name: story-validator description: Validate Master and Sprint Stories — template sections, ADO-ready PRD lift, UI/Figma, non-redundancy, AC quality model: haiku-4-5 token_budget: {input: 8000, output: 2000}

Scope: Validates story markdown structure and authoring rules. For PRD quality, use skills/shared/prd-gap-analyzer/. Do not re-validate the PRD here.

Authoring standards: templates/AUTHORING_STANDARDS.md

Story Validator Skill

Templates live in templates/story-templates/:

• Master: master-story-template.md
• Sprint: sprint-story-template.md

CLI validators (optional): templates/story-templates/validators/master-story-validator.sh, sprint-story-validator.sh

Master Story — required themes (not legacy § numbering)

Confirm the file includes these headings (emoji titles as in template):

1. 🎯 Outcome — User + business outcome; do not paste Problem or full AC here.
2. 🔍 Problem Definition — Pain and evidence only.
3. 👤 Target User & Context
4. ⚡ Job To Be Done (JTBD)
5. 💡 Solution Hypothesis
6. 🧩 Capability Definition
7. 📎 PRD-sourced specifics — Verbatim PRD copy: notifications, errors, limits. Never id-only (e.g. N7 without text). If PRD silent → USER_INPUT_REQUIRED.
8. 🎯 Experience Intent — Qualitative feel; not Figma links.
9. 🎨 UI & design — Figma (primary), prototype, design status, or N/A / USER_INPUT_REQUIRED.
10. 🧾 Acceptance Criteria — Given/When/Then; may reference rows in 📎 section instead of duplicating strings.
11. 📊 Measurement & Signals — KPIs, events, baselines.
12. 🧪 Validation Plan — Pilot/A/B/rollout; do not duplicate full KPI tables from Measurement.
13. ⚠️ Risks & Unknowns
14. 🔗 Dependencies
15. 🚫 Explicit Non-Goals
16. 📅 Priority & Rollout Strategy
17. 🏆 Related Stories (optional)
18. 📝 Notes
19. 📋 Story Metadata
20. 🔗 PRD Traceability — Required table: PRD doc, section IDs, ADO id.

Sprint Story — required themes

1. 🎯 What We're Building — Deliverable only; not a second copy of full Context narrative.
2. 🔍 Context — Why this sprint.
3. ⚡ Scope — IN / OUT / assumptions.
4. 📎 PRD / Master lift (this sprint) — Full strings for this sprint’s scope; or pointer to Master ADO + row if copy already there.
5. 🏗️ Technical Approach
6. 🧾 Acceptance Criteria — Checklists; align with Master AC ids where applicable.
7. 🎨 UI & design — Figma for this sprint or N/A.
8. 🔗 Dependencies
9. 📊 How We'll Measure It — Sprint target/delta; do not duplicate entire Master measurement section.
10. ⚠️ Known Risks
11. 👥 Team & Effort
12. 🚀 Definition of Done
13. 📝 Notes & Updates
14. 📋 Story Metadata
15. 🔗 Traceability — Parent Master + PRD sections.

ADO-ready rules (both types)

• Self-contained: Reader should not need the PRD for copy, notifications, or error text.
• No duplication: Same paragraph must not appear in Outcome, Problem, and Context. Measurement vs Validation Plan: metrics vs methodology.
• Readable: Short sentences, bold labels, bullets, blank lines, tables for PRD extracts.

USER_INPUT_REQUIRED

Blocks are incomplete but valid for early review. Flag as not implementation-ready until resolved.

Validation report

Use the format in the original skill (Passed / Issues / Blocking / Approval status). Call out:

• Missing 📎 or 🎨 UI & design sections
• PRD ids without lifted text
• Repeated copy across sections
• Placeholders: [URL], [name], [date] in UI section

Triggers

Story grooming, pre–sdlc story push, QA handoff, sprint planning.