## Initialization Context (pre-injected by WXP)
**Project State:**
---
Start a new milestone cycle for an existing project. Loads project context, gathers milestone goals (from MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md or conversation), updates PROJECT.md and STATE.md, optionally runs parallel research, defines scoped requirements with REQ-IDs, spawns the roadmapper to create phased execution plan, and commits all artifacts. Brownfield equivalent of new-project.
Read all files referenced by the invoking prompt's execution_context before starting.
Valid GSD subagent types (use exact names - do not fall back to 'general-purpose'):
- gsd-project-researcher - Researches project-level technical decisions
- gsd-research-synthesizer - Synthesizes findings from parallel research agents
- gsd-roadmapper - Creates phased execution roadmaps
## 1. Load Context
Parse `$ARGUMENTS` before doing anything else:
- `--reset-phase-numbers` flag → opt into restarting roadmap phase numbering at `1`
- remaining text → use as milestone name if present
If the flag is absent, keep the current behavior of continuing phase numbering from the previous milestone.
- Read PROJECT.md (existing project, validated requirements, decisions)
- Read MILESTONES.md (what shipped previously)
- Read STATE.md (pending todos, blockers)
- Check for MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md (from /gsd-discuss-milestone)
## 2. Gather Milestone Goals
**If MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md exists:**
- Use features and scope from discuss-milestone
- Present summary for confirmation
**If no context file:**
- Present what shipped in last milestone
- Ask inline (freeform, NOT AskUserQuestion): "What do you want to build next?"
- Wait for their response, then use AskUserQuestion to probe specifics
- If user selects "Other" at any point to provide freeform input, ask follow-up as plain text - not another AskUserQuestion
## 3. Determine Milestone Version
- Parse last version from MILESTONES.md
- Suggest next version (v1.0 → v1.1, or v2.0 for major)
- Confirm with user
## 3.5. Verify Milestone Understanding
Before writing any files, present a summary of what was gathered and ask for confirmation.
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► MILESTONE SUMMARY
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
**Milestone v[X.Y]: [Name]**
**Goal:** [One sentence]
**Target features:**
- [Feature 1]
- [Feature 2]
- [Feature 3]
**Key context:** [Any important constraints, decisions, or notes from questioning]
```
AskUserQuestion:
- header: "Confirm?"
- question: "Does this capture what you want to build in this milestone?"
- options:
- "Looks good" - Proceed to write PROJECT.md
- "Adjust" - Let me correct or add details
**If "Adjust":** Ask what needs changing (plain text, NOT AskUserQuestion). Incorporate changes, re-present the summary. Loop until "Looks good" is selected.
**If "Looks good":** Proceed to Step 4.
## 4. Update PROJECT.md
Add/update:
```markdown
## Current Milestone: v[X.Y] [Name]
**Goal:** [One sentence describing milestone focus]
**Target features:**
- [Feature 1]
- [Feature 2]
- [Feature 3]
```
Update Active requirements section and "Last updated" footer.
Ensure the `## Evolution` section exists in PROJECT.md. If missing (projects created before this feature), add it before the footer:
```markdown
## Evolution
This document evolves at phase transitions and milestone boundaries.
**After each phase transition** (via `/gsd-transition`):
1. Requirements invalidated? → Move to Out of Scope with reason
2. Requirements validated? → Move to Validated with phase reference
3. New requirements emerged? → Add to Active
4. Decisions to log? → Add to Key Decisions
5. "What This Is" still accurate? → Update if drifted
**After each milestone** (via `/gsd-complete-milestone`):
1. Full review of all sections
2. Core Value check - still the right priority?
3. Audit Out of Scope - reasons still valid?
4. Update Context with current state
```
## 5. Update STATE.md
```markdown
## Current Position
Phase: Not started (defining requirements)
Plan: -
Status: Defining requirements
Last activity: [today] - Milestone v[X.Y] started
```
Keep Accumulated Context section from previous milestone.
## 6. Cleanup and Commit
Delete MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md if exists (consumed).
Extract from init JSON: `researcher_model`, `synthesizer_model`, `roadmapper_model`, `commit_docs`, `research_enabled`, `current_milestone`, `project_exists`, `roadmap_exists`, `latest_completed_milestone`, `phase_dir_count`, `phase_archive_path`.
## 7.5 Reset-phase safety (only when `--reset-phase-numbers`)
If `--reset-phase-numbers` is active:
1. Set starting phase number to `1` for the upcoming roadmap.
2. If `phase_dir_count > 0`, archive the old phase directories before roadmapping so new `01-*` / `02-*` directories cannot collide with stale milestone directories.
If `phase_dir_count > 0` and `phase_archive_path` is available:
```bash
mkdir -p "${phase_archive_path}"
find .planning/phases -mindepth 1 -maxdepth 1 -type d -exec mv {} "${phase_archive_path}/" \;
```
Then verify `.planning/phases/` no longer contains old milestone directories before continuing.
If `phase_dir_count > 0` but `phase_archive_path` is missing:
- Stop and explain that reset numbering is unsafe without a completed milestone archive target.
