Divide and Conquer

Evaluate a task's complexity and, if warranted, split it into smaller, focused sub-tasks.

Instructions

The user's query is in $ARGUMENTS (a task ID like 077, optionally followed by --force to skip the complexity check).

1. Look up the task: Run taskmd get $ARGUMENTS to find the task

   • If not found, run taskmd list to show available tasks and ask the user which one they meant

2. Read the task file with the Read tool to get the full description, subtasks, and acceptance criteria

3. Assess complexity to decide whether the task should be divided. Consider:

   • Effort field: large effort tasks are good candidates; small tasks almost never need splitting
   • Subtask count: Tasks with 5+ checkbox items that span distinct concerns are candidates
   • Scope breadth: Tasks that touch multiple unrelated areas (e.g., backend + frontend + docs) are candidates
   • Independence: Subtasks that can be worked on in parallel by different people are candidates
   • A task is NOT a good candidate if:
     • It has small or medium effort with fewer than 5 subtasks
     • Its subtasks are tightly coupled sequential steps of a single feature
     • Splitting would create trivial tasks that aren't worth tracking individually

4. If the task is NOT complex enough:

   • Explain why the task doesn't warrant splitting (be specific about which criteria it fails)
   • Do NOT create any files
   • Only proceed if $ARGUMENTS contains --force or the user explicitly insists

5. If the task IS complex enough (or --force is used): a. Read the specification: Look for docs/taskmd_specification.md or docs/TASKMD_SPEC.md for the correct format b. Determine available IDs by scanning tasks/**/*.md with Glob:

   • Extract numeric IDs from filenames (pattern: NNN-description.md)
   • Allocate the next N sequential IDs for the sub-tasks c. Design the split: Group the original task's work into 2-5 focused sub-tasks where each:
   • Has a single clear responsibility
   • Can be independently verified
   • Includes relevant subtasks and acceptance criteria from the original d. Create sub-task files as siblings of the original task file (same directory), each with:

   ---
   id: "<NNN>"
   title: "<focused title>"
   status: pending
   priority: <inherit from parent>
   effort: <estimated for this slice>
   tags: <inherit relevant tags from parent>
   parent: "<original task ID>"
   created: <today's date YYYY-MM-DD>
   ---
   

   Followed by a markdown body with:

   • An H1 heading matching the title
   • An ## Objective section describing this slice's goal
   • A ## Tasks section with checkbox items (pulled or refined from the original)
   • An ## Acceptance Criteria section

   e. Update the original task (only the markdown body, not the frontmatter status):

   • Add a ## Sub-tasks section listing the created sub-task IDs and titles
   • Keep the original content intact for reference

6. Report the result:

   • List each created sub-task file with its ID and title
   • Summarize how the work was divided