atomize_skill

Overview

This skill decomposes a high-level spec into atomic specs—small, independently testable and reviewable units that map directly to requirements. It produces markdown atomic spec files, updates the spec group's manifest with counts and coverage, and reports next steps. The tool supports refinement based on enforcement feedback and an auto-enforce loop to iterate until atomicity checks pass or a limit is reached.

How this skill works

The atomizer locates an active spec group, validates that manifest, requirements, and spec documents exist, then generates atomic/as-XXX-*.md files representing discrete deliverables. In refine mode it ingests an enforcement report to split, merge, or add specs to address TOO_COARSE, TOO_GRANULAR, and MISSING_COVERAGE items. Auto-enforce runs atomization, triggers enforcement, and repeats refinement up to a maximum iteration count if checks fail.

When to use it

• After requirements.md and spec.md are present and you need testable units
• When preparing a feature for implementation and review
• To convert high-level product intent into deployable, reversible tasks
• When enforcement reports indicate poor granularity or missing coverage
• As part of a CI step before /implement and /test

Best practices

• Run /pm or /prd sync first so requirements.md is current
• Start with standard mode, then run /enforce and use --refine only if needed
• Keep atomic specs focused: one behavior or observable outcome per spec
• Re-run atomize after requirements change to maintain coverage
• Limit auto-enforce iterations to a small number (default 3) to avoid churn

Example use cases

• Decomposing a logout feature into UI, token clear, session invalidation, redirect, and error handling specs
• Refining atomic specs after enforcement flags coverage gaps or overly coarse items
• Automating decomposition + validation in a pre-implementation CI pipeline
• Recovering from a changed requirement by re-running atomize to update atomic spec set