From 53c6219cd2a1d2746d6ee59705862f171ea09451 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Matt Pocock Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2026 14:57:57 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 1/3] Reframe wayfinder around "destination" as the leading word Wayfinding finds the way to a destination rather than building it. The destination varies per effort and is named first, since it shapes every ticket. Adds a Destination map-body field, makes it triage step 1, and unifies the stray "goal" mentions onto "destination". Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) --- .changeset/wayfinder-destination-purpose.md | 7 +++++++ skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md | 16 +++++++++++----- 2 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-) create mode 100644 .changeset/wayfinder-destination-purpose.md diff --git a/.changeset/wayfinder-destination-purpose.md b/.changeset/wayfinder-destination-purpose.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5bbe265 --- /dev/null +++ b/.changeset/wayfinder-destination-purpose.md @@ -0,0 +1,7 @@ +--- +"mattpocock-skills": minor +--- + +Sharpen **`wayfinder`**'s top-level purpose around **destination** as the leading word: wayfinding finds the *way* to a destination, it doesn't charge at building it. + +The opening now states that the destination varies per effort — a spec to hand off and iterate, a decision to lock before planning, or a change made in place like a data-structure migration — and that naming it is the first act of charting, because it shapes every ticket. The map body gains a `## Destination` field that every session orients to before choosing a ticket, and triage's first step now pins the destination before any ticket exists. The stray `goal` mentions in the description and Fog section are unified onto `destination`. diff --git a/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md b/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md index d8424bb..4031ff4 100644 --- a/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md +++ b/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md @@ -1,9 +1,11 @@ --- name: wayfinder -description: Plan a huge chunk of work — more than one agent session can hold — as a shared map of investigation tickets on your issue tracker, and resolve them one at a time until the way to the goal is clear. +description: Plan a huge chunk of work — more than one agent session can hold — as a shared map of investigation tickets on your issue tracker, and resolve them one at a time until the way to the destination is clear. --- -A loose idea has arrived — too big for one agent session, and wrapped in fog: the route from here to a plan isn't visible yet. This skill charts it as a **shared map** on the repo's issue tracker, then works its tickets one at a time. The map is domain-agnostic — engineering work, course content, whatever fits the shape. +A loose idea has arrived — too big for one agent session, and wrapped in fog: the way from here to the **destination** isn't visible yet. Wayfinding is about finding that way, not charging at the destination. This skill charts the way as a **shared map** on the repo's issue tracker, then works its tickets one at a time until the route is clear. + +The destination varies per effort, and naming it is the first act of charting — it shapes every ticket. It might be a spec to hand off and iterate on, a decision to lock before planning starts, or a change made in place like a data-structure migration. The map is domain-agnostic — engineering work, course content, whatever fits the shape. ## Refer by name @@ -22,6 +24,10 @@ The map is an **index**, not a store. It lists the decisions made and points at The whole map at low resolution, loaded once per session. Open tickets are **not** listed — they are open child issues, found by query. ```markdown +## Destination + + + ## Notes @@ -64,7 +70,7 @@ The answer isn't part of the body — it's recorded on resolution (see [Work thr ## Fog of war -The map is _deliberately_ incomplete: don't chart what you can't yet see. Beyond the tickets lies fog — the dim view of decisions and investigations you can tell are coming but can't yet pin down, because they hang on questions still open. Resolving a ticket clears the fog ahead of it, graduating whatever's now specifiable into fresh tickets — one at a time, until the way to the goal is clear and no tickets remain. +The map is _deliberately_ incomplete: don't chart what you can't yet see. Beyond the tickets lies fog — the dim view of decisions and investigations you can tell are coming but can't yet pin down, because they hang on questions still open. Resolving a ticket clears the fog ahead of it, graduating whatever's now specifiable into fresh tickets — one at a time, until the way to the destination is clear and no tickets remain. The map's **Fog** section is where that dim view is written down: the suspected question, the area to revisit later, the risk you're deferring. Write as loosely or as fully as the view allows; it doubles as a signpost for collaborators reading where the effort is headed. @@ -83,8 +89,8 @@ Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session.** User invokes with a loose idea. -1. Run a `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling` session to surface the open decisions. -2. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, Fog sketched. +1. **Name the destination first.