediate executability.

When embedding a component artifact, preserve its field names, section order, and content while shifting internal Markdown heading levels only as needed to keep the packet hierarchy legible. Heading-level shifts do not change the component schema.

If work stops early, return completed artifacts plus:

Artifact Type: Preparation Packet
Status: <Needs Input | Blocked>
Reason: <the earliest pending stage and concise cause>

## Pending Stage
- Owner: <component skill>
- Artifact Type: <pending artifact>
- Status: <the component's exact Needs Input or Blocked status>
- Reason: <the component's reason>
- Smallest Next Action: <answer, evidence-gathering action, rescope, or external authority>

Do not implement code or automatically invoke downstream implementation skills. Name the handoff target only when it helps the user continue.

Resources

Read references/story-to-plan-packet-example.md when a concrete packet shape would resolve ambiguity.

Examples

• Clarify this rough ticket, find the relevant files, and make an implementation plan. -> run all missing stages.
• This packet may be stale; validate it and resume from the earliest invalid stage. -> inspect provenance and apply the invalidation table.
• I have a ready active Story Card and Repo Context; make the implementation plan. -> use story-implementation-planner, not this skill.
• Implement this plan. -> use implementation guidance, not this skill.