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Adding Blockers

Blockers can be added to your standup file manually or via the scraut blocker command for a quick terminal shortcut.

Via the CLI​

scraut blocker "Waiting for API credentials from platform team — blocked on #28"

This command:

  1. Finds today's standup file for your GitHub login
  2. Replaces the None placeholder in ## Blockers with your blocker text
  3. Saves the file locally

Then you commit and push as usual:

git add workspace/sprint/001/standup/
git commit -m "standup: added blocker [skip ci]"
git push

Via direct file edit​

Open your standup file and fill in the ## Blockers section:

## Blockers
- Waiting on API credentials from the platform team (#28) — day 2
- Design review for the profile page is overdue (#31)

How Scraut handles blockers​

When the standup summary runs, Scraut:

  1. Detects blocker entries (any non-"None" content under ## Blockers)
  2. Highlights them in the Slack summary with a 🚧 icon
  3. Flags them to the Scrum Master via the summary post
  4. Tracks blocker duration across multiple days — if the same blocker appears for 3+ consecutive days, the Suggestions system flags it as a pattern

Scenario: Multi-day blocker triggers a suggestion​

Who: Alice (developer), Bob (scrum master)

Day 1:

  • Alice writes: Waiting for AWS IAM permissions from DevOps
  • Summary is posted; Bob sees it but assumes it will resolve quickly

Day 2:

  • Alice writes the same blocker again (copy from yesterday)
  • Summary flags it again; Bob plans to follow up

Day 3:

  • Same blocker for the third day in a row
  • Summary posts the blocker with (day 3) annotation
  • After the sprint review, Suggestion Detection sees this pattern across the sprint history
  • A suggestion is written to .scraut/suggestions/active/s003-repeated-external-blocker.md:

    "Alice has had the same external dependency blocker for 3+ days in Sprint 1. Consider: (1) pre-sprint dependency resolution checklist, (2) daily SM escalation policy for external blockers."

Day 4 (resolved):

  • Alice writes None in Blockers — the blocker is gone
  • The suggestion remains active until the SM implements or dismisses it

Best practices for writing blockers​

Instead ofWrite
blockedWaiting for design mockup for #23 — @sarah can you share the Figma?
PR not reviewedPR #18 open for 2 days — needs review before I can continue #21
unclear requirementsStory #25 AC unclear — need SM to clarify what "export" means

The more specific you are, the more actionable the Slack summary becomes for your SM and teammates.

Clearing a blocker​

In your next standup, simply write None or remove the blocker entry. Scraut does not require explicit "resolved" notation — absence is treated as resolved.