Work Items

The board is the source of truth for task status, assignment, and workflow state. Design decisions and specifications remain authoritative as disk artifacts (specs, ADRs, plan.md). Local files (tasks.md, structure.md) are caches. Agents integrate with GitHub Issues and Azure DevOps for bidirectional work item management.

Platform Detection

Auto-detected from git remote URL by the detect-repo-platform.sh sessionStart hook:

Remote Pattern	Platform
`github.com`	GitHub Issues
`dev.azure.com` / `visualstudio.com`	Azure DevOps

Configuration saved to .memory/board-config.md.

Type	Label	Title Format
Epic	`epic`	`[Epic] NAME`
Feature	`feature`	`[Feature] NAME`
User Story	`type:user-story`	`[FEATURE] DESCRIPTION`
Task	`type:task`	`[FEATURE] DESCRIPTION`
ADR	`type:adr`	`[ADR] DOMAIN`
Tech Debt	`type:tech-debt`	`[Tech Debt] DESCRIPTION`

Hierarchy uses sub-issues for parent-child relationships.

Type	Work Item Type
Epic	Epic
Feature	Feature
User Story	PBI (Scrum) / User Story (Agile) / Issue (Basic) / Requirement (CMMI)
Task	Task

Hierarchy uses wit_add_child_work_items (parent-child) and wit_work_items_link (dependencies).

Required Tags

Always applied to every work item:

copilot-generated: Marks AI-created items
ai-model:MODEL_NAME: AI model traceability

Additional by type:

Type	Additional Tags
User Story	`type:user-story`, `feature:NAME`, `priority:{p1,p2,p3}`
Task	`type:task`, `feature:NAME`, `phase:PHASE`
Epic	`epic`
Feature	`feature`, `priority:{p1,p2,p3}`

Workflow

flowchart LR
  A["Select Task"] --> B["Assign to Self"]
  B --> C["In Progress"]
  C --> D["Open PR"]
  D --> E["Close on Merge"]
  E --> F["Sync Board"]
  F -->|"all children done?"| G["Cascade Close Parent"]

Cascade closure: When all children complete, the agent proposes closing the parent (user story, then feature, then epic).

Work Item Hierarchy

flowchart TD
  Epic["Epic"]
  F1["Feature A"]
  F2["Feature B"]
  US1["User Story P1"]
  US2["User Story P2"]
  US3["User Story P1"]
  T1["Task"]
  T2["Task"]
  T3["Task"]
  T4["Task"]

  Epic --> F1
  Epic --> F2
  F1 --> US1
  F1 --> US2
  F2 --> US3
  US1 --> T1
  US1 --> T2
  US2 --> T3
  US3 --> T4

Autonomous Delegation

Tasks labeled copilot-candidate are suitable for autonomous AI execution:

Delegable	Not Delegable
CRUD endpoints per spec	Initial project setup
Validations per spec	External integrations
Service following contract	Public API changes
Unit tests following pattern	Multi-module refactoring

Agents: Lifecycle The agents that create and manage work items (kickoff, decompose, implement).

Core Components: Hooks Automatic tag validation and platform detection hooks.

Team Coordination How artifacts and board state coordinate parallel developer sessions.