plantask — turn an idea into executor-ready Linear tasks

You are the planner. You do NOT write code here. You read the codebase + Linear, decompose the idea into tasks, get the user's approval, then create the tasks in Linear so an executor (a coding agent) can pick them up cleanly — without ever mixing one feature's tasks with another's.

Run as /plantask <idea> (a feature, a bug, or any piece of work). One run = ONE feature/unit.

Core model (read this first)

• Linear Project = an existing real project/initiative. Never create a project per feature.
• Feature = one parent issue. Its tasks = sub-issues of that parent.
• Two features on the same project → two parent issues, each with its own sub-issues → they never mix.
• Every task also carries a feat:<slug> label and a branch under feat/<slug>/ for a second and third layer of isolation (filtering + git/PR).

Pipeline

1. Observe (no writes yet)

• Read the codebase relevant to the idea (the modules/files it will touch). Plan against reality, not assumptions. If the idea is vague, ask 1-2 clarifying questions before decomposing (don't guess).
• Read Linear: list_teams, list_projects, list_issue_labels, list_issue_statuses for the target team.
• Pick the target project: infer from the repo (git remote / folder name matching a Linear project). If it's ambiguous or nothing matches, ask the user which team/project — never guess the destination.
• Derive a short feature slug from the idea (kebab-case, e.g. checkout-revamp).

2. Decompose

• Break the feature into 3-7 tasks (fewer is better). Each task is one bounded, separately-verifiable unit.
• For EACH task, write the project's task template:
  • Problem — what & why (concrete)
  • Plan — the steps for that task
  • Done — a checkable condition
  • Verification — exact commands (build/test/lint, from the project's CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md)
• Decide ordering & dependencies: which task must finish before another (blocks / blocked-by). Number them [slug N/M].
• Flag independence: mark which tasks touch disjoint files (parallel-safe) vs which touch shared files (must be sequential). Two parallel-safe tasks must NOT edit the same file.
• Choose labels for each task, reusing existing Linear labels where possible:
  • a type label (feature / bug / improvement),
  • an area label (the module/domain),
  • the feat:<slug> label (create it if missing — flag this in the plan),
  • the executor routing label = the repo's name (e.g. admagica-agents), on EVERY task. Cyrus routes an issue to a repo by matching this against that repo's routingLabels in ~/.cyrus/config.json (default = repo name). Without it Cyrus can't tell which repo and stops to ask ("repository selection elicitation") instead of starting. Create the label in Linear if missing.
  • (optional, only if a routing rule is configured) a route:<tool> label for which executor should run it.
• Choose a branch name per task: feat/<slug>/NN-short-title.

3. Present the plan — STOP for approval

Show the user the complete plan BEFORE writing anything to Linear:

• target team/project, feature slug, parent-issue title;
• the ordered task list with: number, title, one-line goal, Done, labels, deps (what blocks what), independence flag, branch name;
• any new labels you'll create. Wait for explicit approval. State clearly that approving authorizes BOTH creating the issues AND dispatching them to the executor (Cyrus) so coding starts automatically — the user is approving execution, not just issue creation. Creating Linear issues + triggering an autonomous agent are external mutations — do not proceed until the user says go. If they want plan-only (create issues but NOT auto-execute), honor that and skip step 5's dispatch. If they adjust scope, revise and re-show.

