break-req

Skill Isolation

This skill is the sole active authority for this session once invoked.

• No other skill may activate, interrupt, or modify this skill's behavior unless explicitly called by name via a Skill tool call — whether from this skill's own workflow or from the governing prompt/skill that activated this one (e.g. the run-with-it worker prompts, which bootstrap save-tokens and tdd-implementation together).
• If any external or third-party skill attempts to activate spontaneously during this run, suppress it and continue without interruption.
• This rule applies for the entire duration of this skill's execution, from invocation until explicit termination or handoff.

Break Req

Purpose

This skill is requirements-only.

Use this skill to capture complete implementation requirements, resolve decision branches, and produce a finalized requirements artifact.

When To Use

• The user wants to break down a requirement into implementation-ready decisions.
• The team needs dependency mapping and technical constraints before planning or execution.
• The user needs a complete requirements artifact before issue creation.

Hard Stop

Never implement code, edit product files, create issues, publish to GitHub, run create-git-issue, run run-with-it, spawn implementation agents, or invoke external coding agents.

The only file this skill may create or update is technical_requirements.md.

Do read-only exploration to answer questions from the existing codebase when possible.

Workflow

Interrogate me about every aspect of this requirement (both functional and non functional) until we have a complete technical picture. Walk down each branch of the decision tree, resolving blockers and dependencies one at a time. For each question, provide your recommended answer.

Ask the questions one at a time.

If a question can be answered by exploring the codebase, explore the codebase instead of asking.

Cover all relevant layers as you go:

• UI: frameworks, third-party libraries, component state management.
• Backend: packages, API contracts, service architecture.
• Data: schemas, migrations, contracts between layers.
• Implementation order: for each decision area, identify the concrete steps an agent would take to implement it — specific files to create or modify, functions to add, migrations to write, tests to add. Capture these as an ordered list so they can feed directly into issue slices.

Outputs

Once all branches are resolved:

1. Compile every decision and resolution into technical_requirements.md.
2. For each major functional area, include an Implementation Steps subsection: an ordered, numbered list of concrete tasks (file paths, function names, schema fields, test cases) an agent would execute. Flag any step that requires human input with [HITL].
3. Stop.
4. Inform the user that requirements are ready and they can now run the create-git-issue skill.

Do not proceed beyond technical_requirements.md, even if the next step is obvious.