Imported from xdoubleu/tools.xdoubleu.com (.claude/skills/start-task/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add xdoubleu/tools.xdoubleu.com --skill start-task. Copyright stays with the author.

Start Task

The opening half of every task in this repo, paired with finish-task. This repo layers one project-specific step (a tracking issue) on top of the generic task-worktree skill from the git-task-flow plugin (xdoubleu/xdoubleu-claude-plugins marketplace — see root CLAUDE.md's "Docs Impact" note if that plugin isn't installed yet).

1. Fresh worktree off up-to-date main

Run task-worktree first — it covers pulling latest main and creating a completely fresh worktree (never edit in the main checkout or reuse an existing branch/worktree, even one from earlier in this same session). A SessionStart hook in .claude/settings.json also runs git fetch origin main once at the start of every session as a backstop, but that only covers freshness as of session start, not a long session that keeps exploring for hours — still run task-worktree's own fetch, don't assume the hook already covered it.

If the session's own worktree is already checked out to a stale/foreign branch — e.g. a prior task's branch, left over from an earlier session in the same lineage — running task-worktree/git worktree add to create a separate fresh worktree does not help: the PreToolUse hook that denies Edit/Write/NotebookEdit outside the active worktree scopes to one fixed path per session, so an Edit inside a second worktree gets denied even though the worktree itself was created successfully. Reset the existing worktree in place instead: confirm git status --porcelain is clean (stash with -u first if not), then git fetch origin main && git checkout -B <new-branch-name> origin/main inside that same directory. This satisfies "fresh branch off up-to-date main" without violating the hook's single-path scope.

2. Create (or find) the tracking issue

Before editing, always create a tracking GitHub issue for the work via the refine-issue skill (from the github-issue-triage plugin — its config for this repo lives in .claude/github-triage.config.json), not a bare gh issue create, so Priority/Status/labels get set — do this even for work that wasn't explicitly requested as an "issue", e.g. tooling/doc changes.

An issue with an empty body is never self-explanatory. If the tracking issue exists but has no body — only a title — stop and ask the user what they actually want before planning, exploring further, or editing anything. A title states a topic, not a scope, and the readings it permits usually differ enough to produce materially different work. Record their answer in the issue body via refine-issue so the next session doesn't have to ask again.

Always run the grilling skill against the issue's scope and plan before recording anything — this is unconditional (see root CLAUDE.md, "Always grill the scope before an issue is treated as refined"), even for a one-line issue with an already-approved plan. Feed its settled design tree into the ## Plan section.

If a finalized plan exists (from plan mode or otherwise), record it in the issue's ## Plan section via refine-issue before the first edit, and move Status to "In progress" at that point.

When a delegated skill isn't installed, or gh isn't available

Two distinct things can be missing, and neither implies the other — a Claude Code on the web session has neither the task-worktree/ refine-issue marketplace plugins nor a gh binary (GitHub access there is via mcp__github__* tools instead), but check both explicitly (command -v gh) rather than assuming one from the other; a future environment could have one without the other.

• No task-worktree (plugin not installed): create the branch yourself off up-to-date origin/main (EnterWorktree, or git worktree add), never editing the main checkout or reusing an existing branch. task-worktree never needed gh in the first place — branch/worktree creation is plain git either way — so a missing gh alone doesn't affect this step.
• refine-issue loaded but gh is missing: follow refine-issue's own "When gh isn't available" section (github-issue-triage plugin) for the MCP-tool mapping (issue create/edit/label) rather than re-deriving it here — it also calls out explicitly when the project-board Priority/Status fields can't be set because no MCP tool for them is mounted.
• refine-issue itself not installed (plugin absent): still create/find a tracking issue and record the plan in its ## Plan section before the first edit, using mcp__github__* tools directly if gh is also missing — same capability mapping refine-issue's own fallback section describes, since the plugin not loading doesn't change which MCP tools exist. Note in your reply whatever couldn't be done (project board fields, in particular) so it can be finished from a local session later.

Notes

• refine-issue owns the repo/project-board config, label lists, and Priority (P0/P1/P2) rule (via .claude/github-triage.config.json) — don't redefine any of that here.
• Once the work is done, hand off to finish-task for lint/coverage/build/PR/CI.