@agentshouse/kit 0.2.1-cf110d15f69c8 → 0.2.1-cf268dff1869b
This diff represents the content of publicly available package versions that have been released to one of the supported registries. The information contained in this diff is provided for informational purposes only and reflects changes between package versions as they appear in their respective public registries.
- package/README.md +38 -37
- package/dist/acp.js +90 -19
- package/dist/agents.js +155 -45
- package/dist/api.js +5 -1
- package/dist/app-git.js +10 -26
- package/dist/authority-main.js +2 -2
- package/dist/bridge.js +4 -7
- package/dist/building.js +50 -0
- package/dist/calls.js +71 -0
- package/dist/chatgpt.js +32 -0
- package/dist/clis.js +52 -42
- package/dist/connection.js +105 -0
- package/dist/conversations.js +526 -175
- package/dist/copies.js +89 -52
- package/dist/end.js +17 -2
- package/dist/events.js +33 -8
- package/dist/files.js +139 -31
- package/dist/git.js +13 -11
- package/dist/home.js +56 -12
- package/dist/house-cli.js +299 -0
- package/dist/house-main.js +7 -206
- package/dist/instructions.js +7 -11
- package/dist/kit-cli.js +68 -0
- package/dist/kit-main.js +8 -22
- package/dist/login.js +49 -31
- package/dist/logout.js +0 -2
- package/dist/mcp.js +6 -2
- package/dist/placement.js +31 -0
- package/dist/relay.js +22 -1
- package/dist/resident.js +97 -38
- package/dist/scope.js +15 -4
- package/dist/scripts.js +255 -0
- package/dist/service.js +23 -1
- package/dist/sign-in.js +22 -39
- package/dist/silence.js +28 -0
- package/dist/skills.js +49 -35
- package/dist/transcription.js +85 -45
- package/dist/translate.js +2 -8
- package/dist/update.js +113 -105
- package/dist/wire.js +40 -0
- package/dist/work.js +3 -5
- package/package.json +20 -20
- package/dist/bootstrap.json +0 -24
- package/dist/clis-main.js +0 -23
- package/dist/stream.js +0 -74
- package/how-we-work.md +0 -23
- package/skills/ask-matt/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/ask-matt/PHASE-BOUNDARIES.md +0 -55
- package/skills/ask-matt/SKILL.md +0 -91
- package/skills/ask-matt/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/code-review/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/code-review/SKILL.md +0 -89
- package/skills/code-review/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/codebase-design/DEEPENING.md +0 -37
- package/skills/codebase-design/DESIGN-IT-TWICE.md +0 -44
- package/skills/codebase-design/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/codebase-design/SKILL.md +0 -116
- package/skills/codebase-design/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/diagnosing-bugs/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/diagnosing-bugs/SKILL.md +0 -140
- package/skills/diagnosing-bugs/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/diagnosing-bugs/scripts/hitl-loop.template.sh +0 -44
- package/skills/domain-modeling/ADR-FORMAT.md +0 -47
- package/skills/domain-modeling/CONTEXT-FORMAT.md +0 -60
- package/skills/domain-modeling/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/domain-modeling/SKILL.md +0 -76
- package/skills/domain-modeling/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/grill-me/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/grill-me/SKILL.md +0 -8
- package/skills/grill-me/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/grill-with-docs/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/grill-with-docs/SKILL.md +0 -8
- package/skills/grill-with-docs/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/grilling/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/grilling/SKILL.md +0 -30
- package/skills/grilling/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/handoff/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/handoff/SKILL.md +0 -17
- package/skills/handoff/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/implement/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/implement/SKILL.md +0 -16
- package/skills/implement/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/improve-codebase-architecture/HTML-REPORT.md +0 -123
- package/skills/improve-codebase-architecture/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/improve-codebase-architecture/SKILL.md +0 -72
- package/skills/improve-codebase-architecture/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/prototype/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/prototype/LOGIC.md +0 -67
- package/skills/prototype/SKILL.md +0 -28
- package/skills/prototype/UI.md +0 -112
- package/skills/prototype/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/research/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/research/SKILL.md +0 -14
- package/skills/research/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/resolving-merge-conflicts/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/resolving-merge-conflicts/SKILL.md +0 -16
- package/skills/resolving-merge-conflicts/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/tdd/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/tdd/SKILL.md +0 -40
- package/skills/tdd/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
- package/skills/tdd/mocking.md +0 -59
- package/skills/tdd/tests.md +0 -77
- package/skills/teach/GLOSSARY-FORMAT.md +0 -35
- package/skills/teach/LEARNING-RECORD-FORMAT.md +0 -46
- package/skills/teach/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/teach/MISSION-FORMAT.md +0 -31
- package/skills/teach/RESOURCES-FORMAT.md +0 -32
- package/skills/teach/SKILL.md +0 -141
- package/skills/teach/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/to-questionnaire/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/to-questionnaire/SKILL.md +0 -55
- package/skills/to-questionnaire/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/to-spec/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/to-spec/SKILL.md +0 -76
- package/skills/to-spec/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/to-tickets/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/to-tickets/SKILL.md +0 -106
- package/skills/to-tickets/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/wait-what/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/wait-what/SKILL.md +0 -8
- package/skills/wait-what/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/wayfinder/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/wayfinder/SKILL.md +0 -129
- package/skills/wayfinder/agents/openai.yaml +0 -4
- package/skills/writing-for-agents/LICENSE +0 -21
- package/skills/writing-for-agents/SKILL-MECHANICS.md +0 -22
- package/skills/writing-for-agents/SKILL.md +0 -83
- package/skills/writing-for-agents/agents/openai.yaml +0 -3
package/skills/to-spec/LICENSE
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MIT License
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Copyright (c) 2026 Matt Pocock
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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
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THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
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FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
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AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
