---
name: 02-user-stories
description: Produces or refines ordered User Stories from an Epic, Product Brief, PRD, or bounded request. Use when the user wants to slice, write, assess, order, or persist Stories. Not for Epics or implementation.
argument-hint: request | epic
---

# User Stories

```mermaid
flowchart LR
  source([request, Product Brief, PRD, Epic, or Stories]) --> frame --> slice --> write --> assess
  source -->|"already persisted"| finalize
  assess -->|"reshape"| slice
  assess --> estimation --> order --> finalize
  order -->|"reslice"| slice
  finalize -->|"revise"| write
  finalize -->|"authorized"| done([User Stories])
```

## Actions

Run the flow above. Read only the next action file.

| Action     | Does                                      |
| ---------- | ----------------------------------------- |
| frame      | resolve the source and Story scope        |
| slice      | find vertical deliverable slices          |
| write      | write Stories and acceptance              |
| assess     | determine readiness and blockers          |
| estimation | estimate only when applicable             |
| order      | order only when useful                    |
| finalize   | approve, persist, or transition           |

## Transversal rules

- Keep product and lifecycle decisions with the user.
- Separate evidence, decisions, and assumptions.
- Preserve source links and existing edits.
- Ask natural questions; never expose actions, references, or unchanged state.
- Require explicit approval or caller-provided bounded authority before any write.
- Draft only after actor, need, and outcome are explicit in the source or confirmed.