speckit-taskstoissues
dceoy/speckit-agent-skills
Convert tasks into dependency-ordered GitHub issues from design artifacts.
What is speckit-taskstoissues?
Transforms existing tasks from a spec-kit project into actionable GitHub issues, automatically deduplicating against existing issues and ordering them by dependencies. Use this when you have a tasks.md file and need to create corresponding GitHub issues for tracking and assignment.
- Parses tasks.md and extracts task IDs and descriptions
- Deduplicates against existing GitHub issues to prevent duplicates
- Creates GitHub issues with canonical T###: format titles
- Respects project structure via .specify/ directory
- Supports optional user filters or labels for issue creation
- Executes pre- and post-conversion extension hooks if configured
How to install speckit-taskstoissues
npx skills add https://github.com/dceoy/speckit-agent-skills --skill speckit-taskstoissues- spec-kit project structure with .specify/ directory present
- tasks.md file in the project with task definitions
- Git remote configured and pointing to a GitHub repository
- GitHub MCP server access for issue creation and listing
How to use speckit-taskstoissues
- 1.Run the skill with optional filter arguments (e.g., label or task ID pattern)
- 2.The skill checks for pre-conversion hooks in .specify/extensions.yml and executes mandatory ones
- 3.It runs check-prerequisites.sh to locate tasks.md and available design artifacts
- 4.It fetches existing GitHub issues to identify which task IDs already have issues
- 5.For each new task, it creates a GitHub issue with title format T###: <description>
- 6.It skips any tasks that already have matching issues
- 7.Post-conversion hooks are executed if configured
Use cases
- Converting a completed design specification into tracked GitHub issues for development
- Regenerating issues after tasks.md is updated with new tasks
- Creating issues for a feature with multiple interdependent work items
- Automating issue creation while avoiding duplicates on re-runs
- Integrating task-to-issue conversion into a spec-kit workflow
- Project managers setting up GitHub issue tracking from specifications
- Development teams using spec-kit for structured project planning
- Technical leads automating task-to-issue conversion workflows
- Teams managing features with design artifacts and task lists
speckit-taskstoissues FAQ
Task IDs must be T followed by at least three digits (e.g., T001, T100, T1000). The skill matches them using the pattern \bT\d{3,}\b to avoid false matches.
Before creating issues, the skill fetches existing GitHub issues and matches task IDs in their titles. Any task ID already found in an issue is skipped, preventing duplicates on re-runs.
The skill will not proceed if the remote URL is not a GitHub repository. It checks the remote before attempting any issue creation.
Yes, you can pass optional filter or label arguments when invoking the skill to narrow down which tasks are processed.
Optional or mandatory hooks defined in .specify/extensions.yml that run before or after task-to-issue conversion, allowing custom project-specific logic.
Full instructions (SKILL.md)
Source of truth, from dceoy/speckit-agent-skills.
name: "speckit-taskstoissues" description: "Convert existing tasks into actionable, dependency-ordered GitHub issues for the feature based on available design artifacts." argument-hint: "Optional filter or label for GitHub issues" compatibility: "Requires spec-kit project structure with .specify/ directory" metadata: author: "github-spec-kit" source: "templates/commands/taskstoissues.md" user-invocable: true disable-model-invocation: false
User Input
$ARGUMENTS
You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).
Pre-Execution Checks
Check for extension hooks (before tasks-to-issues conversion):
- Check if
.specify/extensions.ymlexists in the project root. - If it exists, read it and look for entries under the
hooks.before_taskstoissueskey - If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, do not skip silently: tell the user that
.specify/extensions.ymlcould not be read (include the parser error) and that no hooks were checked, including any mandatory (optional: false) hooks registered there, then continue normally - Filter out hooks where
enabledis explicitlyfalse. Treat hooks without anenabledfield as enabled by default. - For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook
conditionexpressions:- If the hook has no
conditionfield, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable - If the hook defines a non-empty
condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
- If the hook has no
- When constructing command invocations from hook command names, replace dots (
.) with hyphens (-). For example,speckit.git.commit→/speckit-git-commit. - For each executable hook, output the following based on its
optionalflag:-
Optional hook (
optional: true):## Extension Hooks **Optional Pre-Hook**: {extension} Command: `/{command}` Description: {description} Prompt: {prompt} To execute: `/{command}` -
Mandatory hook (
optional: false):## Extension Hooks **Automatic Pre-Hook**: {extension} Executing: `/{command}` EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command} Wait for the result of the hook command before proceeding to the Outline.After emitting the block above you MUST actually invoke the hook and wait for it to finish before continuing. Run it the same way you would run the command yourself in this agent/session (the invocation may differ from the literal
{command}id shown above, e.g. a skills-mode agent runs it as/skill:speckit-...or$speckit-...). Emitting the block alone does not run the hook.
