setup

name	setup
description	Set up an aweek project — create the data directory and optionally install the scheduled heartbeat (launchd on macOS, crontab elsewhere)
trigger	aweek setup, setup aweek, initialize aweek, bootstrap aweek, aweek bootstrap, aweek init, init aweek

aweek:setup

Bootstrap a project for the aweek agent scheduler. Most users never need to run this manually — every other skill auto-bootstraps the project when it first runs. Use /aweek:setup when you want to explicitly control the heartbeat installation, or to reset a sticky heartbeat decision so other skills re-prompt.

It prepares the filesystem layout and (optionally) installs the 10-minute heartbeat that drives agent execution.

The heartbeat is installed via the platform's native scheduler:

• macOS → a launchd user agent at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.aweek.heartbeat.<hash>.plist. This is the default on darwin because cron jobs can't access the macOS Keychain, and Claude Code's subscription OAuth tokens live there — the launchd user agent runs inside your aqua session, so Keychain access works exactly like from Terminal.
• Linux / other POSIX → a crontab entry (*/10 * * * *). If a legacy crontab entry exists on a macOS machine from an earlier aweek version, it is migrated automatically the next time /aweek:setup installs the launchd agent.

Slash-command discovery is handled by the Claude Code plugin system — this skill does not copy markdown into .claude/commands/. Users who installed aweek via /plugin install aweek@… already have every /aweek:* command available.

This skill is a thin UX wrapper on top of src/skills/setup.ts. All filesystem mutations, crontab writes, and idempotency checks live in that module — do not edit .aweek/ or the user's crontab directly.

Arguments

/aweek:setup is interactive and takes no positional arguments. The underlying runInit() function in src/skills/setup.ts accepts the following optional options for advanced / non-interactive invocation:

Option	Type	Default	Description
projectDir	string	process.cwd()	Project root where .aweek/ will be created
dataDir	string	.aweek/agents	Path (relative to projectDir) for the agent data directory
installHeartbeat	boolean	false	Whether to install the 10-minute heartbeat crontab entry (destructive — requires confirmation)
heartbeatSchedule	string	*/10 * * * *	Cron schedule used when installHeartbeat is true
confirmed	boolean	false	Must be true to allow destructive operations (crontab install, overwriting an existing data dir)

Never pass confirmed: true without collecting explicit confirmation via AskUserQuestion.

Idempotency contract

/aweek:setup is safe to run repeatedly on an already-initialized project. Each step reports one of three outcomes:

Outcome	Meaning
created	The resource did not exist and was created by this run
skipped	The resource already existed with the expected shape — no action taken
updated	The resource existed but was refreshed (e.g. skill markdown changed upstream)

The skill MUST present these outcomes to the user so they can see exactly what changed versus what was left alone.

Re-run behavior

On a re-run against an already-initialized project the skill MUST:

1. Call detectInitState() FIRST and use the returned flags to decide which steps to skip silently vs. report as already-done. Do not run ensureDataDir or installHeartbeat when the corresponding needsWork.* flag is false — just report the step as skipped and move on.
2. Never re-prompt for the heartbeat install if it is already installed.
3. On the final step (Step 5), still invoke finalizeInit() — it will return mode: 'add-another' so the wizard can offer the user a chance to hire another agent via /aweek:hire. Re-runs must not feel like dead-ends.

Destructive operation policy

Per project policy, every destructive init step requires explicit user confirmation before the change is applied.

Step	Destructive	Confirmation required
Create .aweek/agents/ dir	No	No
Install heartbeat (launchd on macOS / cron elsewhere)	Yes	Yes
Overwrite existing data dir	Yes	Yes

Instructions

You MUST follow this exact workflow when this skill is invoked. Use the Node.js modules in src/skills/setup.ts for every filesystem or crontab mutation.

Step 1: Detect current project state

Run the detection helper to figure out which steps are already complete:

aweek exec setup detectInitState

The returned object has this shape:

{
  "dataDir": { "path": ".aweek/agents", "exists": true, "agentCount": 0 },
  "heartbeat": { "installed": false, "schedule": null }
}

Present a short, readable summary of this state to the user before taking any action. Do NOT proceed past Step 1 if the user cancels.