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LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
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SOFTWARE.
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name: to-spec
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description: "Turn the current conversation into a spec and publish it to the project issue tracker: no interview, just synthesis of what you've already discussed."
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---
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<!-- Vendored from mattpocock/skills at commit c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7 (skills/engineering/to-spec). MIT licensed — see LICENSE in this directory. -->
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This skill takes the current conversation context and codebase understanding and produces a spec. Do NOT interview the user; just synthesize what you already know.
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The issue tracker and triage label vocabulary should have been provided to you. If not, tell the user to run `/setup-matt-pocock-skills`.
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## Process
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1. Explore the repo to understand the current state of the codebase, if you haven't already. Use the project's domain glossary vocabulary throughout the spec, and respect any ADRs in the area you're touching.
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2. Sketch out the seams at which you're going to test the feature. Existing seams should be preferred to new ones. Use the highest seam possible. If new seams are needed, propose them at the highest point you can. The fewer seams across the codebase, the better - the ideal number is one.
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Check with the user that these seams match their expectations.
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3. Write the spec using the template below, then publish it to the project issue tracker. Apply the `ready-for-agent` triage label - no need for additional triage.
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<spec-template>
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## Problem Statement
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The problem that the user is facing, from the user's perspective.
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## Solution
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The solution to the problem, from the user's perspective.
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## User Stories
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1. As an <actor>, I want a <feature>, so that <benefit>
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<user-story-example>
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1. As a mobile bank customer, I want to see balance on my accounts, so that I can make better informed decisions about my spending
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</user-story-example>
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This list of user stories should be extremely extensive and cover all aspects of the feature.
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## Implementation Decisions
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A list of implementation decisions that were made. This can include:
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- The modules that will be built/modified
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- The interfaces of those modules that will be modified
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- Technical clarifications from the developer
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- Architectural decisions
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- Schema changes
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- API contracts
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- Specific interactions
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Exception: if a prototype produced a snippet that encodes a decision more precisely than prose can (state machine, reducer, schema, type shape), inline it within the relevant decision and note briefly that it came from a prototype. Trim to the decision-rich parts, not a working demo, just the important bits.
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## Testing Decisions
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A list of testing decisions that were made. Include:
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- A description of what makes a good test (only test external behavior, not implementation details)
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- Which modules will be tested
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- Prior art for the tests (i.e. similar types of tests in the codebase)
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## Out of Scope
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A description of the things that are out of scope for this spec.
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## Further Notes
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</spec-template>
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MIT License
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Copyright (c) 2026 Matt Pocock
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Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
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of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
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in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
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to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
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copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
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furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
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THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
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IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
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FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
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AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
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LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
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OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
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SOFTWARE.
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name: to-tickets
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description: Break a plan, spec, or the current conversation into a set of tracer-bullet tickets, each declaring its blocking edges, published to the configured tracker (edges as text in one file per ticket locally, or native blocking links on a real tracker).
