atlas-seed

name	atlas-seed
description	Use when an Atlas vault is empty or near-empty (0–2 zones after atlas init) — bootstrap 4–8 seeded zone cards from a real codebase analysis. Also use for "seed the mind", "initial zones", "first map pass", "bootstrap atlas", or atlas-fleet seed-empty.

Atlas seed — initial zone bootstrap from code

Goal: turn a scaffolded vault into a usable map after atlas init, without lying about verification.

This is the first pass, not recollection. Cards stay honest:

Field	Required value
status	seeded
verifiedAt	unverified
type	zone

Never promote to active or stamp a SHA in this skill. Only a later human (or explicit atlas stamp after review) does that.

When to run

• Vault exists (map/zones/ empty or only stubs)
• atlas status shows 0 zones (or 1–2 toy cards)
• After atlas-fleet ensure-all / atlas init on a new repo
• Re-seed only if the old seed was wrong and still seeded / never verified

Do not run as a substitute for atlas-recollection after product work — that skill updates touched zones; this one creates the first partition.

Inputs to read (order)

1. Repo README.md / AGENTS.md / package.json (or Cargo.toml / pyproject) — thesis
2. Top-level tree (ls, not whole monorepo dump)
3. Entry surfaces: bin/, src/, lib/, packages/, app/, cli/
4. Tests / CI if present — good enforcedBy candidates later
5. Existing vault map/overview.md if any

Skip: node_modules, dist, .git, huge generated assets.

How to partition (4–8 zones)

Prefer coherent ownership over fine-grained files:

Typical zone	Owns (examples)
core / engine	main lib, domain logic
cli / bin	binaries, argument surface
api / server	HTTP / RPC entry
ui / web	frontend app
config / install	config schema, installers
adapters / integrations	pluggable backends
tests / ci	only if tests are a product surface (e.g. contract suite)
docs / site	marketing site in-repo only if substantial

Rules:

• One concept per zone — not "misc" or "utils" dumps.
• 4–8 cards for a normal repo; tiny repos may have 3; monorepos up to ~10.
• Prefer directory-level owns.globs (src/lib/**) over listing every file.
• Every glob MUST match ≥1 git-tracked file (git ls-files '<glob>' or equivalent). Empty globs fail atlas check.
• No-git workspaces: still use real paths that exist on disk; note in overview that check may be limited until git init.

Zone card shape

Use the vault template (templates/zone.md) as base. Frontmatter YAML must parse under atlas's subset (flow-style arrays for nested lists):

---
type: zone
summary: "Distinctive 1–3 sentence thesis with real nouns (what + where)."
tags: [domain-tag]
status: seeded
created: YYYY-MM-DD
updated: YYYY-MM-DD
verifiedAt: unverified
owns:
  routes: []
  testids: []
  globs:
    - "src/foo/**"
    - "bin/bar.mjs"
  tools: []
depends: []
invariants: []
skills: []
related: []
sources: []
---

## What this is

Short prose. Distinctive terms for retrieval (see writing-for-retrieval).

## Anchors

Why these globs / what boundary they draw.

## Invariants

Only load-bearing rules you can point at. Prefer empty `invariants: []` over
invented rules. If you claim a rule, use flow-style enforcedBy:

  - rule: "…"
    enforcedBy: ["path/to/file.ts"]

## Lineage

README / design notes / "inferred from tree on YYYY-MM-DD seed pass".

Also follow writing-for-retrieval: summary carries distinctive terms; ## sections = one concept each.

Also write / update

1. map/overview.md — one-paragraph product thesis + list of seeded zones
2. atlas build — regenerate map/index.md (never hand-edit index)
3. Optional: one tech-debt/ note if the tree has an obvious systemic gap
4. Optional: one map/decisions/ only if the README already records a real ADR (do not invent ADRs)

Forbidden

• status: active or commit SHA in verifiedAt without review
• Copying personal / life content into any vault (esp. personal-knowledge-base — meta zones about repo structure only)
• Claiming package dependencies between fleets that are only "same stack"
• Wiping existing active zones — this skill is additive for empty/scaffold
• Silent blanket rewrites of human-edited cards

Done criteria

atlas status    # shows N zones (N ≥ 3), all still seeded/unverified in cards
atlas build     # index lists new zones
atlas check     # no hard parse errors; ownership OK if globs match tracked files

Report: zone slug list + one line each purpose. Cards remain seeded until someone runs recollection + stamp.

Related skills

• writing-for-retrieval — summary / section craft while authoring
• atlas-nav — after seed, orientation uses the map
• atlas-recollection — later sessions update zones after real work
• atlas-adopt — brownfield vaults that already have notes, not empty init