Squid Scaffold

Scaffold

Interactive bootstrap for a new repo (or a new component in an existing one): read only the specs under specs/ that apply, distil them into a tailored AGENTS.md, lay down an empty skeleton, hand back.

Modes

$ARGUMENTS may lead with mode=create (default) or mode=evaluate:

• mode=create (default) — bootstrap a repo / component. The flow in "## Flow" below.
• mode=evaluate — audit an existing scaffolded repo for drift (report-only). For mode=evaluate, read evaluate.md and follow E1–E4 instead of the Flow.

Every rule both modes honour lives in rules.md — the single source of truth; mode=create follows every P# + I# while composing, mode=evaluate audits the I#. Do not restate any rule in this file.

When to use

• Bootstrapping a brand-new repo.
• Adding a new runtime component (backend / frontend-web / frontend-tui) to an existing scaffolded repo.
• Re-generating the root AGENTS.md after a major stack change (e.g. swapping Vue for React).

When NOT to use

• Authoring application source or business logic (P1).
• Adjusting opinions inside an existing project — edit the generated AGENTS.md directly.
• Non-polyglot single-package projects where the full machinery is overkill. (You can still use a single spec as reference, but skip the scaffold flow.)

Flow

1. Gather requirements

Use AskUserQuestion to collect answers. Consolidate where possible — one or two prompts, not a twelve-step interview. Minimum set:

1. Project identity — name, short description, license (MIT / Apache-2.0 / proprietary). Name becomes the repo / root AGENTS.md title; slug is derived.
2. Layout — monorepo (packages/<c>/ tree) or standalone single-package?
3. Components (multi-select; at least one required):
   • backend — Python service / pipeline / library
   • frontend-web — TypeScript browser SPA
   • frontend-tui — Go terminal UI
4. Backend variant (if backend chosen): fastapi-service / fastmcp-server / cli-tool-python / library-only.
5. Frontend-web framework (if frontend-web chosen): react / vue / svelte / vanilla.
6. Frontend-tui framework (if frontend-tui chosen): bubbletea (default) / tview.
7. Shared OpenAPI contracts (only if backend + ≥1 frontend): yes / no.
8. Infra (multi-select): docker, github-actions, pre-commit-hooks.
9. Agent team + tracker? yes (recommended) / no. Also: file-based tracker or GitHub Issues?
10. Process & documentation (multi-select, optional): adr (Architecture Decision Records under docs/adr/), ubiquitous-language (project glossary at docs/glossary.md). Recommend adr for any project expected to live > 6 months; recommend ubiquitous-language for backend services with named domain entities.
11. External services (optional, multi-select — skip any category that doesn't apply). Each selection pulls a specs/<category>-<choice>.md stub and emits a one-line bullet into the generated AGENTS.md, wrapped per I9:

• Datastore: mongodb / postgresql / redis / sqlite / other / none
• Orchestrator: prefect / dagster / temporal / other / none
• Observability & evals: opik / opentelemetry / sentry / other / none
• LLM API: anthropic / openai / gemini / other / none
• Embedding API: voyageai / openai / sentence-transformers / other / none
• Model serving: modal / replicate / other / none
• Web scraping: firecrawl / playwright / requests-bs4 / other / none

Ask this as ONE consolidated question: "Which external services will you use? (deselect anything you don't need)." none skips the category entirely — no stub read, no bullet emitted. other keeps an AGENT: fill in placeholder so the SWE can document the real choice on first use.

12. Reference docs (llms.txt) — which tools / frameworks / services publish an llms.txt, and each one's index URL (e.g. Pydantic AI → https://pydantic.dev/docs/ai/llms.txt)? Governed by P5; fully skippable.

Before proceeding to step 2, echo the picked configuration back to the user in a two-line summary and confirm.

2. Select specs

Always include:

• monorepo-layout.md — unless the user chose standalone single-package.
• makefile-delegator.md — unless standalone.