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---
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<!-- Vendored from mattpocock/skills at commit c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7 (skills/engineering/to-tickets). MIT licensed — see LICENSE in this directory. -->
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# To Tickets
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Break a plan, spec, or conversation into a set of **tickets**: tracer-bullet vertical slices, each declaring the tickets that **block** it.
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The issue tracker and triage label vocabulary should have been provided to you. If not, tell the user to run `/setup-matt-pocock-skills`.
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## Process
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### 1. Gather context
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Work from whatever is already in the conversation context. If the user passes a reference (a spec path, an issue number or URL) as an argument, fetch it and read its full body and comments.
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### 2. Explore the codebase (optional)
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Look for opportunities to prefactor the code to make the implementation easier. "Make the change easy, then make the easy change."
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### 3. Draft vertical slices
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<vertical-slice-rules>
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- Each slice cuts a narrow but COMPLETE path through every layer (schema, API, UI, tests): vertical, NOT a horizontal slice of one layer
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- A completed slice is demoable or verifiable on its own
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- Each slice is sized to fit in a single fresh context window
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</vertical-slice-rules>
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Give each ticket its **blocking edges**: the other tickets that must complete before it can start. A ticket with no blockers can start immediately.
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**Wide refactors are the exception to vertical slicing.** A **wide refactor** is one mechanical change (rename a column, retype a shared symbol) whose **blast radius** fans across the whole codebase, so a single edit breaks thousands of call sites at once and no vertical slice can land green. Don't force it into a tracer bullet; sequence it as **expand–contract**. First expand: add the new form beside the old so nothing breaks. Then migrate the call sites over in batches sized by blast radius (per package, per directory), each batch its own ticket blocked by the expand, keeping CI green batch to batch because the old form still exists. Finally contract: delete the old form once no caller remains, in a ticket blocked by every migrate batch. When even the batches can't stay green alone, keep the sequence but let them share an integration branch that all block a final integrate-and-verify ticket; green is promised only there.
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### 4. Quiz the user
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- **Blocked by**: which other tickets (if any) must complete first
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- Are the blocking edges correct: does each ticket only depend on tickets that genuinely gate it?
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Publish the approved tickets. **How** depends on the tracker `/setup-matt-pocock-skills` configured; the tickets are the same either way, only the shape of the blocking edges changes:
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- **Local files** → write one file per ticket under `.scratch/<feature-slug>/issues/<NN>-<slug>.md`, numbered from `01` in dependency order (blockers first). Each file's "Blocked by" lists the numbers/titles it depends on. Use the per-ticket file template below: one ticket per file, never a single combined file.
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- **A real issue tracker (GitHub, Linear, …)** → publish one issue per ticket in dependency order (blockers first) so each ticket's blocking edges can reference real identifiers. Use the platform's native blocking / sub-issue relationship where it has one; otherwise set each ticket's "Blocked by" to the blocking issues. Apply the `ready-for-agent` triage label unless instructed otherwise; the tickets are agent-grabbable by construction.
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<local-ticket-template>
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# <NN>: <Ticket title>
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**What to build:** the end-to-end behaviour this ticket makes work, from the user's perspective, not a layer-by-layer implementation list.
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**Blocked by:** the numbers/titles of the tickets that gate this one, or "None (can start immediately)".
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**Status:** ready-for-agent
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- [ ] Acceptance criterion 1
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- [ ] Acceptance criterion 2
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</local-ticket-template>
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## What to build
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In either form, avoid specific file paths or code snippets: they go stale fast. Exception: if a prototype produced a snippet that encodes a decision more precisely than prose can (state machine, reducer, schema, type shape), inline it and note briefly that it came from a prototype. Trim to the decision-rich parts, not a working demo, just the important bits.
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---
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name: wait-what
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description: "Stop. That last message did not land: re-pitch it."
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---
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<!-- Vendored from mattpocock/skills at commit c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7 (skills/productivity/wait-what). MIT licensed — see LICENSE in this directory. -->
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Wait, I don't understand where you've got to here. Re-pitch that: give me a little bit of context, talk in ASD-STE100 Simplified Technical English, and use the ubiquitous language from `CONTEXT.md` (follow `CONTEXT-MAP.md` to the right one if the repo has more than one).