- Tell the user to complete/archive the previous milestone first, then rerun `/gsd-new-milestone --reset-phase-numbers ${GSD_WS}`.
## 8. Research Decision
Check `research_enabled` from init JSON (loaded from config).
**If `research_enabled` is `true`:**
AskUserQuestion: "Research the domain ecosystem for new features before defining requirements?"
- "Research first (Recommended)" - Discover patterns, features, architecture for NEW capabilities
- "Skip research for this milestone" - Go straight to requirements (does not change your default)
**If `research_enabled` is `false`:**
AskUserQuestion: "Research the domain ecosystem for new features before defining requirements?"
- "Skip research (current default)" - Go straight to requirements
- "Research first" - Discover patterns, features, architecture for NEW capabilities
**IMPORTANT:** Do NOT persist this choice to config.json. The `workflow.research` setting is a persistent user preference that controls plan-phase behavior across the project. Changing it here would silently alter future `/gsd-plan-phase` behavior. To change the default, use `/gsd-settings`.
**If user chose "Research first":**
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► RESEARCHING
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Spawning 4 researchers in parallel...
→ Stack, Features, Architecture, Pitfalls
```
```bash
mkdir -p .planning/research
```
Spawn 4 parallel gsd-project-researcher agents. Each uses this template with dimension-specific fields:
**Common structure for all 4 researchers:**
```
Task(prompt="
Project Research - {DIMENSION} for [new features].
SUBSEQUENT MILESTONE - Adding [target features] to existing app.
{EXISTING_CONTEXT}
Focus ONLY on what's needed for the NEW features.
{QUESTION}
- .planning/PROJECT.md (Project context)
${AGENT_SKILLS_RESEARCHER}
{CONSUMER}
{GATES}
", subagent_type="gsd-project-researcher", model="{researcher_model}", description="{DIMENSION} research")
```
**Dimension-specific fields:**
| Field | Stack | Features | Architecture | Pitfalls |
| ---------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| EXISTING_CONTEXT | Existing validated capabilities (DO NOT re-research): [from PROJECT.md] | Existing features (already built): [from PROJECT.md] | Existing architecture: [from PROJECT.md or codebase map] | Focus on common mistakes when ADDING these features to existing system |
| QUESTION | What stack additions/changes are needed for [new features]? | How do [target features] typically work? Expected behavior? | How do [target features] integrate with existing architecture? | Common mistakes when adding [target features] to [domain]? |
| CONSUMER | Specific libraries with versions for NEW capabilities, integration points, what NOT to add | Table stakes vs differentiators vs anti-features, complexity noted, dependencies on existing | Integration points, new components, data flow changes, suggested build order | Warning signs, prevention strategy, which phase should address it |
| GATES | Versions current (verify with Context7), rationale explains WHY, integration considered | Categories clear, complexity noted, dependencies identified | Integration points identified, new vs modified explicit, build order considers deps | Pitfalls specific to adding these features, integration pitfalls covered, prevention actionable |
| FILE | STACK.md | FEATURES.md | ARCHITECTURE.md | PITFALLS.md |
After all 4 complete, spawn synthesizer:
```
Task(prompt="
Synthesize research outputs into SUMMARY.md.
- .planning/research/STACK.md
- .planning/research/FEATURES.md
- .planning/research/ARCHITECTURE.md
- .planning/research/PITFALLS.md
${AGENT_SKILLS_SYNTHESIZER}
Write to: .planning/research/SUMMARY.md
Use template: .pi/gsd/templates/research-project/SUMMARY.md
Commit after writing.
", subagent_type="gsd-research-synthesizer", model="{synthesizer_model}", description="Synthesize research")
```
Display key findings from SUMMARY.md:
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► RESEARCH COMPLETE ✓
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
**Stack additions:** [from SUMMARY.md]
**Feature table stakes:** [from SUMMARY.md]
**Watch Out For:** [from SUMMARY.md]
```
**If "Skip research":** Continue to Step 9.
## 9. Define Requirements
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► DEFINING REQUIREMENTS
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
```
Read PROJECT.md: core value, current milestone goals, validated requirements (what exists).
**If research exists:** Read FEATURES.md, extract feature categories.
Present features by category:
```
## [Category 1]
**Table stakes:** Feature A, Feature B
**Differentiators:** Feature C, Feature D
**Research notes:** [any relevant notes]
```
**If no research:** Gather requirements through conversation. Ask: "What are the main things users need to do with [new features]?" Clarify, probe for related capabilities, group into categories.
**Scope each category** via AskUserQuestion (multiSelect: true, header max 12 chars):
- "[Feature 1]" - [brief description]
- "[Feature 2]" - [brief description]
- "None for this milestone" - Defer entire category
Track: Selected → this milestone. Unselected table stakes → future. Unselected differentiators → out of scope.
