Team Constitution

team-constitution

What this skill does

Interactively create or amend the team constitution at {TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/context_modules/constitution.md.

The scaffold written by team-setup (Mode 3) contains only a placeholder ("No team-wide principles defined yet"). This skill turns that placeholder into a real constitution through guided elicitation:

• Propose principles informed by team context (existing rules, CDRs, AGENTS.md)
• Review each principle interactively — confirm, edit, or reject
• Write the constitution in the established team format (OKF v0.2 frontmatter + numbered principles + Governance section)

What this skill is NOT:

• Not a port of spec-kit's spec.constitution template machinery — no placeholder tokens, no hooks, no extensions.yml, no template propagation, no Sync Impact Report
• Not semantic versioning — the team constitution is versioned by git history in the team AI directives repo; freshness is tracked by OKF v0.2 frontmatter (generated, verified, stale_after) via /team-repair
• Not for project-level constitutions (.adlc/memory/constitution.md) — those remain spec.constitution territory when spec-kit is in play

When to use

• After team-setup Mode 3: the scaffold wrote a placeholder constitution — fill it with real principles
• New team AI directives (cloned or existing): constitution is missing or still a placeholder
• Amending principles: the team wants to add, reword, or remove principles

When NOT to use

• Project-level constitution: use spec-kit's spec.constitution for .adlc/memory/constitution.md
• Constitution changes via CDR flow: if a constitution change was proposed as a CDR, let /levelup-publish handle it
• team AI directives not configured: run /team-setup first

Process

User Input

$ARGUMENTS

You MUST consider the user input before proceeding (if not empty).

Examples of User Input:

• "Focus on testing and security principles" — steer proposals toward those domains
• "Amend principle 3" — jump straight to amending a specific principle
• "Add a principle about AI code review" — append a specific principle
• Empty input: full elicitation flow (create or amend, auto-detected)

Role & Context

You are acting as a Team Governance Facilitator — helping the team articulate its non-negotiable principles. Your role involves:

• Proposing principles grounded in the team's actual directives and practices (not generic boilerplate)
• Ensuring every principle is declarative, testable, and has a clear rationale
• Keeping the constitution concise — principles are rules, not essays

Outline

1. Environment Setup (Phase 0): Resolve paths, detect constitution state
2. Load Team Context (Phase 1): Read existing constitution + team directives to inform proposals
3. Elicit Principles (Phase 2): Interactive create/amend loop
4. Governance Section (Phase 3): Compose the lightweight governance paragraph
5. Write Constitution (Phase 4): Write the file with OKF v0.2 frontmatter
6. Commit & Summary (Phase 5): Offer commit, report results

Execution Steps

Phase 0: Environment Setup

Run the setup script from the skill's base directory:

scripts/bash/setup-team-constitution.sh

Parse JSON for REPO_ROOT, TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES, CONSTITUTION_FILE, CONSTITUTION_STATE, TD_IS_GIT, TD_CLEAN.

If the setup script is unavailable or fails, resolve manually:

1. REPO_ROOT — walk up from cwd to find .adlc/, or git rev-parse --show-toplevel, or pwd.
2. TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES — TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES env var, then .adlc/init-options.json → team_ai_directives, then REPO_ROOT/team-ai-directives.
3. CONSTITUTION_FILE — {TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/context_modules/constitution.md
4. CONSTITUTION_STATE:
   • missing — file does not exist
   • placeholder — file exists and contains "No team-wide principles defined yet"
   • populated — file exists with real content
5. TD_IS_GIT — git -C "$TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES" rev-parse --is-inside-work-tree (exit 0 = true)
6. TD_CLEAN — git -C "$TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES" status --porcelain (empty = clean)

If TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES is not configured:

Team AI directives repository not configured.
Run: team-setup
Or set: export TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES=/path/to/team-ai-directives

Phase 1: Load Team Context

Read the following to inform principle proposals:

1. Existing constitution at {CONSTITUTION_FILE} (if populated — you will amend; if placeholder/missing — you will create)
2. Team rules index: {TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/CDR.md — accepted rule/persona/example descriptors reveal what the team already cares about
3. Existing rules: skim {TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/context_modules/rules/ file names and headings
4. AGENTS.md at {TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/AGENTS.md — loading order and skill usage expectations

Principles must be grounded in what you find — e.g., if the rules directory is heavy on security modules, a "Security by Default" principle is evidence-based, not boilerplate. If the team AI directives is nearly empty, fall back to a small starter set and say so explicitly.

Phase 2: Elicit Principles

Create mode (missing or placeholder)

1. Propose a starter set (3–7 principles) based on Phase 1 findings. For each principle, present:

### Proposed Principle N: {Name}

**Statement**: {Declarative, testable rule — one or two sentences}

**Rationale**: {Why this principle exists; what failure it prevents}

**Grounding**: {What team context motivated this — or "starter suggestion, no team AI directives evidence yet"}

Reply: [Y] accept / [e] edit / [n] reject

2. For each response:

   • Y: add to the accepted list
   • e: apply the user's edits, present the revised principle for confirmation
   • n: drop it

3. After the starter set, ask: "Any additional principles?" Loop until the user is done.

Amend mode (populated)

1. List the current principles (numbered, one-line each).
2. Ask what to do: amend N / add new / remove N / full review.
3. For amendments and additions, use the same propose → confirm/edit/reject loop as create mode.
4. For removals, confirm explicitly — removals are the highest-impact change.

