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Initialize atlas

Skill dbtlr/atlas-skills/skills/initialize-atlas

Bind this project to a vault Workspace and scaffold or self-heal it. Use when setting up atlas in a repo, when the user says "initialize my workspace", or when start-session reports no Project Binding (.atlas.toml).From its SKILL.md

Install
npx -y skills add dbtlr/atlas-skills --skill initialize-atlas

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

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SKILL.md

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initialize-atlas

Bind a project to its vault Workspace and ensure that workspace is scaffolded correctly. Idempotent and self-healing — safe to run repeatedly.

Primary agent only. If you were dispatched as a subagent, stop here.

1. Resolve the vault

The vault is always the atlas vault; its location is the ATLAS_PATH environment variable — there is no registry and no per-repo vault config.

  • If ATLAS_PATH is set and the directory exists, use it as the vault root.
  • If ATLAS_PATH is unset, ask the user to export ATLAS_PATH=<their atlas vault root> (offer ~/vaults/atlas as the conventional default), then continue.

Scaffold the vault skeleton if missing (see resources/vault-structure.md):

  • .norn/config.yaml — norn is the vault-write authority for the atlas skills (write-session-log, the consolidate pair all hard-require it), so the vault must carry a norn config. If norn isn't on PATH, stop and have the user install it. If the config is missing, seed it from templates/norn-config.yaml — the minimum schema contract the skills depend on (session-log flags, shared-profile types); an existing config is never overwritten or merged — leave it alone.

  • artifacts/session-logs/, artifacts/scratch/ (no generated/ — specs/plans are transient, deleted on merge)

  • Workspaces/shared/ with user.md (User Profile), memory.md (Shared Memory), and observations.md (the observations ledger consolidate-memory extracts into). Create each missing one through norn so it carries its dedicated schema type from birth (NOW=$(date +%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M)):

    norn -C "$ATLAS_PATH" new "Workspaces/shared/user.md" \
  --field title="User Profile" --field description="<one line>" \
  --field type=user-profile --field workspace=shared \
  --field created="$NOW" --field modified="$NOW" --body-from-stdin --yes < <body>
# memory.md → --field type=shared-memory; observations.md → --field type=observations

    Seed user.md/memory.md bodies lightly (a short user-profile interview can fill user.md later), each with the above/below-the-line split: a human-canon area, then a --- rule, then the agent-consolidated region consolidate-memory maintains (above = hand-authored/pinned, never touched by the skill; below = weighted consolidation). observations.md starts as an empty ledger. If a legacy partner_model.md exists, offer to copy-and-curate it into user.md + memory.md rather than migrating in place.

2. Resolve the workspace name

  • Use the <workspace> argument if given; else infer from the repo directory name and confirm.
  • A Workspace maps 1:1 to a project, bound by name + path.

3. Elevator-pitch description

Get a 2–3 sentence description of the project, in priority order:

  1. From an existing Workspace Brief (if re-initializing).
  2. From the repo's CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md.
  3. Else scan the repo and infer one.

Confirm it with the user (offer to edit). It becomes the Brief's description and opening paragraph.

3b. Workspace type

Pick the Brief's workspace_type — the vault's workspace-note rule requires it, and it has no safe default. Propose the best fit from the repo, then confirm with the user (on re-init, keep the existing value unless it's wrong):

workspace_typeWhen it fits
productA single shippable system (app, site, service, infra) with one roadmap and task board.
libraryReusable code consumed by other projects — no standalone runtime, a single publishable surface.
monorepoOne repo housing multiple products, each with its own roadmap and task board.
incubatorHolding area for early ideas/sketches/tests before they graduate to their own workspace or are dropped.

4. Scaffold / heal the workspace

Under $ATLAS_PATH/Workspaces/<workspace>/, ensure these exist — create only what's missing; never overwrite existing content:

  • <workspace>.md — Workspace Brief. Compose the body from templates/workspace-brief.md (substitute {{WORKSPACE}}, {{ELEVATOR_PITCH}}), then create it through norn: norn -C "$ATLAS_PATH" new "Workspaces/<workspace>/<workspace>.md" --field title=<workspace> --field description="<elevator pitch>" --field type=note --field kind=workspace --field workspace="[[<workspace>]]" --field status=active --field workspace_type=<workspace_type> --field domain=Workspaces --field created="$NOW" --field modified="$NOW" --body-from-stdin --yes < <body>. The status/workspace_type/domain fields and the wikilink workspace satisfy the vault's workspace-note rule (status=active for a new binding; workspace_type from §3b; domain is always Workspaces). After creating it, stamp an initial brief_baseline into its frontmatter — its own scaffolded size — so a brand-new workspace starts within budget and start-session doesn't recommend a consolidation that has no logs to process. Measure it the same way consolidate-workspace does (code-point count, not wc -m): python3 -c 'import pathlib,sys; print(len(pathlib.Path(sys.argv[1]).read_text(encoding="utf-8")))' "<brief path>", then stamp it with norn (pin the vault — norn resolves from $NORN_ROOT/cwd, never ATLAS_PATH): norn -C "$ATLAS_PATH" set "Workspaces/<workspace>/<workspace>.md" --field-json brief_baseline=<chars> --yes (an unknown field warning is benign). consolidate-workspace refreshes it on every groom thereafter.
  • The workspace enum in the norn config — ensure <workspace> appears under session-log-base → allowed_values → workspace in $ATLAS_PATH/.norn/config.yaml; append it if missing. (The enum bounds the field, which doubles as norn's scan index for the consolidation queries; a workspace missing from it writes Session Logs that fail vault validation.) The config is a config file, not a vault document, so a direct anchored YAML edit is correct — then check it with norn -C "$ATLAS_PATH" config validate. Append only, never remove or rename entries: frozen logs carry every name that was ever bound, and removing one invalidates them retroactively.
  • glossary.md — Generated by the domain-modeling skill (replaces CONTEXT.md if present). If that skill isn't installed, create a placeholder through norn (norn -C "$ATLAS_PATH" new "Workspaces/<workspace>/glossary.md" --field title="Glossary" --field description="Domain terms for <workspace>" --field type=note --field kind=glossary --field workspace="[[<workspace>]]" --field created="$NOW" --field modified="$NOW" --body-from-stdin --yes) with a note to run domain-modeling.
  • decisions/, notes/, archive/

Local override. If the repo sets decisions = "local" (or a path) in .atlas.toml, scaffold decisions/ + glossary.md at that in-repo target instead of in the vault workspace.

If everything already exists and is consistent, report: "Your workspace is already initialized to <full path> and everything looks correct." Otherwise apply only the missing pieces and say what you added.

5. Write the Project Binding

Write .atlas.toml at the repo root:

workspace = "<workspace>"
# decisions = "local"   # optional: keep decisions/glossary in-repo instead of the vault workspace

Ask whether to commit it to git (default: no — ensure it's in .gitignore).

6. Permissions (harness-specific)

Ensure the agent can read/write the vault paths. In Claude Code, add the vault globs to .claude/settings.local.json. Re-running initialize-atlas under a different harness adds that harness's needs.

7. Finish

  • Fresh init: hand off to start-session to load the new context.
  • Heal: just report what changed.

What ships with it: 3 files

4.9 KB alongside SKILL.md

resources/

templates/

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