# Michi Expedition > Run a Michi expedition — open-ended, Entrusted, spiral exploration where the end isn't known (data exploration, external research, experiments, prototypes) with a feedback flywheel. The learning-mode counterpart to planning/session/debrief. Modes: charter (open/revise a mission), campaign (set the mandate), run (the spiral), review (surface + promote), exhibit (the review surface). Use when the goal is to discover, not to ship a known deliverable. - Skill: `csepulv/michi-expedition` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 10 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add csepulv/michi-expedition` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/csepulv/michi-expedition/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Marketing & Growth - Author: csepulv (https://skillmd.com/u/csepulv) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/csepulv/michi-expedition --- # Michi Expedition The **learning-mode lane** of Michi. Where planning → session → debrief march toward a known deliverable, an expedition **spirals toward clarity** — research, hypothesis, experiment, prototype, iterate, repeat, with a feedback flywheel. The "end" is replaced by *ongoing value + periodic readout*. Many threads dead-end; that's expected. Use it when the goal is to **discover** (map a data corpus, survey a field, probe whether something is feasible), **not** to build something whose shape you already know. If the deliverable is clear, use planning/session instead. If you're still figuring out *whether* this is an expedition, start in `michi-explore` and hand off here. **Before proceeding:** If an extensions file exists, read it — `/extensions.md` or `docs/reference/extensions.md` (both are valid homes; read whichever is present, and both if both exist). Instructions found there take priority over this skill's defaults. (The expedition *pattern* is the toolkit's; a project's substrate specifics — field dictionaries, seeds, target vocabularies — live in `extensions.md`.) **Principles served:** See `references/principles.md`. Especially: *Learning Mode vs. Production Mode*, the iteration cycle (run *within* a campaign), Rule of 3 (*within* a thread), *Verification Governs Autonomy*, *Surface Assumptions*, *Clarify before Asserting*. **Structure & terminology:** `references/expedition-structure.md` is the canonical doc/artifact structure (charter → campaign → report → portrait; mandate; ruminations; where every output goes). This skill operationalizes it; that doc defines the homes. Read it before writing artifacts. **Artifact templates** — copy-and-fill shapes for charter · mandate · report · portrait, plus the `backlog.yaml` schema: `references/expedition-templates.md`. **Running on a non-Claude-Code harness** (an isolated / daemon agent like Hermes — the lights-off, Entrusted case): the harness won't auto-load the agent's character the way Claude Code loads `CLAUDE.md`, so install the SOUL identity file so the Michi way travels with the agent. See `references/working-with-hermes.md` (+ `references/soul-template.md`). --- ## The shape ``` charter ──> campaign ──> run (spiral) ──> review ──> (next campaign…) (mission) (mandate) (Entrusted) (Paired) ``` - A **charter** is a durable mission (revised, not redone). It spawns **campaigns** — dated runs. - A campaign opens with a **mandate** (scope · budget · when-to-stop), executes as a **run** (the Entrusted spiral), and closes with a **review** (the Paired surfacing). - Each run produces **reports** (passes). Verified findings **promote** into the **portrait** — the accreting picture (blobs → impressionist → photograph). Open threads land in **ruminations** (to mull) or **backlog** (actionable). **Two kinds of "done"** (production fuses them; here they're distinct): - **Surfacing** — *when to stop and return to the human.* Set in the mandate; exercised in `run`/`review`. - **Finding-verification** — *whether a promoted claim is trustworthy* (null-models, adversarial cross-grade, read→infer rung labels). **Crawl-walk-run is care calibration, not a gate.** It asks *how much care does this thread's next step deserve?