| name | autonomous-setup |
| description | Use when an approved product brief (project/BRIEF.md, status APPROVED) exists and the project should be set up without further user input — research, tech decisions, scaffold, backlog. Do not use while the brief is missing or DRAFT (→ project-onboarding). |
| model | opus |
| disallowed-tools | AskUserQuestion |
Autonomous Setup
Principle
From here on, no questions to the user. Every open decision is made autonomously and logged in
project/DECISIONS.md as an ADR. Only exceptions: the escalation criteria from the
autonomy contract in project/BRIEF.md.
No AskUserQuestion tool (enforced): a reversible open decision → decide and log an ADR; an escalation criterion hit → stop with a decision memo. Never an interactive prompt.
Precondition
project/BRIEF.md exists with status APPROVED. Otherwise abort and request project-onboarding.
Phases
1. Research (timeboxed, parallel)
First read the global knowledge base (resolve: $SKILLS_KNOWLEDGE_DIR if set, otherwise the path
in <skills-dir>/_shared/knowledge.path — written by install.sh; if neither resolves → skip) —
documented learnings from earlier projects replace research and prevent repeat mistakes.
Then parallel read-only subagents in one invocation block, one per question:
- Alternatives: What already exists? What does it not do well enough? (confirms/sharpens the core contract)
- Tech options: 2–3 stack candidates fitting the must-have outcomes, target environment, and cost frame — with trade-offs, not with a winner
- Risks: legal, technical, and cost traps of the domain
Results go to project/log/<date>-research-<topic>.md. Research findings that suggest new features
go into project/IDEAS.md — never directly into scope.
2. Decide
Determine stack, architecture cut, and project structure: one ADR each in project/DECISIONS.md
(decision, alternatives, rationale, reversal cost). On a tie, the decider is: least
complexity for the must-have outcomes — not the most interesting technology.
3. Scaffold
- Initialize the repo (if not present), skeleton per the ADRs,
.gitignore, minimal README.
- Create
project/PROFILE.md from _shared/templates/PROFILE.template.md.
Enter each command (build, test, lint, run) only after it ran successfully once.
- A walking skeleton is enough: buildable, testable, startable. No feature implementation during setup.
4. Backlog
- At least one WORK card per must-have outcome from the brief (
project/backlog/, follow the template): P0 = critical path to MVP.
- Cut cards small and with disjoint claim zones where possible — that enables the loop to parallelize.
- Initialize
project/STATE.md and project/IDEAS.md from the templates.
5. Finish
First commit (scaffold + project/ artifacts). Short setup report in project/log/.
Then start autonomous-loop directly — don't wait for confirmation.
Red flags
- "I'll quickly ask the user which language they prefer" → violation: decide, log, continue.
- Research takes longer than the scaffold → timebox violated; decide with available knowledge.
- Commands in the profile that never ran → the profile lies, the loop breaks later.
- Setup already implements features → belongs in WORK cards and the loop.
