Agent Rules

Agents must treat MantisBT as the live work system.

Before starting work:

• read the target version
• read the parent issue
• read open child issues
• confirm the selected issue is ready

During work:

• move the issue to in_progress
• add notes for decisions, validation, and changed assumptions
• create child issues when the work breaks into separate steps
• move unclear work to needs_info
• move externally blocked work to blocked

Before review:

• run the smallest meaningful validation
• add validation notes
• update docs or add a no-docs-needed note
• attach work to the intended target version when relevant

Agents should not hide task state in local planning files when that state belongs in Mantis.