Tutorial: Daily Standup and Sprint Review with SpecFact CLI

This tutorial walks you through a complete daily standup and sprint review workflow using SpecFact CLI: view your backlog items, optionally post standup comments to issues, use interactive step-through and Copilot export—with no need to pass org/repo or org/project when you run from your cloned repo.

Preferred command path is specfact backlog ceremony standup .... The legacy specfact backlog daily ... path remains supported for compatibility.

Time: ~10–15 minutes
Outcome: End-to-end flow from “clone + auth” to standup view, optional post, interactive review, and Copilot-ready export.

What You’ll Learn

  • Run specfact backlog ceremony standup and see your standup table (assigned + unassigned items) with auto-detected GitHub org/repo or Azure DevOps org/project from the git remote
  • Use .specfact/backlog.yaml or environment variables when you’re not in the repo (e.g. CI) or to override
  • Post a standup comment to the first (or selected) item with --yesterday, --today, --blockers and --post
  • Use --interactive for step-by-step story review (arrow-key selection, full detail, latest comment + hidden-count hint, and optional in-flow posting on the selected story)
  • Use --copilot-export <path> to write a Markdown summary for Copilot slash-command during standup; add --comments (alias --annotations) to include descriptions and comment annotations when the adapter supports fetching comments
  • Use --summarize or --summarize-to <path> to output a prompt (instruction + filter context
    • standup data) for a slash command (e.g. specfact.daily) or copy-paste to Copilot to generate a standup summary; add --comments/--annotations to include comment annotations in the prompt
  • Use the specfact.backlog-daily (or specfact.daily) slash prompt for interactive walkthrough with the DevOps team story-by-story (focus, issues, open questions, discussion notes as comments)
  • Filter by --assignee, --sprint / --iteration, --search, --release, --id, --first-issues / --last-issues, --blockers-first, and optional --suggest-next

Prerequisites

  • SpecFact CLI installed (uvx specfact-cli@latest or pip install specfact-cli)
  • Authenticated to your backlog provider: specfact auth github or Azure DevOps (PAT in env)
  • A clone of your repo (GitHub or Azure DevOps) so the CLI can auto-detect org/repo or org/project from git remote origin

Step 1: Run Daily Standup (Auto-Detect Repo)

From your repo root (where .git lives):

# GitHub: org/repo are inferred from git remote origin
specfact backlog ceremony standup github

# Azure DevOps: org/project are inferred from git remote origin
# (e.g. https://dev.azure.com/... or [email protected]:v3/... for SSH keys; [email protected]:v3/... if not using SSH keys)
specfact backlog ceremony standup ado

What you see:

  • Daily standup table: your assigned (or filtered) items with ID, title, status, last updated, yesterday/today/blockers columns
  • Pending / open for commitment: unassigned items in the same scope

No --repo-owner/--repo-name (GitHub) or --ado-org/--ado-project (ADO) needed when the repo was cloned from that provider—SpecFact reads git remote get-url origin and infers the context.

If you’re not in a clone (e.g. different directory), use one of:

  • .specfact/backlog.yaml in the project (see Project backlog context)
  • Environment variables: SPECFACT_GITHUB_REPO_OWNER, SPECFACT_GITHUB_REPO_NAME or SPECFACT_ADO_ORG, SPECFACT_ADO_PROJECT
  • CLI options: --repo-owner / --repo-name or --ado-org / --ado-project

Step 2: Filter and Scope

Narrow the list to your sprint or assignee:

# My items only (GitHub: login; ADO: current user)
specfact backlog ceremony standup github --assignee me

# Current sprint (when adapter supports it, e.g. ADO)
specfact backlog ceremony standup ado --sprint current

# Open items, limit 10, blockers first
specfact backlog ceremony standup github --state open --limit 10 --blockers-first

Default scope is state=open, limit=20; overridable via SPECFACT_STANDUP_STATE, SPECFACT_STANDUP_LIMIT, or .specfact/standup.yaml.

