Resurrect project

resurrect-project

Help the user revive a dormant code project — with intention. The risk in resurrection is migrating yesterday's assumptions into today's rewrite; this skill's job is to interrupt that, force a fresh architectural conversation, and only then scaffold.

Quick start

Four phases, run in order. Each phase has a dedicated flow file with full detail; pull the file in only when entering that phase.

1. Survey (flows/1-survey.md) — read READMEs, package.json/pyproject.toml/Gemfile, last commits, deploy configs. Treat all of this as historical signal, not current fact. Surface what the project was, then explicitly question whether any of it still applies.

2. Reflect (flows/2-reflect.md) — before the architecture conversation, ask the harder questions: what was the original intent, did it ever work, why did it stall, what would you change, why pick it up now, and crucially time-capsule vs ongoing use (motion check). This phase determines whether Phase 3 happens in full, in part, or at all.

3. Architect (flows/3-architect.md) — only if Phase 2 lands on "ongoing use" (or stronger). Today's stack decisions. Use the stack-specific question file under references/stack-questions/; for unknown stacks fall back to _generic.md. If Phase 2 landed on "time capsule," skip to the minimal "what's the least change to unblock it?" question only.

4. Scaffold (flows/4-scaffold.md) — write a project page (in the host wiki if one exists, otherwise standalone), cross-link to repos/domains/related work, append a log.md entry if the host has one, and end with a clear "next concrete step."

Vocabulary check

The motion check happens in Phase 2 (Reflect), but the vocabulary is the skill's foundation — see references/vocabulary.md. These are not synonyms:

Primary spectrum (set during Phase 2):

• Time capsule — make the existing code run again. Minimum-viable unblock of deprecated bits. Output: "I can use this thing again." Not "this thing is ready to evolve."
• Ongoing use — modernize for continued building. Output: a clean foundation for future work, not a museum piece.

Fine-grained variants (relevant once "ongoing" is chosen):

• Resurrect — bring the existing code back to life, migrating along the way
• Fresh start — keep the idea, throw the code away, rebuild from zero
• Fork-and-rewrite — start from the existing code, but as a sibling branch with no migration commitment (existing branch becomes reference, not migration base)
• Archive — formally give up; document why; stop

The interview depth, the scaffolding, and the project page's status: value differ across these. Confirm before proceeding past Phase 2.

Host project adaptation

Detect once, at the start of the survey phase. Run this check from the user's current working directory:

ls CLAUDE.md projects/ log.md 2>/dev/null

Interpret:

• All three present → wiki host. Conform to its schema. Read CLAUDE.md to learn the project page frontmatter shape and log.md action verbs. See REFERENCE.md §"Wiki host integration."
• Some present → partial host. Use what's there; don't invent missing structure.
• None present → no host. Output portable markdown to a sensible default path (./RESURRECTION-<slug>.md or similar) and tell the user where.

Do not hardcode any specific wiki's schema. The reference wiki this was built against is at /Users/brandt/codes/brandtam/mybot-dev but the skill must not assume it.

What this skill does NOT do

• It does not write code. The scaffolding output is a plan, not commits.
• It does not run package managers, migrations, or build steps.
• It does not make decisions for the user. It asks, captures, and reflects.
• It does not duplicate the global resurrect-old-repo skill — they're peers with different emphases; use whichever the user reaches for.

Advanced

• Full workflow with checkpoints: REFERENCE.md
• Worked example (chatr.tech, 2026-05-22): EXAMPLES.md
• Modernization recipes (deprecated SDK swaps, framework jumps): references/modernization-paths.md
• Adding a new stack to the question library: REFERENCE.md §"Extending stack coverage"