dev-tasks — the capture-inbox manager for Ralphy dev work

This is a maintainer skill. It does not touch .ralphy/workspaces/<ws>/projects/ or call media models. It curates the notes/ capture inbox that tracks Ralphy's own development. notes/ is the only tracker — there is no separate roadmap board.

• Inbox — notes/ideas/, notes/issues/, notes/decisions/. Free-form, monotonic-numbered (NNN-slug.md). The landing zone for any dev thought.
• notes/issues/ is the live backlog, status-by-folder: flat top level = active, done/ = resolved/landed, deprecated/ = superseded/won't-do.

The contract lives in notes/README.md. Read it before your first capture or move in a session — this skill is the operator, that file is the law.

Division of labor with dev-issues / dev-loop

• This skill (dev-tasks) owns ideas/ + decisions/ capture and the cross-inbox collision check.
• dev-issues owns the notes/issues/ backlog: decomposing a brain-dump into well-shaped issue files, shaping them, filing/updating them. Read .agents/skills/dev-issues/SKILL.md before doing any non-trivial issue work — don't duplicate its job here.
• dev-loop owns issue execution (pick → implement → move to done/).

When a captured idea matures into something actionable, promote it into a notes/issues/ item (per notes/README.md) and hand the shaping/execution to dev-issues / dev-loop.

Trigger

Hard triggers (always act):

• User types /dev-tasks.
• "log this / file this / capture this" + an idea, bug, or design thought about Ralphy itself.
• "record this decision" / "promote this note".
• "what's in the inbox" / "what's open".
• "is there already a note/idea for X" → run the collision check and report.

ALSO FIRE (proactively, offer — don't auto-execute)

• The user surfaces a design idea mid-dev-session and moves on without filing it → offer to capture it before it's lost.
• A note in notes/ideas/ has clearly matured (concrete acceptance criteria, no open questions) → offer to promote it into a notes/issues/ item.

DO NOT FIRE

• User is in user mode (making a video / operating the CLI on their behalf). This skill is dev-only.
• The thought is about a .ralphy/workspaces/<ws>/projects/<id> artifact → that's a project log / postmortem, not the inbox.
• A long unstructured brain-dump the user wants decomposed into many issues → that's dev-issues.
• Execute an open issue → that's dev-loop.

Hard invariants

1. Collision-check before every create. No exceptions. A new idea/issue/decision is only created after the COLLISION-CHECK step comes back empty. If it overlaps an existing entity, update that entity instead. Proliferating near-duplicate entities is the exact failure this skill exists to prevent.
2. English only on disk. Every note, frontmatter field, and slug lands in English (per docs/developing-ralphy.md). The user may tag you in Russian — translate/paraphrase before writing. Gate before commit: rg --pcre2 '\p{Cyrillic}' notes/ must be empty.
3. One entity, one place. A thing lives in exactly one inbox folder. Promoting an idea to an issue means deleting the idea note in the same commit (git history preserves the rationale).
4. Numbering is monotonic. NNN is allocated once and never renumbered or reused. For notes/issues/ count across active + done/ + deprecated/; never reuse a number freed by a move.
5. notes/issues/ status = folder. Resolving an issue git mvs it into done/; abandoning one git mvs it into deprecated/. Always sync the > **Status:** line with the folder in the same edit. New active issues are filed at the flat top level only.
6. Don't invent acceptance criteria. If a thought isn't sharp enough for concrete criteria, it stays a notes/ideas/ note. The inbox exists precisely so the backlog stays executable.

Workflow

CAPTURE — file a tagged thought

1. Classify the thought:
   • Proposed feature / refactor / dependency swap, not yet scoped → notes/ideas/.
   • Known bug / gap / surprise, or a scoped actionable change → notes/issues/ (flat top level). For a multi-item brain-dump, hand off to dev-issues.
   • Informal design discussion (not yet a settled decision) → notes/decisions/.
2. Run COLLISION-CHECK (below). If a match exists, update it and stop.
3. Allocate the number. ls notes/<folder>/ | tail -1 and increment (monotonic per folder; for issues/ count across active + done/ + deprecated/).
4. Write the file in the canonical shape — note shape from notes/README.md. Keep notes under ~300 words; if it's longer and actionable, it's already an issue (file via dev-issues shape, with a ## Scope / acceptance section).
5. Report the path created and any near-misses the collision check surfaced.

COLLISION-CHECK — the anti-duplication gate (run before every CAPTURE)

1. Extract 2–4 keywords from the thought (verb name, file, concept — e.g. bytecode, cost forecast, smart-crop).
2. Search the inbox (all of it, including the issues archive):

   rg -il '<keyword>' notes/ideas notes/issues notes/decisions
   fd '<keyword>' notes        # slug-level match
   

3. Triage each hit:
   • Same entity, open → update it (append context, sharpen criteria). Do NOT create.
   • Same entity, in notes/issues/done/ or deprecated/ → the idea recurred. Read the resolution first; if it's genuinely new scope, file fresh and cross-link the prior file. If it's a re-litigation, point the user at the closed file.
   • Adjacent but distinct → file new, add a cross-link (see #NNN / [[NNN-slug]]) so the relationship is explicit.
   • No hit → safe to create.
4. When unsure whether two things are "the same entity" → surface both to the user with a one-line diff and let them decide. Better one question than two duplicate notes.

Cookbook

# Survey the inbox at a glance
for d in ideas issues decisions; do printf "%-10s %s\n" "$d" "$(fd -e md -d 1 . notes/$d | wc -l)"; done

# Active issues only (flat top level — the live backlog)
fd -d 1 -e md . notes/issues

# Collision check before filing a "cost forecast" idea
rg -il 'cost.forecast|forecast' notes

# Next free issue number (monotonic across active + done/ + deprecated/)
fd -e md . notes/issues | rg -o '[0-9]{3}' | sort -n | tail -1

# Next free idea number
ls notes/ideas/ | tail -1

# Pre-commit gates
rg --pcre2 '\p{Cyrillic}' notes/   # must be empty
bun run lint:skills                # if this skill itself was edited

Outputs

• A correctly-placed, correctly-shaped note (never a duplicate).
• For notes/issues/ moves: status reflected in BOTH the folder and the > **Status:** line.
• A short report per action: what was created/moved/closed, the path, and any near-collisions surfaced.

Note on layout

This skill targets the canonical inbox at repo-root notes/ (what notes/README.md, dev-issues, dev-loop, AGENTS.md, and docs/developing-ralphy.md reference). There is no roadmap board; if the inbox is ever relocated, update the paths in this skill's Workflow + Cookbook in the same change.