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---
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name: wayfinder
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description: Plan a huge chunk of work (more than one agent session can hold) as a shared map of decision tickets on your issue tracker, and resolve them one at a time until the way to the destination is clear.
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---
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<!-- Vendored from mattpocock/skills at commit c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7 (skills/engineering/wayfinder). MIT licensed — see LICENSE in this directory. -->
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A loose idea has arrived, too big for one agent session, and wrapped in fog: the way from here to the **destination** isn't visible yet. Wayfinding is about finding that way, not charging at the destination. This skill charts the way as a **shared map** on the repo's issue tracker, then works its **decision tickets** (questions whose resolution is a decision, not slices of a build to execute) one at a time until the route is clear.
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The destination varies per effort, and naming it is the first act of charting: it shapes every ticket. It might be a spec to hand off and iterate on, a decision to lock before planning starts, or a change made in place like a data-structure migration. The map is domain-agnostic: engineering work, course content, whatever fits the shape.
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## Plan, don't do
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Wayfinder is **planning** by default: each ticket resolves a decision, and the map is done when the way is clear, with nothing left to decide before someone goes and does the thing. The pull to just do the work is usually the signal you've reached the edge of the map and it's time to hand off. An effort can override this in its **Notes**, carrying execution into the map itself, but absent that, produce decisions, not deliverables.
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## Refer by name
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Every map and ticket is an issue, so it has a **name**: its title. In everything the human reads (narration, the map's Decisions-so-far), refer to it by that name, never by a bare id, number, or slug. A wall of `#42, #43, #44` is illegible; names read at a glance. The id and URL don't vanish; a name wraps its link, but they ride _inside_ the name, never stand in for it.
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## The Map
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The map is a single issue on this repo's issue tracker, labelled `wayfinder:map`, the canonical artifact. Its tickets are child issues of the map.
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The map is an **index**, not a store. It lists the decisions made and points at the tickets that hold their detail; a decision lives in exactly one place, its ticket, so the map never restates it, only gists it and links.
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**Where the map, its child tickets, blocking, and frontier queries physically live is tracker-specific.** The issue tracker should have been provided to you. If not, tell the user to run `/setup-matt-pocock-skills`. Consult the tracker doc's "Wayfinding operations" section for how _this_ repo expresses them. If no tracker has been provided, default to the local-markdown tracker.
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### The map body
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The whole map at low resolution, loaded once per session. Open tickets are **not** listed: they are open child issues, found by query.
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```markdown
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## Destination
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<what reaching the end of this map looks like: the spec, decision, or change this effort is finding its way to. One or two lines; every session orients to it before choosing a ticket.>
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## Notes
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<domain; skills every session should consult; standing preferences for this effort>
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## Decisions so far
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<!-- the index: one line per closed ticket, enough to judge relevance, then zoom the link for the detail the ticket holds -->
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## Not yet specified
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<!-- see "Fog of war": in-scope fog you can't ticket yet; graduates as the frontier advances -->
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## Out of scope
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<!-- see "Out of scope": work ruled beyond the destination; closed, never graduates -->
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```
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### Tickets
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Each ticket is a **child issue** of the map; the tracker's issue id is its identity. Its body is the question, sized to one 100K token agent session:
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```markdown
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## Question
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<the decision or investigation this ticket resolves>
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```
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Each ticket carries a `wayfinder:<type>` label, one of `research`, `prototype`, `grilling`, `task` (see [Ticket Types](#ticket-types)).
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A session **claims** a ticket by assigning it to the dev driving the map, **first**, before any work, so concurrent sessions skip it. That assignee _is_ the claim: an open, unassigned ticket is unclaimed.
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Blocking uses the tracker's **native** dependency relationship: essential because it renders the frontier _visually_ in the tracker's own UI, so the human sees what's takeable without opening the map. Only a tracker that lacks native blocking falls back to a body convention. A ticket is **unblocked** when every ticket blocking it is closed; the **frontier** is the open, unblocked, unclaimed children, the edge of the known.
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The answer isn't part of the body; it's recorded on resolution (see [Work through the map](#work-through-the-map)). Assets created while resolving a ticket are linked from the issue, not pasted in.
