Ca init

Skill arbiterForge/codeArbiter/plugins/ca-pi/skills/ca-init

When you can't trust yourself with your code base, trust Arbiter.

Install

npx -y skills add arbiterForge/codeArbiter --skill ca-init

Assembled from the repository path, not quoted from the project. Check it against their README if it does not work.

What its author says it does

Copied from the file, not written here

Opt this repo into codeArbiter — scaffold the root-level .codearbiter/ state store.

SKILL.md

2.8 KB, as published. Nobody here has run it

/ca-init — first-run scaffold

Stand up the root-level .codearbiter/ project-state store that opts a repo into arbiter management. This is the v2 replacement for vendoring/init-vendor: no symlinks, no shims, no dual root. It writes the activation flag and the empty state files, then hands off to the populator.

.codearbiter/CONTEXT.md frontmatter arbiter: enabled is the single activation flag — it gates the SessionStart persona injection. The scaffolded CONTEXT.md is a stub (no initialization sentinel), so after scaffolding the project still needs populating before normal operation.

Procedure

Run the scaffolder against the repo's git toplevel (resolved by the script):
```
python "<plugin-root>/hooks/init-codearbiter.py"
```
It is idempotent and refuses if .codearbiter/CONTEXT.md already exists — it never overwrites state. Pass --stage N to set the initial maturity value (default 1). Use --check to report state without creating anything.
It creates .codearbiter/ with: CONTEXT.md (arbiter: enabled, stage: N, stub body), open-tasks.md, open-questions.md, overrides.log (audit header), and last-checkpoint (0).
Then route to the populator — the stub is not yet usable:
- Source code already exists in the repo → route to /ca-create-context (brownfield: scouts read the codebase and synthesize the full context, writing the initialization sentinel).
- Greenfield (no meaningful source) → route to /ca-decompose (layered interview).
The populator is mandatory, not optional: it authors tech-stack.md, coding-standards.md, and security-controls.md (and writes the initialization sentinel). The pipeline gates BLOCK on reading those files — writing-plans and tdd need tech-stack.md, the security gates need security-controls.md — so /ca-feature run on a freshly-scaffolded stub will STOP at pre-flight until the populator has run. session-start surfaces this as NOT INITIALIZED every session.
Report what was created and which populator you are routing to.

When NOT to use

.codearbiter/ already scaffolded → the scaffolder refuses; run /ca-create-context or /ca-decompose to populate, or /ca-status to see state.
You only want to re-check detection state → run the scaffolder with --check.

Hard gate

MUST NOT hand-author .codearbiter/CONTEXT.md frontmatter — the scaffolder is the sanctioned path so the activation flag and state-file shapes match what the hook parses. MUST NOT mark a stub initialized; only the populator writes the initialization sentinel.

Gives 0 of the 12 instructions most project setup skills give

Counted across 999 of the 1,637 authors here whose files we hold, read 2026-08-06

ask one question at a timein 29 of 999, across 28 files
detect the package manager from lockfilesin 28 of 999, across 9 files
present findings to the userin 25 of 999, across 4 files
explore current repo statein 24 of 999, across 3 files
update the agent skills block in place if it existsin 24 of 999, across 3 files
install husky lint-staged and prettierin 23 of 999, across 4 files
create the lintstagedrc filein 22 of 999, across 3 files
commit all changed filesin 22 of 999, across 3 files
run lint-staged to verify it worksin 22 of 999, across 3 files
initialize huskyin 21 of 999, across 2 files
create the husky pre-commit filein 21 of 999, across 2 files
create a prettierrc file if missingin 21 of 999, across 2 files

Said here and by no other author read

run the init-codearbiter.py script
route to the populator after scaffolding
report what was created and the populator route

Grouped from the skills themselves: near-identical wordings counted once, and counted by distinct author, so one author publishing three of these counts once.