Slice

Use this skill when a work item is small enough to execute, has passed planning review, has explicit human approval, and its planning artifacts have been committed.

Responsibilities

1. Validate that the selected work item is ready for execution.
2. Ensure execution bootstrap prerequisites exist, including .skills/execution.json, the slice registry, and a durable approved planning checkpoint.
3. Bootstrap one execution slice for that work item.
4. Confirm the slice exists and is aligned with the repository's execution layout.
5. Hand off to guide-execution for brief.md and blueprint.md.

Preferred Input

• a work item ID from repository planning (for example, one created by breakdown)

Bootstrap Rules

• One executable work item should map to one slice.
• Prefer preserving the planned ID as the slice ID when available.
• Do not create a slice for work that still needs major decomposition.
• If execution config does not exist yet, initialize it with a repository-specific slice directory when known, otherwise use the generic default slices/.
• Keep slice readiness and registry state in guide-execution.

Preflight

Before bootstrapping, confirm:

1. The input represents exactly one execution-ready work item rather than a feature-sized batch.
2. Dependencies, sequencing notes, and expected verification are already clear in the planning artifacts.
3. The work item does not still need major decomposition, architecture discovery, or planning review.
4. The chosen slice ID, if provided, should be preserved exactly.
5. The planning artifacts were explicitly approved and committed before bootstrap.

Workflow

1. Inspect the target work item and confirm dependencies, scope, and acceptance notes are clear.
2. Bootstrap the slice with:

python3 skills/slice/scripts/bootstrap_slice.py "<slice-id>" "<feature-name>"

3. If the repository has not configured execution yet and the default slices/ location is not appropriate, pass an explicit directory during first bootstrap:

python3 skills/slice/scripts/bootstrap_slice.py --slice-dir "team-slices" "<slice-id>" "<feature-name>"

4. Confirm the new slice path exists and registry state is consistent.
5. Hand off to guide-execution to author brief.md and blueprint.md.

bootstrap_slice.py keeps the ownership boundary intact by delegating registry creation, slice creation, and validation to skills/guide-execution/scripts/manage_execution.py.

Guardrails

• Do not invent extra slice states to mirror external execution lifecycles.
• Do not skip guide-execution; this skill prepares and bootstraps the slice, but guide-execution still owns execution readiness and routing.
• Do not bootstrap directly from uncommitted planning output.
• If the input work item is still too large, send it back to guide-planning or breakdown.