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## Ticket Types
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Every ticket is either **HITL** (human in the loop, worked _with_ a human who speaks for themselves) or **AFK**, driven by the agent alone. A HITL ticket only resolves through that live exchange; the agent never stands in for the human's side of it (a grilling agent that answers its own questions has broken this).
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- **Research** (AFK): Reading documentation, third-party APIs, or local resources like knowledge bases to surface a fact a decision waits on. Resolved by a subagent that calls the Skill tool with "research". Use when knowledge outside the current working directory is required.
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- **Prototype** (HITL): Raise the fidelity of the discussion by making a cheap, rough, concrete artifact to react to (an outline, a rough take, a stub, or UI/logic code) by calling the Skill tool with "prototype". Links the prototype as an asset. Use when "how should it look" or "how should it behave" is the key question.
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- **Grilling** (HITL): Conversation. The default case. Always call the Skill tool twice, for "grilling" and "domain-modeling".
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- **Task** (HITL or AFK): Manual work that must happen before a _decision_ can be made: nothing to decide, prototype, or research, but the discussion is blocked until it's done. Signing up for a service so its API can be judged, provisioning access, moving data so its shape can be seen. This is the one type that _does_ rather than decides, and it earns its place by unblocking a decision, not by delivering the destination. The agent drives it alone where it can (AFK); otherwise it hands the human a precise checklist (HITL). Resolved when the work is done; the answer records what was done and any resulting facts (credentials location, new URLs, row counts) later tickets depend on.
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## Fog of war
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The map is _deliberately_ incomplete: don't chart what you can't yet see. Beyond the live tickets lies the **fog of war**: the dim view of decisions and investigations you can tell are coming but can't yet pin down, because they hang on questions still open. Resolving a ticket clears the fog ahead of it, graduating whatever's now specifiable into fresh tickets, one at a time, until the way to the destination is clear and no tickets remain.
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The map's **Not yet specified** section is where that dim view is written down: the suspected question, the area to revisit later. It's the undiscovered frontier _toward_ the destination: everything here is in scope, just not sharp enough to ticket. Write as loosely or as fully as the view allows; it doubles as a signpost for collaborators reading where the effort is headed.
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**Fog or ticket?** The test is whether you can state the question precisely now, _not_ whether you can answer it now.
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- **Ticket when** the question is already sharp, even if it's blocked and you can't act on it yet.
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- **Not yet specified when** you can't yet phrase it that sharply. Don't pre-slice the fog into ticket-sized pieces: it's coarser than a ticket, and one patch may graduate into several tickets, or none, once the frontier reaches it.
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**Not yet specified** excludes what's already decided (Decisions so far), what's already a live ticket, and what's out of scope (the next section).
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## Out of scope
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Fog only ever gathers _toward_ the destination. The destination fixes the scope, so work beyond it is **out of scope**: it isn't fog, and it doesn't belong in **Not yet specified**. It gets its own **Out of scope** section on the map: work you've consciously ruled out of _this_ effort. Scope, not sharpness, lands it here.
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Out-of-scope work never graduates (the frontier stops at the destination), so it returns only if the destination is redrawn, and then as a fresh effort, not a resumption.
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Ruling something out of scope is a scoping act, not a step on the route. When a ticket that already exists turns out to sit past the destination (mis-scoped in while charting, or exposed by a resolution), **close it** (a closed ticket is unambiguously off the frontier) and leave one line in the **Out of scope** section: the gist plus why it's out of scope, linking the closed ticket. It stays out of **Decisions so far**, which records the route actually walked; a scope boundary isn't a step on it.
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## Invocation
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Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session**, with the exception of research tickets.
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### Chart the map
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User invokes with a loose idea.
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1. **Name the destination.** Call the Skill tool twice, for "grilling" and "domain-modeling", to pin down what this map is finding its way to: the spec, decision, or change. The destination fixes the scope, so it's settled first.
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2. **Map the frontier.** Grill again, **breadth-first** this time: fan out across the whole space rather than deep on any one thread, surfacing the open decisions and the first steps takeable now. **If this surfaces no fog** (the way to the destination is already clear, the whole journey small enough for one session), you don't need a map. Stop and ask the user how they'd like to proceed.
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3. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Destination and Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, the fog sketched into **Not yet specified**.
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4. **Create the tickets you can specify now** as child issues of the map, then wire blocking edges in a **second pass** (issues need ids before they can reference each other). Wiring sorts them into the frontier and the blocked; everything you can't yet specify stays in the fog: the **Not yet specified** section.
