Beads Validation Skill

Validates that beads issues are correctly created and ready for TDD.

When to Use

1. After creating issues (in rust-project-init):

   • Check all PRD features have corresponding issues
   • Check priorities are valid
   • Check issue IDs exist before adding dependencies

2. Before TDD loop (in /ship Phase 2.5):

   • Check for circular dependencies
   • Check bd ready returns expected first task
   • Check no issues are incorrectly blocked

Validation Checks

1. PRD → Issues Mapping

# Count features in PRD
grep -c "^###\|^-" docs/PRD.md | head -1

# Count issues created
bd list --status=open | wc -l

# Each MVP feature should have an issue

2. Dependency Validity

# List all dependencies
bd list --status=open --json | jq '.[] | .dependencies'

# Check each dependency ID exists
bd show {dep_id}  # Should not error

3. Circular Dependency Check

# bd doctor checks for cycles
bd doctor

4. Ready State Check

# Should have at least one ready issue
bd ready --limit=1

# If empty, something is blocked incorrectly

5. Priority Validation

# All priorities should be 0-4
bd list --json | jq '.[] | .priority' | sort -u

6. Issue Quality Check (NEW)

# Check all open issues have required sections
python3 scripts/validate_beads.py --check-quality

Validates that issues are self-contained:

• Minimum length: Description > 100 characters
• Summary section: Overview, Goal, or clear opening statement
• Files section: Specific paths mentioned
• Steps section: Implementation steps (numbered list)
• Criteria section: Acceptance criteria or checkboxes

Script Usage

# After creating issues
python3 scripts/validate_beads.py --check-created --prd docs/PRD.md

# Before TDD
python3 scripts/validate_beads.py --check-deps --check-ready

# Check issue quality (for handoff)
python3 scripts/validate_beads.py --check-quality

# Full validation (all checks)
python3 scripts/validate_beads.py --all --prd docs/PRD.md

Output:

## Beads Validation

[PASS] PRD features: 4, Issues created: 4
[PASS] All dependency IDs exist
[PASS] No circular dependencies
[PASS] Ready queue has 1 issue (notes-abc)
[PASS] All 4 open issues pass quality check
[PASS] All priorities valid (0-4)

Result: 6/6 checks passed

Quality check failure output:

## Beads Validation

[WARN] 2/4 issues have quality problems

  Quality issues:
    task-abc:
      - Description too short (45 chars, need 100+)
      - Missing Acceptance Criteria section
    task-xyz:
      - Missing Files to Modify section

Common Issues

No Ready Issues

[FAIL] No issues ready to work on

Cause: All issues blocked by dependencies Fix: Check dependency chain, ensure at least one issue has no blockers

Missing Features

[WARN] PRD has 5 features, only 3 issues created

Fix: Create missing issues with bd create

Invalid Dependency

[FAIL] Dependency notes-xyz does not exist

Fix: Check issue ID before bd dep add

Circular Dependency

[FAIL] Circular dependency: A → B → C → A

Fix: Remove one dependency to break cycle

Low Quality Issue

[WARN] task-abc: Description too short (45 chars, need 100+)
[WARN] task-abc: Missing Files to Modify section

Fix: Use bd edit <id> --description and follow the template from beads-workflow/references/issue-template.md

Integration

Called automatically in:

• rust-project-init.md → After creating issues
• ship.md → Phase 2.5: Before TDD loop
• beads-workflow → Before handoff (Phase 5)