-
- If no hooks are registered or
.specify/extensions.ymldoes not exist, skip silently
Outline
- Run
.specify/scripts/bash/check-prerequisites.sh --json --require-tasks --include-tasksfrom repo root and parse FEATURE_DIR and AVAILABLE_DOCS list. All paths must be absolute. For single quotes in args like "I'm Groot", use escape syntax: e.g 'I'''m Groot' (or double-quote if possible: "I'm Groot"). - IF EXISTS: Load
.specify/memory/constitution.mdfor project principles and governance constraints. - From the executed script, extract the path to tasks.
- Get the Git remote by running:
git config --get remote.origin.url
[!CAUTION] ONLY PROCEED TO NEXT STEPS IF THE REMOTE IS A GITHUB URL
- Fetch existing issues for deduplication: Before creating anything, build the set of task IDs you are about to process from
tasks.md(each is aTfollowed by at least three digits, e.g.T001—/speckit-convergeassigns new IDs withT{M+1:03d}, which is a floor rather than a cap, so once a file has more than 999 tasks the IDs are four digits or longer). Then use the GitHub MCP server'slist_issuestool to look for issues that already cover those IDs. Do not pass astatevalue, since omitting it makes the tool return both open and closed issues. RequestperPage: 100to keep the number of calls down, and since the tool uses cursor-based pagination, request pages with theafterparameter (using theendCursorfrom the previous response). For each issue title, match it against the task ID pattern\bT\d{3,}\b(the{3,}accepts four-digit and longer IDs — with\d{3}a title containingT1000would not match at all, because the trailing\bcannot fall between two digits, so that task would be silently neither deduplicated nor created; word boundaries still stop a token likeST001from matching, and force the whole digit run to be consumed soT100can never match insideT1000; this also recognises titles written asT001 ...,T001: ...or[T001] ...) and, when it matches one of your task IDs, mark that ID as already having an issue. Stop paginating as soon as every task ID has been matched, or when there are no more pages, so you do not keep fetching the whole repository's issue history once all task IDs are accounted for. This bounds the number of calls on repos with large issue histories and still prevents duplicates when the command is re-run aftertasks.mdis regenerated or the skill is re-invoked. - For each task in the list, use the GitHub MCP server to create a new issue in the repository that is representative of the Git remote. Task lines in
tasks.mdstart with a markdown checkbox, so first strip the leading- [ ](and any[P]/[US#]markers) to recover the task ID and its description. Create the issue with a single canonical title of the formT001: <description>, with the ID written once followed by the task description (for example, the line- [ ] T001 Create project structurebecomes the titleT001: Create project structure).- Skip any task whose ID is already present in the set of existing issues from the previous step, and report it (for example,
T001 already has an issue, skipping). - Only create issues for tasks that do not yet have a matching issue.
- Skip any task whose ID is already present in the set of existing issues from the previous step, and report it (for example,
[!CAUTION] UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES EVER CREATE ISSUES IN REPOSITORIES THAT DO NOT MATCH THE REMOTE URL
Post-Execution Checks
Check for extension hooks (after tasks-to-issues conversion):
Check if .specify/extensions.yml exists in the project root.
- If it exists, read it and look for entries under the
hooks.after_taskstoissueskey - If the YAML cannot be parsed or is invalid, do not skip silently: tell the user that
.specify/extensions.ymlcould not be read (include the parser error) and that no hooks were checked, including any mandatory (optional: false) hooks registered there, then continue normally - Filter out hooks where
enabledis explicitlyfalse. Treat hooks without anenabledfield as enabled by default. - For each remaining hook, do not attempt to interpret or evaluate hook
conditionexpressions:- If the hook has no
conditionfield, or it is null/empty, treat the hook as executable - If the hook defines a non-empty
condition, skip the hook and leave condition evaluation to the HookExecutor implementation
- If the hook has no
- When constructing command invocations from hook command names, replace dots (
.) with hyphens (-). For example,speckit.git.commit→/speckit-git-commit. - For each executable hook, output the following based on its
optionalflag:-
Optional hook (
optional: true):## Extension Hooks **Optional Hook**: {extension} Command: `/{command}` Description: {description} Prompt: {prompt} To execute: `/{command}` -
Mandatory hook (
optional: false):## Extension Hooks **Automatic Hook**: {extension} Executing: `/{command}` EXECUTE_COMMAND: {command}After emitting the block above you MUST actually invoke the hook and wait for it to finish before continuing. Run it the same way you would run the command yourself in this agent/session (the invocation may differ from the literal
{command}id shown above, e.g. a skills-mode agent runs it as/skill:speckit-...or$speckit-...). Emitting the block alone does not run the hook.
-
- If no hooks are registered or
.specify/extensions.ymldoes not exist, skip silently
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