Writing User Stories
Write properly formatted user stories that identify the persona, desired action, and expected benefit, complete with Given-When-Then acceptance criteria and an INVEST quality check, so you can turn product ideas into clear, testable work items.
Supported coding agents⌗
| Coding agent | Supported |
|---|---|
| Claude Code | ✓ |
| Codex CLI | ✓ |
| OpenCode | ✓ |
| Cursor | ✓ |
How to use it⌗
Use this skill when:
- Asked to write user stories
- Defining requirements
- Breaking a feature into stories
- Drafting product or feature issues for GitHub
Features⌗
“As a / I want / so that” format Every story identifies the persona, the desired action, and the benefit, keeping requirements consistent and easy to scan.
Given-When-Then acceptance criteria Each story gets clear, testable conditions in Given-When-Then format, preventing scope creep and unclear definitions of done.
INVEST quality checklist Before a story is finalized, it’s checked against INVEST (Independent, Negotiable, Valuable, Estimable, Small, Testable) to catch stories that are too vague, too large, or hard to test.
Common pitfalls guidance Flags stories that are too technical, too vague, or missing the “why,” with before/after examples to guide corrections.