cw-orient

cw-orient

Open every session on live truth, not on a handoff note, a directory name, or what was true last time. Several agents share this one checkout on main; the cheapest bug to avoid is committing a live writer's half-written edit.

This is stage 1 of the loop: orient → cw-slice → cw-gates → cw-dogfood → cw-land → cw-handoff.

When to use

• Starting a session, resuming one, or taking over from another agent.
• A handoff, issue, or plan tells you the state of the repo — verify before trusting it.
• You are about to edit and are not certain what is dirty or who is writing.

Workflow

1. Locate yourself. Checkout, branch, dirt, and how far you are from the remote:

   git rev-parse --show-toplevel && git branch --show-current
   git status --short --branch
   git log --oneline --decorate -10
   

   Agent work happens on main. A detached HEAD or another branch here is a state to reconcile (preserve dirt and stranded commits, compare with origin/main, return to main) before editing; see AGENTS.md § Working rules.

2. Look for stranded work, not lanes. git worktree list and recent branches tell you what may hold unlanded commits. Inventory them; do not start work in someone else's. Create your own short-lived worktree from origin/main only after the inventory.

   git worktree list
   git branch --sort=-committerdate --format='%(committerdate:short) %(refname:short)' | head -20
   

3. Dirt in this checkout is yours (AGENTS.md, founder 2026-10-22).

   git status --porcelain
   git diff --stat
   

   Check mtimes: a file changed in the last 15 minutes, or one a live session is editing, is mid-edit — ask that writer to commit, and commit the rest yourself in coherent verified groups (cw-land). Never stash, checkout --, reset or clean it.

4. Fix which guidance applies. The nearest scoped AGENTS.md wins over the root one, and it is where the per-area rules actually live:

   find . -name AGENTS.md -not -path './tmp/*' -not -path '*/node_modules/*' -not -path './target/*'
   

   Today: root AGENTS.md, crates/tui/AGENTS.md, crates/localization/locales/AGENTS.md, web/AGENTS.md. Read the one that owns the files you are about to touch.

5. Establish version truth from source, not memory.

   grep -m1 '^version' Cargo.toml
   ./scripts/release/check-versions.sh
   

   check-versions.sh is the drift gate across the workspace version, npm, Cargo.lock, the changelog, and the README. If it disagrees with what you were told, believe the script.

6. Only if the task is about the community queue — issues, PRs, harvesting, credit — pull the live queue with the gh-* skills in this directory rather than assuming from memory. When the task is local-only, stay offline and record the missing external receipt instead.

Red flags / don't

• Don't infer the current state from a directory name, a stale handoff, or a .md file's confident prose. All three have been wrong here.
• Don't treat a plan document as current state. Plans describe intent; git describes reality.
• Don't clean, stash, reset, or git checkout -- dirt in the checkout; read it, prove it, and commit it, or hand it to the live writer.
• Don't use a new worktree to escape dirt or a conflict; inherited work is still yours.
• Don't skip step 4 because the root AGENTS.md "probably covers it". The scoped files carry the rules that actually get violated.
• Don't fetch, browse, or hit GitHub when the task was scoped local-only.

Output

Open with a short status block. Skip fields that are empty or normal — a clean tree on main with no stranded work is one line, not five:

• checkout path, branch (or detached HEAD), base commit;
• dirty files and whether a live writer owns them;
• stranded branches or checkouts holding unlanded commits;
• workspace version and whether check-versions.sh agrees;
• which AGENTS.md files govern this change.