/position — load a team position into the session

/position <name> is the generic teammate-bootstrap skill. It loads a position profile from ai-workspace/team/<name>.md and runs the bootstrap sequence the profile defines. Replaces the bespoke /tpm (which, where present, is a thin wrapper around /position tpm that adds a unidirectional refusal contract — see "Wrapper skills" below).

Position vs role

• Position = persistent identity, loaded once per teammate session. Lives in ai-workspace/team/<name>.md. Examples: tpm, software-engineer, technical-editor, architect.
• Role = one-shot activity dispatched at a /task step. Lives in ai-workspace/agents/<name>.md. Examples: implementer, code-reviewer, test-writer, explorer.

/position operates on positions only. For one-shot role dispatch, use your tool's subagent-dispatch mechanism — Claude Code: Agent({subagent_type: <role-name>}); Codex/Cursor: see your project's AGENTS.md §Agent Roles for the equivalent dispatch pattern.

1. Resolve position

NAME="<arg>"
PROFILE="ai-workspace/team/${NAME}.md"
STATE_DIR="ai-workspace/team/${NAME}"

Pre-flight: if $PROFILE does not exist, refuse with:

Position <name> not found at ai-workspace/team/<name>.md. Available positions: list them by running ls ai-workspace/team/*.md. (For one-shot subagent role dispatch instead, use your tool's role-dispatch mechanism — Claude Code: Agent({subagent_type: <role>}).)

Do not auto-bootstrap. Absence is a signal to verify the environment.

2. Load profile + state

Read in order. Load all files into context first, then reason — do not summarize as you read.

1. $PROFILE (required) — the position's role identity, working agreement, decision rules, triggers, anti-patterns, lifecycle hooks.
2. ${STATE_DIR}/PLAYBOOK.md (if exists) — the position's operating manual.
3. ${STATE_DIR}/DECISIONS.md (if exists) — the position's append-only judgment log.

Most positions have NO sibling state directory — only stateful positions (currently just tpm) do. The skill silently skips state-load when the directory is absent.

3. Regenerate live state (if profile prescribes it)

The position's profile body specifies whether/how to regenerate live state on session start. Common patterns:

• TPM: gh project item-list + git worktree list + gh pr list
• Software-engineer: tail #general chat + read .branch-context.md if resuming
• Technical-editor: tail #general chat for review requests

Follow the profile's ## Session lifecycle / Session start section verbatim. The skill doesn't prescribe regeneration steps — the profile owns them.

4. Acknowledge + take the position

After load + bootstrap:

1. Acknowledge: Position '<name>' loaded. Following profile session-start instructions.
2. Hold the position for the rest of the session — the agent operates as @<name> according to profile rules until session end.
3. Chat handle (if the position's chat substrate is online): post the registration message the profile prescribes.

5. --resume flag (optional)

/position <name> --resume signals resumption of an interrupted session:

• Read .branch-context.md if present (per the position's profile resume convention)
• Skip the registration chat post (the position is presumed already known to the team)
• Pick up where the prior session left off

If the profile has no resume semantics, --resume is a no-op silently.

6. Switching positions

A session can switch positions by re-invoking /position <other>. Latest wins. Profile rules from the prior position drop. Exception: the tpm position has a unidirectional refusal contract (enforced by the /tpm wrapper skill, where installed) — switching out of TPM mid-session is refused per its own rules.

Anti-patterns

Anti-pattern	Why wrong
Reading from ai-workspace/agents/ for /position	That's the role directory (subagents). Positions live in team/.
Auto-bootstrapping a missing position	Refusal is the contract — positions must be defined first
Soft-loading just the profile without the state dir	Stateful positions need both; skipping state breaks continuity
Summarizing the profile as you load it	Load first, reason second — same as /tpm v0 contract
Treating /position <subagent-role> as valid (e.g. /position implementer)	Roles are not positions; refuse and direct to your tool's role-dispatch mechanism (Claude Code: Agent({subagent_type: <role>}))

Invocation forms

• /position <name> — load position, run bootstrap
• /position <name> --resume — same, but resume semantics if the profile defines them

Wrapper skills

A position can ship with a sibling wrapper skill that adds position-specific lifecycle behavior on top of /position. Wrappers are optional — /position <name> always works directly. If a wrapper is installed alongside /position in the same skills repo, prefer the wrapper for the position it covers (it handles position-specific contracts the generic loader can't).

Example: /tpm (where shipped as a separate skill) is the wrapper for the tpm position — it invokes /position tpm and adds a unidirectional refusal contract. If /tpm is not installed in your environment, use /position tpm directly; the position loads cleanly without the wrapper, just without the refusal-contract enforcement.

Quick reference

Step	Action	On failure
1	Resolve team/<name>.md	Refuse with available positions list
2	Read profile + state dir	Silently skip state if dir absent
3	Regenerate live state per profile	—
4	Acknowledge + hold position	—
5	Honor --resume if present	No-op if profile has no resume semantics
6	Switch positions on re-invoke	Refuse for unidirectional positions (tpm)