abilityai/trinity-skills/work-loop

Work Loop

ℹ️ First, set expectations: before anything else, print one short line with this skill's version and its most recent change — the top entry of metadata.changelog above — e.g. work-loop vX.Y — recent: <summary>. Then proceed.

Autonomous skill that picks one issue from the backlog, executes it, and exits. The scheduler re-invokes it for the next issue — one issue per context window.

Purpose

Run on a schedule (or manually) to autonomously advance the agent's task backlog. Each invocation handles exactly one issue, keeping context focused and noise-free. The cron handles iteration; this skill handles execution.

State Dependencies

Prerequisites

• gh CLI authenticated
• Repository has required labels (status:todo, status:in-progress, priority:*)
• Agent has skills to handle the types of issues in backlog

Process

Step 1: Check for In-Progress Work

gh issue list --label "status:in-progress" --state open --json number,title,body,labels --limit 1

If an issue is in-progress:

• This is the current task
• Parse the issue body for requirements
• Continue working on it (skip to Step 3)

If no in-progress work, proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Pick Next Task

Find highest priority todo:

# P0 first
gh issue list --label "priority:p0" --label "status:todo" --state open --json number,title,body,labels --limit 1
 
# Then P1
gh issue list --label "priority:p1" --label "status:todo" --state open --json number,title,body,labels --limit 1
 
# Then P2
gh issue list --label "priority:p2" --label "status:todo" --state open --json number,title,body,labels --limit 1
 
# Then any todo
gh issue list --label "status:todo" --state open --json number,title,body,labels --limit 1

If no tasks found:

• Log: "Backlog empty. Work loop complete."
• Exit successfully

If task found:

• Move to in-progress:

``bash gh issue edit $NUMBER --remove-label "status:todo" --add-label "status:in-progress" gh issue comment $NUMBER --body "Starting work on this issue." ``

Step 3: Execute Task

Parse the issue body to understand requirements. The issue should contain:

• Clear description of what needs to be done
• Acceptance criteria (if applicable)
• Any relevant context

Determine execution approach:

Check for a skill:* label on the issue first:

• `skill:*` label present: This issue requires modifying or creating a skill file — it needs human input via /sprint. Mark it blocked:

``bash gh issue edit $NUMBER --remove-label "status:in-progress" --add-label "status:blocked" gh issue comment $NUMBER --body "Blocked: skill development issue — requires human sprint (/sprint #$NUMBER)" `` Continue to the next issue.

• No skill label (project-level): Determine approach:

1. Skill invocation: If the issue references a specific skill (e.g., "run /groom" or "run /roadmap"), invoke that skill
2. Direct execution: If the task is clear and doesn't require wizard tools, execute directly
3. Sub-agent delegation: For complex research or analysis tasks, spawn an Agent

Add progress comments as work proceeds:

gh issue comment $NUMBER --body "Progress: $UPDATE"

Handle blockers: If the task cannot be completed:

• Add blocker comment explaining why
• Move to blocked status:

``bash gh issue edit $NUMBER --remove-label "status:in-progress" --add-label "status:blocked" gh issue comment $NUMBER --body "Blocked: $REASON" ``

• Continue to next task

Step 4: Complete Task

When task is done:

gh issue comment $NUMBER --body "## Completed
 
$SUMMARY_OF_WORK_DONE
 
---
*Completed by agent work-loop*"
 
gh issue edit $NUMBER --remove-label "status:in-progress" --add-label "status:done"
gh issue close $NUMBER --reason completed

Outputs

• Issues processed (moved from todo → done)
• Progress comments on each issue
• Completion summaries on closed issues
• Blocked issues flagged with reasons

Error Recovery

Completion Checklist

• [ ] Checked for in-progress work
• [ ] Picked next task by priority
• [ ] Added progress comments
• [ ] Closed completed issue with summary
• [ ] Logged final status