sw/multi-project

Multi-Project Management Skill

Unified skill for organizing SpecWeave specs and increments across multiple projects or repositories. Supersedes the tool-specific sw:github-multi-project and sw:ado-multi-project skills, and adds Jira multi-project support.

--tool Flag

Select the target integration via the --tool flag:

Example invocations:

sw:multi-project --tool github
sw:multi-project --tool ado
sw:multi-project --tool jira

If --tool is omitted, the skill reads integrations.primary from .specweave/config.json and falls back to github when unset.

Core Capabilities (All Tools)

1. Spec Organization — organizes specs in .specweave/docs/internal/projects/{project-id}/
2. Task Splitting — analyzes tasks.md and splits work into project-specific tasks
3. Cross-project Coordination — tracks dependencies between projects
4. Bidirectional Sync — keeps local specs and remote work items in sync

Architectures

Single Repository / Single Project

my-app/
├── .specweave/
│   └── docs/internal/projects/default/
└── src/

Multi-Repository (Polyrepo — GitHub)

my-app-frontend/   my-app-backend/   my-app-shared/
├── .git             ├── .git           ├── .git
└── src/             └── src/           └── src/

Parent Repository (Recommended for GitHub multi-repo)

my-app-parent/              # Parent repo holds .specweave
├── .specweave/
│   └── docs/internal/projects/
│       ├── frontend/
│       ├── backend/
│       └── shared/
└── services/
    ├── frontend/
    ├── backend/
    └── shared/

Monorepo (GitHub / Jira / ADO)

my-app/
├── .specweave/
│   └── docs/internal/projects/
│       ├── frontend/
│       ├── backend/
│       └── shared/
└── packages/

Project-per-team (ADO / Jira recommended)

Organization: mycompany
├── AuthService
├── UserService
├── PaymentService
└── NotificationService

.specweave/docs/internal/specs/
├── AuthService/
├── UserService/
├── PaymentService/
└── NotificationService/

Area-path-based (ADO) / Component-based (Jira)

Organization: enterprise
└── ERP (Project)
    ├── Finance
    ├── HR
    ├── Inventory
    └── Sales

.specweave/docs/internal/specs/ERP/
├── Finance/
├── HR/
├── Inventory/
└── Sales/

---

GitHub (--tool github)

Merges the logic of the deprecated sw:github-multi-project skill.

Task Splitting Example

Increment: Add shopping cart functionality

Creating Repo-Specific Issues

async function createRepoSpecificIssues(
  increment: Increment,
  distribution: Map<string, Task[]>
) {
  for (const [repo, tasks] of distribution) {
    const issue = await createGitHubIssue({
      repo,
      title: `[${increment.id}] ${increment.name} - ${repo}`,
      body: formatTasksAsChecklist(tasks),
      labels: ['specweave', 'increment', repo],
    });
  }
}

GitHub Projects Integration

• Org-level Project spanning multiple repos (preferred)
• Or per-repo Projects (Frontend / Backend / Shared)

GitHub Actions Sync

name: SpecWeave Multi-Repo Sync
on:
  workflow_dispatch:
  schedule: [{ cron: '0 */6 * * *' }]

jobs:
  sync:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - name: Sync to repositories
        run: |
          gh issue create --repo myorg/frontend ...
          gh issue create --repo myorg/backend ...

---

Azure DevOps (--tool ado)

Merges the logic of the deprecated sw:ado-multi-project skill.

Intelligent Project Detection

const projectPatterns = {
  AuthService: {
    keywords: ['authentication', 'login', 'oauth', 'jwt', 'session'],
    filePatterns: ['auth/', 'login/', 'security/'],
  },
  UserService: {
    keywords: ['user', 'profile', 'account', 'registration'],
    filePatterns: ['users/', 'profiles/'],
  },
  PaymentService: {
    keywords: ['payment', 'stripe', 'billing', 'invoice'],
    filePatterns: ['payment/', 'billing/', 'checkout/'],
  },
};

Confidence scoring: keyword +0.2, file pattern +0.3, explicit mention +1.0, team mention +0.5. Threshold > 0.7 auto-assigns; otherwise prompts the user.

