Increment Work Router – Smart Work Continuation

Purpose

The increment-work-router skill is an intelligent work continuation system that:

• ✅ Detects implementation/continuation intent (not just new projects)
• ✅ Checks for active increments automatically
• ✅ Routes to existing increment OR creates new one
• ✅ Bridges the gap between planning and execution

Key Insight: When user says “implement X” or “complete Y”, they expect the system to handle routing intelligently without manual commands.

When to Activate

This skill activates when user expresses implementation/continuation intent:

High-Confidence Triggers (Auto-Route)

Action Verbs (with specific target):

• “Implement [feature]”
• “Complete [task]”
• “Build [component]”
• “Add [functionality]”
• “Develop [module]”
• “Create [feature]”

Continuation Phrases:

• “Work on [feature]”
• “Continue [increment]”
• “Resume [work]”
• “Finish [task]”
• “Let’s implement [X]”
• “Let’s build [Y]”
• “Start working on [Z]”

Bug/Fix Intent:

• “Fix [issue]”
• “Resolve [bug]”
• “Address [problem]”

Medium-Confidence Triggers (Clarify)

Vague Intent (needs target clarification):

• “Let’s continue”
• “Keep working”
• “What’s next?”
• “Continue where we left off”

Don’t Activate For

Planning/Discussion (let other skills handle):

• “What should we build?” → increment-planner
• “How does X work?” → Regular conversation
• “Should we use Y?” → Technical discussion
• “Plan a new feature” → increment-planner

Already in Workflow:

• User is already executing /sw:do
• Increment planning is in progress
• Another skill is handling the request

Core Algorithm

Step 1: Detect Intent

Scan user message for implementation keywords:

Action verbs: implement, complete, build, add, develop, create
Continuation: work on, continue, resume, finish, start
Bug/Fix: fix, resolve, address

Calculate confidence:

• High (>80%): Action verb + specific target (“implement user auth”)
• Medium (50-80%): Action verb only (“let’s continue”)
• Low (<50%): No clear intent

Step 2: Check Active Increments

Read increment state:

# Find all increments with status = "active"
find .specweave/increments -name "metadata.json" -type f \
  -exec jq -r 'select(.status == "active") | .id' {} \;

Three scenarios:

1. One active increment → Check relevance and route
2. Multiple active increments → Ask user to select
3. No active increments → Suggest creating new one

Step 3: Check Relevance (if active increment exists)

Relatedness Analysis: Compare user’s request against active increment:

• Check increment title/description
• Check task list (tasks.md)
• Check spec.md for related features

Scoring:

• High match (>70%): Same feature area → Auto-resume
• Medium match (40-70%): Related area → Ask confirmation
• Low match (<40%): Unrelated → Suggest new increment

Step 4: Route Intelligently

Scenario A: High relevance to active increment

User: "Implement user authentication"
Active: 0031-user-authentication-system

✅ High match → Auto-resume:

"I see you have an active increment for user authentication (0031).
Resuming work on that increment now with /sw:do..."

[Automatically invokes /sw:do]

Scenario B: Unrelated to active increment

User: "Implement payment processing"
Active: 0031-user-authentication-system

⚠️  Low match → Ask:

"I see you have an active increment (0031-user-authentication-system).

Your request for payment processing seems unrelated. Would you like to:
1. **Create new increment** for payment processing (recommended)
2. **Continue current increment** (0031) and add payment to it
3. **Pause current** and create new increment

What would you prefer?"

Scenario C: No active increment

User: "Implement user authentication"
Active: None

→ Suggest new increment:

"No active increment found. Let's create one for user authentication.

I'm going to create a SpecWeave increment with:
- Specification (WHAT & WHY)
- Technical plan (HOW)
- Task breakdown (STEPS with embedded tests)

Creating increment now with /sw:increment..."

[Automatically invokes /sw:increment "user authentication"]

Scenario D: Multiple active increments

User: "Continue working"
Active: 0031-user-auth, 0032-payment-system

→ Ask to clarify:

"You have 2 active increments:
1. **0031-user-authentication-system** (3/10 tasks complete)
2. **0032-payment-processing** (1/8 tasks complete)

Which one would you like to work on?"

