---

name: prepare-task description: | Use when user says "/evolve prepare", "prepare toolkit", "check toolkit gaps", "do I have the right agents", "what tools do I need", "analyze my toolkit", "what workflow should I follow", or before complex tasks that might need specialized agents, skills, or workflow guidance. To manage an ACTIVE workflow (advance, skip, check status), use the workflow skill instead.

Prepare Task Skill

Analyze the current task and proactively create missing agents/skills in the user's toolkit.

When to Use

• Before complex tasks that might benefit from specialized agents
• When user wants to optimize their toolkit for a specific domain
• After creating a plan, before execution
• When starting work that would benefit from workflow guidance

Workflow

1. Gather Task Context

Read the current conversation to understand:

• What task is the user trying to accomplish?
• What technologies/domains are involved?
• What operations are needed (debugging, refactoring, testing, etc.)?

If a plan exists in the conversation, analyze its steps.

2. Assess Task Depth

Evaluate complexity signals to determine how much preparation is warranted:

Signal	Low	Medium	High
Scope	Single operation	Multi-step	Multi-system
Stakes	Reversible	Has rollback	Irreversible
Clarity	Explicit requirements	Some gaps	Undefined
Familiarity	Known	Partially known	New territory

Map to depth:

• execute (all low) -> Skip toolkit recommendations entirely
• check (mixed low) -> Skip toolkit recommendations
• plan (mixed medium) -> Recommend only high-impact gaps
• design (multiple high) -> Full gap analysis + workflow suggestion
• explore (high stakes + unclear) -> Full analysis + research suggestions

For execute/check tasks: Output only:

[claude-evolve] Task is straightforward - no toolkit gaps to address.

See ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/prepare-task/references/depth-patterns.md for detailed signal assessment heuristics, override rules, and AskUserQuestion templates.

3. Discover Toolkit Capabilities

Find the active toolkit:

TOOLKIT_NAME=$(cat $HOME/.claude-evolve/active 2>/dev/null)
TOOLKIT_PATH=$HOME/.claude-evolve/toolkits/$TOOLKIT_NAME

List existing agents (FLAT structure):

ls $TOOLKIT_PATH/agents/*.md 2>/dev/null

List existing skills (FLAT structure):

ls $TOOLKIT_PATH/skills/*/SKILL.md 2>/dev/null

4. Gap Analysis

Skip this section for execute/check depth tasks.

For each task requirement, evaluate:

Requirement	Has Coverage?	Gap Severity
{domain} expertise	Yes/Partial/No	Low/Medium/High
{operation} workflow	Yes/Partial/No	Low/Medium/High

Recommendation thresholds by depth:

• plan: Only recommend if gap severity is High AND component is clearly reusable
• design/explore: Recommend if gap severity is Medium or High

Only recommend if:

• Gap is significant (not trivial)
• Task is complex enough to benefit
• Component would be reusable (not one-off)

5. Artifact Pattern Detection

Check understanding.md and project observations for artifact patterns the user has established:

TOOLKIT_NAME=$(cat $HOME/.claude-evolve/active 2>/dev/null)
TOOLKIT_PATH=$HOME/.claude-evolve/toolkits/$TOOLKIT_NAME

Then use the Read tool on $TOOLKIT_PATH/understanding/understanding.md and search for the "Artifact Patterns" section.

Look for learned patterns like:

• Pre-work artifacts: Does user typically create specs, designs, or plans before coding?
• During-work artifacts: Does user write tests alongside code (TDD)? Create PRs early?
• Post-work artifacts: Does user document after? Create changelogs?

Suggest learned artifacts at appropriate phases:

• If user has TDD pattern and task involves new code -> "You typically write tests first - want to start there?"
• If user has spec-writing pattern and task is design depth -> "You usually create a spec for tasks like this - want to draft one?"
• If user has documentation pattern and task is completing -> "You typically document after - want to update docs?"

Do NOT suggest artifacts if:

• No pattern learned (don't prescribe)
• Pattern confidence is low (fewer than 3 observations)
• User has explicitly skipped this artifact before for similar tasks
• Understanding.md doesn't exist or has no "Artifact Patterns" section

Fallback: If understanding.md is missing or lacks artifact patterns, skip artifact suggestions entirely - don't prescribe patterns the user hasn't established.