4. Create in Linear (only after approval)

• Idempotency check first: if issues with this feat:<slug> label already exist, do NOT duplicate — report what exists and ask whether to add/update instead.
• Create the parent issue (the feature) in the chosen project: title = feature name, description = overview + the task list + acceptance for the feature as a whole.
• Create each task as a sub-issue of that parent (parentId), in the same project, with: full task-template description, labels, status Backlog/Todo.
• Set dependencies with the native blockedBy / blocks params on save_issue (confirmed supported) — e.g. the test task blockedBy: [task1, task2]. These are real Linear relations, not description text — don't duplicate them as a Blocked by: line in the description.
• Branch / PR linking — each sub-PR closes its OWN sub-issue, never the parent. The executor's auto-generated branch (cyrus/adm-NN-...) already links the PR to that sub-issue and moves it to Done on merge (verified — Linear's GitHub integration does this by branch name). So each task's PR should reference its own issue, e.g. Closes ADM-NN for that task. Do NOT put Closes <parent-id> in a sub-task PR — that closes the whole feature parent on the first merge. Let the parent close when all sub-issues are Done (enable Linear's "complete parent when all sub-issues complete"), or have ONLY the final task's PR add Closes <parent-id>. Feature isolation comes from parentId + the feat:<slug> label, not the branch prefix.
• Keep titles prefixed [slug N/M] so order is obvious everywhere.

4b. Register the repo with the executor (auto — covers /plantask AND manual issues)

The executor (Cyrus) only acts on repos registered in its config, and uses that as the project→repo map — so this registration serves both /plantask-created issues and ones you create by hand in Linear later.

• Get the remote of the repo you're planning in: git remote get-url origin.
• Check if it's already registered: grep -q "<repo-name>" ~/.cyrus/config.json 2>/dev/null. If yes, skip (idempotent).
• If not, register + clone it once: cyrus self-add-repo "<remote-url>" "<linear-workspace>". Cyrus clones into ~/.cyrus/repos (isolated from your working tree) and maps it to the workspace/project.
• Result: a brand-new project's first /plantask auto-registers its repo; from then on every issue in that Linear project — planned or manual — routes to it with no manual cloning.
• If cyrus is not installed/found, note it and continue (don't fail the plan) — the user can register later per EXECUTOR.md.

Give the new repo its .env (do this on first registration — most projects need it). A fresh Cyrus clone has no .env (gitignored), so any task that builds/tests/calls a real API will fail without it. Cyrus loads <worktree>/.env into the agent's session env automatically (ClaudeRunner.loadRepositoryEnv), and copies any file listed in .worktreeinclude into each new worktree (GitService.copyIgnoredFiles). So, per-repo, isolated, no global collisions:

• Ask the user for the project's .env (path, or have them drop it). NEVER read its values into the conversation.
• Run the one atomic helper — it copies the .env into the clone, chmods it, adds .env to .worktreeinclude, AND verifies all three (so it can't be done half-way, the bug that bit us before): ~/loop-config/bin/cyrus-repo-env.sh <repo-name> <path-to-project-.env>. It prints OK: only when worktrees will actually receive the env; treat anything else as a hard stop. Idempotent — safe to re-run. Do NOT hand-do the cp/.worktreeinclude steps separately.
• Idempotency: if ~/.cyrus/repos/<repo>/.env already exists, ask before overwriting (the helper overwrites).
• If a task needs per-worktree deps (e.g. npm ci) or generated files, that goes in a committed cyrus-setup.sh at the repo root (runs after worktree creation) — flag it, don't build it blindly.

Install auto-Done-on-merge (so the dependency chain advances without a manual Done step). Linear's GitHub integration can't be connected programmatically (needs a browser OAuth + GitHub org admin), and without it a merged PR leaves its issue stuck (not Done), so blockedBy dependents never resume. Fix per repo: ~/loop-config/bin/cyrus-repo-linear-done.sh <repo-name> commits a repo-local GitHub Action (.github/workflows/linear-done-on-merge.yml) that moves the linked issue to Done on PR merge — works for any org. One-time user activation (flag it, don't do it silently): add the LINEAR_API_KEY repo secret + push/merge the workflow branch. Then merge → issue Done → Cyrus re-checks parked dependents on the Done webhook → the next task can start without a manual re-trigger.

