livespec-seed

name	livespec-seed
description	Author the initial natural-language livespec specification for a new project, populating the chosen template's spec_root layout. Use when starting a brand-new spec in an empty SPECIFICATION/ tree, or when the user asks to "seed a livespec spec" or "set up a livespec". This mutating operation writes the initial spec tree.
allowed-tools	bash read write edit

livespec-seed — pi Driver binding

This file is the thin pi binding for the seed operation, shipped by the livespec-driver-pi Driver package. It carries pi-runtime mechanics ONLY. The complete harness-neutral driving prose is livespec CORE's artifact at <core-root>/prose/seed.md.

Order of work, every time:

1. Resolve <core-root> (next section).
2. Read <core-root>/prose/seed.md completely with the read tool.
3. Execute that prose end-to-end, binding its harness-neutral vocabulary to this runtime via the Runtime bindings section below.

Never paraphrase, summarize, or act on a partial read of the prose, and never restate its steps here — core owns the behavior, this file owns the wiring.

Resolving livespec core (<core-root>)

This Driver package ships the eight bindings, the resolver named below, and one sanctioned extension. It carries no prose/ and no scripts/. The harness-neutral prose and the reference spec-side CLIs ship with livespec core (thewoolleyman/livespec), installed alongside this Driver as a resource-less pi git package.

The ordered algorithm is realized ONCE, by this package's lib/resolve-core-root.sh. Do NOT restate it inline. Eight inline copies of a resolution rule are kept in agreement only by copying, and that is exactly how one defect came to live in all eight of a sibling Driver's bindings at once.

<skill-dir> below is the directory holding THIS SKILL.md — you read this file from disk, so you know its absolute path; the resolver sits two levels up at the package root.

LIVESPEC_CORE_ROOT="$(bash "<skill-dir>/../../lib/resolve-core-root.sh" .)" || exit 1
echo "$LIVESPEC_CORE_ROOT"

The resolver searches, in order: the LIVESPEC_CORE_PLUGIN_ROOT override; the governed project's own .claude-plugin/ when it carries prose/ (the project IS livespec core — dogfooding); the project-scope pi package clone under .pi/git/github.com/thewoolleyman/livespec/; and the user-scope clone under ~/.pi/agent/git/github.com/thewoolleyman/livespec/.

On failure the resolver writes its own diagnostic to stderr and exits 1. STOP and surface that diagnostic verbatim. Do not improvise a path, and do not run an install command the diagnostic did not ask for — in particular, a failure under a non-interactive pi -p run is frequently pi's project-trust gate silently ignoring project packages rather than a missing install.

Config-named CLI dispatch

Per livespec core's contract (its contracts.md), every spec-side operation is named in the governed project's .livespec.jsonc under spec_clis.seed as an argv-form array, pre-populated with core's reference default and individually overridable. To "run the seed CLI named in config":

1. Read <project-root>/.livespec.jsonc (JSONC — tolerate // comments). If the file, the spec_clis section, or the spec_clis.seed key is absent, use core's reference default argv: python3 <core-root>/scripts/bin/seed.py.
2. If the configured argv contains the literal plugin-root substitution token (the CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT placeholder, written as a $-brace expansion in config), expand it to <core-root>. Core's schema defines that token as "the installed livespec plugin root", which is CORE's root — never this Driver's, which carries no scripts/ at all.
3. Append the operation's flags and invoke with the bash tool.

With the default config this collapses to:

python3 "$LIVESPEC_CORE_ROOT/scripts/bin/seed.py" --seed-json <path> [--project-root <path>]

Mutating-operation precondition

seed MUTATES the specification tree. Per the Driver-shipped-hooks contract in livespec SPECIFICATION/contracts.md, a mutating pi operation MUST NOT be exercised unless this Driver's tool_call footgun-guard extension (extensions/livespec-footgun-guard.ts) is loaded. If pi reports that the package's extensions are not loaded — most often the project-trust gate under a non-interactive run — STOP and say so rather than proceeding unguarded.

Runtime bindings

• "run the seed CLI named in config" / "invoke the seed CLI" — dispatch per the Config-named CLI dispatch section above; with the default config:

  python3 "$LIVESPEC_CORE_ROOT/scripts/bin/seed.py" --seed-json <path> [--project-root <path>]
  

• "run the template-resolution CLI" — via the bash tool:

  python3 "$LIVESPEC_CORE_ROOT/scripts/bin/resolve_template.py" --project-root . --template <chosen>
  

• "ask the user" / "confirm with the user" / "surface" / "narrate" — conversational turns in this pi session. pi has no structured-picker tool, so ask in plain prose, present the options explicitly, and wait for the user's reply before proceeding.

• "read <file>" — the read tool. "write <file>" — the write tool. "edit <file>" — the edit tool. "list <dir>" / shell work — the bash tool.

• "the propose-change / critique / revise operation" — the /skill:livespec-propose-change, /skill:livespec-critique, /skill:livespec-revise skills in this Driver package.

• "the doctor prose (prose/doctor.md)" — read $LIVESPEC_CORE_ROOT/prose/doctor.md with the read tool and follow it; the LLM-driven post-step phase runs under this Driver's livespec-doctor skill.

• "core's livespec/schemas/ package" — resolves at runtime to $LIVESPEC_CORE_ROOT/scripts/livespec/schemas/.