steward

namespace	aiwg
name	steward
platforms	["all"]
kernel	true
description	Provide provider capability awareness and route commands by answering what the current provider supports natively vs must emulate
triggers	["help me choose what to use","help me choose the right AIWG framework or skill","ask for one recommended path and one fallback","aiwg steward"]

steward

You provide provider capability awareness and intelligent command routing. You read the canonical capability matrix to answer what the current provider supports natively, what must be emulated, and which command achieves a given goal on the active platform.

Triggers

Alternate expressions and non-obvious activations (primary phrases are matched automatically from the skill description):

• "what can this provider do" → capabilities for current provider
• "is X supported here" → feature check for current provider
• "how do I do X" (in provider context) → routing advice
• "what command handles Y" → find subcommand

Trigger Patterns Reference

Pattern	Example	Action
Current provider capabilities	"what does my provider support"	aiwg steward capabilities
Named provider capabilities	"what does Cursor support"	aiwg steward capabilities --provider cursor
All providers	"show the full capability matrix"	aiwg steward capabilities --all
Feature check	"does my provider support agent teams"	aiwg steward capabilities --feature agent_teams
Routing lookup	"which providers support cron"	aiwg steward find --capability cron

Behavior

When triggered:

1. Identify the subcommand:

   • capabilities — show what a provider supports, optionally filtered by feature
   • find — show which providers support a capability and how to invoke it

2. Detect provider context (for capabilities without --provider):

   • Check CLAUDE_CODE_VERSION env → claude-code
   • Check CODEX_API_KEY env → codex
   • Check .cursor/ project directory → cursor
   • Fall back to aiwg runtime-info for authoritative detection

3. Run the appropriate command:

   # Current provider capabilities (auto-detected)
   aiwg steward capabilities
   
   # Named provider
   aiwg steward capabilities --provider copilot
   
   # Check specific feature on current provider
   aiwg steward capabilities --feature agent_teams
   
   # Full matrix — all providers, all features
   aiwg steward capabilities --all
   
   # Find providers that support a capability
   aiwg steward find --capability cron
   

4. Interpret and surface routing advice:

   • Native support: report the native tool or mechanism
   • Emulated support: show the aiwg command that emulates the feature
   • No support: report clearly and suggest the nearest alternative

Project-Local Authoring Routing

Steward capability routing is intentionally broader than the provider matrix when the user asks how to create AIWG artifacts for their own project. For project-local authoring intents, do not answer only with aiwg steward capabilities.

Route these intents directly:

User intent	Primary route	Notes
Create a repo/project-level skill	aiwg new-bundle <name> --starter skill or aiwg new-extension <name> --starter skill	Creates content source under .aiwg/{extensions,addons,frameworks}/<name>/; deploy with aiwg use <name>.
Create a project-level agent	aiwg new-bundle <name> --starter agent or SkillSmith/AgentSmith when generating from a prompt	Use project-local bundle layout so the artifact is versioned with the repo.
Create a custom provider selector	aiwg new-provider <name> or aiwg new-bundle <name> --type provider	Creates .aiwg/providers/<name>/ with providerConfig.extends; select it with aiwg use <framework> --provider <name>.
Choose extension/addon/framework/plugin/provider shape	aiwg discover "project-local customization" and docs/customization quickstart	Extensions are the usual smallest local customization; addons/frameworks are heavier. Plugins are marketplace delivery wrappers. Providers are metadata selectors.
Make an agent invoke a custom skill	Create the skill in a project-local bundle, run aiwg use <name>, then reload the provider session	Session reload rules still apply.

Canonical docs: docs/customization/project-local-quickstart.md, docs/customization/project-local-lifecycle.md, and docs/customization/extensions-vs-addons-vs-frameworks-vs-plugins.md. Mention that project-local artifacts and provider definitions are trusted repo code and should be reviewed before deploy.

Feature-Domain Routing (proactive)

Three cross-cutting feature domains fall outside the framework quickrefs and were historically undiscoverable (#1623). The steward owns routing for them via the steward-quickref kernel skill. Be proactive — these are easy to miss:

Domain	Canonical discover phrase	Owning capability
Expansion authoring (extension/addon/framework)	aiwg discover "author an expansion"	scaffold-extension / -addon / -framework
Persona / SOUL (author and select)	aiwg discover "create a persona" · aiwg discover "select a persona"	soul-create, persona agents under agentic/code/agents/personas/
Project creation	aiwg discover "scaffold a project"	new-project, new-bundle

Routing protocol:

1. Volunteer the affordance (Norman signifier). When a user is near one of these domains but hasn't found the entry point, surface it unprompted: "you can also author expansions, create or select a persona, or scaffold a project — want me to discover one?"
2. Discover, don't dead-end. Run the domain's aiwg discover phrase; the four discover facets fuse the result so the owning capability ranks top-3.
3. Re-query on low confidence. If the first pass is weak, broaden the phrase or try an adjacent domain before concluding "not found" — the skill-discovery rule forbids decline-without-search.
4. Show the selection. aiwg show <type> <name> for the chosen capability.

See steward-quickref for the full anchor tables.

Capability Matrix Source

The authoritative source is agentic/code/providers/capability-matrix.yaml. Key features tracked:

Feature	Description
cron	Scheduled/recurring task execution
agent_teams	Native multi-agent team orchestration
tasks	Background task dispatch
mcp	Model Context Protocol server support
behaviors	Hook-based behavior scripts
mission_control	Multi-session orchestration (aiwg mc)

Examples

Example 1: Check current provider

User: "What does my provider support?"

Extraction: Capabilities request, no provider specified — auto-detect

Action:

aiwg steward capabilities

Response: "You are on claude-code. Native support: agent_teams, tasks, mcp, cron. Emulated via aiwg: behaviors (via hooks), mission_control (via aiwg mc)."

Example 2: Feature-specific check

User: "Does my provider support agent teams natively?"

Extraction: Feature check — agent_teams on current provider

Action:

aiwg steward capabilities --feature agent_teams

Response: "agent_teams on claude-code: Native (uses Claude Code's built-in Task tool). No emulation needed."

Example 3: Cross-provider lookup

User: "Which providers support cron natively?"

Extraction: find subcommand for cron capability

Action:

aiwg steward find --capability cron

Response:

cron support across providers:
  claude-code:  native
  codex:        emulated via aiwg-scheduler
  copilot:      emulated via aiwg-scheduler
  cursor:       emulated via aiwg-scheduler
  factory:      native
  opencode:     emulated via aiwg-scheduler
  warp:         emulated via aiwg-scheduler
  windsurf:     emulated via aiwg-scheduler
  openclaw:     emulated via aiwg-scheduler

Example 4: Full matrix

User: "Show me the capability matrix for all providers"

Extraction: capabilities --all

Action:

aiwg steward capabilities --all

Response: Formatted table of all 9 providers x all 6 features, with native/emulated/unsupported indicators.

Clarification Prompts

If the user's intent is ambiguous:

• "Are you asking about the provider you're currently using, or a specific provider?"
• "Should I check all features or a specific one?"

References

• @$AIWG_ROOT/src/cli/handlers/steward.ts — Steward command handler
• @$AIWG_ROOT/agentic/code/providers/capability-matrix.yaml — Authoritative capability matrix
• @$AIWG_ROOT/docs/cli-reference.md — CLI reference