/next-steps — Propose the Next Feature (Product Owner)

You are running an advisory ceremony, not a gated one. The Product Owner looks at where the project actually stands and proposes what to build next — the user picks, tweaks, or discards it. Nothing here gets written to .spark/ and nothing needs approval; the output is a recommendation to carry into /story-time or /spark.

Input

None required. Optionally the user may point at a theme or constraint (e.g. "something small", "focus on the API") — pass it through to the agent as a steer, not a fixed answer.

Steps

1. Gather the loop state yourself — don't delegate this. The product-owner agent cannot run git or walk .spark/. Collect a brief before invoking it:
   • git log --oneline -20 (and further back if the project is young) for what actually shipped and when.
   • Every .spark/<feature-name>/ directory: for spec.md, plan.md, review.md, qa.md where present, read each artifact's Handoff block first — a bounded read, not the whole file. Status, Summary/ Verdict and Open items are enough to classify the feature as shipped (released), shipped-pending-approval (handed-off — closed for this team, never resumed), in-flight (mid-loop, no open blocking findings), or stalled (open review/QA findings, or untouched for a while).
   • Any unresolved findings sitting in the newest review.md or qa.md — these are open points, not just status flags. The block's Open field already names the Blocker/Major IDs; read the specific finding's row in §3 Findings only for the ones you need described in the brief, not the whole report.
   • .spark/constitution.md if it exists — its Product Principles and Project Profile sections are the standing goals a proposal should serve.
   • If .spark/constitution.md doesn't exist, recommend /charter first — before proposing anything — and continue to step 2 only on the user's explicit skip; never invoke /charter yourself. This holds whether the repo is empty or already has shipped history: a codebase without a constitution has as much reason to start there as an empty one. On an empty .spark/ with trivial git history and no constitution, still name /charter rather than only saying "there's nothing to propose from" — the honest move used to be asking the user for an idea outright; now it's pointing at the ceremony built for exactly that gap.
   • If nothing exists yet in .spark/ and git history is empty or trivial, say so plainly — there is no "state" to read yet — and ask the user for the first idea rather than fabricate one. This is unrelated to whether /charter was offered or skipped — bullet 1 above already sends a skip straight to step 2, with whatever brief step 1 could gather; this bullet only covers the separate case where that brief would be empty regardless. A repo where a constitution already exists is untouched by either bullet above and falls straight through to step 2, exactly as it did before this feature — the Product Owner's own propose-mode rule already asks for missing context when the brief is too thin (see its ## Proposing the Next Feature step 6), so nothing here needs to intercept that case.
   • Ticket system (best effort). Try gh issue list --state all --json number,title,state,labels,milestone,body,closedAt --limit 200 (or glab issue list, or a ticket MCP) and gh pr list --state all --json number,title,state,body,mergedAt,headRefName --limit 200. Capture labels, "blocked by" / "depends on" / "#N" references, milestones and linked PRs. If no tool works, note once for the closing report: "Could not see the tickets" (one line by design, aSPARK issue #110: a deliberate exception to aSPARK's own silent-fallback rule, waived by its maintainer) — then skip the maturity ticket count, triage and gap bullets below (no issue list means every function would look like a gap) and behave as before this feature.
   • Project maturity. Classify as greenfield (a constitution exists, little or no code, few or no tickets), building or mature, from git ls-files size, git log depth, .spark/ history and ticket count. State the class and the evidence for it in the brief.
   • Ticket triage. From the open issues: drop any whose linked PR is merged (report as "done, close it" — never recommend it, never close it yourself, AC-4). An open issue is ready when everything it is blocked by / depends on is closed. Among ready issues prefer the one that unblocks others and fits the current phase. A blocked issue is never the pick while its blocker is open: the blocker is (AC-2).
   • Ticket gaps. Compare the constitution (Product Principles, §9, quality bars, active lenses), ROADMAP.md and .spark/ specs with the open and closed issues. A function described there that no issue covers is a gap; a function an open issue covers is not (AC-3). Each gap carries its source, e.g. constitution.md §3.
2. Delegate to the Product Owner. Invoke the product-owner agent in its propose mode (see its ## Proposing the Next Feature section): give it the brief from step 1 verbatim (shipped list, in-flight/stalled features with their open points, constitution excerpt or "none", the project maturity class with its evidence, the open issues with their blockers and linked PRs, the "done, close it" list, the gap list with sources, and whether the tickets were reachable), plus any user steer. Point it at .spark/constitution.md if present.
3. Relay, don't guess. If the agent asks clarifying questions before it can propose anything sensible (e.g. the constitution is missing and the product's purpose is unclear), put them to the user, then re-invoke with the answers.
4. Present the result as a conversation, not a report dump. Show the recommended feature with its one-paragraph rationale (what gap it closes, why now, rough size, what it displaces), plus up to two alternatives the agent considered and rejected. Lead with the recommendation, not the list. Type the recommendation on its first line as exactly one of existing #N, gap (new ticket, with source) or foundation. Then list up to two alternatives, then the remaining gaps as a short list (each with its source), then any "done, close it" issues. If the tickets were not reachable, say so once, here in this closing report and nowhere else. If the issue list loaded but the PR list did not, say that merged PRs could not be checked. Machine-readable block for the Factory. Only when agent.yaml exists in the repo or the caller asks for it (a plain interactive run stays free of it): end the report with one JSON object in a fenced json block: {"type": "existing|gap|foundation", "title": "...", "summary": "...", "source": "constitution.md §x", "existing_issue": 42}. existing_issue (integer) is optional and set only when type is existing; the Factory then labels and works that issue instead of filing a duplicate. Omit the key entirely otherwise (never null). (The Factory-side parsing lives in the aSPARK-Factory repo.)
5. Let the user decide. They may: accept the recommendation as-is, ask for a different angle (re-invoke the agent with the steer), pick an alternative, or reject all of them and bring their own idea instead.
6. Hand off on confirmation. Once the user has settled on an idea (whichever source), ask whether to continue straight into /story-time <idea> or the full /spark <idea> loop, and invoke it if they say yes. Do not invoke either automatically — this skill only produces the idea.

Rules

• Foundation first on greenfield. Before any feature, propose foundation work derived from the constitution's stack and quality bars: an architecture decision or walking skeleton, project layout, test harness and CI. Reuse an open foundation ticket if one exists (existing #N).
• An existing ticket wins over a new idea of the same size.
• Never close issues and never file gap tickets here; a backlog is filed only on explicit request (/backlog).
• Ticket reading is best effort prompt material, not a guarantee.
• If the user wants a whole backlog filed as issues rather than one recommendation, point to /backlog; this skill stays read-only.
• Never write or modify files under .spark/ — this ceremony produces a recommendation in conversation, not an artifact.
• Never treat the agent's proposal as chosen. It is a suggestion until the user says which one (or their own idea) to run with.
• If every existing feature is released or handed-off and nothing is stalled, say that explicitly before proposing something new — a clean state is worth naming, not skipped past.
• If a stalled feature (open review/QA findings, or a plan sitting unbuilt) exists, the agent must weigh finishing it against starting something new as one of the candidates — half-shipped work is a real cost.

Handoff

• User picks a proposal or brings their own idea → /story-time <idea> or /spark <idea>, on their explicit go.
• No idea survives, or the user wants to think first → stop here; nothing to persist.