Roadmap Timeline

Generates a complete, self-contained HTML visualization by (1) interviewing the user or parsing their data, (2) constructing and validating a JSON document, then (3) rendering that JSON into HTML using assets/roadmap-timeline-template.html. The JSON is the authoritative source of truth; the HTML is fully determined by it.

Step 1: Determine the Data Source

Check what the user has already provided before asking anything:

• SharePoint lists: Call list_items on the relevant lists. Read all needed columns before proceeding.
• CSV or table pasted in chat: Parse all rows. Do not ask for data you already have.
• Verbal description only: Proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Interview the User

If the data or intent is not fully clear, ask these questions in a single message — not one at a time:

1. Topic: What is this timeline about? (e.g., "Q3 product launch plan," "cloud migration phases," "new employee onboarding")
2. Date range: What is the overall span? (start and end dates for the full view)
3. Swimlanes / tracks: Are there parallel workstreams or teams? (e.g., "Engineering," "Product," "Marketing") If yes → roadmap mode. If items are point-in-time events only → milestones mode.
4. Items: List the phases or milestones with their dates, owners, and status.
5. Palette: Warm paper (cream/terra-cotta), deep ink (dark/gold), clean white (white/green), or slate (gray/blue)? Default to slate for roadmaps, warm-paper for milestone lists.
6. Footer: Any footer text (date, project name, audience)?

Confirm your understanding before building the JSON.

Step 3: Choose the Rendering Mode

Roadmap mode — use when items have start and end date ranges (duration blocks):

• Items span days, weeks, or months
• Multiple parallel workstreams exist (or a single flat track is still cleaner as roadmap)
• The user mentions "phases," "sprints," "quarters," "swimlanes," or "gantt"

Milestones mode — use when items are point-in-time events:

• Items have a single date (no duration)
• The user mentions "milestones," "deliverables," "checkpoints," "onboarding steps," or "run of show"

When data is mixed (some ranges, some points), use roadmap mode and mark point-in-time items as "milestone": true.

Step 4: Build and Validate the JSON Document

Construct the JSON object. Full schema:

report object

mode string

"roadmap" or "milestones".

swimlanes array (roadmap mode only)

items array

Date-to-Percentage Computation (roadmap mode)

The skill pre-computes all layout positions as percentages. No JavaScript is required for positioning — all values are embedded in the HTML as inline styles.

Rules:

• Clamp all results to 0.00–100.00
• Round to 2 decimal places
• Minimum rendered width for any block: 1.50% (so very short items are always visible)
• If item_end equals item_start, treat the item as a milestone (diamond) regardless of the milestone flag

Today's date is known from the system context. If today falls outside the date range, omit the today-line entirely.

Validation Checklist

Run every check before rendering. Fix any failure before proceeding.

Document level:

• mode is "roadmap" or "milestones"
• report.palette is one of: warm-paper, deep-ink, clean-white, slate
• items array has at least one entry
• Roadmap mode: report.date_range_start and report.date_range_end are present and parseable as ISO dates
• Roadmap mode: date_range_end is after date_range_start
• Roadmap mode: swimlanes array has at least one entry

Per item:

• id is unique within the items array
• title is present and non-empty
• start is a valid ISO date string
• Roadmap mode: end is present and not before start
• status is one of: on-track, at-risk, delayed, complete, planned
• Roadmap mode: swimlane_id references a valid swimlane id
• dependencies entries (if present) each reference a valid item id
• item_left_pct + item_width_pct does not exceed 101 (floating-point tolerance)

Computation check:

• All percentage values computed and clamped to 0–100
• Milestone items have item_width_pct = 0 (rendered as diamonds, not blocks)
• Today-line computed only when today is within the date range

Step 5: Render the HTML

Read assets/roadmap-timeline-template.html.

For both modes:

1. Replace {{REPORT_TITLE}} in <title> with a concise page title.
2. Replace {{PALETTE_CLASS}} on <body> with palette- + palette name.
3. Replace {{HEADER}} with the .rpt-header strip (title, subtitle, date range).
4. Replace {{CONTENT}} with the full rendered visualization (roadmap or milestones).
5. Replace {{FOOTER}} with footer text (or empty string).
6. Replace {{INLINE_SCRIPT}} with any enhancement JS (tooltip hover, palette switcher if needed).

See references/components.md for the exact HTML structure of each mode.

Roadmap Mode Rendering

Generate the month-marker ruler, then one .swimlane row per swimlane entry. Within each row:

• Render phase blocks as <div class="phase-block status-{status}"> with inline left and width percentage styles.
• Render milestone items as <div class="milestone-diamond status-{status}"> with inline left percentage style.
• Render the today-line as <div class="today-line"> with inline left percentage style (omit if today is out of range).

Milestones Mode Rendering

Group items by phase (if phases are named in description or a group field is provided). For each item render a .milestone-card with a date badge, status dot, title, owner, and description.

Hard Constraints

• No external URLs, CDN links, or web fonts in the output HTML.
• No <script src> tags. All JavaScript must be inline.
• All data values must be pre-rendered into the HTML — the page must be fully correct with JavaScript disabled. JS adds tooltips and animations but must never be required for correctness.
• Do not generate Python, PowerShell, or any other scripts — output is always the HTML file.
• Do not render until the validation checklist passes.
• Owner fields must be plain text — no Person column types.