find-the-path

name	find-the-path
description	In D&D, Find the Path reveals the shortest route to a destination, even through mazes and across planes. The real-world version is wayfinding through complexity: navigating a sprawling codebase to find where a change should go, plotting the fastest path through a bureaucratic process, mapping the decision tree to get from current state to desired state, or finding the critical path through a project dependency graph.
version	1.0.0
author	Wizards of the Ghosts
license	CC0-1.0
compatibility	Hermes Agent skills system
metadata	{"hermes":{"tags":["spell","shipping-now","metaphorical","investigation-and-preparation","analysis","discovery","translation","preflight"]}}

Find the Path

Find the shortest, safest route to a destination through a complex space.

What This Skill Does

In D&D, Find the Path reveals the shortest route to a destination, even through mazes and across planes. The real-world version is wayfinding through complexity: navigating a sprawling codebase to find where a change should go, plotting the fastest path through a bureaucratic process, mapping the decision tree to get from current state to desired state, or finding the critical path through a project dependency graph. In this grimoire, Find the Path is treated as a metaphorical spell with a shipping-now delivery profile. Canonical reference input: Find the Path (spell).

When To Use

• You know where you want to end up but the path through the system, process, or codebase is unclear.
• A project has tangled dependencies and you need to find the critical path or the right order of operations.
• You need to navigate a complex process — regulatory, bureaucratic, or organizational — and want the most direct route.

Prerequisites

• No extra runtime dependencies beyond Hermes Agent and the normal toolset for this session.

Procedure

1. Restate the target, the success condition, and any no-touch boundaries before taking action.
2. Define the destination: what does 'done' look like? Be specific.
3. Map the terrain: what are the major obstacles, dependencies, and decision points between here and there?
4. Find the shortest viable path: not the most thorough, not the most cautious — the shortest one that actually works.
5. Identify the single biggest risk on the path and a fallback if it is blocked.
6. Deliver turn-by-turn directions: the ordered sequence of steps from here to the destination.
7. Package the result as the deliverables below, with confidence, assumptions, and unresolved risk called out explicitly.

Deliverables

• A step-by-step path from current state to destination, in execution order.
• The critical dependency or risk on the path — the one thing most likely to block progress.
• An alternate route if the primary path is blocked.

Pitfalls / Guardrails

• Keep the metaphor anchored to a real mechanism instead of drifting into lore.
• The shortest path is not always the best path. Flag when a faster route has significantly higher risk than a slightly longer one.
• Do not confuse the path with the destination. Find the Path gives directions, not guarantees of arrival.

Verification

• Check that the result includes every deliverable promised above.
• Check that confirmed facts, assumptions, and inferences are visibly separated.
• Check that the metaphor still maps cleanly to a real operational mechanism.

Example Invocation

/find-the-path map the route from where I am now to this [goal/destination/state]. Give me turn-by-turn steps and flag the biggest risk