Backlog.md — Prompt Files
Verbatim Excerpt 1: Agent Guidelines (src/guidelines/agent-guidelines.md)
Prompting technique: Iron-Law command prohibition with rationale anchoring
# ⚠️ CRITICAL: NEVER EDIT TASK FILES DIRECTLY. Edit Only via CLI
**ALL task operations MUST use the Backlog.md CLI commands**
- ✅ **DO**: Use `backlog task edit` and other CLI commands
- ✅ **DO**: Use `backlog task create` to create new tasks
- ✅ **DO**: Use `backlog task edit <id> --check-ac <index>` to mark acceptance criteria
- ❌ **DON'T**: Edit markdown files directly
- ❌ **DON'T**: Manually change checkboxes in files
- ❌ **DON'T**: Add or modify text in task files without using CLI
**Why?** Direct file editing breaks metadata synchronization, Git tracking, and task relationships.
Verbatim Excerpt 2: AGENTS.md (AI workflow instruction injected by backlog init)
Prompting technique: Context-gated instruction loading via MCP resources
## BACKLOG WORKFLOW INSTRUCTIONS
This project uses Backlog.md MCP for all task and project management activities.
**CRITICAL GUIDANCE**
- If your client supports MCP resources, read `backlog://workflow/overview` to understand when and how to use Backlog for this project.
- If your client only supports tools or the above request fails, call `backlog.get_backlog_instructions()` to load the tool-oriented overview.
- **First time working here?** Read the overview resource IMMEDIATELY to learn the workflow
- **Already familiar?** You should have the overview cached ("## Backlog.md Overview (MCP)")
- **When to read it**: BEFORE creating tasks, or when you're unsure whether to track work
Verbatim Excerpt 3: ccpm SKILL.md (reference companion)
Prompting technique: Dispatch-table pattern — maps natural language phrases to file references
description: "CCPM - spec-driven project management: PRD → Epic → GitHub Issues → parallel agents →
shipped code. Use this skill for anything in the software delivery lifecycle: writing a PRD ('write a
PRD for X', 'let's plan X', 'scope this out'), parsing a PRD into an epic, decomposing an epic into
tasks, syncing to GitHub... Use ccpm any time the user is talking about shipping a feature, managing
work, or tracking progress — even if they don't say 'ccpm' or 'PRD'."
Verbatim Excerpt 4: Workflow README (user-facing spec-driven loop)
Prompting technique: Numbered-step scaffolding with interleaved human review gates
**Step 3 — Plan before coding.** Ask the agent to research and write an implementation plan in the task.
Do this right before implementation so the plan reflects the current state of the codebase.
**🤖 Ask your AI Agent:**
> Work on BACK-10 only. Research the codebase and write an implementation plan in the task.
> Wait for my approval before coding.
> [!NOTE]
> **Review checkpoint #2** — read the plan. Does the approach make sense? Approve it or ask
> the agent to revise.