create-novel-project

name	create-novel-project
description	Initialize a safe, self-contained Markdown novel workspace from the Novelist plugin scaffold. Use when the user wants to start, scaffold, bootstrap, or create a new novel project with source directories, templates, continuity rules, visual guidance, and EPUB output conventions.

Create Novel Project

Operating Contract

Create a novel source workspace from the scaffold bundled with this plugin. The scaffold includes source directories, YAML-frontmatter templates, manuscript markup rules, visual direction, and generated-output boundaries. It does not copy another set of Agent Skills into the project; the installed Novelist plugin continues to provide them.

Before running the bundled command, resolve <skill-dir> to the absolute directory containing this SKILL.md.

Workflow

1. Resolve the destination from the user's explicit path. If no path was given, use the current directory only when it is clearly the intended workspace; otherwise ask for the destination.
2. Gather a working title and BCP 47-style language tag when the user supplied them. Both are optional: the defaults remain Untitled Novel and ko.
3. Inspect the destination before writing. Preserve unrelated existing files.
4. Run the bundled initializer:

python3 "<skill-dir>/scripts/create_novel_project.py" \
  --project-root /absolute/path/to/novel \
  --title "Working Title" \
  --language ko

5. Do not pass --force merely because the destination exists. The initializer performs a complete collision preflight and writes nothing when a scaffold file would be overwritten. Use --force only after the user explicitly asks to replace the plugin-managed scaffold files.
6. Verify project.md, AGENTS.md, the source directories and templates, and published/.gitignore. Run git status --short when the destination is inside a Git repository.
7. Summarize the created paths and suggest the next relevant plugin skill, such as $create-setting, $create-character, or $create-plot.

Safety Rules

• Never initialize into the plugin installation itself.
• Never delete unrelated destination files.
• Never copy .git, .codex, generated EPUB output, or project-local skill duplicates into the new workspace.
• Treat the copied Markdown files as canonical source and published/ as generated output.
• Do not commit unless the user asks.