gsd-tools
gsd-tools is the central utility skill for GSD (Get Stuff Done) operations that provides configuration management, slug generation, timestamp formatting, path resolution, and planning directory initialization. Use this skill when setting up GSD processes, loading project configuration from .planning/config.json, generating deterministic kebab-case slugs for tasks and phases, formatting timestamps for artifact headers and frontmatter, resolving paths within the .planning/ directory structure, parsing phase numbers, managing sequential quick task numbering, and detecting or initializing project state.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/a5c-ai/babysitter /tmp/gsd-tools && cp -r /tmp/gsd-tools/library/methodologies/gsd/skills/gsd-tools ~/.claude/skills/gsd-toolsSKILL.md
- Load and manage `.planning/config.json` configuration
- Generate deterministic slugs from descriptions (kebab-case, deduplication)
- Format timestamps for GSD artifact headers and frontmatter
- Resolve paths within the `.planning/` directory structure
- Parse and normalize phase numbers (integer and decimal)
- Manage sequential quick task numbering in `.planning/quick/`
- Initialize and validate `.planning/` directory structure
- Detect project state (new project, existing project, mid-phase, etc.)
## Capabilities
### 1. Configuration Loading
Load and parse `.planning/config.json` with defaults:
```json
{
"profile": "balanced",
"autoCommit": true,
"autoVerify": true,
"planCheckerEnabled": true,
"maxPlanRevisions": 2,
"waveParallelization": true,
"contextMonitor": true,
"contextWarningThreshold": 70,
"contextCriticalThreshold": 85,
"summaryVariant": "standard",
"tddEnabled": false,
"questioningDepth": "adaptive"
}
```
Read config:
```bash
cat .planning/config.json
```
If config does not exist, create with defaults. Merge user overrides with defaults (user values take precedence).
### 2. Slug Generation
Generate kebab-case slugs from descriptions:
```
Input: "Add user authentication with OAuth2"
Output: "add-user-authentication-with-oauth2"
Input: "Fix bug #123 in payment processing"
Output: "fix-bug-123-in-payment-processing"
```
Rules:
- Lowercase all characters
- Replace spaces and special characters with hyphens
- Remove consecutive hyphens
- Trim leading/trailing hyphens
- Maximum 60 characters (truncate at word boundary)
- Check for duplicates in target directory, append `-2`, `-3` if needed
### 3. Timestamp Formatting
Format timestamps for GSD artifacts:
```
Header: "2026-03-02T14:30:00Z"
Frontmatter: "2026-03-02"
Filename: "20260302-143000"
Display: "Mar 2, 2026 2:30 PM"
```
### 4. Path Operations
Resolve paths within `.planning/` structure:
```
Phase directory: .planning/phase-{N}/
Plan file: .planning/phase-{N}/PLAN-{M}.md
Summary file: .planning/phase-{N}/SUMMARY.md
Quick task: .planning/quick/{NNN}-{slug}/
Debug session: .planning/debug/{slug}.md
Codebase docs: .planning/codebase/
Research docs: .planning/research/
Milestone archive: milestones/v{X}.{Y}/
```
### 5. Phase Number Parsing
Parse integer and decimal phase numbers:
```
"72" -> { major: 72, minor: null, display: "72" }
"72.1" -> { major: 72, minor: 1, display: "72.1" }
"72.2" -> { major: 72, minor: 2, display: "72.2" }
```
Decimal phases are inserted phases (e.g., urgent work between phase 72 and 73).
### 6. Quick Task Numbering
Sequential numbering for quick tasks:
```
.planning/quick/001-fix-login-bug/
.planning/quick/002-add-rate-limiting/
.planning/quick/003-update-readme/
```
Scan existing directories, find highest number, increment by 1. Zero-pad to 3 digits.
### 7. Planning Directory Initialization
Ensure `.planning/` directory exists with required structure:
```
.planning/
config.json
PROJECT.md (if new-project has run)
REQUIREMENTS.md (if new-project has run)
ROADMAP.md (if new-project has run)
STATE.md (always present after init)
quick/ (created on demand)
debug/ (created on demand)
codebase/ (created on demand)
research/ (created on demand)
```
### 8. Project State Detection
Detect current project state for routing:
```javascript
const states = {
NO_PROJECT: "No .planning/ directory or no PROJECT.md",
INITIALIZED: ".planning/ exists with PROJECT.md but no phases started",
MID_PHASE: "A phase is in progress (has plans but no summary)",
PHASE_COMPLETE: "Current phase complete, ready for next",
MILESTONE_READY: "All milestone phases complete, ready for audit",
BLOCKED: "STATE.md has active blockers"
};
```
## Tool Use Instructions
### Reading Configuration
1. Use `Read` to load `.planning/config.json`
2. Parse JSON and merge with defaults
3. Return merged configuration object
### Generating Slugs
1. Accept description string as input
2. Apply slug transformation rules
3. Use `Glob` to check for duplicates in target directory
4. Append deduplication suffix if needed
5. Return final slug
### Initializing Planning Directory
1. Use `Bash` to create directory structure with `mkdir -p`
2. Use `Write` to create `config.json` with defaults if missing
3. Use `Read` + `Glob` to detect existing state
4. Return initialization status
## Process Integration
This skill is used by **all GSD processes** as the first initialization step:
- `new-project.js` - Initialize `.planning/`, create config
- `plan-phase.js` - Resolve phase paths, load config for planner settings
- `execute-phase.js` - Load config for executor settings, resolve task paths
- `quick.js` - Generate quick task number and slug, resolve quick task path
- `debug.js` - Generate debug session slug, resolve debug path
- `progress.js` - Detect project state, load config
- `complete-milestone.js` - Resolve milestone archive path
- `add-tests.js` - Resolve phase paths for test generation
- `research-phase.js` - Resolve research output paths
## Output Format
```json
{
"operation": "init|config|slug|path|state",
"status": "success|error",
"result": {
"config": {},
"slug": "generated-slug",
"path": "/resolved/path",
"state": "NO_PROJECT|INITIALIZED|MID_PHASE|..."
},
"metadata": {
"planningDir": ".planning/",
"configPath": ".planning/config.json",
"timestamp": "2026-03-02T14:30:00Z"
}
}
```
## Configuration
| Setting | Default | Description |
|---------|---------|-------------|
| `profile` | `balanced` | Model profile (quality/balanced/budget) |
| `autoCommit` | `true` | Auto-commit after each task |
| `autoVerify` | `true` | Auto-verify after phase execution |
| `planCheckerEnabled` | `true` | Run plan checker before execution |
| `maxPlanRevisions` | `2` | Max plan revision cycles |
| `waveParallelization` | `true` | Enable wCoordinate Crew (persistent) and Polecat (transient) agents using Gas Town's hook-based work distribution and GUPP principle.
System and API design guidance covering component boundaries, data flow, integration patterns, and scalability considerations.
This skill should be used when the user asks to "find skills in the wild", "assimilate popular workflows", "discover SKILL.md files in repos", "research external skills", "find workflow patterns", "survey the skill landscape", "what skills exist out there", or wants to investigate public repositories for extractable processes, babysitter plugins, and reusable procedural insights. Searches GitHub for SKILL.md files, classifies repos by archetype, and maintains structured research under docs/reference-repos/.
>-
This skill should be used when the user asks to "babysit issues", "work on assigned issues", "check a5c-agent issues", "process babysitter issues", or wants to find and work on open GitHub issues assigned to a5c-agent in the babysitter repo.