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5. **Fire the research subagents.** For each `research` ticket you just created, spin up a subagent that calls the Skill tool with "research" to resolve it in parallel, capturing its findings on a throwaway `research/<name>` branch with a context pointer from the ticket.
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6. Stop: charting is one session's work; it hand-resolves nothing.
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### Work through the map
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User invokes with a map (URL or number). A ticket is **optional**: without one, you pick the next decision, not the user.
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1. Load the **map**: the low-res view, not every ticket body.
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2. Choose the ticket. If the user named one, use it. Otherwise take the first frontier ticket in order. **Claim it**: assign it to yourself before any work.
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3. Resolve it. **Zoom as needed**: fetch the full body of any related or closed ticket on demand; call the Skill tool for whichever skills the `## Notes` block names. If in doubt, call the Skill tool twice, for "grilling" and "domain-modeling".
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4. Record the resolution: post the answer as a **resolution comment**, **close** the issue, and **append a context pointer** to the map's Decisions-so-far.
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5. Add newly-surfaced tickets (create-then-wire); graduate any fog the answer has made specifiable, clearing each graduated patch from **Not yet specified** so it lives only as its new ticket. If the answer reveals that a ticket (this one or another) sits beyond the destination, **rule it out of scope** rather than resolving it on the route. If the decision invalidates other parts of the map, update or delete those tickets.
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The user may run unblocked tickets in parallel, so expect other sessions to be editing the tracker concurrently.
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MIT License
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Copyright (c) 2026 Matt Pocock
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Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
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of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
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in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
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to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
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copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
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furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
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The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
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copies or substantial portions of the Software.
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THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
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IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
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FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
|
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AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
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LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
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SOFTWARE.
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# Skill mechanics
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The skill-specific branch of [`writing-for-agents`](SKILL.md): what changes when the document is a skill (frontmatter, the invocation choice, and router skills). Everything else about writing it is the universal reference in `SKILL.md`.
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## Invocation
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Two choices, trading the two loads:
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- A **model-invoked** skill keeps a `description`, so the agent can fire it autonomously, and other skills can reach it. You can still type its name: model-invocation always _includes_ user reach; a description only ever adds agent discovery, never removes the human's. The description is the skill's top-level context pointer, forced to stay loaded at all times: permanent context load in exchange for discoverability. A model-invoked skill whose content is all reference is also one home for shared reference: another skill can invoke it, so reference needed by several skills lives in one place. Mechanics: omit `disable-model-invocation`, and write a model-facing description carrying the trigger branches (the pointer-writing rules in `SKILL.md` apply in full).
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- A **user-invoked** skill strips the description from the agent's reach: only the human typing its name can invoke it, and no other skill can. Zero context load, but it spends cognitive load: you are the index that must remember it exists. Mechanics: set `disable-model-invocation: true`; the `description` becomes human-facing: a one-line summary, trigger lists stripped.
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Pick model-invocation only when the agent must reach the skill on its own, or another skill must. If it only ever fires by hand, make it user-invoked and pay no context load.
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Shared reference that two user-invoked skills both need can live in neither: with no descriptions, neither can fire the other. Push it to a plain file outside the skill system: external reference any skill can point at.
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## Splitting by invocation
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The invocation cut of splitting (the sequence cut lives in `SKILL.md`): split off a model-invoked skill when you have a distinct leading word that should trigger it on its own (a trigger word you actually use in your prompts), or another skill must reach it. You pay context load for the new always-loaded description, so that independent reach has to be worth it.
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## Router skills
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When user-invoked skills multiply past what you can remember, that piled-up cognitive load is cured by a **router skill**: one user-invoked skill that names the others and when to reach for each, so the human has one skill to remember instead of many. It can only hint, never fire them: user-invoked skills have no description, so nothing but the human can reach them.
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name: writing-for-agents
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description: Writing documents for agents. Use when creating or editing skills, or modifying AGENTS.md or CLAUDE.md.
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<!-- Vendored from mattpocock/skills at commit c55ee46073ed923f86ce59a5eb3b6d895095d1b7 (skills/productivity/writing-for-agents). MIT licensed — see LICENSE in this directory. -->
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Reference for writing any document an agent consumes: a skill, an `AGENTS.md` / `CLAUDE.md`, a doc reached by a pointer. The packaging differs; the writing does not: the same levers make each one predictable, since the agent takes the same _process_ every run rather than producing the same output.