**Identify gaps** via AskUserQuestion:
- "No, research covered it" - Proceed
- "Yes, let me add some" - Capture additions
**Generate REQUIREMENTS.md:**
- v1 Requirements grouped by category (checkboxes, REQ-IDs)
- Future Requirements (deferred)
- Out of Scope (explicit exclusions with reasoning)
- Traceability section (empty, filled by roadmap)
**REQ-ID format:** `[CATEGORY]-[NUMBER]` (AUTH-01, NOTIF-02). Continue numbering from existing.
**Requirement quality criteria:**
Good requirements are:
- **Specific and testable:** "User can reset password via email link" (not "Handle password reset")
- **User-centric:** "User can X" (not "System does Y")
- **Atomic:** One capability per requirement (not "User can login and manage profile")
- **Independent:** Minimal dependencies on other requirements
Present FULL requirements list for confirmation:
```
## Milestone v[X.Y] Requirements
### [Category 1]
- [ ] **CAT1-01**: User can do X
- [ ] **CAT1-02**: User can do Y
### [Category 2]
- [ ] **CAT2-01**: User can do Z
Does this capture what you're building? (yes / adjust)
```
If "adjust": Return to scoping.
**Commit requirements:**
```bash
pi-gsd-tools commit "docs: define milestone v[X.Y] requirements" --files .planning/REQUIREMENTS.md
```
## 10. Create Roadmap
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► CREATING ROADMAP
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
◆ Spawning roadmapper...
```
**Starting phase number:**
- If `--reset-phase-numbers` is active, start at **Phase 1**
- Otherwise, continue from the previous milestone's last phase number (v1.0 ended at phase 5 → v1.1 starts at phase 6)
```
Task(prompt="
- .planning/PROJECT.md
- .planning/REQUIREMENTS.md
- .planning/research/SUMMARY.md (if exists)
- .planning/config.json
- .planning/MILESTONES.md
${AGENT_SKILLS_ROADMAPPER}
Create roadmap for milestone v[X.Y]:
1. Respect the selected numbering mode:
- `--reset-phase-numbers` → start at Phase 1
- default behavior → continue from the previous milestone's last phase number
2. Derive phases from THIS MILESTONE's requirements only
3. Map every requirement to exactly one phase
4. Derive 2-5 success criteria per phase (observable user behaviors)
5. Validate 100% coverage
6. Write files immediately (ROADMAP.md, STATE.md, update REQUIREMENTS.md traceability)
7. Return ROADMAP CREATED with summary
Write files first, then return.
", subagent_type="gsd-roadmapper", model="{roadmapper_model}", description="Create roadmap")
```
**Handle return:**
**If `## ROADMAP BLOCKED`:** Present blocker, work with user, re-spawn.
**If `## ROADMAP CREATED`:** Read ROADMAP.md, present inline:
```
## Proposed Roadmap
**[N] phases** | **[X] requirements mapped** | All covered ✓
| # | Phase | Goal | Requirements | Success Criteria |
| --- | ------ | ------ | ------------ | ---------------- |
| [N] | [Name] | [Goal] | [REQ-IDs] | [count] |
### Phase Details
**Phase [N]: [Name]**
Goal: [goal]
Requirements: [REQ-IDs]
Success criteria:
1. [criterion]
2. [criterion]
```
**Ask for approval** via AskUserQuestion:
- "Approve" - Commit and continue
- "Adjust phases" - Tell me what to change
- "Review full file" - Show raw ROADMAP.md
**If "Adjust":** Get notes, re-spawn roadmapper with revision context, loop until approved.
**If "Review":** Display raw ROADMAP.md, re-ask.
**Commit roadmap** (after approval):
```bash
pi-gsd-tools commit "docs: create milestone v[X.Y] roadmap ([N] phases)" --files .planning/ROADMAP.md .planning/STATE.md .planning/REQUIREMENTS.md
```
## 11. Done
```
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
GSD ► MILESTONE INITIALIZED ✓
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
**Milestone v[X.Y]: [Name]**
| Artifact | Location |
| ------------ | --------------------------- |
| Project | `.planning/PROJECT.md` |
| Research | `.planning/research/` |
| Requirements | `.planning/REQUIREMENTS.md` |
| Roadmap | `.planning/ROADMAP.md` |
**[N] phases** | **[X] requirements** | Ready to build ✓
## ▶ Next Up
**Phase [N]: [Phase Name]** - [Goal]
`/gsd-discuss-phase [N] ${GSD_WS}` - gather context and clarify approach
`/new` first → fresh context window
Also: `/gsd-plan-phase [N] ${GSD_WS}` - skip discussion, plan directly
```
- [ ] PROJECT.md updated with Current Milestone section
- [ ] STATE.md reset for new milestone
- [ ] MILESTONE-CONTEXT.md consumed and deleted (if existed)
- [ ] Research completed (if selected) - 4 parallel agents, milestone-aware
- [ ] Requirements gathered and scoped per category
- [ ] REQUIREMENTS.md created with REQ-IDs
- [ ] gsd-roadmapper spawned with phase numbering context
- [ ] Roadmap files written immediately (not draft)
- [ ] User feedback incorporated (if any)
- [ ] Phase numbering mode respected (continued or reset)
- [ ] All commits made (if planning docs committed)
- [ ] User knows next step: `/gsd-discuss-phase [N] ${GSD_WS}`
**Atomic commits:** Each phase commits its artifacts immediately.