| name | create-novel-project |
| description | Initialize a safe, self-contained Markdown novel workspace from the Novelist plugin scaffold. Use when the user wants to start, scaffold, bootstrap, or create a new novel project with source directories, templates, continuity rules, visual guidance, and EPUB output conventions. |
Create Novel Project
Operating Contract
Create a novel source workspace from the scaffold bundled with this plugin. The
scaffold includes source directories, YAML-frontmatter templates, manuscript
markup rules, visual direction, and generated-output boundaries. It does not
copy another set of Agent Skills into the project; the installed Novelist plugin
continues to provide them.
Before running the bundled command, resolve <skill-dir> to the absolute
directory containing this SKILL.md.
Workflow
- Resolve the destination from the user's explicit path. If no path was given,
use the current directory only when it is clearly the intended workspace;
otherwise ask for the destination.
- Gather a working title and BCP 47-style language tag when the user supplied
them. Both are optional: the defaults remain
Untitled Novel and ko.
- Inspect the destination before writing. Preserve unrelated existing files.
- Run the bundled initializer:
python3 "<skill-dir>/scripts/create_novel_project.py" \
--project-root /absolute/path/to/novel \
--title "Working Title" \
--language ko
- Do not pass
--force merely because the destination exists. The initializer
performs a complete collision preflight and writes nothing when a scaffold
file would be overwritten. Use --force only after the user explicitly asks
to replace the plugin-managed scaffold files.
- Verify
project.md, AGENTS.md, the source directories and templates, and
published/.gitignore. Run git status --short when the destination is
inside a Git repository.
- Summarize the created paths and suggest the next relevant plugin skill, such
as
$create-setting, $create-character, or $create-plot.
Safety Rules
- Never initialize into the plugin installation itself.
- Never delete unrelated destination files.
- Never copy
.git, .codex, generated EPUB output, or project-local skill
duplicates into the new workspace.
- Treat the copied Markdown files as canonical source and
published/ as
generated output.
- Do not commit unless the user asks.