| name | northstar |
| description | Planning-only intake: turn intent into a tracked, sliced plan and A→B handoff; never implement product changes. Use before autobahn execution. |
| eval | northstar |
Northstar
Northstar fixes direction: it converges intent into a crystal-clear, tracked,
sliced plan inside a repo already initialized with ai-catapult-init v3. It is a
lightweight composer — it delegates to existing skills and never reimplements
their loops. The output is the A→B handoff that autobahn consumes.
Execution boundary (hard stop)
Northstar is planning-only. Never implement a sliced goal, modify product
code or tests, run implementation engines, or start autobahn while this skill
is active. Writes are limited to the planning/tracking artifacts required below.
After verifying the A→B handoff, stop and report it; implementation requires
a separate, explicit autobahn invocation. Never continue into implementation
in the same run, even when the initiating prompt also asks for implementation.
Quick Start
- Run the prereq gate (fail-closed) against the repo root:
bash northstar/prereq-check.sh --root .
- Run the interview loop, then always raise an issue.
- Run
ralplan to produce sliced goals.
- Write the handoff:
bash northstar/handoff-write.sh --root . --spec <spec-path> --slug <plan-slug>.
Prereq (fail-closed)
northstar assumes the ai-catapult-init v3 structure is already present and never
bootstraps it. prereq-check.sh asserts the .ai/ structure exists and exits
non-zero with guidance if absent. Do not proceed past a failed prereq. See
modules/prereq.md.
The loop (delegation)
deep-interview is the primary driver: interview one question at a time
until ambiguity is at or below threshold. grill-me runs as an adversarial,
skippable pass the user may decline. "Both satisfied" = the deep-interview
gate is met AND (the grill-me decision tree is clear OR grill-me was skipped).
Delegate to those skills; do not reimplement their loops. See
modules/loop.md.
Always raise an issue
After the loop, always raise an issue regardless of whether grill-me was
skipped. Default is local-first markdown; a hosted tracker
(GitHub/ADO/GitLab/Jira) is used only when it is configured and authorized,
fail-closed per the ai-catapult-init host-policy. Delegate to to-issues and
triage for canonical state labels and ownership. See
modules/issue.md.
Ralplan → sliced goals
Run ralplan (consensus planning) on the crystallized spec to produce sliced
goals — one tracer-bullet slice per future PR. ralplan owns the planning
loop; northstar only records its output as the sliced-goal artifacts the handoff
points at.
A→B handoff
handoff-write.sh records the A→B contract under .ai/: a handoff entry in
.ai/handoff/, a registration record in the workflow manifest's
optional_branches slot, and traceability nodes pinned to schema_version 1.1.
The spec lives in docs/specifications/ACTIVE/; sliced goals are referenced from
the handoff. The write is idempotent and recovers from a partial write on re-run.
See modules/handoff.md.
Command surface
northstar registers as a first-class command in both harnesses under
.ai/commands/omx/ and .ai/commands/omc/ using one shared schema. See
modules/command-surface.md.
Safety rules
- Planning only: never implement product changes or execute a sliced goal.
- Hard stop: do not invoke
autobahn, ultragoal, team, ralph, ultrawork,
or another implementation engine; stop after the verified A→B handoff and
never implement in the same run.
- Fail closed: a missing prereq, missing authorization, or partial handoff write
stops with guidance — never silently proceed or mutate.
- Compose, never reimplement: delegate every loop to its owning skill.
- Local-first: never create a hosted issue unless the tracker is configured and
authorized.
References