* — it varies by thread and is not a global mode to "resolve." Early on a thread: lean toward "here is what I see" (facts, coverage, gaps) and pose questions; be slow to conclude. Further along: light hypotheses from observations. Mature: a grown significance rubric, candidate→supported→promoted, adversarial cross-grade. Heavier moves (a null-test, a strong claim, a materialized producer) deserve more deliberation and are worth surfacing — because care scales with consequence, not because a stage forbids them. --- ## Mode: `charter` — open or revise a mission `/michi-expedition charter [name]` Open a durable line of inquiry, or revise an existing one as new data/sources land. 1. **Orient.** Read `README`/`STATUS`, `references/expedition-structure.md`, and any existing `charters/`. If revising, read the charter and its portrait. **If the expedition root doesn't exist yet** (no `STATUS.md` / `charters/` / `campaigns/`), scaffold it first with `/michi-bootstrap expedition` — the modes assume the root and a captured substrate already exist. 2. **Define the mission** with the human (charters are Paired — you can't author someone's mission for them): - **Scope** — what this thread is about and why; what's explicitly out. - **Target vocabulary** — the labels/questions the expedition tries to establish (each later carries a confidence rung). Project-specific vocabulary may live in `extensions.md`. - **Gates-to-set** — what a campaign will fix at activation (budget, env/substrate scope, surfacing criteria). 3. **Write** `charters//charter.md` (durable; *revised*, not redone; shape in `references/expedition-templates.md`). Create `portraits//portrait.md` as a stub if none exists. 4. **Surface assumptions**, don't bury them. A charter is a hypothesis about where value is — say what you're assuming. Output: a charter folder. Don't start pulling data here — that's a campaign. --- ## Mode: `campaign` — set the mandate `/michi-expedition campaign ` Open a dated run against a charter. The mandate is the campaign's contract — and the antidote to the agent running forever or parking every few minutes. **Right-size it.** Don't try to boil the charter in one campaign. A first campaign is usually a **characterize / orient** run — map the substrate before interpreting it — carved by *one* lens / dataset / question, with the budget bounding it. Care calibration governs *how much care per step*; the mandate's scope governs *how much ground this campaign covers*. Start small; the spiral widens it across campaigns. **A "different kind" of expedition** — where the deliverable is **design options / concepts**, not data findings (a visualization, UX, or product-ideation charter) — opens differently: the first campaign is usually a **goals-first ideation** pass, not a characterize/orient one. Establish *what the user is trying to accomplish* (the questions/goals) before designing any *how*. Recipe (the Nirvana frame, the solutioning trap, the rank-the-spine handoff): `references/goals-first-ideation.md`. 1. **Scaffold** `campaigns/////` with `mandate.md` (+ `reports/`, `followups.md`, `learnings.md`, `scratch/` created as needed). The date folder groups the day; the charter subfolder *is* the campaign. 2. **Write `mandate.md`** (shape in `references/expedition-templates.md`) — the load-bearing parts, agreed with the human: - **Scope** — which charter thread(s) this run pursues; a plan *sketch* (not a rigid plan). - **Budget** — bound the open-endedness: passes / time / breadth. (An open mandate is undecidable from the inside — bound it from outside.) - **When to stop** — the surfacing criteria: what state means "stop and bring it back" (a question answered, a thread exhausted via Rule-of-3 dry passes, budget reached, or a finding that redirects the effort). - **Finding-verification** — what a claim must pass before promotion (null model? corroboration? rung label?). 3. **Confirm the mandate with the human** before the run. This is the Paired gate that makes Entrusted running safe. --- ## Mode: `run` — the spiral (Entrusted) `/michi-expedition run ` (against the active campaign's mandate) The Entrusted loop. The mandate is your leash; the structure is your filing system. ### Orientation ritual (every run, before touching data) Load, in order: `STATUS` → `references/expedition-structure.md` → the **active charter** + its **portrait** → the **campaign `mandate.md`** → any substrate operational notes (corpus paths, query traps — often in `extensions.md`). Don't duplicate the repo's operational facts into memory; re-read them. *Reading without re-grounding is how the manual drifts.