Scenario E: Vague continuation intent

User: "Let's continue"
Active: 0031-user-authentication-system

✅ Auto-resume (only one active):

"Resuming increment 0031-user-authentication-system...
Progress: 3/10 tasks complete (30%)

Next task: T-004 Implement password hashing

[Automatically invokes /sw:do]"

Integration Architecture

Workflow:

User: "Implement [feature]"
        ↓
increment-work-router (detects intent)
        ↓
[Check .specweave/increments/*/metadata.json]
        ↓
┌───────────────────┬──────────────────┬────────────────┐
│ Active increment  │ Multiple active  │ No active      │
│ (relevant)        │ (ambiguous)      │ (none)         │
└─────┬─────────────┴──────┬───────────┴──────┬─────────┘
      │                    │                  │
      ↓                    ↓                  ↓
/sw:do        Ask to select    /sw:increment
(auto-resume)        (clarify)        (create new)

Calls:

• /sw:do – Resume active increment
• /sw:increment – Create new increment
• /sw:status – Check increment state (if needed)
• /sw:tdd-cycle – TDD workflow (when TDD mode enabled)

Called By:

• Automatically when implementation intent detected
• Works alongside increment-planner (planning) and detector (context checking)

TDD-Aware Routing (CRITICAL)

When routing to an active increment, check TDD mode first:

# Check if increment uses TDD
CONFIG_PATH=".specweave/config.json"
METADATA_PATH=".specweave/increments/<id>/metadata.json"

# Check global config
TDD_MODE=$(cat "$CONFIG_PATH" | jq -r '.testing.defaultTestMode // "test-after"')

# Check increment-specific override
INCREMENT_TDD=$(cat "$METADATA_PATH" | jq -r '.testMode // ""')
[[ -n "$INCREMENT_TDD" ]] && TDD_MODE="$INCREMENT_TDD"

If TDD mode is enabled, modify routing behavior:

TDD-aware resume output:

✅ Resuming increment 0031-user-authentication-system...

🔴 TDD MODE ACTIVE

Current TDD Status:
├─ T-001: [RED] Write login test ✅ completed
├─ T-002: [GREEN] Implement login ⏳ in progress
└─ T-003: [REFACTOR] Clean up login ⏸️ blocked (waiting for GREEN)

Current Phase: 🟢 GREEN - Making test pass

💡 You're in the GREEN phase. Implement just enough to make T-001's test pass.
   After GREEN completes, you can proceed to REFACTOR.

[Proceeding with /sw:do...]

TDD workflow suggestion (for new work):

User: "Implement user registration"

🔴 TDD MODE DETECTED

This increment uses Test-Driven Development.

For new features, I recommend using the TDD workflow:
1. /sw:tdd-red "user registration" - Write failing test first
2. /sw:tdd-green - Implement to pass the test
3. /sw:tdd-refactor - Clean up the code

Would you like to:
1. Start TDD cycle (/sw:tdd-cycle) - Recommended
2. Continue with regular /sw:do - Skip TDD guidance

[1/2]:

Decision Matrix

Relevance Matching Logic

How to determine if request relates to active increment:

function calculateRelevance(userRequest: string, increment: Increment): number {
  let score = 0;

  // 1. Title/ID match (strongest signal)
  if (increment.title.toLowerCase().includes(extractKeywords(userRequest))) {
    score += 40;
  }

  // 2. Tasks match (check tasks.md)
  const tasks = readTasksFile(increment);
  const matchingTasks = tasks.filter(t =>
    t.title.toLowerCase().includes(extractKeywords(userRequest))
  );
  score += (matchingTasks.length / tasks.length) * 30;

  // 3. Spec match (check spec.md user stories)
  const spec = readSpecFile(increment);
  if (spec.includes(extractKeywords(userRequest))) {
    score += 20;
  }

  // 4. Type match (feature vs bug vs hotfix)
  const requestType = detectType(userRequest);
  if (requestType === increment.type) {
    score += 10;
  }

  return score; // 0-100
}

Example:

User: "Implement JWT token refresh"
Active: 0031-user-authentication-system

Checks:
✅ Title contains "authentication" (user mentions "JWT token") → +40 points
✅ Tasks.md has "T-005: Implement JWT refresh logic" → +30 points
✅ Spec.md mentions "token management" → +20 points
✅ Both are "feature" type → +10 points

Total: 100/100 → High relevance → Auto-resume

Examples

Example 1: Auto-Resume (High Relevance)

Context:

Active: 0031-user-authentication-system
Progress: 3/10 tasks complete

User:

Implement JWT token refresh

increment-work-router:

✅ Intent detected: "implement" + specific target
✅ Active increment found: 0031-user-authentication-system
✅ Relevance check: 95% match (authentication-related)

→ AUTO-RESUME

"I see you have an active increment for user authentication (0031).
Task T-005 'Implement JWT token refresh' is already in your plan.

