Expand Tasks

Expand Tasks with Research v1.0

Expands TaskMaster tasks with research before coding begins. Deterministic operations handled by script.py; AI handles judgment.

Script location: skills/expand-tasks/script.py (relative to plugin root) Part of: prd-taskmaster plugin Depends on: research-expander agent (parallel research worker), any research provider configured via task-master models --set-research or registered as an MCP research tool.

When to Use

Activate when user says: expand tasks, research tasks, research before coding for all, expand subtasks. Do NOT activate for: single task research (use /research-before-coding), PRD generation (use /prd:go).

Native-parallel first (token economy)

Before launching agent waves, check the cheaper path: the native engine expands tasks in parallel for free. Prefer python3 script.py expand — backend op expand (native api) — or the expand_tasks MCP tool: it runs structured expand across pending tasks concurrently (inheriting the engine's ThreadPoolExecutor) on economy-tier models / keyless host CLIs and merges atomically. Use THIS skill's agent waves when: no provider/CLI is available, native expand reports failures for specific tasks (rerun just those here), or the research must be repo-grounded (agents can read the codebase; native expand cannot).

Prerequisites

• TaskMaster tasks.json must exist (run /prd:go first)
• A research provider is configured — either (a) task-master models --set-research <model> --<provider> for any task-master provider family, or (b) an MCP research tool registered in ~/.claude.json that Claude Code can call directly (for example mcp__plugin_prd_go__* tools or an external search/reason MCP)
• At least 1 task in tasks.json

Workflow (5 Steps)

Step 1: Preflight

python3 skills/expand-tasks/script.py read-tasks

Returns JSON: total, expanded, pending_expansion, tasks[].

If pending_expansion is 0: Report all tasks already expanded. Exit skill.

If research provider is not configured: Check via task-master models and verify a research role is set. If none, tell the user to configure one (task-master models --set-research <model> --<provider>) and exit. The skill does not assume any specific research backend — it uses whatever is configured.

Step 2: Choose Scope

Use AskUserQuestion:

• All tasks (default): Expand every task that hasn't been researched yet
• Specific tasks: User provides task IDs (comma-separated)
• By dependency level: Expand tasks with no dependencies first, then next wave

AI judgment: Recommend "All tasks" for initial expansion, "By dependency level" for incremental work.

Step 3: Generate Research Prompts

For each task to expand:

python3 skills/expand-tasks/script.py gen-prompt --task-id <ID>

Returns JSON with prompt field containing the full research agent prompt.

AI judgment: Review the auto-generated prompt. Customize research questions if the task needs domain-specific queries. Add project context from the PRD or session-context files if relevant.

Step 4: Launch Parallel Research Agents

Launch research agents in parallel waves. Each wave = up to 5 concurrent agents.

For each task, spawn a Task agent using the dedicated research-expander subagent type (defined in agents/research-expander.md):

Task(
  subagent_type: "research-expander",
  description: "Research Task <ID>: <title>",
  run_in_background: true,
  prompt: <prompt from Step 3>
)

Wave strategy:

• Wave 1: Tasks with no dependencies (they inform downstream tasks) — run in parallel
• Wave 2: Tasks depending on Wave 1 — run in parallel
• Wave 3+: Continue until all tasks covered — run in parallel per wave
• Max 5 agents per wave to avoid overwhelming the configured research backend

Wait for each wave to complete before launching the next. Parallel dispatch only happens WITHIN a wave; waves themselves are serial.