next

Surveys all DAE project state and recommends the next work item to pick up.

150|10|Updated Feb 16, 2026
One-click install
npx skills add https://github.com/swingerman/engineer --skill next-swingerman
Or copy as Structured Prompt for Agent▼
Please help me install this Agent Skill.
Skill: next
Source: https://github.com/swingerman/engineer/tree/main/engineer/skills/next
Command: npx skills add https://github.com/swingerman/engineer --skill next-swingerman

SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION & REQUIREMENTS

💡 This Skill includes scripts (resource) and references (resource) components.

What problem does it solve? At the start of a work session, engineers lose time reconstructing project state across features, fixes, roadmap items, and tracker captures. This Skill answers "what should I pick up now" by reading every source of DAE state and producing a prioritized recommendation. ## Core Features & Use Cases - Project-wide state survey: Reads in-flight features, open fixes, parked ideas, tracker triage captures, pending handoffs, roadmap items, and stale merged branches in one pass. - Eight-bucket triage: Organizes findings into NEEDS YOUR DECISION, OPEN FIXES, READY TO ADVANCE, READY TO DISPATCH, DISPATCHED, TRIAGE, ON THE ROADMAP, and COULD START. - Two-altitude recommendation: Names both the top actionable item to advance or finish and the next strategic roadmap feature to start. - Use Case: You open a session after a week away; run the skill to see a blocked feature awaiting your decision, a critical user-facing bug, and the next unstarted roadmap item, with a single top pick and rationale. ## Quick Start Ask the assistant to run /engineer.next to survey the project and recommend what to work on next.

Frequently Asked Questions about next

High-intent search queries and answers about installing and using this skill.

FAQPage Schema
How do I decide what to work on next in a DAE project?▼

Run the next skill at session start. It reads all in-flight features, open fixes, tracker captures, and roadmap items, then triages them into eight buckets and gives one top recommendation with a rationale and suggested execution mode.

Does the next skill change any project state or files?▼

No, it is read-only and advisory. It produces no artifact and emits no handoff; the recommendation itself is the entire output, and the human picks and invokes the follow-up skill.

How does the next skill detect merged pull requests?▼

It runs dae_reconcile.py per feature, which uses gh to detect merged PRs including squash merges. It also checks whether the current branch is an ancestor of origin/HEAD to catch stale local branches.

What happens if the roadmap source is unavailable?▼

If the roadmap type is none or its host is unreachable, the skill skips the roadmap bucket with a one-line note and continues. It degrades gracefully rather than erroring.

When should I not use the next skill?▼

Skip it when you already know your feature and just need context (use prime-context), when you want full project validation (use consistency-check), or when wrapping up a session (use session-summary).