New Work Agent Skill

Create and manage todo tracking documents for features, bugs, and multi-step tasks. Use when starting new work that benefits from a persistent record of decisions, progress, and context.

629 tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

453

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/posit-dev/skills --skill new-work

The instruction itself

6 sections, as written by the author

New Work

Todo notes track work items as markdown files with YAML front matter capturing status, context, and progress.

Storage Location

Use _dev/todos/ if it exists in the repository root; otherwise ask the user where to store todo notes before creating anything. It contains two subdirectories: pending/ (active) and done/ (finished).

File Naming

YYYY-MM-DD_short-kebab-slug.md, e.g. 2026-02-18_add-oauth-support.md.

File Contents

YAML front matter plus a markdown body. Only status is required.

---
status: pending   # pending | in progress | review | blocked | done
issue: https://github.com/org/repo/issues/123   # optional
pr: https://github.com/org/repo/pull/456        # optional
---

# Title

Overview of what this is about and why it matters.

## Key Files

- `src/relevant-file.ts` — what it does
- `src/other-file.ts:functionName()` — why it matters

## Work Items

- [ ] First thing to do
- [ ] Second thing to do

## Design Decisions

Context, constraints, or choices worth capturing.

## Decision Log

<!--
### YYYY-MM-DD — Short Decision Title
**Decision:** What was decided?
**Rationale:** Why?
-->

Lifecycle

Create: make pending/ if needed, create the date-prefixed file with status: pending, and write enough context to resume later.
In progress: update status; add issue/pr links when they exist; check off Work Items (- [ ] → - [x]); record significant decisions in the Decision Log.
Complete: set status: done and mv the file from pending/ to done/.

Keeping the Document Current

Treat the todo as a living record for the rest of the session. Update it after any decision, newly discovered problem or requirement, issue raised/resolved, significant implementation work, or commit. When in doubt, update it.

When you form a plan — whether in response to a user request or on your own initiative — write it to the todo document rather than presenting it only in chat. The document is the persistent record; the chat is not.

To resume in a future session, use /working-on <path-to-todo> — same live-document behavior without re-creating the file.

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How to use it

Copy the folder

Take posit-dev/new-work from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.