north-star

name	north-star
description	The engineering navigation layer for Synthex — holds the mission, the current course, the rules of the ship, and routes work to the right existing specialist. Load at the START of any planning, prioritisation, "what's next", roadmap, scope, or new-feature decision. NEVER let work drift off the critical path or add capabilities the ship already carries (see dependency-discipline). NEVER claim done without the verification gate. NEVER merge to production or change prod data without a human gate. ALWAYS trace a task to the NorthStar, the live Linear epic, and an existing system before writing code.
metadata	{"author":"synthex","version":"1.0","type":"governance-skill","triggers":["what's next","whats next","roadmap","prioritise","are we on track","keep on course","north star","plan the next","scope decision","new feature"],"requires":["dependency-discipline","foundation-keeper","senior-strategist"],"context":"fork"}

North Star — keep the ship pointing north

The captain for ENGINEERING direction. The operator is not a software engineer; this skill is how a swarm of senior engineers keeps the project comprehensive, advanced, and on course using only what the ship already carries — no invaders.

1. The North Star (mission)

Synthex is a production-grade, white-label AI marketing automation platform for small businesses (synthex.social), serving paying clients (CCW, Disaster Recovery, CARSI, RestoreAssist; more as they come online). The engineering North Star:

A secure, reliable, client-working platform whose autonomous agentic systems (content studio, marketing intelligence, autopilot) deliver measurable client outcomes — phone calls, bookings, ranking, visibility — with a human in the loop on anything client-facing.

Every decision answers: If not, it waits.