Step 3: Post a Standup Comment (Optional)

To add a standup comment to the first item in the list, pass values for yesterday/today/blockers and --post:

specfact backlog ceremony standup github \
  --yesterday "Worked on daily standup and progress support" \
  --today "Will add tests and docs" \
  --blockers "None" \
  --post

Expected: The CLI posts a comment on that item’s issue (GitHub issue or ADO work item) with a standup block (Yesterday / Today / Blockers). You’ll see: ✓ Standup comment posted to story <id>: <issue URL>.

Important: You must pass values for at least one of --yesterday, --today, or --blockers. Using --post alone (or with flags but no text) will prompt you to add values; see the in-command message and help.

Step 4: Interactive Step-Through (Optional)

For a refine-like walkthrough (select item → view full detail → next/previous/back/exit):

specfact backlog ceremony standup github --interactive
  • Use the menu to select an item (arrow keys).
  • View full detail (description, acceptance criteria, standup fields, and comment context). Interactive detail shows the latest comment only plus a hint when older comments exist.
  • Choose Next story, Previous story, Post standup update (posts to the currently selected story), Back to list, or Exit.

Use --suggest-next to show a suggested next item by value score (business value / (story points × priority)) when the data is available.

Step 5: Export for Copilot (Optional)

To feed a summary file into your AI IDE (e.g. for a Copilot slash-command during standup):

specfact backlog ceremony standup github --copilot-export ./standup-summary.md --comments

The file contains one section per item (ID, title, status, assignees, last updated, progress, blockers). With --comments/--annotations, it also includes the item description and comment annotations when the adapter supports fetching comments. You can open it in your IDE and use it with Copilot. Same scope as the standup table (state, assignee, limit, etc.).

Step 6: Standup Summary Prompt (Optional)

To get a prompt you can paste into Copilot or feed to a slash command (e.g. specfact.daily) so an AI can generate a short standup summary (e.g. “Today: 3 in progress, 1 blocked, 2 pending commitment”):

# Print prompt to stdout (copy-paste to Copilot)
specfact backlog ceremony standup github --summarize --comments

# Write prompt to a file (e.g. for slash command)
specfact backlog ceremony standup github --summarize-to ./standup-prompt.md --comments

The output includes an instruction to generate a standup summary, the applied filter context (adapter, state, sprint, assignee, limit), and the same per-item data as --copilot-export. With --comments/--annotations, the prompt includes comment annotations when supported. Use it with the specfact.backlog-daily slash prompt for interactive team walkthrough (story-by-story, current focus, issues/open questions, discussion notes as comments).

End-to-End Example: One Standup Session

  1. Authenticate once (if not already):

    specfact auth github

  2. Open your repo and run daily (repo auto-detected):

    cd /path/to/your-repo
specfact backlog ceremony standup github

  3. Optional: post today’s standup to the first item:

    specfact backlog ceremony standup github \
  --yesterday "Implemented backlog context and git inference" \
  --today "Docs and tests for daily standup tutorial" \
  --blockers "None" \
  --post

  4. Optional: interactive review or Copilot export:

    specfact backlog ceremony standup github --interactive --last-comments 3
# or
specfact backlog ceremony standup github --copilot-export ./standup.md

Summary

Goal How
View standup without typing org/repo Run specfact backlog ceremony standup github or ado from repo root; org/repo or org/project are auto-detected from git remote.
Override or use outside repo Use .specfact/backlog.yaml, env vars (SPECFACT_GITHUB_REPO_OWNER, etc.), or CLI --repo-owner/--repo-name or --ado-org/--ado-project.
Post standup to first item Use --yesterday "..." --today "..." --blockers "..." and --post (values required).
Post standup while reviewing selected story Use --interactive and choose Post standup update from navigation.
Step through stories with readable comment context Use --interactive; it shows latest comment + hidden-count hint. Use --first-comments/--last-comments to tune comment density.
Feed standup into Copilot Use --copilot-export <path>; add --comments/--annotations for comment annotations.
Generate standup summary via AI (slash command or Copilot) Use --summarize (stdout) or --summarize-to <path>; add --comments/--annotations for comment annotations; use with specfact.backlog-daily slash prompt.