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When the document you're writing is a skill, read [`SKILL-MECHANICS.md`](SKILL-MECHANICS.md) for frontmatter, invocation choice, and router skills.
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## Context pointers
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A **context pointer** is a reference held in the agent's context that names some out-of-context material and encodes the condition for reaching it. A skill's description is one; a line in `AGENTS.md` naming a doc is the same object. The pointer's _wording_, not its target, decides when the agent reaches the material, and how reliably. A must-have target behind a weakly worded pointer is a variance bug: sharpen the wording first, and inline the material only if sharpening fails.
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A pointer does two jobs: state what the material is, and list the **branches** that should trigger reaching it (a branch is a distinct case the document handles, so different runs take different paths through it). Every word of an always-loaded pointer costs on every turn, so it earns even harder pruning than the body:
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- **Front-load the leading word**: the pointer is where it does its triggering work.
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- **One trigger per branch.** Synonyms that rename a single branch are one branch written twice; collapse them and keep only genuinely distinct branches.
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- **Cut identity the body already carries.**
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## The two loads
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Every document and pointer you add spends one of two budgets:
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- **Context load** is the cost of always-loaded material on the agent's window: an `AGENTS.md` line, a skill description, anything sitting in context every turn, spending tokens and attention whether or not it fires.
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- **Cognitive load** is the cost on the human: which documents exist and when to reach for each. The human is the index. Not a cost to minimise: it is the price of human agency; spend it where human judgement matters, remove it where it does not.
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Material reached only through a pointer escapes context load at the price of the pointer's own line; material with no pointer at all rides entirely on cognitive load.
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## Information hierarchy
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A document is built from two content types: **steps** (the ordered actions the agent performs) and **reference** (definitions, rules, facts consulted on demand). The two mix freely: all steps (a recipe), all reference (a review's rules, this skill), or both. The core decision is where each piece sits on the **information hierarchy**, a ladder ranked by how immediately the agent needs the material:
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1. **In-file step** is the primary tier: what the agent does, in order.
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2. **In-file reference** is consulted on demand. Often a legitimately flat peer-set (every rule of a review on one rung), which is a fine arrangement, not a smell.
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3. **Disclosed reference** is pushed out into a separate file, reached by a context pointer, loaded only when the pointer fires. Spans a sibling file in the same folder through fully external reference that lives anywhere and any document can point at.
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Push too little down and the top bloats; push too much and you hide material the agent actually needs. That tension is the whole decision.
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**Progressive disclosure** is the move down the ladder (out of the main file and behind a pointer) so the top stays legible. Not primarily a token optimisation: it is how the hierarchy is protected. Branching is the cleanest disclosure test: inline what every branch needs, and push behind a pointer what only some branches reach. When a document has steps, in-file reference that should be disclosed buries them and turns attending to them into a coin-flip: a variance lever, not just a legibility one.
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**Co-location** is the within-file companion: where the ladder decides _how far down_ a piece sits, co-location decides _what sits beside it_ once there. Keep a concept's definition, rules, and caveats under one heading rather than scattered, so reading one part brings its neighbours with it. The test: the document should read like documentation written for the agent. Grouped material reads that way; scattered material does not. (Distinct from duplication: that repeats one meaning in two places; scattering fragments one meaning across many.)
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**Sprawl** is the failure mode here: a document simply too long, even when every line is live and unique. Attention thins across the excess, and every extra line is one more to keep relevant. The cure is the ladder: disclose reference behind pointers, and split by branch or sequence so each path carries only what it needs.
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## Steps and completion criteria
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Every step ends on a **completion criterion**, the condition that tells the agent the work is done. Two properties make it a lever:
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- **Clarity**: can the agent tell done from not-done? A vague bound ("understanding reached") invites **premature completion**: ending the step before it is genuinely done, attention slipping to _being done_. The visible steps still ahead (the **post-completion steps**) supply the pull; the criterion's clarity is the resistance. Defend in order: **sharpen the bound first** (local and cheap); only if it is irreducibly fuzzy _and_ you observe the rush, hide the later steps by splitting the sequence. Hiding only works across a real context boundary (a hand-off or a subagent dispatch; an inline call leaves the later steps in context and clears nothing).