6. Present Findings

Format varies by task depth:

For plan depth:

## Toolkit Analysis for: {task summary}

**Task depth:** plan (moderate complexity)
**Your toolkit:** {N} agents, {M} skills

### High-Impact Gap
- **{missing-capability}** - {why it matters for this task}
  -> Recommend: `{component-name}`

Create this component? [y/N]

For design/explore depth:

## Toolkit Analysis for: {task summary}

**Task depth:** {depth} ({reason})
**Your toolkit:** {N} agents, {M} skills

### Current Coverage
- [OK] {existing-agent} - covers {aspect}
- [OK] {existing-skill} - covers {aspect}

### Gaps Identified
1. **{missing-capability}** - {why it would help}
   -> Recommend: `{agent-name}` agent

2. **{missing-workflow}** - {why it would help}
   -> Recommend: `{skill-name}` skill

### Artifact Suggestions
{Based on your patterns:}
- {artifact-type} - {you usually create this for similar tasks}

### Recommendations
{Only list if gaps are significant and components are reusable}

CALL the AskUserQuestion tool:

Question: "[claude-evolve] Create these components?" Header: "Toolkit"

Label	Description
Yes, create them	Add the recommended components to your toolkit
No, skip	Continue without creating components

7. Create Components (if approved)

CRITICAL: Write to toolkit, never $HOME/.claude/

# FLAT structure - toolkit IS the plugin
TOOLKIT_AGENTS=$TOOLKIT_PATH/agents/
TOOLKIT_SKILLS=$TOOLKIT_PATH/skills/

Use plugin-dev skills for best practices:

If plugin-dev plugin is available, use its skills to create high-quality components:

• plugin-dev:agent-development - For creating agents with proper structure
• plugin-dev:skill-development - For creating skills with proper structure

When using plugin-dev skills:

1. Invoke the skill with the task context
2. Specify the target path: $TOOLKIT_AGENTS/ or $TOOLKIT_SKILLS/
3. The skill will guide creation following Claude Code best practices

If plugin-dev not available, create directly:

See ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/prepare-task/references/templates.md for agent and skill templates.

8. Confirm Availability

After creation:

## Created Successfully

**Agents:**
- `{agent-name}` -> {path}

**Skills:**
- `{skill-name}` -> {path}

**Note:** New agents are available after session restart (Claude Code loads agents at startup).
You can either:
1. Continue current task manually, then use new agents next session
2. Use /resume to restart session with new agents loaded

Workflow Integration

After analyzing toolkit gaps, also suggest workflow guidance (for plan/design/explore depth only).

Suggest Workflow Based on Depth

For plan depth:

### Workflow Recommendation

**Task depth:** plan - Structured phases would help.

**Quick workflow:**
1. {phase} -> {outcome}
2. {phase} -> {outcome}

Use this structure? [Y/n]

For design depth:

### Workflow Recommendation

**Task depth:** design - Full workflow coaching recommended.

**Suggested workflow:** {workflow_name}
- Phase 1: {phase} - {goal}
- Phase 2: {phase} - {goal}
- Phase 3: {phase} - {goal}
- Phase 4: {phase} - {goal}

Start with workflow guidance? [Y/n]

For explore depth:

### Workflow Recommendation

**Task depth:** explore - Research-first approach recommended.

**Suggested workflow:**
1. Research - Investigate unknowns, gather information
2. Prototype - Try small experiments
3. Evaluate - Assess what you learned
4. Decide - Commit to direction
5. Execute - Implement chosen approach

Start with research phase?

CALL the AskUserQuestion tool:

Question: "[claude-evolve] Use workflow guidance for this task?" Header: "Workflow"

Label	Description
Yes, guide me	Get phase-by-phase suggestions
No, I'll manage	Skip workflow guidance

Workflow Guidance

If user accepts workflow:

1. Use guidance-agent for phase recommendations
2. Track progress conversationally (no state files)
3. CALL AskUserQuestion tool for phase decisions
4. Respect user's skip/advance requests

Smart Filtering Rules

DO recommend when:

• Task depth is design or explore
• Task depth is plan AND gap severity is High
• Task involves specific technology (Rust, K8s, etc.) without matching agent
• Task requires systematic workflow (refactoring, migration) without matching skill
• User will likely do similar tasks again

DON'T recommend when:

• Task depth is execute or check
• Task is simple/one-off
• Existing agents/skills partially cover it
• Gap is too generic ("coding" agent)
• Task is trivial (single file, obvious change)

Examples

See ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/skills/prepare-task/references/examples.md for detailed gap analysis examples showing when to recommend components and when to skip.