Step 2: Ensure the data directory exists

If state.dataDir.exists === false, create it:

echo '{"dataDir":".aweek/agents"}' \
  | aweek exec setup ensureDataDir --input-json -

If the directory already exists, report skipped and move on — do NOT overwrite or wipe an existing .aweek/agents/ unless the user has explicitly asked for a clean-slate reset AND confirmed via AskUserQuestion.

Step 3: Offer heartbeat installation (destructive — confirmation required)

Ask the user via AskUserQuestion:

Install the 10-minute heartbeat? This registers a scheduled task so agents run automatically every 10 minutes.

• On macOS this creates a launchd user agent at ~/Library/LaunchAgents/io.aweek.heartbeat.<hash>.plist. You can remove it later with launchctl bootout gui/$UID/<label>.

• On Linux it writes an entry to your user crontab. You can remove it later with crontab -e.

• yes — install now

• no — skip (you can install it later by re-running /aweek:setup)

Only if they answer yes, run:

echo '{"schedule":"*/10 * * * *","confirmed":true}' \
  | aweek exec setup installHeartbeat --input-json -

The response includes a backend field ("launchd" or "cron") plus an outcome of created, updated, skipped, or migrated. migrated means a legacy cron entry for this project was also removed — include that in the final summary so the user knows the crontab line is gone.

If the user declines, report that the heartbeat was skipped and remind them they can install it later.

If the heartbeat is already installed (detected in Step 1), skip the prompt entirely and report skipped — never re-install unprompted.

Step 4: Summarize

Print a final summary table showing each step's outcome:

=== aweek init ===
Project: /path/to/project

  Data directory       : created (.aweek/agents)
  Heartbeat (launchd)  : skipped (user declined)

Next steps:
  1. Run /aweek:hire to create your first agent
  2. Run /aweek:plan to approve its initial weekly plan
  3. Run /aweek:summary to see the dashboard

Step 5: Offer the four-option hire menu as the final interactive step (or auto-delegate)

Infrastructure setup is just the foundation; the user's real goal is to have at least one working agent. After the summary prints, always run the post-init hire decision. The flow adapts to the project's current state:

• When at least one unhired subagent exists under .claude/agents/<slug>.md (i.e. the subagent .md is on disk but there is no matching .aweek/agents/<slug>.json), show the full four-option menu.
• When no unhired subagents exist, skip the menu entirely and automatically delegate to /aweek:hire (create-new branch). Asking the user to pick between "Create new" and "Skip" on an empty roster is noise — there is nothing to adopt and the only useful next action is to launch the create-new wizard. (Sub-AC 3 of AC 6.)

Resolve the decision via resolveInitHireMenu from src/skills/setup-hire-menu.ts. This helper composes buildInitHireMenu (which calls listUnhiredSubagents under the hood and filters plugin-namespaced slugs) with the fall-through rule so the markdown gets one of two stable shapes back.

DECISION=$(aweek exec setup-hire-menu resolveInitHireMenu)
echo "$DECISION"

# When not falling through, render the human-readable prompt too.
FALL_THROUGH=$(aweek json get fallThrough <<<"$DECISION")
if [ "$FALL_THROUGH" != "true" ]; then
  echo '---'
  aweek json get menu <<<"$DECISION" \
    | aweek exec setup-hire-menu formatInitHireMenuPrompt \
        --input-json - --format text
fi

The returned object has one of two shapes:

Choose path (one or more unhired subagents):

{
  "fallThrough": false,
  "menu": {
    "hasUnhired": true,
    "unhired": ["analyst", "writer"],
    "options": [
      { "value": "hire-all", "label": "Hire all", "description": "...", "requiresUnhired": true },
      { "value": "select-some", "label": "Select some", "description": "...", "requiresUnhired": true },
      { "value": "create-new", "label": "Create new", "description": "...", "requiresUnhired": false },
      { "value": "skip", "label": "Skip", "description": "...", "requiresUnhired": false }
    ],
    "promptText": "Infrastructure setup is complete. How would you like to hire subagents into aweek?"
  },
  "route": null,
  "reason": null
}

Fall-through path (no unhired subagents — auto-delegation to /aweek:hire):

{
  "fallThrough": true,
  "menu": { "hasUnhired": false, "unhired": [], "options": [...], "promptText": "..." },
  "route": {
    "action": "create-new",
    "nextSkill": "/aweek:hire",
    "route": "create-new",
    "slugs": [],
    "bulk": false,
    "reason": "No unhired subagents were found under .claude/agents/. Auto-delegating to /aweek:hire (create-new) — there is nothing to adopt and the only useful next action is to create a new agent.",
    "fallThrough": true
  },
  "reason": "No unhired subagents were found under .claude/agents/. Auto-delegating to /aweek:hire (create-new) — there is nothing to adopt and the only useful next action is to create a new agent."
}

