vk

Create, validate, and transition documentation artifacts (Vision, Initiative, Epic, Spec, Spike, ADR, Persona, Runbook, Design, Journey) through lifecycle phases. Handles spec writing, feature planning, epic creation, initiative creation, ADR drafting, research spikes, persona definition, runbook creation, design capture, architecture docs, phase transitions, implementation planning, cross-reference validation, and audits. Also invoke to update frontmatter fields, re-parent an artifact under a different epic or initiative, or set priority on a Vision or Initiative. Chains into swain-do for implementation tracking on SPEC; decomposes EPIC/VISION/INITIATIVE/JOURNEY into children first.

DEPRECATED — requires ANTHROPIC_API_KEY with per-token billing. Do not use. Inform the user that dispatch is deprecated and suggest parallel agents in-session or manual spike execution instead.

Operate the external task-management CLI (tk) as source of truth for agent execution tracking. Invoke when any SPEC comes up for implementation, when the user asks to track tasks, check what to work on next, see task status, manage work dependencies, or close/abandon tasks. For coordination-tier artifacts (EPIC, VISION, JOURNEY), swain-design must decompose into child SPECs first — this skill tracks the children, not the container.

Auto-invoked at session start when swain-preflight detects issues. Also user-invocable for on-demand health checks. Validates project health: governance rules, tool availability, memory directory, settings files, script permissions, .agents directory, and .tickets/ validation. Auto-migrates stale .beads/ directories to .tickets/ and removes them. Remediates issues across all swain skills. Idempotent — safe to run any time.

Cut a release — detect versioning context, generate a changelog from conventional commits, bump versions, create a git tag, and optionally squash-merge to a release branch. Use when the user says "release", "cut a release", "tag a release", "bump the version", "create a changelog", "ship a version", "publish", or any variation of shipping/publishing a version. This skill is intentionally generic and works across any repo — it infers context from git history and project structure rather than assuming a specific setup. Supports the trunk+release branch model (ADR-013) when a `release` branch exists.

Trove collection and normalization for swain-design artifacts. Collects sources from the web, local files, and media (video/audio), normalizes them to markdown, and caches them in reusable troves. Use when researching a topic for a spike, ADR, vision, or any artifact that needs structured research. Also use to refresh stale troves or extend existing ones with new sources. Triggers on: 'research X', 'gather sources for', 'compile research on', 'search for sources about', 'refresh the trove', 'find existing research on X', or when swain-design needs research inputs for a spike or ADR.

Run all security scanners against the project and produce a unified, severity-bucketed report. Orchestrates gitleaks (secrets), osv-scanner/trivy (dependency vulns), semgrep (static analysis), context-file injection scanner (built-in), and repo hygiene checks (built-in). Missing scanners are skipped with install hints — the scan always completes. Triggers on: 'security check', 'security scan', 'run security', 'scan for secrets', 'check for vulnerabilities', 'security audit', 'audit dependencies', 'check secrets', 'find vulnerabilities', 'scan codebase'.

Create, validate, and transition documentation artifacts (Vision, Initiative, Epic, Spec, Spike, ADR, Persona, Runbook, Design, Journey) through lifecycle phases. Handles spec writing, feature planning, epic creation, initiative creation, ADR drafting, research spikes, persona definition, runbook creation, design capture, architecture docs, phase transitions, implementation planning, cross-reference validation, and audits. Also invoke to update frontmatter fields, re-parent an artifact under a different epic or initiative, or set priority on a Vision or Initiative. Chains into swain-do for implementation tracking on SPEC; decomposes EPIC/VISION/INITIATIVE/JOURNEY into children first.

Dispatch a swain artifact to a GitHub Actions runner for autonomous implementation via Claude Code Action. Creates a GitHub Issue with the artifact content and triggers the workflow for background execution. Use when the user says 'dispatch', 'send to background agent', 'run this autonomously', 'GitHub Actions', or wants to hand off a SPEC for autonomous implementation.