Area-path Strategy

AZURE_DEVOPS_STRATEGY=area-path-based
AZURE_DEVOPS_PROJECT=ERP
AZURE_DEVOPS_AREA_PATHS=Finance,HR,Inventory

Creates .specweave/docs/internal/specs/ERP/{AreaPath}/ folders and maps increments to ERP\{AreaPath}.

Multi-project Work Items

A single increment spanning three ADO projects:

PaymentService  → Epic "Checkout Payment Processing" (primary)
UserService     → Feature "User Cart Management"     (linked)
NotificationService → Feature "Order Notifications"  (linked)

metadata.yml example

projects:
  primary: PaymentService
  dependencies:
    - UserService: [T-001, T-004]
    - NotificationService: [T-003]

ado_mappings:
  PaymentService:
    epic: 12345
    work_items: [12346, 12347]
  UserService:
    feature: 12348
    work_items: [12349, 12350]

Sync Commands

sw:multi-project --tool ado sync-increment 0014
sw:multi-project --tool ado sync-spec AuthService/spec-001
sw:multi-project --tool ado sync-all

---

Jira (--tool jira)

New in v1.2. Provides Jira-specific multi-project support using the sw-jira plugin.

Jira Project Topologies

Creating Jira Epics and Stories

Use the sw-jira plugin. The skill coordinates which project/component the Epic lands in:

# Epic for an increment (primary project)
sw:jira-create --type epic --project PAY --summary "Checkout payment processing"

# Stories for each user story in the increment
sw:jira-create --type story --project PAY --epic-link PAY-101 --summary "US-001 Shopping cart API"
sw:jira-create --type story --project USR --epic-link PAY-101 --summary "US-002 User cart state"
sw:jira-create --type story --project NOT --epic-link PAY-101 --summary "US-003 Order notification email"

Each Story becomes a Jira issue in the right project; --epic-link preserves the cross-project relationship.

metadata.yml example

projects:
  primary: PAY
  dependencies:
    - USR: [T-001, T-004]
    - NOT: [T-003]

jira_mappings:
  PAY:
    epic: PAY-101
    stories: [PAY-102, PAY-103]
  USR:
    stories: [USR-045, USR-046]
  NOT:
    stories: [NOT-012]

Component vs Project Decision

• Separate projects when teams have distinct workflows, permissions, or release cadence
• Components in a single project when teams share a board and backlog but need filtering

Cross-project Epic Linking

Jira supports cross-project Epic links when the instance has the "Advanced Roadmaps" / "Jira Portfolio" add-on enabled. The skill detects availability and falls back to "related to" issue links when not present.

Sync Commands

sw:multi-project --tool jira sync-increment 0014
sw:multi-project --tool jira sync-spec PaymentService/spec-001
sw:multi-project --tool jira sync-all

---

Configuration

.specweave/config.json

{
  "integrations": {
    "primary": "github",
    "github": {
      "repositories": ["myorg/frontend", "myorg/backend", "myorg/shared"]
    },
    "ado": {
      "strategy": "project-per-team",
      "projects": ["AuthService", "UserService", "PaymentService"]
    },
    "jira": {
      "strategy": "project-per-team",
      "projects": ["PAY", "USR", "NOT"]
    }
  }
}

Cross-project Queries

async function getIncrementWorkItems(incrementId: string, tool: 'github' | 'ado' | 'jira') {
  const metadata = await readMetadata(incrementId);
  const key = `${tool}_mappings`;
  const workItems: unknown[] = [];
  for (const mapping of Object.values(metadata[key] ?? {})) {
    workItems.push(...(await fetchWorkItems(tool, mapping)));
  }
  return workItems;
}

Best Practices

1. Consistent naming — spec-001-oauth-authentication.md across all tools
2. Clear project boundaries — document what each project owns and does not own
3. Link related specs — when an increment spans projects, include cross-links
4. Use project prefixes — sw:increment "payment-stripe-integration"

Related Skills

• sw:github-sync, sw:ado-sync, sw:jira-sync — per-tool sync engines
• sw:github-issue-standard — GitHub issue formatting
• sw:ado-mapper, sw:jira-mapper — ID mapping utilities

---

Skill Version: 2.0.0 — unified multi-project skill (replaces sw:github-multi-project and sw:ado-multi-project) Introduced: SpecWeave v1.2.0 (0669 Wave 4)