5.0 Honor the fall-through before showing the menu

If decision.fallThrough is true:

1. Echo the decision.reason to the user (one short line — they should see why the menu was skipped, not be left guessing).
2. Do NOT call AskUserQuestion. Skip Step 5.1 entirely.
3. Invoke /aweek:hire immediately. Honor the decision.route descriptor — route: 'create-new' means launch the three-field create-new wizard with no pre-filled fields.

This auto-delegation is non-destructive (the hire wizard creates new state, never overwrites). No additional confirmed: true gate is required.

If decision.fallThrough is false, proceed to Step 5.1 to present the menu as documented below. The remainder of Step 5 only applies on the choose path.

5.1 Present the menu

Display menu.promptText and, when menu.hasUnhired is true, the list of unhired subagent slugs. Then invoke AskUserQuestion with the options from menu.options — pass them verbatim so the labels, descriptions, and value identifiers stay in sync with the backing module.

Choice	Available when	Meaning
Hire all	hasUnhired === true	Wrap every slug in menu.unhired into an aweek scheduling JSON in one pass.
Select some	hasUnhired === true	Prompt the user a second time with a multi-select over menu.unhired and hire only the picked slugs. See Step 5.2b for the helper pipeline (buildSelectSomeChoices → AskUserQuestion multi-select → runSelectSomeHire).
Create new	Always	Skip adoption and launch the /aweek:hire wizard's create-new path (three-field identity capture).
Skip	Always	Finish init without hiring. The user can always run /aweek:hire later.

5.2 Route the user's choice

Call routeInitHireMenuChoice to convert the user's selection into a stable handler descriptor:

MENU=$(aweek exec setup-hire-menu buildInitHireMenu)

aweek json compose menu="$MENU" choice='<USER_CHOICE>' selected='[<SELECTED_SLUGS>]' \
  | aweek exec setup-hire-menu routeInitHireMenuChoice --input-json -

<USER_CHOICE> is one of hire-all, select-some, create-new, skip. selected is required only when choice === 'select-some'; otherwise pass [].

The returned route descriptor tells the markdown exactly what to do next:

route.action	route.nextSkill	route.route	route.slugs	route.bulk
hire-all	/aweek:hire	pick-existing	every unhired	true
select-some	/aweek:hire	pick-existing	user's picks	true
create-new	/aweek:hire	create-new	[]	false
skip	null	null	[]	false

Dispatch based on the descriptor:

• hire-all (bulk: true): hand route.slugs to the non-interactive hireAllSubagents handler (src/skills/hire-all.js). The handler iterates internally, wrapping every slug with a minimal aweek scheduling JSON shell (empty goals / plans, default budget — identity already lives in .claude/agents/<slug>.md). Per-slug outcomes land under created / skipped / failed so you can echo the summary verbatim:

  RESULT=$(echo '{"slugs":[<SLUGS>]}' \
    | aweek exec hire-all hireAllSubagents --input-json -)
  
  echo "$RESULT" | aweek exec hire-all formatHireAllSummary \
    --input-json - --format text
  
  if [ "$(aweek json get success <<<"$RESULT")" != "true" ]; then
    exit 1
  fi
  

  Substitute <SLUGS> with the route.slugs array from routeInitHireMenuChoice.

  The handler is idempotent (re-running on an already-hired slug is a skip, not an error) and defensive (plugin-namespaced slugs, missing .md files, and invalid slug shapes surface as structured skipped / failed entries instead of throwing). Users who want per-agent goals / objectives / tasks should run /aweek:plan against each newly-hired slug afterwards — bulk hires intentionally leave plans empty so the user can tailor each roadmap rather than inheriting a generic template.

• select-some (bulk: true): see Step 5.2b below — it requires a second AskUserQuestion (a multi-select) before the wrapper pass.

• create-new (bulk: false): delegate to /aweek:hire's create-new wizard so the user collects the three-field identity (name, description, system prompt) and both the .claude/agents/<slug>.md AND the aweek JSON wrapper land together. Do not pre-fill any of the three fields; the wizard collects them interactively.

