rl-init

name	rl-init
description	Set up (or repair) the life-harness workspace in the current folder — the philosophy/, goals/, actions/, and work/ directories plus the conventions the other rl- skills rely on. Run this once, first, before rl-philosophy, rl-goal, rl-plan, rl-work, or rl-review. Use when the user runs /rl-init, or asks to initialize, set up, bootstrap, or scaffold life-harness / a life workspace.
metadata	{"loop":"life-harness","step":"0-init"}

rl-init — prepare the life-harness workspace

life-harness runs a person's life the way a ReAct agent runs a task: set a goal → plan actions → act → observe → reason → refine, with philosophy as the lens over the whole loop. Every skill reads and writes one shared workspace of plain Markdown files. This skill creates that workspace.

The workspace is the folder life-harness is installed into — the current working directory. Scaffold it right here, not elsewhere. Running this again is safe: it repairs missing pieces without overwriting existing content.

Input

Usually nothing to supply — the workspace root is the current directory. Only if the user explicitly names a different directory should you scaffold there.

What to do

1. Create the directory skeleton under the workspace root:

   <root>/
     philosophy/      # principles and values — the lens for every decision
     goals/
       open/          # one file per live goal, each with checkable criteria
       closed/        # goals that are accomplished or abandoned
       history/       # archived overflow of goals' Notes/history — not auto-loaded
     actions/
       open/          # one action plan per open goal — same slug as the goal
       closed/        # action plans for closed goals
       history/       # archived overflow of actions' Log — not auto-loaded
     work/
       open/          # one folder per task delegated to the AI (rl-work)
       closed/        # finished or abandoned work, with its artifacts
   

   Create any that are missing, each leaf holding an empty .gitkeep so the skeleton survives a fresh clone. Never delete or overwrite existing files.

2. Write the conventions file at <root>/README.md (only if absent) from the template in references/workspace-readme.md. Plain Markdown is the only source of truth — no database, nothing hidden.

3. Offer version control (optional). Suggest git init inside the workspace; only run it if the user agrees.

4. Report the created tree and point to the next steps: /rl-philosophy (the lens) → /rl-goal → /rl-plan → act, or /rl-work → /rl-review.

Conventions the other skills rely on

Establish these here so the other skills can assume them:

• Locating the workspace. It is the current working directory; from a subdirectory, walk up to the nearest ancestor containing philosophy/, goals/, actions/. If none is found, tell the user to run /rl-init and stop. No env var, no pointer file — the workspace never lives outside its folder.
• Timestamps. Record moments to the minute with UTC offset + IANA zone from the system clock, e.g. 2026-07-06 14:30 +08:00 (Asia/Shanghai).
• philosophy/ — one file per principle/theme, kebab-case; each states the principle, why it matters, and how to decide with it.
• goals/ — one file per goal, goals/open/<slug>.md while live, goals/closed/<slug>.md once accomplished/abandoned. Carries status, timestamps, checkable Success criteria, and a link to its action file.
• actions/ — one action file per goal, same slug: actions/open/<slug>.md. Holds the Plan (doable, timed, checkable steps) and a running Log. Moves to closed/ alongside its goal.
• work/ — one folder per delegated task, work/open/<slug>/ then work/closed/<slug>/, holding a task.md brief and its artifacts. Written by rl-work; the task.md ## Log rolls overflow to task.log.md beside it (append-only, not auto-loaded).
• Closing a goal (accomplished or abandoned) — one sweep over all three artifact types; leave nothing dangling in open/. When a review shows a goal is reached, or the user drops it, do the whole sweep, not just the goal file:
  1. Goal — set status: accomplished | abandoned; move goals/open/<slug>.md → goals/closed/<slug>.md.
  2. Action — set the action file's own status: done | abandoned (accomplished maps to done); move actions/open/<slug>.md → actions/closed/<slug>.md.
  3. Work — for each work/open/<task>/task.md whose goal:/action: names this goal, set status: done | abandoned and move the folder to work/closed/<task>/. Keep one open only if the user wants that work to outlive the goal — then say so.
  4. Repoint every cross-reference from open/ to closed/: the goal's actions: line, the action's goal: line, and each moved task's goal:/action: lines. No live link may point into open/ at a file now in closed/. /rl-review (criteria met) and /rl-goal (abandon) run this whole sweep.
• Context economy — these files reload into context every loop, so keep them lean. Live sections (target, criteria, plan steps, the work brief) state only the current truth: on refine, rewrite them clean rather than accreting "(re-baselined X→Y)" asides, and collapse a finished slice to a one-line pointer rather than leaving its full narrative. Budget: target/each step = 1 line, each criterion = 1–2, each artifact = 1, each history/log entry = a heading + ≤5 one-sentence bullets (delta-only). Cite philosophy only where load-bearing. ## Notes / history (goals), ## Log (actions), and ## Log (work task.md) keep only the last ~3 entries; move older ones verbatim to goals/history/<slug>.md, actions/history/<slug>.md, or the task's own task.log.md (beside task.md, append-only, never auto-loaded) and leave a one-line pointer.

Keep the workspace human-browsable: clear filenames, plain Markdown, no hidden state.