4. The current sprint

You've created a story, estimated it, ranked it, and started it. That's the work-in-progress state. Now we walk it through the rest of the sprint: finish, deliver, accept.

These four transitions are the daily loop: started is the dev pair's pickup, finished says the code is complete, delivered says the change is live where the PM can see it, and accepted is the PM's call that the work is done. Every transition stamps a timestamp on the story file, and those timestamps drive cycle time, velocity, and the iteration band the story shows up in.

4.1 The board, at rest

Before any clicks, the current sprint band at the top of Backlog stacks started stories on top with finished, delivered, and accepted below, so the PM's eye lands first on what still needs attention.

VS Code Shell MCP

$ am show priority
Priority (stories)   velocity 7 / iteration

── Iteration 1377  Mon May 18  9 / 7 pts ──
   1. ★  Wait by the mailbox          started     3p
   2. ★  Pace exactly seven times     started     2p
   3. ★  Watch the seedling           started     5p
   4. ★  Build a small fence          accepted    3p
   5. ★  Set a tiny chair             accepted    1p
   6. ★  Send a thank-you note        accepted    2p
   7. ★  Sort the unread letters      delivered   3p

priority_list returns the same data the board renders. Backlog, items, velocity, all the timestamps. The MCP Console's wire view shows the JSON-RPC envelope.

Full envelope

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "id": 1,
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "priority_list",
    "arguments": { "backlog": "stories" }
  }
}

Response: result.structuredContent.items is an array of 18 rows, each with status, estimate, type, assignees, tags, blocked, comment_count, epic, and the started/finished/delivered/accepted timestamps where they exist.

4.2 Finish a started story

Wait by the mailbox is started. We finish it, code is complete, the PM hasn't reviewed yet. The card stays in the current sprint; the pill flips from blue (started) to orange (finished).

VS Code Shell MCP

$ am finish stories/wait-by-the-mailbox-for-any-kind-of-reply.md
✓ status: finished   finished_at: 2026-05-22T08:37:46Z

set_status with status: "finished". The transition stamps finished: on the story file and leaves started: untouched so cycle time still measures from first work.

Full envelope

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "set_status",
    "arguments": {
      "path": "stories/wait-by-the-mailbox-for-any-kind-of-reply.md",
      "status": "finished"
    }
  }
}

Response: {"ok": true} plus the snapshot WebSocket pushes the updated board to every connected client.

4.3 Deliver

Finished and delivered are distinct moments: finished says the dev pair is done with the work, while delivered says the change is live where the PM can review it. In a real project they are often separated by a deploy pipeline.

VS Code Shell MCP

$ am deliver stories/wait-by-the-mailbox-for-any-kind-of-reply.md
✓ status: delivered   delivered_at: 2026-05-22T08:37:46Z

set_status again, now with status: "delivered". The transition stamps delivered: and, if for any reason finished: was missing (rare), back-fills it so the audit trail is complete.

Full envelope

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "set_status",
    "arguments": {
      "path": "stories/wait-by-the-mailbox-for-any-kind-of-reply.md",
      "status": "delivered"
    }
  }
}

4.4 Accept

Accept is the PM's call, not the dev pair's. agilemarkdown's coach mode actively prevents the dev pair from self-accepting; the GUI makes the moment explicit by colouring the Accept button green and placing it next to a red Reject.

Accept stamps accepted: on the story file. The card flips to the success palette and loses its action buttons, accepted stories are facts, not work.

VS Code Shell MCP

$ am accept stories/wait-by-the-mailbox-for-any-kind-of-reply.md
✓ status: accepted   accepted_at: 2026-05-22T08:37:46Z

This is the same set_status call as every other transition, only with status: "accepted", and the coach refuses it from the dev pair so only the PM ever sends it.

Full envelope

{
  "jsonrpc": "2.0",
  "method": "tools/call",
  "params": {
    "name": "set_status",
    "arguments": {
      "path": "stories/wait-by-the-mailbox-for-any-kind-of-reply.md",
      "status": "accepted"
    }
  }
}

What just happened

• The card flips green, action buttons disappear, the story counts toward velocity
• Because the accepted date is in the current iteration, the story stays in the Backlog band (above the in-flight line)
• Next Monday's iteration tick will move it silently into the Done panel; the timestamp does the routing, no manual archive needed

Next: What happens when something gets rejected →