donald-ada The Genius Map
The map answers three questions: where every piece of work stands, what runs next, and which genius went missing when something feels wrong. It routes; it never builds.
The flow
Every piece of work travels through six geniuses, in three pairs:
| Stage | Genius | Command | Skipping it looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ideation | Wonder — question the work | /wonder |
building exactly the wrong thing |
| Invention — generate options | /invent |
anchoring on the first idea | |
| Activation | Discernment — judge and choose | /discern |
plausible-but-wrong ships |
| Galvanizing — mobilize into slices | /galvanize |
a plan nobody can start | |
| Implementation | Enablement — build with tight loops | /enable |
flying blind until a big-bang reveal |
| Tenacity — finish with evidence | /tenacity |
"done" that isn't |
State lives in .genius/<slug>/<slug>.md — the bounded snapshot a cold session reads whole — with its history in <slug>.log.md and what binds the unbuilt slices in CONTRACT.md, beside it (the genius-file skill owns the discipline). Each stage ends when its one threshold is honestly true; each is a command the user types, and one they don't type simply doesn't run — its absent section is the record. Four layers run underneath: the domain-glossary skill keeps the shared language in CONTEXT.md, the decision-record skill keeps the index of settled decisions in .genius/DECIDED.md, the blindspot skill hunts the unknowns the stages can't reach, and the errata skill corrects what any of them got wrong.
What to do when invoked
The counts first, taken as this command was invoked. On Claude Code the block below is replaced by the instrument's output before you read it; where a policy notice shows instead (shell injection disabled), run it before saying a number, because a number said without one is a guess:
python3 ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../genius-file/measure.py status
Those are the counts; what this command adds is the reading — which stage, what is unfinished, what went stale — never the arithmetic.
No argument → status, from the in-flight work files only: each one's stage, what's unfinished, which stages never ran, and the exact next command; flag work untouched for weeks as stale and offer to resume or abandon. For calibration read .genius/HISTORY.md, one line per finished work, instead of opening every done snapshot: a genius repeatedly weakest there is calibration, so say so when routing new work. And light up the backlog: .genius/BACKLOG.md's lines are work the flow already discovered and nobody started — show them every time, because an idea the user must remember to ask about is one the flow already lost once. Say how many have grown past a seed's character bound (counted above) and name /triage as what puts the questions to these lines; whether a work already answered a seed is a ruling, not a count, so it is not done here. Nothing in flight, no history, no backlog? Show the flow and how to start.
An idea → start it: create the work file (genius-file skill) and open the Wonder interview. An idea that arrives as a tracker issue is read first, and the work file records which issue it answers; one taken from .genius/BACKLOG.md removes its line. Dropping a stage is the user's call, made by not typing it — never a package you propose. And stages trade; depth doesn't: a stage worth running is worth running at full depth, because a skimmed stage pays the ceremony and buys nothing. Reaching the next command is not progress — meeting this one's threshold is.
A work slug → deep status on that one: where it stands, anything smelly, the next command.
When work feels wrong
The skipped or rushed genius is the usual cause — match the symptom: built the wrong thing → Wonder; the design fights the codebase → Invention or Discernment; the same decision keeps getting re-litigated → kill-reasons never recorded; sessions stall with nobody sure what's next → slices not grabbable; huge untested diff → Enablement; "done" three times → Tenacity; session after session builds on something the repo stopped doing → the binding docs drifted, /reconcile; the backlog has grown past reading and the same idea appears twice → /triage. Repair the most upstream gap first — downstream inherits its fix. Not everything starts at Wonder: an agreed design starts at /galvanize (earlier sections backfilled, marked so); an imported plan gets /discern's attack before it gets slices; a bug gets the diagnose skill's loop. And not everything ends at slices: small work built directly after Wonder is built by /enable <slug> with no Slices section — the same loop, aimed at the Problem's success criteria — and still closes at /tenacity.