swain-help

Contextual help for the swain skill ecosystem.

Mode detection

Determine the mode from context:

Signal	Mode
Invoked from swain-init Phase 4, or user says "just set up swain" / "what now after init"	Onboarding
User asks a specific question ("how do I...", "what is...", "when should I...")	Question
User asks for a reference, cheat sheet, commands, or overview	Reference

Onboarding mode

Present a concise orientation — help the user understand what they just installed without overwhelming them. Adapt tone to context (first-time dev vs experienced engineer).

Present this:

Welcome to swain. Here's how it works:

The big picture: Swain manages your project's documentation artifacts (specs, epics, ADRs, etc.) and tracks implementation work — so nothing falls through the cracks between sessions.

Three things to know:

1. /swain is your entry point. It routes to the right sub-skill automatically. You can also call skills directly (/swain-design, /swain-do, etc.).

2. Design before you build. When you want to implement something, start with /swain to create a spec. Swain enforces a "plan before code" workflow — it creates tracked tasks before implementation begins.

3. Health checks are automatic. /swain-doctor runs at session start to ensure routing rules are in place and .tickets/ is healthy. You don't need to think about it.

Common starting points:

• "I want to plan a new feature" → creates an Epic or Spec
• "Write a spec for X" → creates an Agent Spec
• "What should I work on next?" → checks your task backlog
• "File a bug" → creates a Spec with type: bug
• "Let's release" → version bump + changelog

Need more? Ask me anything about swain, or say /swain help reference for a full cheat sheet.

Then stop. Let the user ask follow-up questions — don't dump everything at once.

Question mode

Answer the user's specific question using your knowledge of swain. If you need details beyond what's in this skill, read the relevant reference:

Topic	Where to look
Artifact types, phases, relationships	references/quick-ref.md — Artifacts section
Commands and invocations	references/quick-ref.md — Commands section
Step-by-step walkthroughs	references/workflows.md
Artifact definitions and templates	sibling skill swain-design/references/<type>-definition.md
tk (ticket) CLI reference	sibling skill swain-do/references/tk-cheatsheet.md
Troubleshooting	sibling skill swain-design/references/troubleshooting.md

Guidelines for answering:

• Be concise. Answer the question, don't dump the entire reference.
• Use examples when they clarify — "You'd say /swain create a spec for auth token rotation".
• Hand off when appropriate. If the user's question is really a request to do something (e.g., "how do I create a spec?" followed by "ok do it"), invoke the relevant skill directly via the Skill tool. Explain what you're doing: "I'll hand this off to swain-design."
• Admit gaps. If something isn't covered, say so rather than inventing swain features.

Reference mode

When the user wants an overview or cheat sheet, read references/quick-ref.md and present the relevant section. If they want "everything", present the full quick reference but note it's dense.

For workflow walkthroughs, read references/workflows.md.