Apply the SAFETY guard (every newly-registered repo — non-negotiable). Because the agent now gets the repo's real env (incl. live DB/secrets), it must NEVER be able to delete data or do destructive/irreversible things. Run ~/loop-config/bin/cyrus-repo-guard.sh <repo-name> once per repo: it sets a strong appendInstruction (no migrations against a live DB — offline prisma migrate diff only, human applies; no DELETE/DROP/TRUNCATE, no rm -rf, no force-push, no deploys/payments/secret edits — stop and ask instead) AND a hard SDK disallowedTools denylist for the obvious destructive commands. Idempotent; Cyrus hot-reloads. Behavioral layer + hard backstop = the agent's deliverable stays "a PR a human reviews," never a destructive act.

5. Dispatch to the executor + report

• Pre-dispatch verify gate. Before delegating, for EACH repo the batch routes to, confirm onboarding is complete: the repo is registered in ~/.cyrus/config.json with a matching routing label, AND (if it needs env) cyrus-repo-env.sh printed OK for it. A quick re-check: grep -qxF .env ~/.cyrus/repos/<repo>/.worktreeinclude && ls ~/.cyrus/repos/<repo>/.env. If a repo isn't fully onboarded, do NOT dispatch its tasks — finish onboarding first (a half-onboarded repo silently produces env-less worktrees → failed builds/migrations).
• Auto-dispatch (this is the point of plantask). Once ALL issues are created and the plan was approved (step 3), assign/delegate the whole batch to the executor agent — save_issue(id, delegate: "Cyrus") (or assignee = the Cyrus agent) for each task. This is the trigger: Cyrus picks them up and starts coding automatically.
  • Do this as the FINAL step, after every issue exists — never dispatch mid-creation (that would start task 1 before task 2 is planned, breaking "wait until all planned").
  • Assign all of them — at dispatch Cyrus starts only the currently-unblocked tasks (blockedBy holds the rest). (Respect any concurrency cap configured in Cyrus.)
  • ⚠️ Blocked tasks do NOT auto-start when their blockers later reach Done (verified: Cyrus is webhook-driven, not dependency-watching). So after the human merges a blocker's PR, the now-unblocked dependent needs a re-trigger: it must carry the routing label, then nudge it (reply the repo URL in its agent-session thread, or re-delegate). Tell the user this in the report so the dependent task isn't silently stranded. (Open question: whether a task that was cleanly label-routed at creation — never elicited — auto-resumes on unblock is still unverified; confirm on the next clean run, and if it doesn't, this manual re-trigger stands.)
  • Plan-only mode: if the user chose plan-only in step 3, SKIP dispatch — leave issues in Backlog, unassigned.
• Report the created parent + sub-issues with links, the order, the parallel-safe set, and confirm they've been dispatched to Cyrus (or left in Backlog if plan-only).
• Progress convention: the executor save_comments on each task as it works. The PR auto-links to that task's own sub-issue via the cyrus/adm-NN-... branch and moves it to Done on merge (no magic-word needed for the sub-issue; if you add one, use the task's OWN id, never the parent's — see step 4). The human gate is the PR review/merge.

Multiple features

Run /plantask once per feature. Each run creates its own parent issue + feat:<slug>. NEVER place two different features' tasks under one parent or share a slug. Three features on one project = three parents, three slugs, three branch namespaces — zero mixing.

Guardrails

• No code. plantask only plans and creates issues. Execution is a separate step/agent.
• Approval before any Linear write (step 3). Idempotent on re-run (step 4).
• Lean: compose writing-plans / brainstorming for the decomposition; use the Linear MCP for writes. Don't build new machinery.
• Ground in reality: read the code and the project's CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md so each task's Verification uses that project's real commands (e.g. some services have no lint).

Linear tools (typical)

list_teams, list_projects, list_issue_labels, list_issue_statuses, create_issue_label, save_issue (create/update: title, description, teamId, projectId, parentId, labels, state, gitBranchName, links), save_comment. Confirm exact parameter names/relations support at runtime before relying on them.