Break Down to Sub-tasks — Autonomous Agents Agentic Workflow

schema_version: 1
id: agent_pm_breakdown
title: "Break Down to Sub-tasks"
description: "Decompose an epic into child issues with dependency waves (using the board's own issue types), and reconcile them (create, update, remove) to match the thread — issues only, no portal Tasks, no dispatch"
overview: |
  A planning pass that turns an analyzed epic into its child issues (the ticket is usually the epic
  itself). The PM agent reads the epic and its ENTIRE comment thread — the analysis, the decisions and
  answers, and any prior context — grounds itself in the relevant skill packs and the codebase, then
  creates independently-shippable Jira issues under the epic (as many as the work needs, using the
  board's own issue types), each with acceptance criteria, a workspace, a suggested delivery playbook,
  and a size, linked by blocked-by / blocks into parallel waves.

  It is idempotent: an epic with no children gets a fresh set; an epic that already has children is
  reconciled to the latest decisions and answers — issues are added, updated, or removed — never
  duplicated. It maintains Jira issues ONLY — moving an issue into the portal Tasks pool is a separate
  one-click action, and engineering work runs there, not here. The verdict reports whether issues were
  created fresh or reconciled. Use it as the breakdown step of the goal-shaping flow, or standalone on
  any analyzed epic.

category:
  level: pipeline
  domain: engineering

metadata:
  agent: true
  role: pm

params:
  ticket_url:
    type: string
    description: "Jira epic URL (the ticket to break down; usually the epic itself)"
  hint:
    type: string
    default: ""
    description: "Optional extra instructions for the agent"
  entry_path:
    type: string
    default: "~/workspace"
    description: "Working directory for the agent"

steps:
  - type: terminal.open
    title: "Agent: PM Break Down"
    cwd: "{{entry_path}}"
  - type: terminal.run
    cmd: |
      source ~/.agent-env && claude --dangerously-skip-permissions "$(cat <<'SB_PROMPT'
      read the ticket with attachments and ALL comments - {{ticket_url}}; it is usually the epic itself. if it fails, stop and report the error.
      this pass creates and maintains JIRA ISSUES ONLY - not the portal Tasks pool (a separate one-click action).
      learn the area first - ground yourself in the relevant skill packs and the codebase before decomposing.
      following the analysis, decisions, and answers in the thread, decompose the epic into as many independently-shippable child issues as the work needs - do not cap the count; size each so it can ship on its own. use the same issue types the board already uses. for each issue give:
        - TITLE: outcome-focused
        - ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA: testable, one line each
        - WORKSPACE: the workspace / area it belongs to
        - SUGGESTED PLAYBOOK: the workflow that would deliver it (e.g. bug-fix, feature-impl)
        - SIZE: S / M / L
      set blocked-by / blocks links so the issues form parallel WAVES (wave 1 = no blockers).
      be idempotent and reconcile to the latest decisions and answers: create what is missing, update issues that changed, and delete or close issues that are no longer needed or that the thread asked to drop - never create duplicates.
      {{hint}}
      post ONE summary comment to the ticket: the issues created, updated, or removed (key + title) and the wave map.
      end with one line - "VERDICT:" followed by exactly one of ISSUES_CREATED (created fresh child issues) / ISSUES_RECONCILED (added to, updated, or pruned existing children) - and use these uppercase tokens nowhere else in the comment.
      SB_PROMPT
      )"