work-items-to-issues

# Work Items to GitHub Issues

Take an already-broken-down `work-items.md` file (produced by `/plan-work-items`) and publish each slice as a GitHub issue in its target repo.

The breakdown work — drafting slices, assigning symbolic IDs, specifying dependencies, inventorying references — has already been done upstream. This skill's job is to map each slice to its target repo, validate the format, write a per-repo work-items file alongside the source, and run the publish pipeline.

## Rules

- Each slice lives in exactly one repo. Cross-repo coordination is documented in prose at the top of `work-items.md` — never as a native blocker link.
- Native `blocked_by` relationships are **within-repo only**. A cross-repo `Depends on` is a format error to surface for repair.
- Symbolic-ID prefixes: accept whatever the input uses. Both shapes are valid input — single-prefix across repos (e.g., `W-N` for every slice) and per-repo prefixes (e.g., `V2-N` backend, `W-N` frontend, `EV-N` events). The publish scripts accept any uppercase prefix.
- Every slice issue body MUST link the reference artifacts an implementer needs — API/event contracts, design frames, schema docs, runbooks, ADRs, coding standards. Issues that consume an HTTP endpoint or event payload MUST link the contract section that defines it.
- UI slices, when the plan folder has a `ui-designs/` subfolder, MUST embed the relevant screenshots inline using same-target-repo raw URLs. See [references/screenshot-embed-rules.md](./references/screenshot-embed-rules.md).
- NEVER include process artifacts in issue bodies or the work-items preamble. Excluded categories — iteration histories, decision logs, review findings, team findings, facilitation summaries, gap analyses, and anything under an `artifacts/` subfolder of the plan that is not a contract or design reference. Full include/exclude list in [references/reference-artifact-inventory.md](./references/reference-artifact-inventory.md).

## Process

### 1. Locate the work-items file

If the path is not provided, ask for it. The input is a single `work-items.md` produced by `/plan-work-items`. Read it.

If the user named a target repo (or repos), a label, or an assignee, note them for Steps 2 and 6. By default, issues are created with **no label and no assignee** — only apply a label or assignee when the user explicitly asked for one.

### 2. Build the SYM→repo map

Determine which repo each slice belongs to. Use both signals and reconcile them:

- **Primary — cross-repo work order prose.** Most `work-items.md` files include an intro paragraph naming which SYMs ship to which repo (e.g., "W-1 through W-4 ship to `acme-api`. W-5 through W-9 ship to `acme-web`."). Parse this for the mapping.
- **Corroborating — file paths inside each slice.** Each slice's `**Description.**` and `**References.**` blocks reference files in the target repo. Path roots map cleanly: `acme-api/...` → `acme/acme-api`, `acme-web/...` → `acme/acme-web`, `acme-events/...` → `acme/acme-events`. Use this to verify the prose and to assign any slice the prose doesn't cover.

If the prose and the file-path evidence disagree for a slice, surface the conflict to the user before proceeding.

### 3. Validate the format with evidence-based repair

Check the work-items file against the format invariants in [references/issue-template.md](./references/issue-template.md) and [references/work-items-file-format.md](./references/work-items-file-format.md):

- **Heading shape.** Every slice heading matches `## <SYM-N> — <title>` with an em-dash separator (already-published headings annotated as `## <SYM-N> (#NNN) — <title>` are valid too).
- **`Depends on` line.** Literal bold marker `**Depends on.**`, trailing period, `None.` or comma-separated SYMs.
- **Within-repo blockers.** Every SYM named in a `Depends on` line maps to the same target repo as the dependent slice (under the map from Step 2).
- **Screenshot URLs.** When present, match `https://github.com/<org>/<target-repo>/raw/<branch>/.github/issue-assets/<feature-slug>/<SYM-N>/<file>.png` against the target repo's default branch and a real PNG file under `<plan-folder>/ui-designs/`. `<feature-slug>` is the kebab-cased basename of the plan folder.
- **References block.** Present whenever the slice consumes an HTTP endpoint, event payload, design frame, ADR, coding standard, or other named artifact.
- **No process artifacts.** No links to iteration histories, decision logs, review findings, team findings, facilitation summaries, gap analyses, or anything under an `artifacts/` subfolder that is not a contract or design reference.

When a check fails, attempt evidence-based repair. Pull evidence from the source `work-items.md`, the parent plan referenced in its intro, the feature spec in the same folder, sibling files in the plan folder, and the target repo's ADRs / coding standards / docs:

- **Malformed heading** — propose the corrected shape based on the surrounding text. Cite the line number.
- **Missing `Depends on` line** — propose `None.` if no blockers are evident in the slice's prose. Cite the absence.
- **Cross-repo `Depends on`** — propose moving the relationship to the cross-repo work-order prose at the top of the file and replacing the line with `None.` or remaining within-repo SYMs. Cite the SYM→repo map entries that prove the cross-repo split.
- **Missing References bullet for an HTTP-consuming slice** — propose the contract section link by inspecting the parent plan's External Interfaces / API Contracts section. Cite the anchor.
- **Missing References bullet for a UI slice with `ui-designs/` present** — propose the design frame and screenshot files by inspecting the feature spec's Visual Reference table and the spec's inline screenshot embeds. Cite the spec section.
- **Process-artifact link found** — propose removing the link and (if the slice still needs the context the artifact held) restating the decision inline with `See plan: D-N` as the breadcrumb. Cite the include/