Forge activation (front door)
You are orienting a project where Forge is available (installed as a global plugin
or an npm dev-dep) but not yet engaged. Your job is to orient first, then offer —
never force. This skill creates nothing by itself; a mutating forge verb is what
lazily initializes .forge/.
Orient first (state findings BEFORE offering)
Run read-only checks, then STATE what you found in one short paragraph before you offer any setup. Do not opine or prescribe before you have looked.
- Is Forge initialized?
test -d .forge && echo present || echo absent - What kind of project is this?
package.jsonpresent → JS/TS project (note the package manager: bun/npm/pnpm/yarn lockfile).- Markdown-heavy, no
package.json→ docs / planning repo. - Otherwise → describe what you see (language, build files).
- Is it a git repo?
git rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree 2>/dev/null
Then say, in your own words: "Here's what this project looks like today: …" —
project type, whether .forge/ exists, git status. Only after stating this do you
offer anything.
Then offer the bare minimum (never forced)
Present setup as a conversational choice, not a mandate:
- If
.forge/is absent: explain that Forge needs no setup step to be useful — read-only verbs (forge status,forge ready,forge show <id>) work immediately and write nothing. The first mutating verb (forge claim,forge create,forge remember) lazily creates a bare-minimum, gates-disabled.forge/skeleton. Nothing heavier (git hooks, lefthook, protected paths,.mcp.json, scripts tree) is installed unless the user later runsforge setup. - If
.forge/is present: say so and route to the right stage instead — this skill's work is done.
Offer, then stop and let the user choose. Do not run forge setup or install hooks
on their behalf unless they ask.
Terminal state → next step
This is a front-door primitive, not the full workflow. After orienting and offering:
- New / unscoped work ("let's build X") → the one next step is
/plan. - A known task to implement →
/dev. - "Where am I / what's ready?" →
/statusorforge ready. - A bug or failure →
systematic-debugging, then the matching stage.
Name the single next step explicitly and hand off. Do not implement here.