  The canonical dispatch is the buildCreateNewLaunchInstruction descriptor from src/skills/hire-create-new-menu.js — it returns a stable { skill, route, projectDir, promptText, reason } shape the markdown can render before invoking the interactive skill:

  aweek exec hire-create-new-menu buildCreateNewLaunchInstruction
  

  After rendering the prompt, invoke /aweek:hire and let the interactive wizard walk the user through Steps 1-6 of that skill.

  Alternatively, when the three identity fields have already been collected (e.g. from a non-interactive test harness), call runCreateNewHire to run the same two-step flow the wizard's Step 1a + 6b would run — it writes or adopts .claude/agents/<slug>.md via createNewSubagent, then delegates to hireAllSubagents so the aweek JSON shell shape matches every other menu branch:

  RESULT=$(echo '{
    "name": "<NAME>",
    "description": "<DESCRIPTION>",
    "systemPrompt": "<SYSTEM_PROMPT>",
    "weeklyTokenLimit": <LIMIT>
  }' | aweek exec hire-create-new-menu runCreateNewHire --input-json -)
  
  echo "$RESULT" | aweek exec hire-create-new-menu formatCreateNewResult \
    --input-json - --format text
  
  if [ "$(aweek json get success <<<"$RESULT")" != "true" ]; then
    exit 1
  fi
  

  weeklyTokenLimit is optional — omit the field entirely to inherit DEFAULT_HIRE_ALL_WEEKLY_TOKEN_LIMIT.

  The returned result shape is:

  {
    "success": true,
    "validation": { "valid": true, "errors": [], "slug": "content-writer" },
    "subagent": { "success": true, "adopted": false, "slug": "content-writer", "path": "...", "content": "..." },
    "hire":     { "success": true, "created": ["content-writer"], "skipped": [], "failed": [] }
  }
  

  Three failure modes, each with its own remediation:

  • Validation failure (result.validation.valid === false): the three fields were invalid (empty, name slugifies to nothing, etc.). Nothing was written. Surface formatCreateNewResult(result) (starts with "Input rejected — …") and re-prompt the user.
  • Subagent write failure (result.subagent.success === false): the .md write failed and — critically — the aweek JSON wrapper was never attempted. Surface the "Subagent file error" block and resolve the underlying filesystem issue before retrying.
  • Wrapper failure (result.hire.success === false): the .md landed but the aweek JSON shell failed (schema error, filesystem issue). Surface the nested formatHireAllSummary block so the user sees which slug failed and why.

  Adoption is a first-class outcome, not a failure: when .claude/agents/<slug>.md already exists, the helper returns subagent.adopted: true and keeps the on-disk .md verbatim. The typed description + system prompt are discarded per the "single source of truth" constraint. Tell the user adoption happened and display subagent.content so they can confirm what they are wiring into aweek scheduling.

• skip: finish here. Remind the user they can run /aweek:hire at any time to add an agent later.

5.2b Select-some branch (multi-select + wrap)

When route.action === 'select-some' the markdown must run a second interactive prompt — a multi-select over menu.unhired — before touching the filesystem. The helpers in src/skills/hire-select-some.js own this flow so the markdown does not have to hand-roll the choice payload or the validation-and-dispatch glue.

Step 5.2b-1 — Build the multi-select payload. Use buildSelectSomeChoices to turn menu.unhired into a ready-to-show AskUserQuestion payload. Each choice is enriched with the live name + description from .claude/agents/<slug>.md so users see what they are picking:

MENU=$(aweek exec setup-hire-menu buildInitHireMenu)

echo "$MENU" | aweek json wrap menu \
  | aweek exec hire-select-some buildSelectSomeChoices --input-json -

The returned payload has this shape:

{
  "promptText": "Select the subagents to wrap into aweek scheduling JSONs (pick one or more):",
  "multiSelect": true,
  "slugs": ["analyst", "writer"],
  "choices": [
    { "value": "analyst", "label": "Analyst", "description": "Analyse things.", "missing": false, "path": ".../analyst.md" },
    { "value": "writer",  "label": "Writer",  "description": "Write things.",   "missing": false, "path": ".../writer.md"  }
  ]
}

Step 5.2b-2 — Render the multi-select. Display payload.promptText and invoke AskUserQuestion with payload.choices, enabling checkbox / multi-pick semantics (multiSelect: true). Users MUST be able to pick more than one slug — a single-select would defeat the purpose of this branch. Collect the user's picks as a string[] — call it selectedSlugs.