Conditionally include (from answers):

Skip any row where the user picked none / other. Read each selected spec end-to-end.

3. Compose AGENTS.md

Write the project's root memory file from the canonical template in AGENTS_TEMPLATE.md (the template body and section structure). Compose it following the I# artifact invariants in rules.md. Read both end-to-end, then emit a tailored AGENTS.md at the target project root (or wherever /squid-scaffold was invoked).

Optional — compress with caveman. If the caveman plugin is installed, offer to run /caveman-compress AGENTS.md on the composed file (ask first — the result is terser to hand-edit). Skip silently when caveman isn't installed.

4. Create the folder skeleton

Create these files / directories, empty or with minimal placeholders (P1).

Always:

• AGENTS.md — from step 3.
• CLAUDE.md — relative symlink to AGENTS.md (I4).
• .agents/skills/ (seeded with .gitkeep) and .claude/skills — relative symlink to it (I12).
• README.md — one-paragraph project-facing intro pointing at AGENTS.md.
• .gitignore — language-appropriate (.venv/, node_modules/, dist/, bin/, .DS_Store, .env). Do not ignore .claude/skills or .agents/ — the symlink and its target are committed.
• .env.example — cross-cutting placeholder keys (one commented sample var).

If monorepo:

• Root Makefile and per-component packages/<c>/Makefile — generate from makefile-delegator.md for the chosen components (I10). Write a working first-pass Makefile, not AGENT: fill in stubs: the verbs are mechanical, the tooling is standard per language, and make install && make test must work on the fresh scaffold. Real-code placeholders still apply to src/, not to the Makefile.

• Each packages/<c>/ also gets:

  • AGENTS.md — one-paragraph component brief + "see root AGENTS.md for conventions"; plus a CLAUDE.md symlink to it (I4).
  • .env.example — component-local placeholder.
  • No source files (P1).

• If shared OpenAPI chosen: packages/shared/openapi/api.yaml with a minimal /health endpoint seed.

If docker chosen:

• docker-compose.yml — one service block per runtime component with AGENT: fill in placeholders for image / ports / healthcheck.
• Component-level Dockerfile stub with AGENT: fill in multi-stage build.

If github-actions chosen:

• .github/workflows/ci.yml — umbrella workflow with dorny/paths-filter routing.
• .github/workflows/ci-<c>.yml — one reusable workflow stub per component.
• .github/dependabot.yml — one ecosystem per component.

If agent team + tracker chosen:

• tasks/README.md describing the model in tracker-workflow.md.

If adr chosen (Process & documentation):

• docs/adr/0001-record-architecture-decisions.md — drop the canonical ADR-0001 boilerplate verbatim from adr.md's Bootstrap section, with {YYYY-MM-DD} replaced by today's date. This is the only ADR scaffold writes — subsequent ADRs are authored by the PA during /squid-plan grooming as decisions arise. Do not emit a docs/adr/.gitkeep (ADR-0001 already keeps the directory non-empty).

If ubiquitous-language chosen (Process & documentation):

• docs/glossary.md — this seed, verbatim. Do not invent domain terms — the SWE / PA populate it as the first feature lands.

  # Glossary
  
  The canonical vocabulary for {project name}. When code, docs, specs, or conversation use a domain concept, use the term as it appears here. PRs that introduce or rename a domain concept update this file in the same change.
  
  | Term | Definition | Notes |
  |---|---|---|
  <!-- | **OrderLine** | One line item within an Order, identified by `order_line_id`. | Distinct from "Item" (the catalogue entry). | -->
  

5. Report back

Summarise for the user:

• File tree created (full list, relative paths).
• Which specs informed the AGENTS.md (named).
• Exact next step — e.g. /squid-implement-task "bootstrap packages/backend with a minimal FastAPI app and a /health endpoint". The SWE agent will read AGENTS.md and the spec references, and write the first real code.