The Work skill is a sophisticated workflow orchestrator designed for incremental software development and parallel agent management. It streamlines the coding process by leveraging Git worktrees, allowing multiple AI agents to work on separate issues simultaneously while maintaining a disciplined 'verify-implement-test-commit' cycle to ensure high code quality and project consistency.

When should I use work?

work is useful in the following scenarios: • Parallel Development: Utilizing Git worktrees to launch and manage multiple AI agents on different tasks concurrently without branch conflicts. • Incremental Issue Resolution: Breaking down complex features into testable units with automated tracking of acceptance criteria in feature.json files. • Context-Aware Session Resumption: Automatically gathering project bearings and reading epic progress to continue work exactly where the last session ended. • Automated Workflow Standardization: Enforcing a rigorous development loop that includes baseline verification, unit testing, and structured documentation updates for every commit.

name	work
description	Work incrementally on Issues with Git worktree support for parallel agent workflows. Use when starting a coding session, continuing work, or running parallel agents.

Work - Incremental Implementation

Make incremental progress on Issues, leaving clean state for next session.

Based on Anthropic's Coding Agent pattern.

Arguments

This skill accepts an optional issue path:

/work [issue-path]

Examples:

/work - Continue work on current issue from Epic progress.md
/work issues/20251227-task05-config-store - Work on specific issue

When to Use

Starting a new coding session
User says "continue", "work on issue", "next feature"
Running AI agents on parallel issues (via worktrees)

Session Workflow

1. GET BEARINGS        →  pwd, git worktree list, cat epics/*/progress.md
       ↓
2. READ ISSUE          →  Read issue.md and feature.json from issue directory
       ↓
3. VERIFY BASELINE     →  Run build/tests, fix any broken state
       ↓
4. IMPLEMENT           →  One feature at a time: implement → test → commit
       ↓
5. END SESSION         →  Use /commit skill, update Epic progress.md

Directory Structure

project/
├── epics/
│   ├── cli/
│   │   ├── epic.md
│   │   ├── progress.md               # Check here for current work
│   │   └── references/
│   └── website/
│       ├── epic.md
│       ├── progress.md
│       └── references/
└── issues/
    ├── 20250115-task01-auth-setup/
    │   ├── issue.md                  # Requirements
    │   └── feature.json              # Acceptance criteria
    └── ...

Reading the Issue

Each issue directory contains:

issue.md - Requirements, technical details, API design
feature.json - Testable acceptance criteria with pass/fail status

# Read issue to understand the work
cat issues/ISSUE_ID/issue.md
cat issues/ISSUE_ID/feature.json

Core Loop: Implement One Feature

# 1. Implement the feature
# 2. Test end-to-end (browser/HTTP/CLI)
# 3. Update feature.json: "passes": true
# 4. Use /commit skill to commit changes

Rules

DO:

Start every session with "Get Bearings"
Read issue.md and feature.json before implementing
Work on ONE feature at a time
Test BEFORE marking passes: true
Use /commit skill for commits (not manual git commit)
Update Epic's progress.md at session end

DO NOT:

Skip baseline verification
Mark features passing without testing
Leave half-implemented code
Commit without using the commit skill

Launch Agent in New Terminal

When user says "work on [issue]" with a specific issue, open a new Ghostty terminal and run the agent there:

# Get current directory first
PROJ_DIR=$(pwd)

# Open Ghostty and run claude agent in that directory
open -a Ghostty --args -e zsh -lc "cd $PROJ_DIR && claude --dangerously-skip-permissions"

This allows:

Running an autonomous agent in a separate terminal
Continuing work in the current terminal
Agent runs with full permissions for unattended operation

Parallel Development (Worktrees)

Use Git worktrees to run agents on separate issues in parallel:

# Create worktree for agent
git worktree add ../project-task02 -b task02
cd ../project-task02
claude --print "Complete task02 per issue.md"

# Continue your work in main repo
cd ../project

See: worktree-commands.md | parallel-agents.md

Handling Issues

Situation	Action
Broken baseline	Fix FIRST, then new work
Blocked by dependency	Document, switch issue or end session
Feature fails testing	Keep `passes: false`, fix and re-test

Progress File Format

Update the Epic's progress.md:

#### [YYYY-MM-DD HH:MM] Session #N
- Working on: task02-auth
- Completed: F001, F002
- In progress: F003
- Commits: abc123, def456
- Notes:
  - Brief description of what was done
  - Any important decisions or changes

work

When & Why to Use This Skill

Use Cases