recursive-spine-scaffold

name

recursive-spine-scaffold

description

Use when a repo has (or is getting) the tracking stamp and needs the rest of its spine — interviews for and stamps up to six parts, each optional: a rules codex with a moments map, an ADR directory, a CI gate skeleton, a session-memory convention, a constraints file with its sha-pinned drift gate, and the loop workflow. Frames + the builder's answers + proven pollen from their hives; nothing invented ships. Offers recursive-spine-bootstrap first when tracking is missing; records every answer, including declines, in the dialect note.

recursive-spine: scaffold

Stamp the rest of the spine onto the current repo. Read ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/principles.md first. Content comes from three sources only: the frames in ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/reference/templates/scaffold/ (structure), the interview (the builder's discipline), and the builder's configured hives (proven pollen). If a part's content would have to be invented, the part is not stamped.

1. Preflight

• gh auth status — must be authenticated; gh repo view --json nameWithOwner — must be a GitHub repo.
• Tracking check: does the repo have a dialect note (docs/tracking-dialect.md or the repo's equivalent)? If not, offer recursive-spine-bootstrap first — tracking is the vertebra this one bolts onto. Builder may decline and scaffold anyway; record the decline.
• Hive check: read the dialect note's pollinate: section. If no hives are configured, offer the recursive-spine-pollinate hive interview; if declined, proceed pollen-less and say so loudly in the report — never substitute a default hive.

2. The six parts (interview one at a time, all optional)

Each part runs the same cycle: offer → interview → pollen check → stamp (diff first) → record.

Offer each part with its one-line failure-mode pitch, then stop for the answer before moving on:

1. Rules codex — "without one, every session re-derives the house rules, wrongly." Frame: codex-frame.md. Interview fills each section in the builder's own words; declined sections are omitted. The moments map is seeded with the spine's moments (listed in the frame) and edited to the builder's reality. If a CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md already exists, show a merged proposal — never overwrite silently. Ask which filename the repo uses before writing.
2. ADR directory — "undocumented decisions get re-litigated by people who weren't there." Frames: adr-frame.md, adr-readme.md. Interview: where do docs live (offer the repo's existing convention), and is there a real recent decision to backfill as ADR-0001? An invented example ADR is banned; no real decision → the directory ships with only its README.
3. CI gate skeleton — "claims that nothing checks go stale silently." Frame: ci-frame.yml. Interview applies the routing test: "which invariants, if silently broken, would be expensive?" — each answer becomes one named gate step. Pollen offer: truth-gate-ci. If a CI workflow already exists, offer to extend it instead; "already present" is a valid recorded answer.
4. Session-memory convention — "sessions that start from zero pay the re-orientation tax every time." Frame: memory-convention-frame.md. Pollen offer: layered-session-memory. This stamps a convention doc, never tooling — harness-specific tooling is out of scope by design.
5. Constraints file + drift gate — "hand-copied constraints blocks rot independently; drift is a measured vector, not a hypothetical." Frame: constraints-frame.md. Interview: which exact-valued constraints (version floors, naming/copy rules, platform requirements, API contracts) must every downstream doc carry? Stamps docs/constraints.md; copies ${CLAUDE_PLUGIN_ROOT}/scripts/check-constraints-drift.sh into the repo's scripts/ and adds one named CI step running it (checkout needs fetch-depth: 0 — pinned-sha reads fail on shallow clones). Downstream docs copy the block verbatim under constraints-copy: docs/constraints.md @ <sha>; the gate fails drift, and stale pins are the digest's concern, not CI's. No CI workflow accepted or present → stamp the file, state loudly that the gate awaits a workflow.
6. The loop — "the weekly digest+nudge should run itself, not wait for you to remember." Frame: loop-workflow-frame.yml. Interview: which repos to sweep (default this repo), which tracking issue receives the digest, and the @handle to notify. Stamps .github/workflows/spine-loop.yml referencing the published slopstopper/recursive-spine/loop@v1 Action — the logic lives in the versioned Action, the stamped file is thin. Secrets (SPINE_SWEEP_TOKEN, ANTHROPIC_API_KEY, SLACK_WEBHOOK_URL) are the owner's to add; tiers degrade loudly without them. Record the choice (and any decline) in the dialect note.

3. Pollen consumption

For each accepted part, search the configured hives' registries for records whose form and content match the part (raw-fetch pollen/ as primary, clone as fallback — the pollinate skill's own order). Offer matches with their provenance line. An acceptance is a transplant: record it through recursive-spine-pollinate's pull-mode procedure — comment on the pollen issue, append the target repo to the record's transplants: list. This skill implements no recording path of its own. Nothing relevant in the hives → say so and fill from the interview alone.

4. Kin offers (never requirements)

• plumb-line installed (a plumb-line-bootstrap skill exists)? Offer its guard wiring for the stamped gates.
• A tokenomics playbook in the repo? Offer to point the codex's CI/lane language at it for semantics. Both are offers; both answers land in the dialect note.

5. Stamp and record

• Dry-run first: run the whole interview, show every generated file, write nothing until the builder approves the set.
• Idempotent: re-running proposes diffs against what exists; it never duplicates sections, ADR numbers, or workflow steps.
• Record every part's answer — accepted (with what filled it), declined (with the builder's reason, one line), or already-present — in the dialect note under ## scaffold.

6. Report

End with: parts stamped (files written), parts declined or already present (and why), pollen offered vs. accepted (transplants recorded), kin offers and answers, and the repo's next natural moments: "when something here proves itself, recursive-spine-pollinate captures it; when your first unit of work closes, recursive-spine-handover assembles the closing record; recursive-spine-digest sweeps this repo on its cadence." Honest denominator throughout — skipped means listed.

Never

• Never invent content for a frame slot the interview left empty.
• Never overwrite an existing codex, workflow, or ADR silently.
• Never stamp a part the builder declined, or record a decline as anything but a decline.
• Never bypass the pollinate skill's recording procedure for transplants.
• Never require plumb-line or tokenomics for any function.