Resuming increment 0031 now with /sw:do...

[Automatically invokes /sw:do]

Example 2: Create New (No Active Increment)

Context:

Active: None

User:

Implement payment processing with Stripe

increment-work-router:

✅ Intent detected: "implement" + specific target
❌ No active increment found

→ CREATE NEW

"No active increment found. Let's create one for payment processing.

I'm going to create a SpecWeave increment with:
- Specification (Stripe integration requirements)
- Technical plan (API integration, webhooks, security)
- Task breakdown (implementation steps with tests)

Creating increment now with /sw:increment...

[Automatically invokes /sw:increment "payment processing with Stripe"]

Example 3: Unrelated Request (Ask)

Context:

Active: 0031-user-authentication-system
Progress: 3/10 tasks complete

User:

Implement email notifications

increment-work-router:

✅ Intent detected: "implement" + specific target
✅ Active increment found: 0031-user-authentication-system
⚠️  Relevance check: 15% match (unrelated)

→ ASK FOR CLARIFICATION

"I see you have an active increment (0031-user-authentication-system) with 3/10 tasks complete.

Your request for email notifications seems unrelated. Would you like to:
1. **Create new increment** for email notifications (recommended - keeps work focused)
2. **Add to current increment** (0031) - if notifications are for auth emails
3. **Pause current increment** and start notifications

SpecWeave works best with focused increments. What would you prefer?"

Example 4: Multiple Active (Clarify)

Context:

Active: 0031-user-authentication-system (3/10 tasks)
Active: 0032-payment-processing (1/8 tasks)

User:

Let's continue working

increment-work-router:

✅ Intent detected: "continue" (vague)
✅ Multiple active increments found: 2

→ ASK TO SELECT

"You have 2 active increments:

1. **0031-user-authentication-system**
   - Progress: 3/10 tasks (30%)
   - Next: T-004 Implement password hashing

2. **0032-payment-processing**
   - Progress: 1/8 tasks (12%)
   - Next: T-002 Set up Stripe SDK

Which one would you like to work on?"

[Wait for user selection, then invoke /sw:do {selected-id}]

Example 5: Vague Intent + Single Active (Auto-Resume)

Context:

Active: 0031-user-authentication-system (3/10 tasks)

User:

What's next?

increment-work-router:

✅ Intent detected: "what's next" (continuation)
✅ One active increment: 0031-user-authentication-system

→ AUTO-RESUME

"Resuming increment 0031-user-authentication-system...
Progress: 3/10 tasks complete (30%)

Next task: **T-004 Implement password hashing**

[Automatically invokes /sw:do]"

Opt-Out Mechanism

Users can override auto-routing with explicit instructions:

• “Don’t resume, create new” → Forces new increment
• “Just discuss first” → Regular conversation
• “Plan without implementing” → Routes to /sw:increment only
• “Show me the current state” → Uses /sw:status instead

Success Criteria

• ✅ Users can say “implement X” and work starts automatically
• ✅ Smart routing to active increments (no manual /sw:do)
• ✅ Detects unrelated requests and prevents scope creep
• ✅ No “which increment?” confusion (auto-handles single active)
• ✅ Clear choices when ambiguous (multiple active or unrelated)
• ✅ Seamless integration with existing skills (increment-planner, detector)

Related Skills

• increment-planner: For creating increment structure (invoked by this skill for new projects)
• detector: For checking SpecWeave context

Key Distinction:

• increment-planner = “PLAN this increment” or “I want to BUILD a new product” (planning-level)
• increment-work-router = “IMPLEMENT this feature/task” (execution-level)

This skill bridges planning → execution by auto-detecting implementation intent.

Project-Specific Learnings

Before starting work, check for project-specific learnings:

# Check if skill memory exists for this skill
cat .specweave/skill-memories/increment-work-router.md 2>/dev/null || echo "No project learnings yet"

Project learnings are automatically captured by the reflection system when corrections or patterns are identified during development. These learnings help you understand project-specific conventions and past decisions.