Flow Next Deps
Renders flow-next spec dependencies as ready/blocked phases and flags dependency deadlocks
Test report
- Verdict
- Works with setup
- Score
- Tested
- Jul 21, 2026
- Environment
- Claude Code 2.x (agent harness)
- Upstream re-checked
- Aug 10, 2026 · 1b0fe8f
⚠ The author changed this skill after we tested it. The verdict below describes the version we ran on Jul 21, 2026; it's queued for a re-test.
Cloned the repo and ran the skill's exact pipeline against its own .flow/ data using the bundled flowctl (Python 3.13) and jq. Gather returned 142 specs (128 done, 14 open); Steps 2/3 produced 13 Phase-1 READY specs, fn-143 in Phase 2 blocked by fn-142, and an empty deadlock set. Baseline (naive open-spec + raw-dep listing) implied 4 blocked specs (fn-73/132/135/138 show deps=[fn-139/122/141]); the skill correctly resolved those three deps as done and placed all four in Phase 1 READY, so done-resolution changed the answer for 4 of 14 specs. Verdict is setup, not pass, because the skill is a plugin sub-skill: a bare cp of SKILL.md is dead without the flowctl binary and an initialized .flow/ project. All 3 referenced files returned HTTP 200; no security smells in the read-only jq/flowctl body.
Scored on four weighted criteria — install, triggering, output vs. baseline, docs. How scoring works
- Installs cleanly 5/5
- Triggers reliably 5/5
- Output vs. baseline 8/10
- Docs & honesty 5/5
What Flow Next Deps does
A flow-next plugin skill that reads spec metadata via the bundled flowctl CLI and computes a dependency graph: which specs are ready vs blocked, parallel execution phases, the critical path, and unresolvable deadlocks (cycles or missing deps). Triggers on phrasings like "what's blocking what", "what order should specs run", "critical path", or "which specs can run in parallel". Read-only inspection; edits are delegated to flowctl spec add-dep/rm-dep.
How to install Flow Next Deps
# Bare skill copy — satisfies ~/.claude/skills/flow-next-deps/SKILL.md but is NON-FUNCTIONAL alone:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/gmickel/flow-next.git /tmp/flow-next-deps-src
mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills
cp -R /tmp/flow-next-deps-src/plugins/flow-next/skills/flow-next-deps ~/.claude/skills/flow-next-deps
#
# REQUIRED to actually run (the skill calls $FLOWCTL = the bundled flowctl CLI, not on PATH):
# 1. Python 3.11+ and jq (brew install jq) must be present.
# 2. The flowctl binary lives at plugins/flow-next/scripts/flowctl inside the repo — it is
# resolved via ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/flowctl, which is only set when installed as
# the full plugin, OR falls back to .flow/bin/flowctl after `flowctl init` in your project.
# 3. Your project must have an initialized .flow/ directory with specs (flowctl init).
# RECOMMENDED install is the whole plugin via its marketplace, which bundles flowctl:
# /plugin marketplace add gmickel/flow-next
# /plugin install flow-next@flow-next
# Then just ask "what's blocking what?" — no slash command (phrase-triggered skill).
Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/
(per-project). Restart Claude Code after installing.
Commands — how to trigger Flow Next Deps
-
/flow-next-depsRenders flow-next spec dependencies as ready/blocked phases and flags dependency deadlocks
It also activates on plain-language prompts like these:
-
What's blocking the oauth spec from running -
Show the execution order for these specs -
Which specs can run in parallel right now
Frequently asked questions
- Is the Flow Next Deps skill free?
- Yes. The skill itself is free from gmickel/flow-next. SkillProof publishes the install command and an independent test verdict at no cost.
- Does Flow Next Deps work with Claude Code?
- We tested it with Claude Code 2.x (agent harness) on Jul 21, 2026. Verdict: Works with setup. Cloned the repo and ran the skill's exact pipeline against its own .flow/ data using the bundled flowctl (Python 3.13) and jq. Gather returned 142 specs (128 done, 14 open); Steps 2/3 produced 13 Phase-1 READY specs, fn-143 in Phase 2 blocked by fn-142, and an empty deadlock set. Baseline (naive open-spec + raw-dep listing) implied 4 blocked specs (fn-73/132/135/138 show deps=[fn-139/122/141]); the skill correctly resolved those three deps as done and placed all four in Phase 1 READY, so done-resolution changed the answer for 4 of 14 specs. Verdict is setup, not pass, because the skill is a plugin sub-skill: a bare cp of SKILL.md is dead without the flowctl binary and an initialized .flow/ project. All 3 referenced files returned HTTP 200; no security smells in the read-only jq/flowctl body.
- What is the Flow Next Deps SkillProof Score?
- 9.2/10 — installs cleanly 5/5, triggers reliably 5/5, output vs. baseline 8/10, docs & honesty 5/5.
- How do I install Flow Next Deps?
- Copy the install command from this page, run it in your terminal, and restart Claude Code. Skills live in ~/.claude/skills/ (global) or .claude/skills/ inside a project.
- Can I use Flow Next Deps with Cursor, Copilot, Gemini CLI, Codex or other AI tools?
- The SKILL.md format is native to Claude (Claude Code, Desktop, claude.ai). The instructions inside adapt to other assistants: Cursor rules, GitHub Copilot instructions, Windsurf rules, Custom GPTs, AGENTS.md for OpenAI Codex, and GEMINI.md for Google Gemini CLI — our conversion guides cover each, and the free converter on the tools page does the wrapping for you.