Init

init — initialize harness-agnostic agent config

Analyze this codebase and initialize its agent configuration so it works across every major agent harness (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, GitHub Copilot CLI), not just the one you happen to be running in.

Registering ACED as an SDD plugin is the ACED registry skill's job; authoring or evaluating a skill is ACED's domain; publishing or upgrading a cross-vendor plugin is publish-universal-plugin / upgrade-universal-plugin. This skill only suggests those — it does not perform them.

1. Author AGENTS.md

Analyze the codebase and create or improve AGENTS.md, grounded in real project files.

Prefix a new file with:

# AGENTS.md

This file provides guidance to AI coding assistants when working with code in this repository.

Then add sections only when grounded in existing project files:

• Discipline sections (e.g. ## Commit Discipline) — dense normative rules in the body, ### References at the section bottom for helper skills and governance show pointers.
• Commands (build, lint, test), an architecture overview, and project-specific notes — only when they appear in real files.

Usage rules:

• If AGENTS.md already exists, compare each section you would add against what is there. When content substantively differs (not just missing), ask the user before changing that section — never overwrite silently.
• If sections are missing entirely, add them without asking.
• Do not invent sections like "Common Development Tasks" or "Tips for Development" unless that content appears in existing project files. Avoid listing every file/component that is easily discovered.
• If Cursor rules (.cursor/rules/, .cursorrules) or Copilot rules (.github/copilot-instructions.md) exist, fold the important parts in.

2. Wire the per-harness config

Offload the cross-vendor wiring to the universal-plugin CLI rather than writing each harness's files by hand — it is faster and spends fewer tokens.

1. Resolve an exact version: npm view universal-plugin version (never @latest, never a literal placeholder).
2. Run npx universal-plugin@0.2.2 sync to generate the per-harness config (Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, Copilot) from AGENTS.md and the shared source.

If the user declines running npx: do not silently skip the wiring — route to the separate direct-write skill (the manual fallback that writes each vendor's files itself).

3. Point CLAUDE.md at AGENTS.md

• If CLAUDE.md is a regular file, merge it into AGENTS.md first, then symlink CLAUDE.md → AGENTS.md.
• If CLAUDE.md is absent, symlink CLAUDE.md → AGENTS.md directly (nothing to merge).
• If CLAUDE.md is already a correct symlink to AGENTS.md, leave it unchanged (idempotent no-op).

4. Repair repo-private skills

Repair repo-private skills through the aced manage gateway's repair-private-skills engine — do not read each SKILL.md under .agents/skills/ by hand.

Load manage and route to repair-private-skills, or run its engine directly:

node "<aced repair-private-skills dir>/scripts/repair-private-skills.mts" --root . repair

Use validate in place of repair to check without writing. It sets metadata: internal: true on repo-private skills and removes erroneous symlinks into skills/.

5. Surface companion init skills

Discover companion init-* skills (e.g. init-commit-discipline, the ACED registry skill). List each with a one-line summary from its description and ask whether to run any — never run them silently.

6. Suggest SDD, then ACED (gated)

After the core setup, suggest the higher-level workflow setup, honoring what the project has already declined.

Recall prior declines first. Where the harness has a memory facility, recall whether this project previously declined the SDD suggestion and whether it declined the ACED suggestion — independently. Where the harness has no memory facility, do not assume a prior decline: ask.

• SDD — if SDD is not set up and the project has not previously declined it, suggest setting it up.
• ACED — ACED is an SDD plugin, so only suggest registering it once SDD is present (or the user accepts setting it up). When SDD is present, the project has not declined ACED, and ACED is not already registered, suggest registering ACED by chaining aced/init-aced. Do not suggest ACED when SDD is absent and unaccepted, when ACED was previously declined, or when ACED is already registered.

Record the user's decision so a later run does not re-nag: where the harness supports memory, remember a declined SDD offer and a declined ACED offer separately; where it does not, simply ask again next time.

Report

State what was written or changed in AGENTS.md, how the per-harness config was wired (CLI or direct-write fallback), the CLAUDE.md outcome, what repo-private repair did, which companion skills were offered, and which setup suggestions were made or skipped.