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- **Demand**: how much it requires. "Every modified model accounted for" forces thorough work where "produce a change list" does not. Demand drives **legwork** (the digging the agent does within the work, latent in the wording rather than written as its own step), and it is not step-bound: "every rule applied" binds a body of flat reference just as "every step done" binds a sequence, which is how an all-reference document still carries an exhaustiveness bar.
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The strongest criteria are both checkable and exhaustive.
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## When to split
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Splitting one document into two spends one of the two loads, so split only when the cut earns it:
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- **By sequence**: split a run of steps where the post-completion steps tempt the agent to rush the one in front of it. Keeping them out of view drives more legwork on the current task. Beware the reverse: merging sequences exposes each step's later steps to what follows, inviting premature completion.
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- **By invocation**, skill-specific: see [`SKILL-MECHANICS.md`](SKILL-MECHANICS.md).
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## Leading words
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A **leading word** is a compact concept already living in the model's pretraining that the agent thinks with while running the document (_lesson_, _fog of war_, _tracer bullets_). Repeated as a token, never as a sentence, it accumulates a distributed definition and anchors a whole region of behaviour in the fewest tokens, by recruiting priors the model already holds. Coining your own works if you define it clearly, but a made-up word recruits no priors: you pay in definition tokens what a pretrained word gives free; reach for an existing word first.
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It anchors twice. In the body, _execution_: the agent reaches for the same behaviour every time the word appears, and inside flat reference it focuses attention on a class of thing to look for. In a pointer, _invocation_: when the same word lives in your prompts, your docs, and your codebase, the agent links that shared language to the material and reaches it more reliably.
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Hunt for opportunities to refactor with leading words. A triad spelled out at three sites, a pointer spending a sentence to gesture at one idea. Each is a passage begging to collapse into a single token:
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- "fast, deterministic, low-overhead" → _tight_ (a _tight_ loop).
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- "a loop you believe in" → _red_, turning a fuzzy gate into a binary observable state (the loop goes _red_ on the bug, or it doesn't).
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You win twice: fewer tokens, and a sharper hook for the agent to hang its thinking on. Assume every document is carrying restatements that leading words retire. Go find them.
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**Negation** is the failure mode beside this lever: steering by prohibition drags the forbidden behaviour into context and makes it _more_ available, not less. _Don't think of an elephant_, and the elephant is all there is; the negation is a weak modifier the strongly-activated concept overruns, so the ban half-reads as an instruction to do the thing. Prompt the **positive**: state the target behaviour ("write one-line comments") so the banned one is never spoken. A prohibition earns its place only as a hard guardrail you cannot phrase positively; even then, pair it with the positive target so attention lands on what to do.
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## Pruning
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- Keep each meaning in a **single source of truth**: one authoritative place, so changing the behaviour is a one-place edit. **Duplication** (the same meaning in more than one place) costs maintenance and tokens, and inflates a meaning's prominence on the ladder past its real rank. (The accidental inverse of a leading word, which repeats a token on purpose, never the meaning.)
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- The **environment** is a source of truth too (`package.json` scripts, config files, the directory layout, `--help` output), and a document that restates it is a **cache**: a copy of a lookup, earning its load only when the lookup is expensive. Cache what the agent cannot find by looking: the unwritten convention, the reason behind a choice, the gotcha no config confesses. Leave the one-file, one-command lookups to the environment, where they cannot go stale.
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- Check every line for **relevance**: does it still bear on what the document does? A line loses relevance by never bearing on the task (mere exposition, or a branch that should be disclosed) or by going stale as the behaviour or world it describes changes. Shorter documents are easier to keep relevant. Without a pruning discipline the default fate is **sediment**: stale layers that settle because adding feels safe and removing feels risky, until you must core down through them to find what is still live.
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- Hunt **no-ops** sentence by sentence: an instruction the model already obeys by default pays load to say nothing. The test (does it change behaviour versus the default?) is model-relative, not reader-relative: two people disagreeing about a no-op disagree about the default, and settle it by running the document, not by debate. When a sentence fails, delete the whole sentence rather than trim words from it. The test also grades leading words: a word too weak to beat the default (_be thorough_ when the agent is already thorough-ish) is a no-op, and the fix is a stronger word (_relentless_), not a different technique.
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