journey

name	journey
description	Use when the user says "build an app", "let's start", "help me build", "I have an idea for", "ship it", or otherwise signals they want to go from idea to deployed Butterbase app. Orchestrates the full guided journey (idea → plan → preflight → build → deploy → optional hackathon submit) by reading docs/butterbase/00-state.md and dispatching to the next stage skill.

Butterbase Guided Journey

End-to-end orchestrator. Walks the user from idea to deployed Butterbase app, and (in hackathon mode) on through submission. Each stage writes a markdown artifact under docs/butterbase/ in the user's project. The orchestrator reads docs/butterbase/00-state.md to know the cursor and dispatches the matching journey-* stage skill.

When to use

Invoke automatically when the user signals end-to-end intent: "I want to build…", "let's build an app", "ship this", "help me build a hackathon project". Invoke explicitly when the user runs /butterbase-skills:journey.

If the user wants to do a single stage only (e.g., just design a schema), defer to the matching standalone skill (schema-design) or per-stage command (/butterbase-skills:journey-schema) instead of starting the full journey.

Toolchain

The journey assumes two npm packages alongside the MCP tools:

Package	Role	When to install
@butterbase/sdk	TypeScript client for the deployed app — auth.signIn, db.from(...).select(), storage.upload, realtime subscriptions, function invocation. Works both in the browser (frontend) and in Node (functions, scripts, server-side).	Install in any frontend or any Node service that talks to the deployed app. Auto-added by frontend scaffolds.
@butterbase/cli	Local-dev CLI — project scaffolding, log tailing, function invocation from the shell, API-key generation, schema diff preview without the dashboard.	Install globally (npm i -g @butterbase/cli) once per dev machine. Used during journey-preflight.

The journey will prompt for both in plan (which SDK surfaces does the app need?) and preflight (is the CLI installed?). The MCP tools and these packages are complementary: MCP is for agentic / orchestration flows; SDK + CLI are for ordinary application code and the human dev loop.

Procedure

1. Detect state. Check whether docs/butterbase/00-state.md exists in the working directory.

   • If absent: this is a fresh journey. Ask the user "Is this a hackathon submission? (yes/no)" to set hackathon_mode. Create docs/butterbase/ and write a starter 00-state.md (template below). If hackathon_mode: false, the starter template's submit row must be written as - [ ] submit (n/a — not a hackathon) rather than plain - [ ] submit. Then proceed to stage idea.
   • If present: read the front-matter and the stage checklist. Identify the first unchecked, non-skipped stage. That is the next stage.

2. Confirm with user. Print a one-line summary of where we are: "Resuming journey at <stage> for app_id <id or 'not yet provisioned'>." Ask: "Continue from <stage>? (yes / jump to other stage / redo previous)".

3. Dispatch. Invoke the matching skill via the Skill tool. Do not do the stage's work inline — delegate.

   Stage	Skill
   idea	butterbase-skills:journey-idea
   plan	butterbase-skills:journey-plan
   preflight	butterbase-skills:journey-preflight
   docs	butterbase-skills:journey-docs
   schema	butterbase-skills:journey-schema
   rls	butterbase-skills:journey-rls
   auth	butterbase-skills:journey-auth
   storage	butterbase-skills:journey-storage
   functions	butterbase-skills:journey-functions
   ai	butterbase-skills:journey-ai
   rag	butterbase-skills:journey-rag

Docs gate. Stage docs runs once, right after preflight, to prime butterbase_docs for every capability in the plan. Subsequent build stages start with the relevant docs cached at docs/butterbase/03b-docs-cache.md. If the user changes the plan mid-build, re-run /butterbase-skills:journey-docs before the affected stage.

4. After the stage skill returns, re-read 00-state.md and ask the user whether to advance to the next unchecked stage. Stage selection rules:
   • Build-stage order is: schema → rls → auth → storage → functions → ai → rag → realtime → durable → agents → frontend.
   • If hackathon_mode: true and all build stages are done, the next stage is deploy then substrate then submit then templates.
   • If hackathon_mode: false, the journey ends at deploy unless the user opts into templates — skip substrate and submit entirely (treat them as (n/a)).
   • The substrate stage is always optional. In hackathon mode, default to skipping it (mark as (n/a — optional, can add post-submission)); in non-hackathon mode, skip it entirely as it is not part of the core journey.
   • The templates stage is always optional. It runs after deploy (non-hackathon) or after submit (hackathon). Default is to skip unless 01-idea.md or 02-plan.md flags publish_as_template: true.
   • Loop until the cursor reaches DONE (every stage checked or annotated n/a).

Starter 00-state.md template

When initialising a fresh journey, write this to docs/butterbase/00-state.md (ask the user "Is this a hackathon submission? (yes/no)" first to set hackathon_mode):

---
app_id: null
api_base: null
hackathon_mode: <true|false>
hackathon_deadline: null
frontend_stack: null
current_stage: idea
last_updated: <ISO-8601 timestamp>
---

# Journey state

## Stages
- [ ] idea
- [ ] plan
- [ ] preflight
- [ ] docs
- [ ] schema
- [ ] rls
- [ ] auth
- [ ] storage
- [ ] functions
- [ ] ai
- [ ] rag
- [ ] realtime
- [ ] durable
- [ ] agents
- [ ] frontend
- [ ] deploy
- [ ] substrate (optional)
- [ ] submit
- [ ] templates (optional)

## Notes
- Journey initialised <ISO date>.

If hackathon_mode: false, write the submit row as - [ ] submit (n/a — not a hackathon) instead of the plain unchecked form, so the orchestrator and any direct stage invocation will skip it.

Outputs

• Creates docs/butterbase/ and 00-state.md on first run.
• Updates current_stage and last_updated in 00-state.md whenever it dispatches.

Anti-patterns

• ❌ Doing a stage's work inline instead of delegating to its skill. The orchestrator only routes.
• ❌ Skipping the "Continue from ?" confirmation — users may want to jump or redo.
• ❌ Letting 00-state.md drift out of sync. Always re-read after each stage returns.