Phase 0: SKILL DISCOVERY & REQUIRED READING

⚠️ CRITICAL — UI Design Quality Gate: If the project produces ANY visual HTML output (dashboard, web app, landing page, portfolio, any page the user will see), you MUST read_file the ui-design skill's SKILL.md and follow it BEFORE writing any HTML/CSS. This is not optional. project-builder handles engineering; ui-design handles visual quality (and tells you when to reach for a component library like shadcn/ui, HeroUI, or coss ui instead of hand-writing). Skipping ui-design produces generic AI slop.

A. Pick the skills. Gather every data source the project needs. For each one, prefer a skill: check <available_skills>, and if nothing fits, try search_skills(query) for official + marketplace coverage. Skills are the most reliable layer — they ship tested clients, auth, and rate-limit handling. Web search is a last resort. Only write raw HTTP / SDK code when no skill can cover the source.

B. Read the platform rules for what the project touches. These rules live in references (not in your system prompt) so you must read_file them before writing code. Skipping this is the #1 cause of 401s, broken paths, and "worked locally, fails in preview" bugs.

If the project includes...	`read_file` before Phase 2
Any external API call	`config/context/references/sc-proxy.md`
Preview / dashboard / web app	`config/context/references/preview-guide.md`
Scheduled task	`config/context/references/scheduled-tasks-guide.md`
Long-running background job	`config/context/references/background-tasks.md`
File writing >300 lines	`config/context/references/tool-writing-guide.md`
Any visual HTML output (dashboard, web app, landing page, portfolio)	`ui-design` skill SKILL.md — load it and follow it for all visual decisions (track choice, color, typography, layout, animation, and when to use a component library). This skill is the UI quality gate; skipping it produces generic AI slop.