| name | e2sa_start |
| description | Bootstrap a new E2SA project or run. Creates projects/<project>/runs/<run_id>/ with the canonical skeleton (RESEARCH_PLAN.md, REPORT.md, run.yaml, notebooks/, data/, figures/). Always fires first when a new run begins; the human asking for analysis directly does not get to skip it. |
| allowed-tools | ["Bash","Read","Write","Edit"] |
e2sa_start
Bootstrap entry point for any new E2SA run. Mandatory first step. The workflow guard refuses to advance past S0 Intake until this skill has run.
When to invoke
- The human asks to begin a new project or run, with or without using the
/e2sa_start slash command.
- The orchestrator's S0 Intake stage starts and no
runs/<run_id>/ exists for the requested run.
What this skill does
- Read the run config from arguments (or prompt for
<project> and <run_id>). run_id names the analysis, not the data. It is lowercase snake_case describing the work and unique per run (alaska_thaw_db_eda, ice_content_baseline, blocked_cv_v2) — it is not a dataset_id slug. A run often spans several datasets, and you will want multiple runs on the same data (an EDA, a baseline, a validation), so name it by purpose with a verb/kind suffix (_eda, _baseline, _validation), never after a single dataset's slug.
- Shell out to the CLI:
e2sa init <project> <run_id>. The CLI does all filesystem work; this skill does not duplicate logic.
- Echo the path of the new run subdirectory and the names of the seeded files.
- Surface related prior work from
memory/knowledge/ and the cross-workspace index (handled by e2sa-intake, not by this skill, but flag the handoff).
Per-run skeleton
projects/<project>/runs/<run_id>/
├── run.yaml # manifest: project, run_id, created, author, status, model versions
├── RESEARCH_PLAN.md # declarative scope (agent + human author together)
├── REPORT.md # findings (agent authors after results land)
├── notebooks/ # analysis as Jupyter notebooks (with saved outputs)
├── data/ # run-specific intermediate data (gitignored)
└── figures/ # run-specific figures
Non-skippable invariant
Bootstrap is non-skippable. If a human prompt asks for analysis directly (skipping the skeleton), the orchestrator must call e2sa_start first, then proceed.
Trigger for the e2sa-file-task skill
After scaffolding, if the new run's intended analysis depends on site data that is not present under projects/<project>/data/processed/sites/<site>/ and does not have a completed MANIFEST.md in projects/<project>/tasks/, fire e2sa-file-task once per missing site (or once per missing work-type for a multi-task site). Set related_run in the new <task_id>.md's frontmatter to this run's id. The decision rule for file vs inline-do vs ask lives in memory/knowledge/methods/20260521-when-to-file-a-data-prep-task.md. Do NOT execute the filed task in the same fire; surface to the human and wait.
Output
Print the path of the new run subdirectory. Print which template files were seeded. Do NOT begin analysis in this skill; that is the next stage's job.
Changelog
- 2026-06-17: Adopted the Changelog convention (
docs/design/09_skill_evolution.md); prior history is in git.
- 2026-06-23: Documented the
run_id naming convention in step 1 (run_id = the analysis/purpose, lowercase snake_case with a verb/kind suffix; NOT a dataset_id slug). Prompted by keeping alaska_thaw_db_eda rather than renaming it to the dataset slug.
