orient

name	orient
description	Use when starting a session inside this cairn (or when the user asks "what's going on with this project?") to load enough context to be useful, without dumping the entire knowledge base into the prompt. Loads PROJECT.md, the collaborator list, and a project-status summary, then identifies the current user.

Orient at session start

You are starting a session in a cairn — a git-native research project repository. This skill loads the right context efficiently.

Note: this cairn ships a Claude Code SessionStart hook in .claude/settings.json that already runs cairn status for you. If you can see fresh cairn status output in your initial context, you can skip step 3 below and go straight to interpreting it.

Steps

1. Read PROJECT.md first. It is short by design and points at where things live.

1a. Read TRACKING.md. This is the project's posture guide for how you should capture state from the working conversation — cairn is built so the user doesn't have to invoke CLI commands by hand. Internalize the signals-to-listen-for table before the conversation starts.

2. Read state/collaborators.yaml. This identifies who's on the project. Match the current user by:

   • the configured git identity (git config user.email), against each collaborator's github or email field if present;
   • if no match, ask the user which collaborator id is theirs and note it for the session.

3. Get a project-state summary. Two equivalent paths (see TRACKING.md):

   • MCP (preferred when available): call the status tool. Pass cairn="<name>" if more than one cairn is registered. Also consider whoami to confirm the collaborator list for the identity-resolution step above.
   • CLI: run cairn status — same compact summary (open question count, incomplete action items by bucket, recent decisions, latest meeting), bounded in size by design (≤30 lines).

4. Do not eagerly load:

   • meeting transcripts in knowledge/meetings/
   • all findings in knowledge/findings/
   • the literature folder Load these on demand when the user's question requires them.

Producing the orientation summary

When the user asks "what's going on with this project?" or similar, produce:

• A one- or two-sentence project description from PROJECT.md's overview.
• The 3–5 most recent decisions, citing their IDs (D-NNN) from cairn status.
• Open questions worth flagging (up to 3), citing their IDs (Q-NNN).
• Any overdue action items, with assignee and ID.
• The date of the latest meeting.

Keep it under 200 words unless asked for more. Cite specific IDs so the user can follow up.

Acceptance criteria (US-A-01)

• Time to first response is fast — no scan of the entire knowledge base.
• The user feels recognized: their identity in state/collaborators.yaml is acknowledged.
• Answers are grounded in canonical state, not invented.