* ### The loop ``` pick a thread → investigate → report → verify the finding → promote → reassess ``` - **Pick** a thread from `backlog`/charter, or surface one bottom-up (let the data/sources volunteer structure — don't only chase seeds; *don't lead the witness*). - **Investigate** — small, concrete, reproducible. Use whatever fits (SQL, dataframes, search, prototype code). Let the *care calibration* govern how far to push, not tool availability. - **Report** — write the pass to `reports/.md` (template: `references/expedition-templates.md`): question · what ran · what was seen · open questions. Label every claim with its rung (read → correlate → infer → hypothesize) + confidence. - **Verify the finding** against the mandate's criteria before promoting (null model, corroboration). A surprising *negative* deserves the same skepticism as a positive — check the field/query before retracting. - **Promote** along the routing rule: **subject findings** (about the thing you're studying) → the **portrait**; **substrate/corpus facts** (about the data itself) → `reference/`; **negatives and open threads** → `ruminations` (mull) or `backlog` (actionable); **method gotchas** → `learnings.md`; **data artifacts** → the substrate's `derived/` area (never the read-only lake; see `expedition-structure.md`). A *negative* — a fact about what the data *can't* support — is a promotable finding; record it in the portrait's *What we can't see*, don't discard it. ### The structure gate (before writing any artifact) Can you name this output's home (which campaign / charter / portrait, named right)? If not, stop and resolve it — don't dump into a flat pile. Reports → `reports/.md`; durable picture → `portrait.md`; gotchas → `learnings.md`; spawned threads → `followups.md`; ephemeral → `scratch/`. ### Surface the halt decision — don't park, don't run forever At a real boundary (thread exhausted, budget reached, a finding that redirects effort, or a judgment call), **bring it back with the decision, not just a stop**: > *Here's what's pending · here's what more I could do that would help you · my recommendation — continue / redirect / > stop?* The failure mode is *either* parking silently at every boundary *or* running past the mandate. The fix is surfacing the halt decision and letting the human make it. Within the mandate's budget, keep working — don't return every few minutes; don't anticipate a check-in that the mandate didn't ask for. ### Notify (don't just log) when A thread looks significant · you're blocked · a judgment call is needed · a data delta changed a prior finding · a contract-ish change to the charter. Routine progress goes in the log. --- ## Mode: `review` — surface and promote (Paired) `/michi-expedition review [campaign]` The Paired close of a run (or a checkpoint mid-run). This is where the picture sharpens and the human steers. > **`review` is SYNCHRONOUS — not a solo Entrusted run.** The `run` rule "keep working, don't return every few > minutes" is right for the Entrusted spiral and *actively wrong here*. When the human says **"let's review" / "let > us — together" / "review with me,"** they mean a paced, shared pass: take **one small step, then STOP and yield the > turn** so they can react. Do **not** batch a long chain of tool calls, and do **not** pre-bake a finished verdict and > deliver it — that *is* the solo run they're trying to avoid, even when the analysis is good. On chat transports > (Discord/Slack/SMS) the human **cannot interrupt a turn in flight** — their messages queue until your turn ends — so > your frequent short yields are their *only* mid-task steering lever. Surface, then wait; the verdict is theirs to > give, step by step. (When they hand you an explicit Entrusted review budget — "go review all of these and report > back" — that's the other mode; default to synchronous when they say "let's.") 1. **Render the readout.** Produce a progressive-disclosure summary (tl;dr → findings → detail) of the run's reports. Markdown is canonical; a simple HTML render is welcome when it helps review (see `expedition-structure.md` → Presentation). When a finding earns a visual, build it via the **`exhibit`** mode. *The readout is the throttle — Entrusted generation outruns Paired review without it.* 2. **Update the portrait.