Wtfp Start Project

Start a WTF-P Project

Build a durable research-writing workspace before drafting prose.

Select the action

• Use new-paper to interview the author and initialize a new project.
• Use map-project to inventory an existing or brownfield project.
• Use create-outline to turn the project thesis into an executable document structure.

Read references/actions.md for the selected action before changing files.

Apply the project contract

1. Locate the project root selected by the host. Treat that contained root as the write boundary and resolve portable resources only through the adapter.
2. Inspect existing material before proposing creation or replacement. Never overwrite a project protocol file silently.
3. Read and schema-validate project://config when present. Honor its approval gates, workflow checks, safety settings, parallelism, and output format.
4. Preserve the distinction between evidence, author decisions, and agent inference. Mark unknowns instead of inventing project facts.
5. Ask for approval before replacing established structure or performing another declared consequential effect. Project initialization never initializes or mutates version control.
6. Write planning artifacts atomically when possible, then read them back and cross-check their internal references.
7. Finish with created or changed paths, unresolved questions, and the next recommended academic action.

Maintain structural invariants

• Keep the core argument in project://manifest consistent with the thesis, section roles, and claim assignments in project://structure/outline.
• Give every outline and section-record entry a unique stable identifier, goal, word budget, status, and dependency wave.
• Require every initialized or approved outline's sections[*].word_target values to sum exactly to its target_words; revise the allocation before writing when they do not.
• Use relative project paths only. Do not embed host installation paths, client commands, model names, or tool-specific syntax.
• Never treat a generated citation, claim, venue rule, or project statistic as verified without a source.

If a requested action requires a capability the host does not provide, stop at the safe boundary and return an actionable handoff rather than weakening the procedure.