Start Work

3. If a branch exists, check progress:

   git log --oneline main..<branch> | head -10

4. Classify each blocker:
   • Done — completed
   • In Progress (branch exists) — summarize what commits have been made and estimate how far along it is based on the blocker's acceptance criteria
   • Not Started — no branch, status is To Do

Step 3: Find story details in docs

Using the story ID from the Jira summary, grep docs/jira-epics-and-stories.md for it. Extract:

• Acceptance criteria
• Points and phase

Step 4: Load relevant architecture sections

Use the routing table in story-routing.md to determine which sections of docs/architecture.md are relevant based on the story ID prefix.

Read ONLY those sections from architecture.md. Do not read the entire file.

To extract a section, grep for the header and read from there to the next same-level header:

grep -n "^## " docs/architecture.md

Then use sed to extract the line range for each relevant section.

Step 5: Load implementation guide context

Read the relevant phase and person section from docs/implementation-guide.md:

• Determine which phase this story belongs to (from the Jira doc)
• Determine which person owns it
• Read just that phase+person subsection

Step 6: Check for related decisions

If the story references an ADR (e.g., "See ADR-6"), read just that ADR from docs/decisions.md.

Step 7: Present context

Output a focused brief:

## $ARGUMENTS: <summary>
<description + acceptance criteria from docs>

## Blockers
<for each dependency:>
  - <CUAI key>: <summary> — <status>
    <if branch exists: "Branch: <name>, <N> commits — <summary of work done>">
    <if In Progress: "Remaining: <what acceptance criteria are not yet done>">
<if any are not Done: "⚠️ BLOCKED — the following dependencies are not complete:">
<if all Done: "✅ All dependencies complete">

## Architecture context
<relevant sections, summarized to key specs the implementation needs>

## Implementation notes
<relevant guidance from the implementation guide>

## Key files to create/modify
<list the files this story touches based on the architecture doc>

Step 8: Ensure correct branch

Run git branch --show-current. Check if a branch for this ticket exists:

1. Check local:

   git branch --list "*$ARGUMENTS*"

2. If not found locally, check remote:

   git branch -r --list "*$ARGUMENTS*"

If any blockers are not Done AND no branch exists anywhere: Review the acceptance criteria, the blocker descriptions, and the progress on each blocker. Determine if any acceptance criteria can be worked on independently without the blockers being complete (e.g., writing parsing logic before the DB is ready, building UI components against mock data before the API exists). Also consider blocker progress — if a blocker is nearly done, work that depends on it may be safe to start.

If nothing can be started independently: Say: "This story is blocked and no work can begin until the dependencies above are resolved." and stop.

If some work can begin:

1. List which acceptance criteria are blocked and which can start now
2. Create the branch: git checkout -b feat/$ARGUMENTS-<short-description>
3. Say: "This story is partially blocked. The following can be started now:" and list the unblocked criteria. "The following are waiting on dependencies:" and list the blocked criteria.

If any blockers are not Done BUT a branch exists: Switch to the branch (checkout local, or checkout from remote if only there). Then:

1. Run git log --oneline main..<branch> | head -20 to show work already done
2. Summarize what's been implemented vs what acceptance criteria remain
3. Say: "This story is blocked but in progress on <branch>. Here's what's done so far and what's still waiting on dependencies. You may be able to work on the unblocked parts."

If all blockers are Done: If on main or a different story's branch:

1. Build the branch name: feat/$ARGUMENTS-<short-description>
2. If found on remote: git checkout -b <branch> origin/<branch>
3. If found locally: git checkout <branch>
4. Only if not found anywhere, create new: git checkout -b <branch>

Then say: **"Context loaded, on branch <branch-name>. Ready to build — describe what you want to start with or say 'go' to follow the implementation guide."**38:["$","$L3f",null,{"content":"$40","frontMatter":{"name":"start-work","description":"Load focused context for a Jira ticket before building. Reads only the relevant doc sections instead of everything.","argument-hint":"<jira-key e.g. CUAI-20>","disable-model-invocation":true,"allowed-tools":"Read Grep Glob Bash"}}]