Matilha Init

When this fires

User is at the start of a project (no project-status.md) or wants to bootstrap Matilha into an existing codebase. The skill scaffolds the minimum artifacts for Matilha to work: project-status.md with initial phase 0 state, CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / GEMINI.md as context primers, and the directory scaffold (docs/matilha/, docs/superpowers/).

Preconditions

• Write access to cwd.
• No existing project-status.md unless user explicitly confirms overwrite.

Execution Workflow

1. Verify preconditions via Bash test -f project-status.md. If present and user didn't say "force", ask the user before overwriting.
2. Prompt the user for archetype (one of: saas-b2b, saas-b2c, frontend-only, cli, library, ml-service, marketplace).
3. Compute ISO-UTC timestamp via Bash date -u +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ.
4. Write project-status.md via Write tool. Frontmatter shape: schema_version: 1, name, archetype, created: <iso>, last_update: <iso>, current_phase: 0, phase_status: not_started, next_action: "Run /matilha-scout to enter Phase 10 discovery.", tools_detected: [], companion_skills: {impeccable: not_installed, shadcn: not_installed, superpowers: not_installed, typeui: not_installed}, active_waves: [], completed_waves: [], feature_artifacts: [], recent_decisions: [], pending_decisions: [], blockers: [], aesthetic_direction: null, design_locked: false.
5. Write CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / GEMINI.md if absent (copy from this repo's templates if available via matilha pull, else from skeletons).
6. Create directories docs/matilha/plans, docs/matilha/specs, docs/matilha/waves via Bash mkdir -p.
7. Emit final message: "Initialized Matilha — current_phase: 0. Next: /matilha-scout".

Rules: Do

• Respect explicit overwrite confirmation; do not silently clobber.
• Use ISO-UTC timestamps throughout.
• Create docs/ directories idempotently (skip if they exist).

Rules: Don't

• Overwrite existing project-status.md without explicit user confirmation.
• Guess archetype from code (ask).
• Use local-time timestamps.

Expected Behavior

On success, user has a Matilha-initialized project with the 3 context files + project-status.md. Next skill the user invokes is typically matilha-scout (Phase 10) or matilha-plan (Phase 20-30) if they already have research.

Quality Gates

• project-status.md exists with valid frontmatter (conforms to projectStatusSchema).
• docs/matilha/ directory tree exists.
• Context files (CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md / GEMINI.md) exist.
• User can run matilha-howl next and see phase 0 state.

Companion Integration

No companion integrations in Wave 4a. Future packs may extend this skill.

Output Artifacts

• project-status.md
• CLAUDE.md (if absent)
• AGENTS.md (if absent)
• GEMINI.md (if absent)
• docs/matilha/plans/
• docs/matilha/specs/
• docs/matilha/waves/

Example Constraint Language

• Use "must" for: project-status.md conforms to projectStatusSchema; ISO-UTC timestamps.
• Use "should" for: prompt interactively for archetype; skip overwrite of existing context files.
• Use "may" for: scaffold additional directories beyond the required ones if user requests.

Troubleshooting

• "project-status.md already exists": User confirms overwrite explicitly, or chooses a different directory.
• "archetype not recognized": Must be one of saas-b2b, saas-b2c, frontend-only, cli, library, ml-service, marketplace; ask user to pick from the list.

CLI shortcut (optional)

If matilha CLI is installed (matilha --version succeeds), you can run matilha init to execute this deterministically. The plugin path above works without any CLI installation.

Source: danilods/matilha-skills — distributed by TomeVault.