Next

Trace. On load, print first: =============== [manager/skills/next/SKILL.md] [manager] ===============

Next

Recommend the next backlog item to work on. A plain "what's next" returns the highest-priority backlog/not started roadmap row directly (fast-path, no dispatch); a "recommend an order" / "what should I pick" question dispatches the project-manager agent for dependency/risk/value sequencing and runs its returned pick gate. Does not contain recommendation logic — that lives in the agent and ../../knowledge/sequencing-heuristics.md. The dispatch → gate → re-render loop is the shared contract at ../../knowledge/roadmap-orchestration.md.

Goal

Tell the user what to build next — instantly for a plain "what's next", with dependency/risk/value reasoning when they ask for an ordering or selection — without manually reading roadmap state or invoking the agent directly.

Input

• None required. The roadmap is the entry point; the agent reads ambient state (roadmap, pitches, branches, specs) internally.
• The fast-path contract at ../../../core/knowledge/fast-path-source-of-truth.md — governs the Step 0 branch that answers a plain "what's next" directly from the roadmap before dispatch.

Steps

0. Fast-path branch: "what's next" → cited roadmap item (before dispatch). When the question shape is a plain "what's next" / "what's the next backlog item" (per ../../../core/knowledge/fast-path-source-of-truth.md §"Question-shape detection"), do NOT dispatch the agent. Get the highest-priority backlog/not_started item of the ${specs_root}/roadmap.yaml ledger and quote it inline with its file:line citation per the shared knowledge file's §"Citation format", then exit cleanly. Run the roadmap-row extractor (this repo: bash scripts/roadmap-row.sh, which prints that item + its path:line deterministically from the YAML — Pro-safe, zero model tokens) and quote its output — do not whole-file-read the ledger on this happy path. Only if the extractor exits non-zero (no ledger / no backlog item — its fallback contract) do you fall through to a model-side Read of ${specs_root}/roadmap.yaml. Reserve the full agent dispatch in Step 1 for explicit "recommend an order" / "what should I pick" / "sequence the backlog" questions — those need the agent's dependency/risk/value reasoning. Fall through to Step 1 — with an observable note — if the extractor reports no backlog item, the ledger is empty, or the question carries the ordering/sequencing intent above. Observable result: either the highest-priority backlog item is quoted with its file:line citation and the skill exits, or an observable fall-through note and Step 1 dispatches the agent.

1. Dispatch the project-manager and run its gate — per the shared contract. Dispatch the project-manager agent with an explicit intent (intent: recommend-next for "what should I pick", intent: sequence-backlog for "sequence the backlog") and run the returned pick gate per ../../knowledge/roadmap-orchestration.md. The agent returns the sequenced candidate list as a pending gate (each candidate + re-sequence / exit, top-ranked as the recommended default); this skill presents it via AskUserQuestion. No lsa:discover handoff — selecting a pick to decompose is manager:decompose's job. Observable result: sequenced recommendation delivered, pick gate resolved by the user.

Output

Either the highest-priority backlog row is quoted inline with a file:line citation (fast-path), or the agent's sequenced recommendation is delivered and the user's pick gate is resolved. No file writes — recommendation is read-only.

Example Output

[illustrative]

> what's next
.lsa/roadmap.yaml:21 — onboarding-checklist | Onboarding checklist | Should | backlog
(fast-path: highest-priority backlog item via scripts/roadmap-row.sh, no agent dispatch)

> what should I pick and why
Dispatching project-manager (intent: recommend-next)...
Sequenced (2 candidates): 1. onboarding-checklist (no deps, unblocks scaffold) / 2. plugin-scaffold (blocked).
Gate — pick next item: [1] onboarding-checklist (recommended) / [2] plugin-scaffold / re-sequence / exit

Constraints

• Orchestrator only — per ../../knowledge/roadmap-orchestration.md. Dispatch with an explicit intent, run the gate, re-render. No recommendation logic here.
• Recommend-only. This verb never writes the roadmap or hands off to lsa:discover. Use manager:decompose to break a pick into epics; manager:check for hygiene writes. Once a pick is decomposed into epics, manager:implement is the parallel build-execution entry point — it runs the epics in parallel (wave plan → isolated worktrees → gated PRs). Surfacing it here keeps the parallel engine findable from the recommend step (observation log C1 — entry-point discoverability, ../../../.lsa/observations/2026-06-17-tripanchor-manager-implement.md:83 "C1 — entry-point discoverability. manager:implement hard to find.").
• Outputs follow core/output — citation by link, never restated.

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/manager:next — manual invocation.