Conductor Setup

Overview

This skill transforms a standard repository into a Conductor-managed project. It establishes the "Source of Truth" by creating structured documentation for the product vision, technical standards, and development workflows.

Workflow Overview

The setup process runs entirely within Plan Mode and follows these sequential phases:

1. Pre-Initialization Overview (Section 1.1): Present a high-level overview of the setup steps to the user.
2. Project Audit (Section 1.2): Check for existing Conductor artifacts and determine the resume point using a priority table.
3. Project Discovery (Section 2.0): Determine if the project is New (Greenfield) or Existing (Brownfield). Resume from the audit target if applicable.
4. Product Documentation (Sections 2.1-2.3): Collaborative creation of product.md, product-guidelines.md, and tech-stack.md with Interactive/Autogenerate mode selection.
5. Configuration (Sections 2.4-2.5): Selection of code style guides and customization of workflow.md with Default/Customize options.
6. Finalization (Section 2.6): Generate conductor/index.md and summarize all actions.
7. Track Generation (Sections 3.1-3.3): Collect product requirements (Greenfield only), propose and create the first Track with spec.md, plan.md, metadata.json, and index.md.
8. Final Announcement (Section 3.4): Commit all files and inform the user of next steps.

State Management

Setup progress is tracked via Project Audit (Section 1.2). Instead of a state file, the agent checks for existing Conductor artifacts and uses a priority table to determine the resume point:

Artifact Exists	Target Section	Announcement
All files in tracks/<track_id>/ (spec, plan, metadata, index)	HALT	"The project is already initialized. Use /conductor:newTrack or /conductor:implement."
index.md (top-level)	Section 3.0	"Resuming setup: Scaffolding is complete. Next: generate the first track."
workflow.md	Section 2.6	"Resuming setup: Workflow is defined. Next: generate project index."
code_styleguides/	Section 2.5	"Resuming setup: Guides/Tech Stack configured. Next: define project workflow."
tech-stack.md	Section 2.4	"Resuming setup: Tech Stack defined. Next: select Code Styleguides."
product-guidelines.md	Section 2.3	"Resuming setup: Guidelines are complete. Next: define the Technology Stack."
product.md	Section 2.2	"Resuming setup: Product Guide is complete. Next: create Product Guidelines."
(None)	Section 2.0	(None)

After determining the target section, the agent MUST proceed to Section 2.0 to establish Greenfield/Brownfield context before jumping to the target.

Implementation Details

Refer to the following protocols for detailed procedural instructions:

1. Initialization and Resolution

• Resolution Protocol: references/resolution-protocol.md - How to find Conductor artifacts.
• Project Discovery: references/project-discovery.md - Brownfield vs Greenfield detection with improved indicators and git status checking.

2. Product Documentation

• Product and Tech Stack: references/product-setup.md - Interactive/Autogenerate mode selection, question batching, and user confirmation loops.

3. Standards and Workflow

• Configuration: references/configuration.md - Code style guide selection via shell commands, workflow customization, and index generation.

4. Planning the First Track

• Track Generation: references/track-generation.md - Product requirements collection, track proposal, artifact creation, and phase completion tasks.

Mandatory Constraints

• Plan Mode Execution: The entire setup process runs within Plan Mode. The agent MUST call enter_plan_mode at the start. All file operations MUST use relative paths starting with conductor/ (e.g., conductor/product.md). Do NOT use absolute paths. Redirection operators (>, >>) are NOT allowed in run_shell_command calls while in Plan Mode.
• Self-Correction: If a tool call fails (e.g., due to a policy restriction or path error), the agent MUST attempt to intelligently self-correct by reviewing the error message. If the failure is unrecoverable after a self-correction attempt, halt immediately and await user instructions.
• Relative Paths: In Plan Mode, all file write and replace operations MUST use relative paths starting with conductor/. Absolute paths will be blocked by Plan Mode security policies.
• TDD Integration: When generating plan.md, you MUST adhere to the TDD principles defined in workflow.md (Red/Green/Refactor tasks).
• Universal File Resolution: ALWAYS use the protocol in references/resolution-protocol.md to find or verify files.
• Git Hygiene: Setup concludes with a commit of all conductor/ files.

Assets

Templates used during setup are located in assets/templates/:

• workflow.md: The base development workflow.
• code_styleguides/: Language-specific style guides (Python, TypeScript, Go, etc.).

Policies for Plan Mode file access are located in assets/policies/:

• conductor.toml: Defines Plan Mode permissions for writing Conductor files and running authorized shell commands.