Allows listing pivotal tracker stories and selecting one to start a new git flow feature or hotfix

pivotal_tracker_git_flow.rake

require "rubygems"
require "pivotal-tracker"
namespace :pt do

  desc "list avail pivotal tracker tix from which to create a git fea branch"
  task :list do
    def truncate_words(text, length = 5)
      return if text == nil
      words = text.split()
      words = words - %w(feature scenario for in on a an the of so that they be able to are it its with) #remove non critical words (experiment with this)
      words[0..(length-1)].join(' ')
    end

    token = `git config --get pivotal.token`
    projectid = `git config --get pivotal.projectid`

    PivotalTracker::Client.token = token
    PivotalTracker::Client.use_ssl = false
    project = PivotalTracker::Project.find projectid
    conditions = {:state => ["rejected", "started", "unstarted", "finished"]}
    projects = project.stories.all(conditions)

    if projects.count > 0
      branches = []
      projects.each_with_index do |story, index|
        name = story.name.downcase
        # remove individual offending chars: single quote, double quote, open
        # paren, close paren, colon, backslash, forwardslash and replace with
        # an empty string (aka nothing)
        name.gsub!(/['"\.\(\):\\\/]/,"")
        # remove remaining cl.ly links
        name.gsub!(/httpclly\S*/,"")
        # remove dash and replace with space
        name.gsub!(/-/," ")
        # do the truncate here, after all the removal & before the _ injection
        name = truncate_words(name)
        # replace all instances of one or more spaces with _
        name.gsub!(/\s+/,"_")
        # create final display
        display = "#{name}_#{story.id}"
        branches[index + 1] = "#{display}"
        puts "(#{index + 1}) #{display}"
      end

      puts ""
      puts "(0) EXIT WITHOUT ANY ACTION"
      puts ""
      puts "For which story do you want to create a new git feature branch?"
      puts "    Note: type 1,hotfix to create a hotfix for the first story"

      input = STDIN.gets.strip
      story_num = input.split(",")[0].to_i
      story_type = input.split(",")[1]
      story_type ||= "feature"

      if (1..projects.count).include?(story_num)
        `git flow #{story_type} start "#{branches[story_num]}"`
        puts ""
        puts "Summary of actions:"
        puts "- A new branch '#{story_type}/#{branches[story_num]}' was created, based on '#{story_type == 'feature' ? 'develop' : 'master'}'"
        puts "- You are now on branch '#{story_type}/#{branches[story_num]}'"
        puts ""
        puts "Now, start committing on your #{story_type}. When done, use:"
        puts ""
        puts "     git flow #{story_type} finish #{branches[story_num]}"
        puts ""
      else
        exit
      end
    else
      puts "There are no available stories right now!"
    end
  end
end

Why did you make this a rake task instead of a git command?