Picking work

/rota-work (no argument) reconciles git state, surfaces any /rota-pause handoff note for active streams, presents the backlog (.rota/BACKLOG.md, or the tracker’s issues on the issue backend), and suggests work. /rota-work --preview <ID> lets you peek at the orchestrator’s plan before code lands.

/rota-work (no argument)

Before presenting results it:

1. Validates active branches and worktrees against git; stale entries get cleaned automatically.
2. Archives completions older than five days to ARCHIVE.md (file backend only; issues are closed on the tracker).
3. Shows the backlog sorted by priority and size, with a clusters section built from Related: links.
4. Suggests one item. P0 bugs jump the queue.

It also prints a Round: line when rota round status --json shows a round in flight, for example Round: in flight (2 slots, 1 awaiting review). With no handoff note it adds a line pointing at /rota-orchestrate. On the issue backend, each open issue labelled needs-human or changes-requested prints as <ID> failed its gate or review, again pointing at /rota-orchestrate. With no round and nothing parked, nothing extra is printed.

flowchart TD
    A["/rota-work (no argument)"] --> B[Reconcile status.json vs git]
    B --> C{Active streams?}
    C -->|Yes| D[Read handoff notes per stream]
    D --> E[Ask: resume / ship / abandon]
    E --> F[Archive completions older than 5d]
    C -->|No| F
    F --> G[Present backlog tables + clusters]
    G --> H[Suggest one item]
    H --> I{User picks…}
    I -->|Start| J["/rota-work"]
    I -->|Peek first| K["/rota-work --preview"]
    I -->|Different pick| H
    I -->|Stop| L[End]

After you confirm the pick, /rota-work (no argument) routes you to running work via /rota-work.

Example:

/rota-work

Output: the backlog table plus a suggestion, e.g. Suggested next: B03 Fix auth token expiry (P0) and one sentence why (#42 instead of B03 on the issue backend). Answer y (or pick a different item) and work begins.

If the suggestion is a size-Major feature or a P0/P1 bug, /rota-work (no argument) offers /rota-work --preview as a question option before routing to /rota-work.

Items with a Related: field that share a cluster are listed together in the clusters section. The suggestion is a single item; to take a cluster as a batch, answer “Pick different items” and choose the set.

/rota-work –preview: peek before you commit

Prints the orchestrator’s intended approach for an item before any code is written. Read-only: no writes, no commits.

Output structure:

• One-paragraph approach summary
• Bulleted lists: Files I’d touch, Files I’d create, Hard boundaries to respect (when a DECISIONS.md topic matches), Tests I’d add, Assumptions I’m making, Known unknowns

Use it as a cheap gate before /rota-work on size-Major-or-larger items or P0/P1 bugs, where corrections after the fact are expensive. Review the output, then push back, ask for a durable plan (/rota-plan), or proceed to running work by re-invoking /rota-work without the flag.

Example:

/rota-work --preview F08

Output: specific file paths, test names, and function names the orchestrator would touch, not generic descriptions.

If a plan already exists (file backend: .rota/plans/<key>.md; issue backend: a note on the issue), the peek loads it as context and builds on it; it doesn’t reprint the plan. Without a plan, the output is an ad-hoc decomposition; reach for /rota-plan when alignment needs to survive beyond the current session.

How reconciliation keeps state honest

The status cache is a speed optimisation; git is the source of truth. Each /rota-work (no argument) run checks which branches and worktrees actually exist: deleted branches become stale entries and get cleaned up, removed worktrees get updated in kind. If state drifts (crashed session, manual git operations), the next /rota-work (no argument) run repairs it without manual intervention.