help

Help

Invocation

Explicit-only. This skill is a router, not a manual. It is deliberately kept out of the ambient model catalogue so it never spends prompt budget, and it never restates documentation that the running build already exposes.

When to use

Load it only when the user explicitly asks how to use Codewhale itself — a command, a setting, a keybinding, or where a feature lives.

Non-goals

• Do not paste a manual, a command list, or a settings table into context.
• Do not answer from memory of another harness; Codewhale's surfaces differ.
• Do not guess at flags, config keys, or paths. Read them, or say you did not.

Routing table

Answer from the surface that owns the fact, in this order:

1. Slash commands — /help lists the commands this build registers; /help <command> prints that command's usage line. This is the only authoritative command list, because it is generated from the registry.
2. Skills — /skills opens the manager, /skills inspect prints the discovery mode, searched directories, and source paths. /skill <name> activates one. See docs/SKILLS.md in a Codewhale checkout.
3. Configuration — /config is the live settings surface. Config file keys are documented in docs/CONFIGURATION.md; provider/model routing in docs/PROVIDERS.md.
4. Keybindings — docs/KEYBINDINGS.md in a checkout. There is no keybinding slash command; do not invent one.
5. Environment problems — codewhale-tui doctor reports the resolved config path, provider credential presence (never values), and workspace state. Prefer its output over inference.

Working in a Codewhale checkout

When the workspace is a Codewhale checkout, docs/ is present on disk and the read tool (path: "docs/...") is the right tool. Read the single most relevant file and quote the specific lines. Outside a checkout, docs/ is usually absent — in that case rely on /help, /config, and doctor, and say plainly that the reference docs are not installed locally.

Bounds

• One surface per question. Do not sweep docs/ looking for context.
• If a surface disagrees with your recollection, the surface wins.
• If nothing local answers it, say so and stop; do not invent a flag.