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.
Task tracking and implementation execution for swain projects. Invoke whenever a SPEC needs an implementation plan, the user asks what to work on next, wants to check or update task status, claim or close tasks, manage dependencies, or abandon work. Also invoked by swain-design after creating a SPEC that's ready for implementation. Tracks SPECs and SPIKEs — not EPICs, VISIONs, or JOURNEYs directly (those get decomposed into SPECs first).
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.
Project onboarding and session entry point for swain. On first run, performs full onboarding: migrates CLAUDE.md to AGENTS.md, verifies vendored tk, configures pre-commit security hooks, and offers swain governance rules — then writes a .swain-init marker. On subsequent runs, detects the marker and delegates directly to swain-session. Use as a single entry point — it routes automatically.
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.
Session management and project status dashboard. Owns the full session lifecycle (start/work/close/resume), focus lane, bookmarks, worktree detection, and tab naming. Also serves as the project status dashboard — shows active epics, progress, actionable next steps, blocked items, tasks, GitHub issues, and recommendations. Worktree creation is deferred to swain-do task dispatch (SPEC-195). Triggers on: 'session', 'status', 'what's next', 'dashboard', 'overview', 'where are we', 'what should I work on', 'show me priorities', 'bookmark', 'focus on', 'session info'.
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.