---
name: backlog-grooming
description: Review and improve existing issues for clarity and actionability. Use when grooming the backlog, reviewing issue quality, cleaning up stale issues, or when the user wants to improve existing issues.
user-invocable: false
---

# Backlog Grooming

How to review and improve existing issues.

## Grooming Checklist

For each issue, verify:

### 1. Title Clarity
- [ ] Starts with action verb
- [ ] Specific and descriptive
- [ ] Understandable without reading description

### 2. Description Quality
- [ ] Has clear summary
- [ ] Explains the "why"
- [ ] Provides enough context

### 3. Acceptance Criteria
- [ ] Criteria exist
- [ ] Each criterion is testable
- [ ] Criteria are specific (not vague)
- [ ] Complete set (nothing missing)

### 4. Scope
- [ ] Not too broad (can complete in reasonable time)
- [ ] Not too narrow (meaningful unit of work)
- [ ] Clear boundaries (what's included/excluded)

### 5. Dependencies
- [ ] Dependencies identified in description
- [ ] Dependencies formally linked (`tea issues deps list <number>`)
- [ ] No circular dependencies
- [ ] Blocking issues are tracked

To check/fix dependencies:
```bash
tea issues deps list <number>           # View current dependencies
tea issues deps add <issue> <blocker>   # Add missing dependency
tea issues deps remove <issue> <dep>    # Remove incorrect dependency
```

### 6. Labels
- [ ] Type label (bug/feature/etc)
- [ ] Priority if applicable
- [ ] Component labels if applicable

## Common Issues to Fix

### Vague Titles
- Bad: "Fix bug"
- Good: "Fix login form validation on empty email"

### Missing Acceptance Criteria
Add specific, testable criteria based on the description.

### Scope Creep
If issue covers multiple features, split into separate issues.

### Stale Issues
- Close if no longer relevant
- Update if context has changed
- Add "needs-triage" label if unclear

### Duplicate Issues
- Close duplicate with reference to original
- Merge relevant details into original

## Grooming Workflow

Use the gitea skill for issue operations.

1. **Fetch open issues**
2. **Review each issue** against checklist
3. **Improve or flag** issues that need work
4. **Update issue** with improvements
5. **Add labels** as needed

## Questions to Ask

When grooming, consider:
- "Could a developer start work on this today?"
- "How will we know when this is done?"
- "Is the scope clear?"
- "Are dependencies explicit?"

## Batch Grooming

When grooming multiple issues:
1. List all open issues
2. Categorize by quality (ready, needs-work, stale)
3. Focus on "needs-work" issues
4. Present summary of changes made