Nudge task expansion and dependency mapping toward critical path reduction

[bjcoombs]

Summary

• Replace serial-by-default bias in expand-task AI prompts ("implemented sequentially") with guidance to maximize subtask independence and reduce critical path duration
• Update add-dependency prompts to challenge dependency necessity and warn about serialization impact, rather than suggesting additional dependencies
• Sync changes across all three prompt surfaces (AI system prompt JSON, plugin command markdown, tm-profiles TypeScript)

Problem

The expand-task AI system prompt explicitly instructed "break down into subtasks that can be implemented sequentially", and the add-dependency prompt encouraged "suggest related dependencies". This over-constrains dependency graphs so the critical path (longest dependency chain) equals total work — zero parallelism.

Changes

src/prompts/expand-task.json (all 3 variants: default, research, complexity-report):

• System prompt: "maximize subtask independence, only add dependencies where output genuinely blocks input, prefer parallel-ready subtasks to reduce critical path"
• Dependencies field description: "only add where output genuinely blocks input"

packages/claude-code-plugin/commands/expand-task.md + packages/tm-profiles/.../expand-task.ts:

• Subtask generation: prefer independence over serial chains
• Smart breakdown: identify parallel components
• Post-expansion: show critical path analysis, flag fully-serial expansions

packages/claude-code-plugin/commands/add-dependency.md + packages/tm-profiles/.../add-dependency.ts:

• Validation: challenge necessity (hard data dependency vs preferred ordering), assess critical path impact
• Smart features: warn on serialization instead of suggesting more dependencies
• Example: show critical path impact instead of suggesting additional dependencies

Test plan

• Existing expand-task-prompt.test.js tests pass (5/5)
• TypeScript typecheck passes across all packages (9/9)
• Manual: run task-master expand on a task and verify subtasks have fewer inter-dependencies than before
• Manual: run add-dependency and verify prompt challenges necessity

Closes #1622

---

Note

Low Risk
Text-only prompt/documentation updates with no runtime logic changes; main risk is behavior shifts in AI-generated task graphs and dependency suggestions.

Overview
Updates task expansion and dependency-creation prompts to bias toward parallelizable work: expand-task now explicitly asks for independent subtasks with minimal dependencies and adds post-expansion guidance to show a dependency graph, identify parallel vs sequential subtasks, and surface the critical path.

Refines add-dependency guidance to challenge whether a dependency is truly blocking and to warn about unnecessary serialization by reporting critical-path impact and suggesting narrower alternatives, with synced wording across expand-task.json, plugin markdown docs, and tm-profiles slash-command strings. Adds a patch changeset for release.

^{Written by Cursor Bugbot for commit 1c53562. This will update automatically on new commits. Configure here.}

Summary by CodeRabbit

• New Features

  • Subtask expansion now includes dependency graphs and critical-path analysis
  • Shows which subtasks can run in parallel vs sequentially

• Improvements

  • Validation now assesses necessity and impact on the critical path
  • Guidance favors independent, parallelizable subtasks and warns against unnecessary serialization
  • Suggests narrower alternatives to reduce blocking work

[changeset-bot]

🦋 Changeset detected

Latest commit: 1c53562

The changes in this PR will be included in the next version bump.

Not sure what this means? Click here to learn what changesets are.

Click here if you're a maintainer who wants to add another changeset to this PR

[coderabbitai]

📝 Walkthrough

Walkthrough

Prompts, docs, and two slash-command implementations were updated to prefer subtask independence and parallelism, and to require explicit justification when adding dependencies by assessing critical-path impact rather than defaulting to serial ordering. No public APIs or exported declarations changed.

Changes

Cohort / File(s)	Summary
Documentation & Guidance packages/claude-code-plugin/commands/add-dependency.md, packages/claude-code-plugin/commands/expand-task.md	Rewrote validation and smart-feature wording to challenge dependency necessity, emphasize critical-path impact, and prefer independent/parallel subtasks over serial ordering.
Slash-Command Implementations packages/tm-profiles/src/slash-commands/commands/solo/add-dependency.ts, packages/tm-profiles/src/slash-commands/commands/solo/expand-task.ts	Mirrored docs’ textual updates in command prompts and messaging: validation steps, smart-feature output, and post-operation examples now reference critical-path analysis and subtask independence.
Prompt JSON src/prompts/expand-task.json	Behavioral prompt changes across branches (default, complexity-report, research): prefer minimal inter-subtask coupling, add dependencies only when output blocks input, prioritize parallelizable subtasks, and require critical-path information; JSON shape unchanged.
Release Notes / Changeset .changeset/critical-path-prompts.md	New changeset entry describing the shift toward subtask independence and critical-path reduction for task expansion/dependency prompts.

Sequence Diagram(s)

(omitted — changes are wording/prompt guidance and do not introduce a new multi-component control flow that requires visualization)

Estimated code review effort

🎯 3 (Moderate) | ⏱️ ~20 minutes

Possibly related PRs

• fix(expand-task): include parent task context in complexity report variant #1094: Edits the same src/prompts/expand-task.json prompt variants; related to prompt content adjustments.
• Release 0.26.0 #1164: Overlaps on prompt and command docs edits for expand-task/add-dependency; likely touches the same messaging surface.
• Release 0.31.2 #1378: Also modifies expand-task prompts to change dependency guidance; related to the independence/critical-path theme.

Suggested reviewers

• eyaltoledano
• Crunchyman-ralph

🚥 Pre-merge checks | ✅ 5

✅ Passed checks (5 passed)

Check name	Status	Explanation
Description Check	✅ Passed	Check skipped - CodeRabbit’s high-level summary is enabled.
Title check	✅ Passed	The title accurately summarizes the main change: nudging task expansion and dependency mapping toward critical path reduction, which matches the core objective.
Linked Issues check	✅ Passed	The PR fully addresses issue #1622 objectives: expand-task prompts now emphasize independence and critical path, add-dependency prompts challenge necessity, and no new complexity systems or workflow commands were introduced.
Out of Scope Changes check	✅ Passed	All changes remain within scope: prompt/documentation updates across expand-task and add-dependency surfaces, no runtime algorithms or data structure modifications introduced.
Docstring Coverage	✅ Passed	No functions found in the changed files to evaluate docstring coverage. Skipping docstring coverage check.

_{✏️ Tip: You can configure your own custom pre-merge checks in the settings.}

✨ Finishing touches

🧪 Generate unit tests (beta)

• Create PR with unit tests
• Post copyable unit tests in a comment

---

Thanks for using CodeRabbit! It's free for OSS, and your support helps us grow. If you like it, consider giving us a shout-out.

❤️ Share

• X
• Mastodon
• Reddit
• LinkedIn

_{Comment @coderabbitai help to get the list of available commands and usage tips.}

[Crunchyman-ralph]

nice one