northstar

name	northstar
description	Intake intent into a tracked, sliced plan in an ai-catapult-init repo — deep-interview + skippable grill-me, always raise an issue, ralplan, write the A→B handoff.
eval	northstar

Northstar

Northstar fixes direction: it converges intent into a crystal-clear, tracked, sliced plan inside a repo already initialized with ai-catapult-init v3. It is a lightweight composer — it delegates to existing skills and never reimplements their loops. The output is the A→B handoff that autobahn consumes.

Quick Start

1. Run the prereq gate (fail-closed) against the repo root: bash northstar/prereq-check.sh --root .
2. Run the interview loop, then always raise an issue.
3. Run ralplan to produce sliced goals.
4. Write the handoff: bash northstar/handoff-write.sh --root . --spec <spec-path> --slug <plan-slug>.

Prereq (fail-closed)

northstar assumes the ai-catapult-init v3 structure is already present and never bootstraps it. prereq-check.sh asserts the .ai/ structure exists and exits non-zero with guidance if absent. Do not proceed past a failed prereq. See modules/prereq.md.

The loop (delegation)

deep-interview is the primary driver: interview one question at a time until ambiguity is at or below threshold. grill-me runs as an adversarial, skippable pass the user may decline. "Both satisfied" = the deep-interview gate is met AND (the grill-me decision tree is clear OR grill-me was skipped). Delegate to those skills; do not reimplement their loops. See modules/loop.md.

Always raise an issue

After the loop, always raise an issue regardless of whether grill-me was skipped. Default is local-first markdown; a hosted tracker (GitHub/ADO/GitLab/Jira) is used only when it is configured and authorized, fail-closed per the ai-catapult-init host-policy. Delegate to to-issues and triage for canonical state labels and ownership. See modules/issue.md.

Ralplan → sliced goals

Run ralplan (consensus planning) on the crystallized spec to produce sliced goals — one tracer-bullet slice per future PR. ralplan owns the planning loop; northstar only records its output as the sliced-goal artifacts the handoff points at.

A→B handoff

handoff-write.sh records the A→B contract under .ai/: a handoff entry in .ai/handoff/, a registration record in the workflow manifest's optional_branches slot, and traceability nodes pinned to schema_version 1.1. The spec lives in docs/specifications/ACTIVE/; sliced goals are referenced from the handoff. The write is idempotent and recovers from a partial write on re-run. See modules/handoff.md.

Command surface

northstar registers as a first-class command in both harnesses under .ai/commands/omx/ and .ai/commands/omc/ using one shared schema. See modules/command-surface.md.

Safety rules

• Fail closed: a missing prereq, missing authorization, or partial handoff write stops with guidance — never silently proceed or mutate.
• Compose, never reimplement: delegate every loop to its owning skill.
• Local-first: never create a hosted issue unless the tracker is configured and authorized.

References

• modules/prereq.md — ai-catapult-init presence contract.
• modules/loop.md — deep-interview + grill-me "both satisfied" rule.
• modules/issue.md — local-first / hosted-if-authorized issue raising.
• modules/handoff.md — A→B handoff schema and recovery.
• modules/command-surface.md — shared omx/omc command schema.