Critical Path Management

Critical Path Management Skill

Comprehensive critical path management for CODITECT deployment milestones. Registers tasks, tracks dependencies, inventories progress, and coordinates execution.

When to Use

• Planning launches: When identifying which tasks must complete before deployment
• Tracking blockers: When understanding what's blocking a milestone
• Coordinating work: When multiple tracks (A/B/C/D/E/F) have interdependencies
• Progress reporting: When generating status updates for stakeholders

Usage

# Show current critical path status
/critical-path status

# Register a new critical path
/critical-path register "Cloud Workstation Launch"

# Add tasks to critical path
/critical-path add A.10.1.1 A.10.1.2 C.5.1 --path "Cloud Workstation Launch"

# Show dependency chain
/critical-path deps A.10.2.1

# Execute next task in path
/critical-path next

# Mark task complete
/critical-path done A.10.1.1

# Generate report
/critical-path report --format markdown

Actions

Action	Description
status	Show all critical paths and progress
register	Create a new named critical path
add	Add tasks to a critical path
remove	Remove tasks from a critical path
deps	Show dependency chain for a task
next	Get next actionable task
done	Mark task complete
block	Mark task blocked with reason
unblock	Remove blocker from task
report	Generate progress report
inventory	Full inventory of all critical path items

Current Critical Paths

Cloud Workstation Launch (Active)

Goal: Enable paying customers to access Cloud Workstations with valid licenses

Dependency Chain:

Registration → Payment → License → Container Session → Workstation Access
     ↓             ↓          ↓            ↓                ↓
    B.2          A.3/B.3     A.4        A.10/C.5          A.7/C.7

Phase 1: Core Infrastructure (COMPLETE)

Task	Description	Status
A.3.*	Commerce API	✅ 100%
B.3.*	Commerce UI	✅ 90%
D.1-D.3	Security	✅ 100%
C.1-C.4	GKE deployment	✅ 100%

Phase 2: Auth & Registration (85%)

Task	Description	Status	Blocked By
B.2.1	Signup page	✅	-
B.2.2	Email verification	✅	-
B.2.3	Login with JWT	~60%	-
B.2.5	Auth context	~60%	-
A.4.10	JWT tenant_id claims	⏳	-

Phase 3: Container Sessions (0% - CRITICAL)

Task	Description	Status	Blocked By
A.10.1.1	Create sessions app	⏳	-
A.10.1.2	ContainerSession model	⏳	A.10.1.1
A.10.1.3	ContainerUserSession model	⏳	A.10.1.1
A.10.2.1	POST /sessions/validate	⏳	A.10.1.2
A.10.2.2	Docker validation flow	⏳	A.10.2.1
A.10.2.3	Workstation JWT validation	⏳	A.10.2.1
A.10.3.1	POST /sessions/heartbeat	⏳	A.10.2.1
A.10.4.1	POST /sessions/release	⏳	A.10.2.1
A.10.4.3	License expiration webhook	⏳	A.10.4.1

Phase 4: Docker Registry (0% - CRITICAL)

Task	Description	Status	Blocked By
C.5.1	GCP Artifact Registry	⏳	-
C.5.2	Pull token generation API	⏳	C.5.1, A.10.2.1
C.5.3	Dashboard token UI	⏳	C.5.2
C.5.4	Token revocation	⏳	C.5.2

Phase 5: Workstation Provisioning (0%)

Task	Description	Status	Blocked By
A.7.1	Workstations Django app	⏳	A.10.2.1
A.7.2	GCP Workstations API	⏳	A.7.1
A.7.3	WorkstationInstance model	⏳	A.7.1
A.7.4	Stripe webhook trigger	⏳	A.7.2
C.7.1-6	Workstation entrypoints	⏳	A.10.2.1

Phase 6: Frontend UX (70%)

Task	Description	Status	Blocked By
B.3.4.2-4	Entitlement display	⏳	A.10.2.1
B.4.4	Device session UI	⏳	A.10.2.1
B.4.5	Container session UI	⏳	A.10.2.1
B.4.6	Billing portal link	⏳	-

Execution Order

Recommended sequence (critical path):

A.10.1.1 → A.10.1.2 → A.10.1.3 → A.10.2.1 → C.5.1 → C.5.2 → A.7.1 → A.7.4
   |           |           |          |         |        |        |
Sessions   Session     User       Validate  Registry  Tokens  Workstations
  App      Model      Session      API

Total Critical Path Tasks: 27 Estimated Completion: 18-24 hours parallel execution

Agent Assignments

Phase	Primary Agent	Supporting
Phase 2	frontend-react-typescript-expert	senior-architect
Phase 3	senior-architect	database-architect
Phase 4	devops-engineer	senior-architect
Phase 5	senior-architect	devops-engineer
Phase 6	frontend-react-typescript-expert	-

Storage

Critical path data stored in:

• context-storage/critical-paths.json - Path definitions
• PILOT-PARALLEL-EXECUTION-PLAN.md - Task details (SSOT)

Integration

Works with:

• /orient - Session orientation includes critical path status
• /which - Agent recommendations for critical path tasks
• TodoWrite - Task tracking syncs to critical path

Success Output

✅ SKILL COMPLETE: /critical-path status

Cloud Workstation Launch
========================
Progress: 58% (16/27 tasks)
Phase: 3 - Container Sessions
Next Task: A.10.1.1 (Create sessions Django app)
Blockers: None
Est. Completion: 18 hours

Agent: senior-architect
Invocation: Task(subagent_type="senior-architect",
  prompt="A.10.1.1: Create sessions Django app in coditect-cloud-infra/backend/")

Completion Checklist

• Critical path registered
• All tasks inventoried
• Dependencies mapped
• Agent assignments complete
• Progress tracking active

Failure Indicators

• ❌ Circular dependency detected
• ❌ Task not in PILOT plan
• ❌ Invalid task ID format
• ❌ Missing dependency

When NOT to Use

Do NOT use when:

• Single task with no dependencies (just execute it)
• Non-blocking exploratory work (use regular task tracking)
• Research or documentation tasks (not deployment-critical)
• Tasks that can run in any order (no path needed)

Anti-Patterns (Avoid)

Anti-Pattern	Problem	Solution
Everything is critical	Dilutes focus	Limit to launch-blocking tasks
Skipping dependency mapping	Hidden blockers	Always map deps before execution
Not updating status	Stale data	Mark done immediately
Parallel execution of dependent tasks	Race conditions	Follow execution order
Ignoring agent assignments	Suboptimal execution	Use recommended agents

Principles

This skill embodies:

• #3 Complete Execution - Track to completion
• #4 Separation of Concerns - Clear phase boundaries
• #9 Based on Facts - Data from PILOT plan (SSOT)

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Version: 1.0.0 Created: 2026-01-05 Author: CODITECT Team