Sprint themes
Summary
Each sprint's * Stories section is split into six theme subheadings so
that the reader can scan the backlog by domain at a glance. Themes are
permanent labels — every story in every sprint belongs to exactly one.
Within a theme, an epic is an optional sub-grouping for a cluster of
stories that form a coherent multi-story arc toward a single named
capability.
Detail
Themes
| Theme | What belongs here |
|---|---|
| Product | End-user features: ORE types and imports, trading domain, Qt UI, workspace, data quality, user-facing CLI. |
| Tooling | Developer and LLM tooling: ores.compass, codegen, sqlgen, build scripts, developer CLI. |
| Agile | Sprint management: health reviews, charts, captures, backlog refinement, sprint planning. |
| LLMs | LLM-facing infrastructure: Claude Code skills, runbooks, recipes, AI code review. |
| Documentation | Knowledge graph, system model, diagrams, site content, user manual. |
| Infrastructure | Build system, CI/CD, test infrastructure, database infrastructure, comms substrate, security primitives, compiler/platform work. |
Hotfixes
A sprint's * Stories section also contains a ** Hotfixes subsection
after the six theme subsections. It is not a theme — it is a holding area
for emergency fixes that must land outside the normal planned-work flow.
A hotfix story is created with compass story new --slug <thing> --kind hotfix
and lands here rather than under one of the six themes. See
Handle a hotfix for the full procedure.
Epics
An epic is an optional *** sub-subheading inside a theme for a cluster
of two or more stories that all contribute to a single named capability.
It carries a one-paragraph description of what the arc is working toward.
Stories that belong to no epic sit directly in the theme's table without
a sub-heading.
Example structure:
** Product *** Epic: ORE Imports End-to-End Enable loading ORE input files into workspaces end-to-end — sample data sourcing, execution support, and full instrument-type coverage. | ORE sample data | BACKLOG | ... | | Add support for running ORE samples | BACKLOG | ... | | Work through all types for Example 1 | BACKLOG | ... | | Standalone product story | DONE | ... |
Epics are structural headings only — they have no :ID:, no document
file, and no state machine. They are introduced where the grouping adds
clarity; they are not forced on every theme.
See also
- Agile process — the loop: backlog refinement, sprint phases, closure.
- Sprint — the document type that hosts theme subheadings.