thales-start

name	thales-start
description	Entry point for a new Thales investigation. Initializes the ledger and runs the first orchestration cycle. Use when the user says "use Thales" or similar explicit invocation with a task.

/thales-start

Initialize a fresh Thales run on the user's stated task.

Steps

1. Confirm invocation is explicit. User must have said "use Thales", "thales this", "run Thales" or similar. If not, do not run — explain Thales and ask if they want to invoke.

2. Verify scaffold. Check _scratch/thales/ exists. If not, copy from the Thales skill's assets/ledger_template/. If it exists and is non-empty, confirm with user whether to overwrite or resume.

3. Write task.md. Record: the task verbatim from user; acceptance criteria (ask user if not given); starting phase = explore.

4. Load the thales skill. Read skills/thales/SKILL.md fully before the first cycle plan. Also load skills/thales/references/ledger_format.md for the session.

5. Run plan_cycle state. Per the state machine in the thales skill. Cycle 1 spawn is typically Bridger + Prober for research tasks, Prober + Challenger for coding tasks — but follow the spawn decision tree, not this note.

6. Brief, spawn, collect, write to ledger. Standard cycle.

7. Report cycle 1 result to user in plain prose. Do not present a checkpoint yet — checkpoints come at cycle 3 (first Judge) or stall.

Guardrails

• Do not spawn more than 3 subagents in cycle 1.
• Do not skip writing task.md before spawning.
• Do not do substantive work yourself — you are the orchestrator.
• Cycle 1 is always an evidence cycle (cycle_count starts at 1, not 0). Cycle 3 will be the first judge cycle.
• Final user-facing output comes from thales-deliverer, not from you. When the time comes, spawn Deliverer and present its output verbatim.