Workflow

Mandatory pre-flight. Response Filter

Every craft output in this plugin runs the applicable section of response-filter before emission, the gate that activates the discipline. When this skill coaches or produces material directly, run §4 Coaching posture (and the output-type section for anything emitted). NAME each box's pass / fail / skip-with-reason (aloud or in reasoning); correct before emission. Skips are valid; silent skips are not.

When an action here emits a lyric line, most often fragment, the output-type section is §2. §2's Reference: line is a load list, not a bibliography: §2 has not been run until the files it names have been read this session, at minimum meter and phrasing before the first candidate, plus metaphor when the fragment needs an image or a figure. Naming the §2 boxes while those files were never opened attests to the filter instead of applying it, per response-filter "§2 Line-writing filter". A Load cell in the Action Router below is a routing hint; this is a precondition of emission. §2's boxes are then cycled inside line-edit-rubric, the full cycle per candidate before it is shown. Line emission belongs to /songwriting:co-write, and its input gate travels with the lines: route there, or check the same gate here. Do not emit lines on the strength of having named §2. (Plugin-authored, not Pat Pattison's.)

Purpose

The orchestrator and front door. Turn a situation ("I have half a song", "blank page", "co-write tonight") into the right scenario and the right craft skill, and run guided step-by-step dialog when the writer wants to be walked through it. When the user names a craft term (rhyme, meter, form, image), route straight to that concern skill.

Method content is Pat Pattison's, under the plugin-root ../../context/pat-pattison/; a future author's method plugs in at context/<author>/ without changing this skill, the author seam per the plugin-root ../../README.md "Method content and the author seam".

Concern skills. Route craft-term requests here

Action Router

/songwriting:workflow <action> [args]. Parse $ARGUMENTS: first token = action when it matches a listed action, remainder = args; otherwise treat all of $ARGUMENTS as payload for the default. No action → route on conversation context (pick the scenario the situation describes).

Full scenario + craft-term routing tables and the Quick Decision Guide (35+ user-question → route mappings across all skills) live in action-routing. Load it when routing is ambiguous or when surfacing the menu.

Songwriter Workflow Scenarios

11 scenarios via workflow (chains in workflows):

1. Brand new song from scratch
2. Existing song revision
3. Writing from a title
4. Writing to an existing melody
5. Co-write session start
6. Diagnose without rewrite
7. Build a daily practice habit
8. Pure brainstorm (no seed yet)
9. Idea / seed but no title
10. Fragment in hand
11. Demo at any stage

Each scenario lists which context files to load in what order and which concern skill owns the deep dive. Every scenario routes through response-filter at emission time.

Handlers

• If the user describes a SITUATION (not a craft term), route via workflow to the matching scenario, then hand the deep dive to the concern skill that owns it.
• If the user names a CRAFT TERM, route straight to the concern skill (table above). Do not re-explain here.
• If the user wants step-by-step guidance, run coach: ask ONE question, wait, apply Pat's tool, surface the next choice point. Never list-and-leave; never monologue 14 steps.
• If the user gives a draft, that is diagnosis. Invoke /songwriting:diagnose via the Skill tool (demo for any stage, diagnose for near-complete).
• If the user pastes an incomplete fragment / idea / half-song, route to fragment or idea here.
• If a session is heading toward line emission and no writer voiceprint exists, building one is the first step, not a polish step. See voiceprint.
• When this skill emits or coaches on candidate LINES directly (rather than routing), show them as full section blocks in context. Changed lines marked ►, one labeled block per variation, 3-4 per chat menu, deeper analysis in the song's variations/ file. See variations "Presenting the candidates — chat vs file".
• Coaching stops generating when execution keeps missing: after the writer rejects the EXECUTION in one slot twice, hand the concept back instead of a third batch (/songwriting:co-write Handlers specifies what that handoff contains). Two misses in the same slot say the brief is wrong, not that the next batch will land.

Persistence and template overrides

Write generated files to the paths in artifact-persistence "Where generated work persists", and honor a consuming project's own songwriting layout when it defines one. Before loading any bundled templates/<name>.md, check ${CLAUDE_PROJECT_DIR}/songwriting/templates/pat-pattison/<name>.md first: a project-level override wins over the bundled skill default, first match, per that file's "Template override".

What this plugin does not do

Pat's books cover lyric craft and structure. This plugin does not handle melody writing, chords, arrangement, production/mixing, vocal coaching, or music business. For Suno prompt formatting use /songwriting:suno, a separate capability that formats a finished lyric; it does not load these skills, and these skills do not import from it.