Step 5.2b-3 — Validate + wrap. Pass selectedSlugs to runSelectSomeHire which re-validates the selection against the menu's unhired list (defense in depth against stale menus or slugs hired concurrently) and then delegates to hireAllSubagents to wrap every picked slug:

MENU=$(aweek exec setup-hire-menu buildInitHireMenu)

RESULT=$(aweek json compose menu="$MENU" selected='[<SELECTED_SLUGS>]' \
  | aweek exec hire-select-some runSelectSomeHire --input-json -)

echo "$RESULT" | aweek exec hire-select-some formatSelectSomeResult \
  --input-json - --format text

if [ "$(aweek json get success <<<"$RESULT")" != "true" ]; then
  exit 1
fi

The returned shape is:

{
  "success": true,
  "validation": { "valid": true, "errors": [] },
  "hire": {
    "success": true,
    "created": ["writer", "analyst"],
    "skipped": [],
    "failed": []
  }
}

Two failure modes, each with its own remediation:

• Validation failure (result.validation.valid === false): the user's selection itself was malformed (empty, contained a slug not in menu.unhired, duplicate slug, non-string entry). result.hire is null — no wrapper was written. Surface formatSelectSomeResult(result) (starts with "Selection rejected — …") and re-render the multi-select so the user can pick a valid subset.
• Per-slug failure (result.hire.success === false): the selection was structurally valid but one or more slugs failed to wrap at the hire-all layer (the .md vanished between discovery and dispatch, a filesystem error, etc.). The nested result.hire.failed list has per-slug error details. Echo formatSelectSomeResult(result) so the user sees exactly which slugs wrapped and which did not.

The handler is intentionally idempotent — re-selecting an already-hired slug produces a skipped entry (not a failure) and re-selecting never overwrites a pre-existing aweek JSON. No confirmed: true gate is required because the only filesystem writes are new .aweek/agents/<slug>.json files; no .md or crontab entries are touched.

Never skip Step 5 — the init flow exists to give the user a clear next action, whether this is their first agent or a re-run after adding more subagents.

5.3 Error handling

• If routeInitHireMenuChoice throws EINIT_HIRE_MENU_BAD_CHOICE, re-present the menu (the user's selection did not match any available option, usually because they tried to pick hire-all / select-some on an empty menu).
• If routeInitHireMenuChoice throws EINIT_HIRE_MENU_BAD_SELECTION during select-some, surface the error and re-prompt for a valid subset of menu.unhired.
• If the user aborts the menu entirely, treat it as skip — never fall through silently to create-new without explicit consent.

The menu is non-destructive: it only reads the filesystem. Launching /aweek:hire afterwards creates new state but is itself non-destructive (no .md overwrites — adopt-on-collision is enforced inside createNewSubagent). No additional confirmed: true gate is required for Step 5.

Error handling

• If .aweek/agents/ exists but is not a directory, report the error and stop — never delete unexpected files without explicit user consent
• If .claude/commands/ cannot be created (permission denied), report the underlying EACCES error verbatim
• If the user does not have crontab installed or their shell rejects crontab -l / crontab -, surface the error and recommend installing the heartbeat manually
• On partial failure (e.g. 3 skills registered, 1 failed), report which succeeded and which failed — never silently swallow errors

Next steps

After a successful init, tell the user:

• Hire their first agent with /aweek:hire
• Approve its initial weekly plan with /aweek:plan
• Inspect the dashboard with /aweek:summary
• Manage lifecycle (pause / resume / delete) with /aweek:manage

Step 6: Clear the sticky heartbeat decision

After the hire menu closes (whether the user hired an agent, skipped, or was auto-delegated), clear any sticky heartbeat decision from .aweek/config.json so the next skill invocation (e.g. /aweek:hire) re-prompts about the heartbeat rather than silently re-using the old answer:

aweek exec setup clearHeartbeatDecision

This is a best-effort step — if it fails (e.g. no config file yet), log a warning and continue. The heartbeat decision is advisory cache; losing it is not an error.

Data directory

The default data directory is .aweek/agents/ relative to the project root. Agent config files live directly inside as <agent-id>.json. Per-agent sub-directories hold weekly plans, token usage, inbox queues, and lock files.