** Run a `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling` session to pin down what this map is finding its way to — the spec, decision, or change — and the open decisions between here and there. The destination shapes every ticket, so it's settled before any ticket exists. +2. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Destination and Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, Fog sketched. 3. **Create the tickets you can specify now** as child issues of the map — then wire blocking edges in a **second pass** (issues need ids before they can reference each other). Wiring sorts them into the frontier and the blocked; everything you can't yet specify stays in the Fog. 4. Stop — charting the map is one session's work; do not also resolve tickets. From c808f64f92688e324770f8088160a26d96c959a0 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Matt Pocock Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2026 15:00:34 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 2/3] Make triage step 1 breadth-first: fix scope, then find the frontier Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) --- skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md b/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md index 4031ff4..b769250 100644 --- a/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md +++ b/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md @@ -89,7 +89,7 @@ Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session.** User invokes with a loose idea. -1. **Name the destination first.** Run a `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling` session to pin down what this map is finding its way to — the spec, decision, or change — and the open decisions between here and there. The destination shapes every ticket, so it's settled before any ticket exists. +1. **Name the destination, then map the frontier.** Run a **breadth-first** `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling` session: first pin down what this map is finding its way to — the spec, decision, or change — then fan out across the whole space rather than deep on any one thread, surfacing the open decisions and the first steps takeable now. The destination fixes the scope; the breadth-first pass finds the frontier. Both are settled before any ticket exists. 2. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Destination and Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, Fog sketched. 3. **Create the tickets you can specify now** as child issues of the map — then wire blocking edges in a **second pass** (issues need ids before they can reference each other). Wiring sorts them into the frontier and the blocked; everything you can't yet specify stays in the Fog. 4. Stop — charting the map is one session's work; do not also resolve tickets. From 913a1058816257f4720b82bd5b11d0cee7602582 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Matt Pocock Date: Sun, 5 Jul 2026 15:02:39 +0100 Subject: [PATCH 3/3] Split charting triage into two grilling steps: destination, then frontier Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 (1M context) --- skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md | 9 +++++---- 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-) diff --git a/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md b/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md index b769250..1b72ca0 100644 --- a/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md +++ b/skills/in-progress/wayfinder/SKILL.md @@ -89,10 +89,11 @@ Two modes. Either way, **never resolve more than one ticket per session.** User invokes with a loose idea. -1. **Name the destination, then map the frontier.** Run a **breadth-first** `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling` session: first pin down what this map is finding its way to — the spec, decision, or change — then fan out across the whole space rather than deep on any one thread, surfacing the open decisions and the first steps takeable now. The destination fixes the scope; the breadth-first pass finds the frontier. Both are settled before any ticket exists. -2. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Destination and Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, Fog sketched. -3. **Create the tickets you can specify now** as child issues of the map — then wire blocking edges in a **second pass** (issues need ids before they can reference each other). Wiring sorts them into the frontier and the blocked; everything you can't yet specify stays in the Fog. -4. Stop — charting the map is one session's work; do not also resolve tickets. +1. **Name the destination.** Run a `/grilling` and `/domain-modeling` session to pin down what this map is finding its way to — the spec, decision, or change. The destination fixes the scope, so it's settled first. +2. **Map the frontier.** Grill again, **breadth-first** this time: fan out across the whole space rather than deep on any one thread, surfacing the open decisions and the first steps takeable now. +3. **Create the map** (label `wayfinder:map`): Destination and Notes filled in, Decisions-so-far empty, Fog sketched. +4. **Create the tickets you can specify now** as child issues of the map — then wire blocking edges in a **second pass** (issues need ids before they can reference each other). Wiring sorts them into the frontier and the blocked; everything you can't yet specify stays in the Fog. +5. Stop — charting the map is one session's work; do not also resolve tickets. ### Work through the map