Beans & planning

Beans are the work contracts hordr dispatches. Good structure makes the engine’s job — and yours — trivial.

The hierarchy

milestone            ← one per release / main topic; gets the fleet
├─ epic              ← thematic container; gets a parallel worktree (lane)
│  ├─ feature        ← optional intermediate level
│  │  └─ task        ← one task ≈ one commit
│  └─ task           ← tasks can sit directly under epics

Levels map 1:1 to types. Never skip a level (no task directly under a milestone). Epics and milestones are containers — they hold children, they are not executed.

Epic vs feature vs task

• Epic — groups work by theme, gets its own parallel worktree.
• Feature — an optional intermediate grouping within an epic.
• Task — the executable unit; one task produces one commit.

Assign every task

Every task carries an assigned: role naming who works it. Defaults:

Role	Harness	Does
implementer	opencode	Implements: reads, writes, commits
tester	opencode	Tests: writes tests, runs them
reviewer	opencode	Reviews: checks the diff, approves

---
title: Implement the frobnicator
type: task
status: todo
assigned: implementer
---

Missing assigned: defaults to implementer (with a warning). An unresolvable role blocks the task.

Pipelines within an epic

Use --blocked-by to chain tasks:

beans create "Implement X" -t task --parent hordr-EPIC --assigned implementer
# → hordr-0001
beans create "Test X"      -t task --parent hordr-EPIC --assigned tester     --blocked-by hordr-0001
beans create "Review X"    -t task --parent hordr-EPIC --assigned reviewer   --blocked-by hordr-0002

The engine dispatches only unblocked tasks (beans list --ready). When 0001 completes, 0002 becomes ready, then 0003 — a natural implement → test → review pipeline.

Cross-epic dependencies

beans create "Profile" -t epic --parent hordr-MS --blocked-by hordr-AUTH-EPIC

A blocked epic gets no worktree until its blocker merges. When it unblocks, its worktree branches from the milestone integration branch, which now contains the blocker’s code.

Status & rollup

Status flows up automatically via the engine’s rollup — a parent is completed only when all descendants are. The engine owns rollup, not the agent. You do not walk the tree or propagate status by hand.

todo → in-progress → completed

Draft beans (-s draft) are never auto-dispatched — mid-work discoveries land in draft for you to review and flip to todo.

Hygiene

• Check before creating — beans list --json to avoid duplicates.
• Rewrite, don’t scrap — append a ## REWRITTEN SCOPE (date) section to beans that change scope, preserving accumulated context.
• Design decisions → milestone body; acceptance criteria → task body.