Operate the external task-management CLI (tk) as source of truth for agent execution tracking. Invoke when any SPEC comes up for implementation, when the user asks to track tasks, check what to work on next, see task status, manage work dependencies, or close/abandon tasks. For coordination-tier artifacts (EPIC, VISION, JOURNEY), swain-design must decompose into child SPECs first — this skill tracks the children, not the container.

Cut a release — detect versioning context, generate a changelog from conventional commits, bump versions, create a git tag, and optionally squash-merge to a release branch. Use when the user says "release", "cut a release", "tag a release", "bump the version", "create a changelog", "ship a version", "publish", or any variation of shipping/publishing a version. This skill is intentionally generic and works across any repo — it infers context from git history and project structure rather than assuming a specific setup. Supports the trunk+release branch model (ADR-013) when a `release` branch exists.

Automated retrospectives — captures learnings at EPIC completion and on manual invocation. EPIC-scoped retros embed a Retrospective section in the EPIC artifact. Cross-epic and time-based retros produce standalone retro docs. Triggers on: 'retro', 'retrospective', 'post-mortem', 'lessons learned', 'debrief', 'what worked', 'what didn't work', 'what did we learn', 'reflect', or automatically after EPIC terminal transitions.

Trove collection and normalization for swain-design artifacts. Collects sources from the web, local files, and media (video/audio), normalizes them to markdown, and caches them in reusable troves. Use when researching a topic for a spike, ADR, vision, or any artifact that needs structured research. Also use to refresh stale troves or extend existing ones with new sources. Triggers on: 'research X', 'gather sources for', 'compile research on', 'search for sources about', 'refresh the trove', 'find existing research on X', or when swain-design needs research inputs for a spike or ADR.

Fetch upstream, merge (worktree) or rebase (tracked branch), stage all changes, enforce gitignore hygiene, run ADR compliance checking on modified artifacts, rebuild stale artifact indexes, generate a descriptive commit message from the diff, commit, and push to the current branch's upstream. Handles merge conflicts by preferring local changes for config/project files and upstream for scaffolding.

Contextual help and onboarding for the swain skill ecosystem. Use when users ask about swain — what skills exist, how to use them, what artifacts are available, how workflows connect, or when they need a quick reference. Also invoked after swain-init to orient new users. Triggers on: 'how do I...', 'what is...', 'help', 'what can swain do', 'show me the commands', 'I'm confused', 'where do I start', any question about swain skills, artifacts, or workflows, and after project onboarding completes.

Per-project SSH key provisioning for git signing and authentication. Invoke to configure git signing, set up SSH keys for this project, bypass 1Password for git operations, add a key to GitHub, troubleshoot 1Password git prompts, or check key status. Generates ed25519 keys, configures git signing, registers keys on GitHub, and sets up SSH host aliases to bypass global SSH agents.

Session management — restores terminal tab name, user preferences, and context bookmarks on session start. Auto-invoked at session start via AGENTS.md. Also invokable manually to set focus, bookmark context, remember where I am, check session info, rename the tmux tab, or update session state for the next session. Manages worktree auto-isolation and focus lane persistence.

Meta-router for swain skills. Invoke when the user explicitly asks swain to do something — not merely when they mention the project by name. Routes to the matching swain-* sub-skill — only load the one that matches. If the user's intent matches multiple rows, pick the most specific match. Sub-skills that are not installed will gracefully no-op.

Cross-cutting project status dashboard. Shows active epics with progress ratios, actionable next steps, blocked items, in-progress tasks, GitHub issues, and session context. Produces rich terminal output with clickable links. Triggers on: 'project status', 'swain status', 'what's next', 'dashboard', 'overview', 'where are we', 'what should I work on', 'am I blocked', 'what needs review', 'show me priorities'.

Update swain skills to the latest version. Use when the user says 'update swain', 'upgrade swain', 'pull latest swain', 'reinstall swain', 'refresh skills', or wants to update their swain skills installation. Uses npx to pull the latest swain release from GitHub, with a git-clone fallback, then invokes swain-doctor to reconcile governance and validate project health.