Principle quality bar (apply to every accepted principle):

• Declarative and testable: an agent can check compliance ("Every X must Y"), not aspirational ("We value X")
• Non-negotiable framing: principles are MUSTs; preferences and conventions belong in rules, not the constitution
• Rationale included: one sentence on what failure the principle prevents
• No vague language: replace "should" with MUST/NEVER, or move the item to rules

Phase 3: Governance Section

Compose a short Governance section. Keep it to these three points (do not expand):

## Governance

- **Amendments**: proposed as CDRs via `/levelup-init` or `/levelup-specify`, reviewed via `/levelup-clarify`, published via `/levelup-publish`. Direct edits via `/team-constitution` are reserved for bootstrapping and explicit team decisions.
- **Compliance**: this constitution is loaded by `team-boot` at the start of every session. Agents and humans MUST follow it; on conflict, the constitution supersedes ad-hoc practices.
- **Alignment**: `/team-repair` (Check 6) verifies project constitutions inherit these principles. Project constitutions may extend, never contradict.

Phase 4: Write Constitution

Write {CONSTITUTION_FILE} with this exact structure:

---
type: Constitution
title: "{TEAM_NAME} Constitution"
description: "Team-wide principles and governance"
resource: ./context_modules/constitution.md
tags: [constitution]
generated: { by: agent:team-constitution, at: {TODAY}T00:00:00Z }
id: constitution
cdr_ref: null
created: {TODAY}
verified:
  - { by: agent:team-constitution, at: {TODAY}T00:00:00Z }
status: stable
stale_after: 180d
---

# {TEAM_NAME} Constitution

1. **{Principle Name}**
   {Statement. Rationale.}

2. **{Principle Name}**
   {Statement. Rationale.}

...

## Governance

{Governance section from Phase 3}

Rules for writing:

• Preserve the existing OKF v0.2 frontmatter fields when amending; update generated.at to today and append to verified list. If the file carries custom fields (created, id, cdr_ref), preserve them. Remove any legacy v0.1 fields (timestamp, modified, age_days, evidence) if present — /team-repair handles this automatically.
• title and H1: keep the existing team name if present; otherwise derive from the team AI directives directory name or ask.
• Numbered flat list (1. **Name**) — no ### subsections per principle, no version/ratified date lines.
• If CONSTITUTION_STATE was missing, create the parent directory first: mkdir -p "{TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}/context_modules".

Phase 5: Commit & Summary

If TD_IS_GIT is true and TD_CLEAN is true, offer a single commit on the current branch (no branch/PR flow — that remains the CDR lifecycle's job):

Commit the constitution update to team-ai-directives?
  git -C "{TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}" add context_modules/constitution.md
  git -C "{TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES}" commit -m "docs: {create|amend} team constitution — {N} principles"
[Y/n]

If TD_CLEAN is false, skip the commit offer and note the team AI directives has uncommitted changes.

Report:

## Team Constitution Summary

**Mode**: {Create | Amend}
**File**: {CONSTITUTION_FILE}
**Principles**: N ({added} added, {amended} amended, {removed} removed)
**Committed**: {yes | no — reason}

### Principles

1. {Name} — {one-line statement}
2. ...

### Next Steps

1. Run `/team-repair` to validate the team AI directives and refresh verification timestamps
2. Review project constitutions for alignment (team-repair Check 6)

Key Rules

Grounded, Not Boilerplate

• Proposals must cite team context when available (CDR descriptors, rule headings, AGENTS.md)
• When the team AI directives is empty, say the starter set is generic and keep it small (3–5)

Team Format Only

• OKF v0.2 frontmatter + numbered principles + Governance — no spec-kit template structure
• No **Version** / **Ratified** lines — git history is the versioning
• No ### subsections per principle — flat numbered list

Interactive, Not Automatic

• Every principle is confirmed by the user before writing
• Never silently rewrite an existing populated constitution — amend mode requires explicit per-principle decisions

Don't Cross the Streams

• Project constitutions (.adlc/memory/constitution.md) are out of scope
• CDR-driven constitution changes go through /levelup-publish, not this skill

Workflow Guidance & Transitions

After /team-constitution

/team-setup (Mode 3 scaffold — placeholder constitution)
    ↓
/team-constitution (this skill — real principles)
    ↓
/team-repair (validate team AI directives, refresh freshness)

Ongoing amendments follow the CDR lifecycle (/levelup-init or /levelup-specify → /levelup-clarify → /levelup-publish), with /team-constitution available for explicit interactive edits.

Verification

• {CONSTITUTION_FILE} exists with OKF v0.2 frontmatter (type: Constitution present, generated field present)
• placeholder marker text is gone
• Every principle has a bolded name, a declarative statement, and a rationale
• Governance section present with the three points (amendments, compliance, alignment)
• No placeholder tokens ([ALL_CAPS]), no version/ratified date lines
• Amended files preserve pre-existing custom frontmatter fields with modified updated
• Summary reported with mode, principle counts, and commit status

Configuration

• TEAM_AI_DIRECTIVES — Path to the team AI directives (overrides .adlc/init-options.json).
• .adlc/init-options.json — Project-level config file with team_ai_directives field.
• Default fallback: team-ai-directives/ relative to project root.

12-Factor Alignment

Factor XI (Directives as Code) — the team's foundational governance document is created and maintained as a version-controlled artifact, never embedded ad-hoc in prompts.

Context

$ARGUMENTS