Tandem: triage-backlog (PM hat)

Operate as PM hat. The user wants to know which BACKLOG items are still worth holding — not whether they are ready (that is /tandem:refine-backlog's DoR gate), but whether they are still true: does the claim still reproduce at HEAD, did a later epic already deliver it, does another item say the same thing, has the premise evaporated?

Operating principle: a triage that kills items is worth more than one that promotes them; only work carrying a real testable claim earns a story. Status fields lag reality — the known failure modes are items silently completed by later epics, and items partially delivered under their own name without the file being updated.

triage-backlog vs refine-backlog (do not blur)

Triage runs first. Its survivors are refine-backlog's input.

Inputs needed

• Either:
  • One or more BACKLOG paths (_00-Project-Management/11-Backlog/BACKLOG-NNNN-<slug>.md).
  • A scope: "the whole backlog", "everything not-started", "items older than N days", "EPIC-NN's intake items".
• If the user supplied nothing, default to every not-started BACKLOG item — a full-corpus triage is the normal cadence, not the exception.

Load into context

Use Read / Glob to detect existence. Treat missing files as "not present" rather than throwing.

• Target item(s) — end-to-end, including tranche checklists and acceptance sections.
• The tree at HEAD — the artefacts, scripts, or behaviours each item's claim names. The claim decides what to open; do not skip this because the item "looks obviously open".
• Git history — git log --oneline -- <named-paths> for evidence that work shipped after the item was captured.
• ADR folder — _00-Project-Management/40-Decisions/ for decisions that supersede or invalidate an item's premise.
• Sibling backlog items — for duplicate/merge detection across the corpus.
• SOP — _00-Project-Management/90-Standards/SOP.md §15 (sunset rule).
• Most recent prior triage report — glob _00-Project-Management/41-Reports/audits/backlog-triage-*.md; re-verify, never inherit, its verdicts.
• Project root CLAUDE.md — for project-specific overrides.

Verdict set (closed — one per item)

• STILL-VALID — the claim reproduces at HEAD. Status unchanged.
• ALREADY-DELIVERED — the work shipped. Under the item's own claim → propose done; under a different artefact's name → propose duplicate with the superseding artefact named.
• PARTIAL — a named tranche shipped, remainder stands. Annotate delivered-vs-remaining in the item file; status stays not-started.
• DUPLICATE / MERGE-CANDIDATE — another open item carries the same claim. Propose duplicate on the weaker item, or record a merge group ("one decision, not several stories").
• OBSOLETE — the premise no longer exists (feature removed, decision reversed, envelope re-pinned). Propose wontfix or archived per SOP §15.
• DECISION-ONLY — needs an operator ruling, not code. Surface the decision; take no action silently.
• TRIGGER-GATED — the item's own text defers it behind a named trigger. Verify the trigger has not fired; leave.
• PRODUCT-BET — PRD-level scope, not story-level. Route toward /tandem:draft-prd or an epic split; do not story-ify.

Task

1. Resolve the target set. Read each item end-to-end.
2. Per item, extract the testable claim — what the item asserts is broken, missing, or needed. An item with no extractable claim is itself a finding (OBSOLETE or DECISION-ONLY).
3. Verify the claim against HEAD, not against the item's own prose: open the named files, run the named probes where runnable, check git history for delivery, check ADRs for supersession. Record one line of evidence per verdict (commit hash, file:line, probe output, ADR id).
4. Check the item against its siblings for duplicate claims and merge groups.
5. Apply the sunset lens (SOP §15): not-started > 90 days with no movement and no live trigger → propose retirement, not perpetual holding.
6. Assemble the verdict table (see Output rules) and show it before touching any file.
7. Apply changes per the status-flip rules below.
8. Write the triage report to _00-Project-Management/41-Reports/audits/backlog-triage-<YYYY-MM-DD>.md (frontmatter: title:, type: report, generated_at:): verdict summary table, partials with delivered-vs-remaining, merge groups, decisions owed to the operator, and the post-triage shortlist of items that earn refinement — each with priority, estimate, and any known DoR gaps, not silently promoted.
9. Run npm run pm:lint; if any item file changed, regenerate the dashboard (npm run pm:dash) and add a MONITOR revision-history line.

Status-flip rules (evidence-gated, never silent)

• Annotations are free: PARTIAL delivered-vs-remaining notes, stale-title corrections, and trigger records may be written directly into item files during the pass.
• Terminal flips are gated: flipping to done / duplicate / wontfix / archived requires the evidence line in the verdict table AND operator confirmation from that table — never flip terminal status in the same breath as discovering the evidence.
• A duplicate flip MUST name the superseding artefact in the item body (one sentence, e.g. "Superseded by STORY-NN.M.PP") or a superseded_by: field — validator W6 flags a bare duplicate (and a bare wontfix).
• Terminal flips set completed_at atomically in the same edit as the status: flip. Never touch started_at.
• Status enum is closed (not-started | ready | in-progress | in-review | done | blocked | wontfix | duplicate | archived) — do not invent triage states in frontmatter; verdicts live in the report, statuses in the enum.

Output rules

• Verdict table first, files second. Columns: Item · Verdict · Evidence · Proposed action.
• Never promote. No verdict here flips anything to ready — route survivors to refine-backlog.
• Never re-file killed claims. An item ruled ALREADY-DELIVERED or OBSOLETE does not get a fresh BACKLOG entry restating it.
• Prefer merges over multiplication: where 2–3 items share a root cause, record one merge group rather than three refinement candidates.
• A worked full-corpus example (72 items, four parallel verification passes, verdict counts, merge groups, shortlist-with-gaps) lives at _00-Project-Management/41-Reports/audits/backlog-triage-2026-08-28.md — match its report shape when in doubt.

Non-negotiable rules from CLAUDE.md

• Frontmatter timestamps — terminal flips set completed_at in the same edit; nothing else changes timestamps.
• Status enum — closed 9 values; verdicts are report vocabulary, not new statuses.
• Bug-auto-raise — if verifying a claim exposes a live defect (not just a stale item), file the BUG in the same response.
• Dashboard currency — any artefact change ends with pm:lint clean and pm:dash regenerated.

End-of-session summary (always emit)

• Items triaged: N (of M in scope)
• Verdicts: STILL-VALID x · ALREADY-DELIVERED x · PARTIAL x · DUPLICATE x · OBSOLETE x · DECISION-ONLY x · TRIGGER-GATED x · PRODUCT-BET x
• Terminal flips applied (with evidence): list, or "none — awaiting operator confirmation"
• Merge groups recorded: list
• Decisions owed to the operator: list
• Report written: 41-Reports/audits/backlog-triage-<date>.md
• Refinement shortlist (with DoR gaps): top 3–5 items

Next command

Next: /tandem:refine-backlog — run the DoR gate over the shortlist survivors.

Or, if the triage surfaced PRD-level scope: /tandem:draft-prd.