Brutal Wayfinder

Brutal Wayfinder

Persist a resumable map of questions until the route to a decision-complete specification is clear. Produce planning decisions, not destination implementation.

Required Context

1. Read ../brutal-shared/integration-resolver.md, resolve the work store, and load its support module.
2. Read ../brutal-grill/SKILL.md.
3. Read repository instructions, domain context, ADRs, and existing map state.
4. Use type:investigation for every map and investigation ticket. These artifacts never enter the implementation task queue.

Map Contract

Use Source: brutal-wayfinder. A map contains:

## Destination
## Notes
## Decisions So Far
## Not Yet Specified
## Out Of Scope

The destination states what must exist when wayfinding ends. Decisions So Far is an index of resolved ticket names and one-line outcomes, not a duplicate of their full resolutions. Not Yet Specified holds in-scope fog that cannot yet be phrased as a precise question.

Each child ticket contains its parent, one precise Question, blockers, claim, status, and one mode:

• research — agent-only primary-source investigation
• prototype — human-in-the-loop artifact for behavior or design feedback
• grilling — human-in-the-loop decision using brutal-grill
• task — prerequisite work needed to expose facts for a later decision

A prerequisite task must unblock a planning decision; destination implementation belongs in the later Brutal plan.

Chart A Map

1. Use brutal-grill to name and confirm the destination.
2. Map breadth-first: group questions that must be researched or decided together into one coherent investigation scope. Create separate tickets only for different blockers, modes, owners, or independently useful decisions; record the remaining fog without prematurely slicing it.
3. If no fog remains and the decisions fit the current planning conversation, return to brutal-plan without creating a map.
4. Present the destination and a one-line list of initial scopes, blockers, and fog. Publish only after explicit approval; show full ticket bodies only when requested.
5. Create the map first, then child tickets, then native relationships where supported. Mirror parent and blocker references in every ticket body.

Persist the map and children through the resolved work-store contract. Use the local adapter's investigation paths or remote parent/child artifacts, logical queue states, and prepare-before-create strategy. Never create local work-store artifacts for a remote adapter.

Work A Map

1. Load the map as the low-resolution index and query open children.
2. Identify the frontier: open, unblocked, unclaimed tickets.
3. Ask whether this run should resolve one frontier question or continue through ready agent-only questions.
4. Claim a ticket before work. In continuous mode, pause before any human-in-the-loop ticket.
5. Record the full resolution on the ticket, mark it done, and append its linked one-line outcome to Decisions So Far.
6. Add newly visible questions, graduate sharpened fog into tickets, and move newly excluded work to Out Of Scope.

Use adapter assignment, states, comments, parents, and blockers; preserve the same information in bodies when the provider has no native representation.

Complete the map only when no open ticket or fog remains. Mark the parent done and hand its reference to brutal-plan, which consumes the decisions, proposes any domain-document changes, and links the map from the final specification.

On rerun, deduplicate by Source, parent reference, and exact ticket title. Report partial publication or update failures precisely so the next run can resume rather than duplicate artifacts.