session-start

Read the installed Builder protocol. The user's existing task authorization remains valid
during this startup workflow, but only for the folder where it was given.

Run this yourself. When a conversation carries no Builder context yet, do this on the
first message, whether it is "continue", a task or a question. The user does not have to
name this skill, and you do not stop after it: finish the check, report, then carry on
with what they actually asked for. Running it yourself never means shortening it. The
location check at step 2 decides what happens, and it happens before you create anything.

1. Retain your codename when resuming; otherwise adopt a two-word codename. Open this
   reply and every later one with <Codename> [O], then the user's chosen name: the
   codename signs your records, and [O] says you are working as the orchestrator, the
   kit's default. The opening goes first in the reply, ahead of any line saying what you
   are about to read or check. Drop the [O] if the user's preferences say to work solo. Use neither
   if another assistant started you with a bounded task: you are a helper then, and this
   skill is not yours to run.
2. Location check. Do this before reading any other project file.
   a. HERE = the absolute path of the nearest folder, at or above the current working
   directory, that contains docs/STATUS.md; if none, the working directory itself.
   Take the working directory from the host's current environment information or a
   pwd / Get-Location command, never from older messages.
   b. THERE = the project folder this conversation's earlier messages belong to, worked
   out as in the protocol's step 2.
   Relative paths such as firmware/main.c name no folder: with only those, the
   folder is unclear, even if the same files exist in HERE.
   If the conversation has no earlier messages, THERE is unknown.
   c. Read HERE's docs/STATUS.md only. RECORD = its ## Project block
   (Project id, Project root).
   If docs/STATUS.md exists without a ## Project block, adding one is your
   first and only action. Your whole first reply is this question; before the
   answer, read no other file, write nothing and continue no task:
   "<HERE> has Builder records but no project identity, so I can't tell whether
   they were made here or copied from another folder.
   1. Add the identity: Project id <HERE's folder name>-<today>, Project root <HERE>.
   2. Stop and change nothing."
      On 1, insert only that block above ## Now (or under the title), change nothing
      else, and go on to d. On 2, write nothing and stop. Anything else is not an
      answer (see e).
      d. Compare paths, ignoring letter case on Windows and macOS, slash direction and a
      trailing slash. Use the first row that matches:
   • THERE is a folder outside HERE: say "This conversation belongs to
     <THERE>. You are now in <HERE>. Start fresh here, or switch back to <THERE>?"
   • RECORD's root is a different folder from HERE: say "This folder's records say the
     project lives at <RECORD root>, but you are in <HERE>. Is this the same
     project moved, or a copy for separate work?"
   • Earlier messages exist but their folder is unclear: say "I can't tell which folder
     this conversation belongs to (<what you can see>). You are now in <HERE>.
     Start fresh here, or tell me which folder this work belongs to?"
   • docs/STATUS.md is missing, and none of the rows above matched: a fresh
     conversation in an empty folder. Go to step 3 and register HERE yourself.
   • Otherwise the check passes.
     e. Number the options in the question (1, 2). After asking, stop and wait.
     Until the user answers, write nothing, create no tasks, change nothing, and read
     no file outside HERE. Do not continue a task from earlier in the conversation.
     An answer must pick one option or name a folder. If the reply is "yes", "ok",
     "go on", "continue" or anything else that does not choose, change nothing and ask
     the same question again with the options numbered. Never choose for the user.
     f. On "start fresh here", say "I will treat what I remember about <THERE> as
     background only. I will not act on its tasks, plans or file paths." Announce a new
     codename. Then repeat step d with THERE treated as unknown, and use only HERE.
     On "switch back", say "Reopen this conversation from <THERE> and run
     session-start again," then stop. On "moved", change only the Project root line
     to HERE. On "a copy", register HERE as a new project (step 3) with a
     **Copied from:** <old id> at <old root> line, and announce a new codename.
     Copied tasks, journal entries and next steps are the original's history, even
     where they name your codename: report them as background and claim none of them
     until the user chooses one.
3. Write gate. HERE counts as registered only if it is a registered project as the
   protocol defines one.
   a. Register it yourself when HERE has no docs/STATUS.md and this conversation has
   no messages before the one you are answering. The test is mechanical and it is the
   only one: any history above this message at all, of any kind, sends you to (b)
   instead, however empty the folder looks and whatever was asked. Do not weigh up
   whether the history is relevant; the point of the test is that you do not have to.
   Create only the missing records from the project template, set Project id to HERE's
   folder name plus today's date and Project root to HERE, keep existing files, and say
   in one line what you created and how to undo it. If your instruction file names a
   projects list, add this project's entry there. Then continue. Do not ask.
   In an empty folder never ask for a project description or "what do you want to
   build": create the records from what the user said and fill them in as work happens.
   b. Ask first in every other unregistered case, because something already claims the
   folder: do not create tasks, write any record or edit any file, not even the five
   records themselves. "Continue", "go on" and a plain task all ask for remembered
   work, so none of them is permission here. Say, before any edit: "I'm about to
   <what you will write, with counts> for <project you believe this is, or "this folder"> in <HERE>. This folder's records point somewhere else, so I have not
   written anything. Set this up as its own project, or stop?" Act on the answer as the
   protocol says. Records without a Project block are handled at step 2c,
   first, and that question is never skipped.
4. Read the project instructions: Codex uses project AGENTS.md; Claude uses CLAUDE.md
   (which may point to the same AGENTS.md). Read the project's records as the protocol's
   record table says. Search docs/RESEARCH.md only when you research.
   Before your first edit or write of any file in a session, read docs/LESSONS.md and docs/DECISIONS.md in full and say in your reply, after the opening line, which entry applies, or "no recorded lesson applies".
5. Inspect relevant task ownership and changed files, as "Task and session lifecycle" in
   the protocol says.
6. Report Project: <id> at <HERE>, codename, loaded sources, last checkpoint, blockers
   and next action, and say plainly if you created the records just now. Continue an
   already requested task; if the user asked only for orientation, report the
   recommendation without inventing new work.
7. Agree the next step, as "Agree the next step" in the protocol says.

After the assistant shortens its conversation context (compaction), run step 2 again and
then the protocol's steps for a compacted session.