initiative

name	initiative
description	Manage cross-repo initiatives in an ecosystem. Activates when the user invokes /initiative or asks momentum to run the initiative recipe.

Manage cross-repo initiatives in an ecosystem.

Initiatives are first-class records of features that span multiple member repos. Each initiative is one markdown file under <ecosystem-root>/initiatives/NNNN-<slug>.md with a small YAML frontmatter block (id, slug, status, started, owner, repos).

This command must be run from inside an ecosystem root or any of its member repos (the ecosystem root is discovered by walking up).

Subcommands

/initiative create <slug>     Create a new initiative + activate it
/initiative status [<slug>]   Print the named (or active) initiative card
/initiative close <slug>      Populate the Close section + deactivate
/initiative list              List all initiatives in this ecosystem

Steps for create

1. Locate the ecosystem root via the walk-up helper (core/ecosystem/lib/index.js → findRoot). If none found, abort with a clear message: "Not inside an ecosystem. Run momentum ecosystem init first."

2. Validate the <slug> matches /^[a-z][a-z0-9-]*$/. If not, abort.

3. Allocate the next initiative id via nextInitiativeId(root) (scans existing files for the highest NNNN- prefix).

4. Prompt the user (one question at a time) for:

   • Why — one-paragraph motivation
   • Repos involved — defaults to all members; allow comma-separated subset
   • Owner — defaults to git config user.name or env USER

5. Render the initiative file from core/ecosystem/templates/initiative-template.md, substituting the frontmatter + the user's "Why" text. Leave the "Per-repo contributions", "Linked decisions", "Deploy chronology" sections empty (they'll fill in as work lands).

6. Write the file to <root>/initiatives/<NNNN>-<slug>.md via writeInitiative(filePath, frontmatter, content). This re-validates the frontmatter.

7. Set the slug as the active initiative: setActive(root, slug) (writes <root>/.state/active-initiative).

8. Print confirmation:

   Created initiative 0042-<slug>.md. Active.
   

Steps for status

1. Resolve the target slug: argument if given; else read <root>/.state/active-initiative; else abort with "No active initiative. Pass or /initiative create first."

2. Load the file via loadInitiative(root, slug). Print:

   • Frontmatter as a header block (status, owner, started, repos)
   • "Per-repo contributions" section verbatim
   • For each repo in repos[], run gh pr list --repo <owner>/<repo> --state open --json number,title,headRefName (best-effort; degrade gracefully if gh not authenticated) and append a one-line summary per open PR.
   • For each repo, print last 3 commits via git -C <repo-path> log -3 --oneline.

3. If <root>/.state/active-initiative matches this slug, print: (active) in the header.

Steps for close

1. Resolve slug from argument (required for close — no implicit "close the active one" to avoid surprises).

2. Load the initiative; abort if already status: closed.

3. Prompt the user (one question at a time):

   • What shipped?
   • What was deferred?
   • What was learned?

4. Append a populated ## Close section (preserving any existing sections above it). Set frontmatter status: closed and closed: <today>. Write back via writeInitiative.

5. If this slug was active, clear .state/active-initiative via clearActive(root).

6. Print confirmation:

   Closed initiative <slug>. State cleared.
   

Steps for list

1. Read every NNNN-*.md file in <root>/initiatives/. Sort by numeric id ascending.

2. For each, print:

   NNNN <slug>  status  started→closed-or-‹in-progress›  repos: a, b, c
   

3. If .state/active-initiative is set, mark that row with ←active.

Key principles

• Idempotent prompts — running /initiative create <existing-slug> must refuse with a clear error, never silently overwrite.
• Frontmatter is the source of truth — body sections are free-form human writing; the agent doesn't reformat them when re-reading.
• Cross-repo, not in-repo — initiatives live in the ecosystem root, not inside any one member's specs/. The member-repo phases stay authoritative for their own work; initiatives link across them.