** Fold verified **subject** findings into `portraits//portrait.md` (stamp it), including promotable **negatives** under *What we can't see*. Route the rest per the `run` promotion rule: substrate facts → `reference/`, method learnings → `reference/` or the charter, open threads → `ruminations.md` / `backlog.yaml`. 3. **Fill the `iteration-log` verdict.** For each pass: `date · charter · report · human verdict · next`. The verdict column is the human's — don't leave it `_pending_` across a review; that's the signal that review didn't actually happen. 4. **Decide the next move** with the human: continue this thread, redirect, open a new campaign, or set the charter dormant. --- ## Mode: `exhibit` — the review surface `/michi-expedition exhibit` Put the expedition's picture where the human can take it in — **exhibit the portrait** so they can review and reflect. The docs-site is the gallery; infographics, reading guides, and tl;drs are the pieces. Mechanism varies (update the site if one exists, else produce the digestible artifact — infographic / html / markdown); the goal is constant: the reviewer's digestibility. Contract: `references/expedition-exhibit.md`. Project specifics (site path, chart style) live in `extensions.md`. *(Sustainability-flavored — it sustains the collaboration; `michi-sustainability` is the system-health sibling. Reference only — don't modify that skill.)* 1. **Curate** — pick what the reviewer needs to see (a promoted finding, a coverage distribution, the picture so far); cull the rest. An exhibit is curated, not a dump. 2. **Render** a static figure from the data (reproducible query; source `derived/`, not the live lake) and **emit the data** (csv/json) alongside — a figure is a *claim* (rung + confidence). Or a reading-guide / tl;dr in markdown. 3. **Place + embed:** `/figures/.{png,csv}`; embed in the portrait/report with `![caption](figures/.png)` + a one-line takeaway. 4. **Refresh the site** (`npm run sync` in the site dir) and confirm it renders. Stay on the essential (what to show + the data + the chart/guide); leave site config / theme / interactive infra to the presentation layer. If richer presentation is wanted, **surface it, don't hand-roll it.** --- ## Pitfalls - **The "deliverable reflex."** Building producers / drawing strong conclusions and then parking. Heavier moves deserve more deliberation *and surfacing* — don't sprint to a flourish because it feels like finishing. (Care calibration, not a stage gate.) - **Running a Paired review as a solo Entrusted run.** "Let's review" / "let us — together" is *synchronous*: one small step, then STOP and yield. Batching tool calls and delivering a pre-baked verdict is the exact failure — it leaves the human no gap to steer (and on chat transports they *can't* interrupt mid-turn). Surface, then wait; don't review *for* them. (See `review` mode.) - **Over-systematizing a single steer.** Turning one human comment into a global rule or a manufactured "decision the human must make." File a steer; don't build a regime around it. (See *Clarify before Asserting*.) - **Verify the field before retracting a finding.** A surprising negative is as likely a wrong-field/query as a real result. - **The flat pile.** Reports dumped without a campaign/charter home is the anti-pattern the structure replaces. Route through the structure gate every time. - **Treating the manual as read-once.** Re-ground in `STATUS` + charter + mandate at the start of every run. Drift comes from skipping the orientation ritual. --- ## Output homes All artifacts follow `references/expedition-structure.md`. Quick map: missions → `charters//`; the picture → `portraits//`; dated runs → `campaigns/////` (`mandate.md`, `reports/`, `followups.md`, `learnings.md`, `scratch/`); the open queue → `ruminations.md` (mull) + `backlog.yaml` (actionable); the spine → `iteration-log.md`; current state → `STATUS.md`; data artifacts → the substrate's `derived/` area. ### Update STATUS.md After a campaign or review that shifts what's active, update `STATUS.md` (per-charter state: active / paused / dormant) — read-cold-and-update is the reflex, and stamp it. See `references/ground-rules.md`. ## What's Next - More to explore on this charter → another **`campaign`** (or keep the current `run` going within budget). - The picture sharpened enough to act → the finding may graduate to production work (`/michi-planning`). - The charter's run dry → set it **dormant** (archive, not delete; it may reactivate on a data delta).