Backlog — ideas are recorded, not executed

Reply in the project conversation language (CLAUDE.md → Language); code, identifiers, paths and commit messages stay in English.

Template .claude/docs/templates/backlog.md; the roadmap format (.claude/docs/templates/roadmap.md) reserves production/backlog.md for ideas before their spec and production/decisions.md for owner decisions. In the commands below, <hooks> is .claude/hooks/ in copy mode and ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/hooks/ in plugin mode.

Write gate (every mode below that changes the file): render the new or changed entry in the chat, then "May I write production/backlog.md?" — one AskUserQuestion: write (Recommended) · adjust the wording · not now. After the "write" answer: touch .claude/.write-consent (rule 7 — the consent-guard hook checks the marker), then write. Then one commit gate: docs: backlog <what> staging exactly that file, on the branch git-workflow's documents lane prescribes. Record the gate before asking — <hooks>session-state.sh set Gate "/backlog <mode>: commit?" — and clear it after the answer (<hooks>session-state.sh set Gate "—").

Not initialised — no .claude/docs/ and no production/ → BLOCKED (not initialised — run /init), nothing written. An initialised project without production/backlog.md gets it created from the template at the first write.

Phase 0: What is an idea (rule for every skill and the main conversation)

A musing — "what if we…", "maybe we should…", "it would be nice…", or their equivalents in the conversation language, said while something else is in progress — is an idea, not an instruction. Nobody has decided anything yet, so nothing is implemented, drafted or planned in the same turn (CLAUDE.md principle 2; coordination-rules rule 11). The main conversation names it ("that is an idea, not part of the current story") and offers exactly this skill: /backlog add "<the idea in the user's words>". A proposal with a decision behind it ("add Redis for the session store") is /impact's business, not the backlog's; when unsure, record it here — promoting later costs one command, implementing an undecided idea costs a story.

Phase 1: add "<idea>"

1. Read production/backlog.md and take the next I-NNN.
2. Draft one entry: ### I-NNN · <title in ≤ 8 words> 💡, one line recorded YYYY-MM-DD, source: <conversation | user | incident INC-NNN | audit>, and the idea in one or two sentences in the user's words. Add the area (🏷 backend/frontend/game/infra/docs) when it is obvious. No analysis, no options, no estimate: that is what promotion is for.
3. A proposal passed to add (a concrete change with a decision behind it) is recorded as asked — the backlog never refuses — with one line saying that a concrete change is /impact's business; the next step then offers /backlog promote I-NNN → /impact.
4. Write gate and commit gate (docs: backlog I-NNN <title>).
5. Stop here. The recorded idea never becomes a task in this turn. If a story or skill was in progress, the hand-off returns to it ("back to /dev-story S-NNN (Recommended)").

Phase 2: review (weekly, or when /help shows Backlog: N ideas, oldest N days)

1. Render a table of open ideas: ID · title · recorded · age · area · marker (🅿 parked). Flag ideas older than 60 days without a decision.
2. Ideas that left sideways. An idea can leave the backlog without promote — the user ran /impact or /feature-spec on it directly — and the entry then stays open for weeks while the work is already done. An open entry whose text matches a spec, ADR or impact verdict written later is that case: name it and offer to close it with the link.
3. One AskUserQuestion per review, never per idea: promote one (name it) (Recommended when something is older than 30 days) · park/close some · nothing now.
4. Apply the answer through the matching mode below. With a write answer, also set last-review and Reviewed: to today (the template header; /help reads last-review), behind the write gate.

Ideas are never silently deleted: close keeps the line with [x] and the reason.

Phase 3: promote I-NNN · park I-NNN · close I-NNN <reason>

promote I-NNN — the idea goes through the pipeline it skipped.

1. Decide the route from the entry, not from its wording:
   • vague, no clear user or scope → /brainstorm "<title>";
   • a concrete change to code, architecture, security or deployment → /impact "<idea>" (its verifiers decide);
   • a user-visible feature the product spec allows → /feature-spec "<title>", it receives F-NNN;
   • a technical choice → /architecture-decision "<title>".
2. Hand off with one AskUserQuestion: the route chosen in step 1 (Recommended) · the other plausible routes · not now.
3. After the hand-off returns, mark the entry → promoted YYYY-MM-DD: [F-NNN](../docs/specs/features/…) (or the ADR / impact verdict) and tick it [x], behind the write gate ("May I update production/backlog.md?") and the commit gate. The promotion counts only once that line exists.

park I-NNN adds 🅿 and a date (and the reason, when given). close I-NNN <reason> ticks it [x] with the reason. Both go through the write gate and the commit gate.

Nothing here ever creates a story or writes code.

Verdict: COMPLETE (I-NNN recorded) | COMPLETE (review: N open, M promoted) | COMPLETE (I-NNN promoted → …) | BLOCKED (not initialised — run /init). Next step — one AskUserQuestion: return to the interrupted work (Recommended when something was in progress) · /backlog promote I-NNN (Recommended when a proposal was just recorded and nothing was in progress) · /backlog review · stop here.