Skills for creating, reviewing, and submitting JIRA Initiatives — from a problem statement to a live ticket, with Epic breakdown support.
Works with both Cursor (.cursor/) and Claude Code (.claude/).
Inspired by jwforres/rfe-creator, which established the pipeline pattern and multi-step review concept.
# Core Pipeline
/initiative.create # Write a new initiative from a problem statement
/initiative.review # Review, improve, and auto-revise an initiative
/initiative.submit # Submit new initiative to JIRA
/initiative.speedrun # Full pipeline end-to-end with minimal interaction
/initiative.breakdown # Break an approved initiative into Epic drafts
# Work on existing initiatives
/initiative.review JN-3097 # Fetch, review, and auto-revise
/initiative.update JN-3097 # Fetch, edit, and re-submit an existing initiative
/initiative.status JN-3097 # Live status: epics done/in-progress/blocked
/initiative.status JN-3097 JN-3112 # Status for multiple initiatives at once
# Quality and planning
/initiative.feasibility JN-3097 # 3-angle adversarial review (technical, scope, timeline)
/initiative.split JN-3097 # Split an oversized initiative into right-sized pieces
# Epics
/initiative.breakdown JN-3097 # Generate all epics from an initiative at once
/epic.create JN-3097 # Create a single specific epic under an initiative
Same commands work in both Cursor and Claude Code.
/initiative.create → /initiative.review → /initiative.submit
/initiative.review auto-revises issues it finds (up to 2 cycles). You can edit artifacts manually between steps.
/initiative.speedrun runs the full pipeline with reasonable defaults and minimal interaction.
/initiative.review JN-3097 → /initiative.submit
Or in one step: /initiative.speedrun JN-3097
/initiative.breakdown JN-3097
Generates 3-7 Epic drafts that collectively cover the full initiative scope.
| Skill | Command | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Create | /initiative.create |
Clarifying questions + RFE/initiative discovery → full structured draft |
| Review | /initiative.review |
100-point checklist score + up to 2 auto-revise cycles |
| Submit | /initiative.submit |
JIRA MCP submission with full payload approval gate |
| Speedrun | /initiative.speedrun |
create → review → submit with only 2 user pauses |
| Breakdown | /initiative.breakdown |
Generate all Epics from an initiative (full scope coverage) |
| Update | /initiative.update |
Fetch existing initiative, apply edits, re-submit to same ticket |
| Status | /initiative.status |
Live JIRA snapshot: epics done/blocked + velocity estimate |
| Feasibility | /initiative.feasibility |
3-angle adversarial review: technical, scope, timeline |
| Split | /initiative.split |
Split an oversized initiative into right-sized pieces |
| Epic Create | /epic.create |
Create a single Epic under an initiative with overlap detection |
All artifacts are written to artifacts/initiatives/. You can edit any file between steps:
- Edit a draft at
artifacts/initiatives/initiative-{slug}-{date}.md, then re-run/initiative.review - Re-run
/initiative.createto start over from scratch
Epic drafts are saved to artifacts/initiatives/epics/.
Every initiative produced by this pipeline enforces:
- Title: Action verb + what + purpose, 60-80 characters
- Context: 2-4 paragraphs explaining WHY this exists (not just WHAT)
- Goals: 3-6 specific, measurable outcomes
- Scope: Explicit in-scope and out-of-scope boundaries
- Expected Impact: Quantifiable outcomes where possible
- Definition of Done: Verifiable, non-ambiguous completion criteria
- Q&A Section: Open questions tracked with owners and dates
Copy guidelines/jira-config-example.md and fill in your team's values:
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Cloud ID | Your Atlassian cloud identifier |
| Project Key | Your JIRA project (e.g., JN, RHAIRFE) |
| Default Assignee | JIRA account ID of the default assignee |
| Default Priority | Medium / High / Critical |
The skills read configuration from guidelines/jira-config.md if it exists, otherwise they prompt you for the values.
If the Atlassian MCP server is configured in Cursor, /initiative.submit creates tickets directly. Without it, the skill produces a formatted manual submission guide.
---
status: draft | reviewed | submitted
jira_key: "" # filled in after /initiative.submit
created: YYYY-MM-DD
title: ""
assignee: "" # JIRA account ID
priority: Medium
---skills/ ← SHARED source of truth (edit here, not in wrappers)
├── initiative-template.md ← canonical section template
├── initiative.create/SKILL.md ← actual create logic
├── initiative.review/SKILL.md ← actual review logic
├── initiative.submit/SKILL.md ← actual submit logic
├── initiative.speedrun/SKILL.md ← actual speedrun logic
└── initiative.breakdown/SKILL.md ← actual breakdown logic
.claude/ ← Claude Code thin wrappers
├── settings.json
└── skills/
├── initiative.create/SKILL.md ← frontmatter + "load skills/initiative.create/SKILL.md"
├── initiative.review/SKILL.md
├── initiative.submit/SKILL.md
├── initiative.speedrun/SKILL.md
└── initiative.breakdown/SKILL.md
.cursor/ ← Cursor thin wrappers
├── skills/initiative-creator/
│ └── SKILL.md ← system overview, points to skills/
└── commands/
├── initiative.create.md ← "load skills/initiative.create/SKILL.md"
├── initiative.review.md
├── initiative.submit.md
├── initiative.speedrun.md
└── initiative.breakdown.md
artifacts/initiatives/ ← draft outputs (gitignored)
└── epics/ ← epic breakdown outputs
guidelines/
├── initiative-guidelines.md ← writing rules and best practices
├── issue-creation-guidelines.md ← checklist for all issue types
├── jira-config-example.md ← config template
└── jira-config.md ← your team's config (gitignored)
CLAUDE.md ← Claude Code project instructions
CURSOR.md ← Cursor project instructions
To update a skill: edit the file in
skills/only. Both Cursor and Claude Code pick it up automatically — never edit the wrappers.