Canopy Prompt Workflow

canopy-prompt-workflow

Use this skill when you are an agent working inside the canopy repo and you need to compose a new prompt by inheritance, then emit the rendered result to disk. It encodes the canonical prompt-authoring loop documented in SPEC.md so an agent can do it from a cold start without re-reading the full design record.

Pre-flight

The repo must already be initialised. Verify:

ls .canopy/                       # config.yaml + prompts.jsonl + schemas.jsonl
bunx cn doctor                    # exits 0 when the store is healthy

If .canopy/ is missing, run bunx cn init first. If cn doctor reports problems, fix them (or escalate) before continuing — never hand-edit .canopy/prompts.jsonl to "fix" things; use cn commands so locks + atomic writes are honoured.

Procedure

1. Decide the prompt's shape

A canopy prompt is a JSONL record with named sections. Before touching the CLI, write down:

• The prompt's stable name (kebab-case, must be unique in the store).
• Its parent (the extends: target), if it inherits. Pick the most specific base whose sections you want to inherit.
• The minimum set of sections (name, body, optional required) the new prompt adds or overrides. Inheriting sections is preferred over duplicating them — that is the whole point of canopy.
• The schema it should validate against, if any (see .canopy/schemas.jsonl).

2. Inspect existing prompts

bun run src/index.ts list                   # lists all prompts
bun run src/index.ts show <parent-name>     # see the parent's sections
bun run src/index.ts tree <parent-name>     # full inheritance tree

If a sibling prompt already does most of what you want, extend it instead of forking — every duplicated section is one more place a future edit will drift.

3. Create or update the prompt

To create a new prompt by inheritance:

bun run src/index.ts create \
  --name <prompt-name> \
  --extends <parent-name> \
  --section role:"You are ..." \
  --section constraints:"- Never push to canonical branch"

To update an existing prompt (appends a new version; never overwrites):

bun run src/index.ts update <prompt-name> \
  --section quality-gates:"Run bun test, bun run lint, bun run typecheck before closing."

cn create and cn update both append to .canopy/prompts.jsonl through src/store.ts (advisory file lock + atomic write). Two agents in different worktrees can run them concurrently.

4. Render and validate

Before emitting, confirm the rendered prompt resolves cleanly:

bun run src/index.ts render <prompt-name>             # human-readable
bun run src/index.ts render <prompt-name> --json      # for inspection
bun run src/index.ts validate <prompt-name>           # against its schema

cn render resolves the inheritance chain (last-write wins per section name) and prints the merged record. cn validate reports any missing required sections or rule-pattern violations.

5. Emit to disk

bun run src/index.ts emit <prompt-name>               # one prompt
bun run src/index.ts emit --all                       # everything

cn emit resolves each prompt's target directory in this order:

1. Per-prompt emitDir override (if set in frontmatter).
2. First target in .canopy/config.yaml whose tags: match one of the prompt's tags.
3. The target marked default: true in .canopy/config.yaml.
4. Fallback to agents/.

By default canopy emits .md; if the resolved target's emitAs ends in .ts, the prompt is rendered as a TypeScript string export instead. Do not manually edit emitted files — they are the projection of the JSONL store and will be overwritten on the next cn emit.

6. Stage and commit

bun run src/index.ts sync                             # stages .canopy/ + emitted files
git diff --cached                                     # review the additions
git commit -m "prompts: add <prompt-name> (extends <parent-name>)"

cn sync is preferred over git add .canopy/ because it also stages the configured emit-target directories so the JSONL truth and the rendered files stay in lockstep.

Acceptance

The skill is complete when all of the following hold:

• bun run src/index.ts list shows <prompt-name>.
• bun run src/index.ts render <prompt-name> exits 0 and prints the merged sections.
• bun run src/index.ts validate <prompt-name> exits 0.
• The rendered .md (or .ts) appears under the resolved target directory.
• git status is clean after git commit lands.
• bun run check:agents and bun run gen:docs:check still exit 0.

Failure modes

Further reading

• SPEC.md — canopy's V1 design record (sections, inheritance, storage, lifecycle).
• README.md — user-facing pitch and command examples.
• docs/cli-reference.md — auto-generated reference for every cn subcommand.
• docs/architecture.mmd — flowchart of the prompt-resolution path.
• AGENTS.md — repo-wide conventions and quality gates.