askit-init-plugin

name	askit-init-plugin
description	Creates a starting plugin that satisfies the Bronze anatomy and onboards the maintainer, in three modes (interview, questionnaire, hybrid). Use when starting a new plugin from scratch, onboarding a maintainer, or generating a scaffolding questionnaire.
metadata	{"version":"0.1.0","tier":"universal","audience":"beginner"}

askit-init-plugin

Purpose

Onboard a maintainer and scaffold a starting point that is gradeable from the first commit. Three modes: interview runs a live conversational Q&A, then scaffolds; questionnaire emits the structured onboarding template (with per-section maintainer-feedback and agent-response blocks) for the maintainer to fill async, then processes it; hybrid pre-fills that questionnaire with suggestions from chat context, still leaving the feedback blocks. All three scaffold the Bronze seed anatomy from templates/seed-plugin/ (library.json with the five required fields + AGENTS.md + a minimal .claude-plugin/plugin.json (name, version, description only, ADR 0043) + README/CHANGELOG starters) so the new plugin passes the conformance core immediately AND installs on Claude Code and Codex from the first commit. Fill name/description identically in library.json and .claude-plugin/plugin.json, or U8 (manifest-drift) warns on the mismatch. interview mode additionally asks for an optional author, so a plugin scaffolded that way carries a real attribution and passes claude plugin validate --strict outright; declining leaves the manifest exactly as minimal as the template, still --strict-warning and correctly so (ADR 0043). Mode and anatomy detail are in references/onboarding-modes.md.

When to use

When starting a brand-new plugin from scratch, onboarding a maintainer, or generating a scaffolding questionnaire. (To adopt an EXISTING repo instead, use askit-migrate.)

interview mode

1. Ask the maintainer the onboarding questions live (theme/scope, target agents, target tier, first components, and an optional author: a name, and optionally a url/email).
2. Synthesize a starting config and scaffold from templates/seed-plugin/, filling name/description in BOTH library.json and .claude-plugin/plugin.json (the same values in both) and AGENTS.md. If the maintainer supplied an author, add author: { name, [url], [email] } (only name is required by the vendor's schema) to BOTH library.json (its existing OPTIONAL field, Standard sec 5.1, so a later Silver-tier regeneration via gen-manifest.mjs does not silently drop it) and .claude-plugin/plugin.json. If the maintainer declined or skipped, emit NO author key in either file - never a placeholder (ADR 0043; the same class of defect U5 already penalizes in descriptions).
3. Hand off: askit-build-skill for the first skill, askit-build-docs for docs, askit-evaluate to confirm Bronze.

questionnaire mode

1. Emit templates/onboarding-questionnaire.template.md for the maintainer to fill async.
2. On return, process the maintainer-feedback blocks into a config and scaffold as above.

hybrid mode

1. From chat context, emit a tailored questionnaire pre-filled with suggested answers (keeping the feedback blocks).
2. Process the returned, corrected questionnaire and scaffold.

Scope

The seed scaffold is the minimal Bronze anatomy (the structural match the asserted test enforces, ADR 0023, not a byte-exact diff): it passes every Universal check with 0 errors. The minimal .claude-plugin/plugin.json is install recognition ONLY, not Silver's S6 (per-target emission): it does not carry agent-targets, prefix, a components index, or a second native manifest, so the seed does not claim Silver behavior it has not built (ADR 0043). The richer surfaces (a real README via askit-build-docs, CHANGELOG via askit-release, ADRs via askit-decision, backlogs via askit-backlog, and the full per-target manifests via scripts/generators/gen-manifest.mjs at Silver) are scaffolded by their own skills, so init composes the toolkit rather than duplicating it. Marketplace scaffolding is askit-init-marketplace.