Frame situation

Skill: frame-situation

Classify a raw signal, assess relevant capability maturities, and anchor the situation to the PE shaping sequence — so the team knows what kind of thing this is and where to enter the six-step loop before any shaping work begins.

When to invoke

Confirm the signal is initiative or capability level (affects a whole product area or initiative). If it is clearly a single screen or endpoint, name the altitude mismatch and redirect: "This looks feature-scoped; frame-intent is the right entry point." If altitude is genuinely ambiguous, ask — never force one level. If the signal is too thin to classify, elicit more context first.

Procedure

1. Intake. Read the signal. Confirm altitude in one sentence; proceed once confirmed.

2. Classify. Choose: opportunity | risk | gap | threat | emergent-capability. State type + one-line rationale. If underdetermined, name the ambiguity and elicit — do not force a type.

3. Wardley maturity. Identify up to three implicated capability areas. For each, place on the four stages — Genesis (novel/uncertain; explore); Custom-built (hand-crafted; invest to differentiate); Product (widely available; buy/adopt over build); Commodity (utility; competing here wastes energy) — with evidence and strategic implication. Mark unplaceable capabilities as residual assumptions. When zero can be placed, emit an all-residual table.

4. Recommend entry point. PE six-step sequence: frame-situation → identify-opportunities → diverge-solutions → validate → place-bet → map-capabilities. Recommend where to enter:

• Unknown problem → step 2 (identify-opportunities, default).
• Known problem, unknown options → step 3 (diverge-solutions).
• Known options, need committed bet → step 5 (place-bet). State the entry point and one-sentence rationale so the PE can override.

5. Emit situation-framing.md. Resolve output_dir via the three-tier config procedure (repo-scope agentbundle-layout.toml [product] → user-scope → two-branch elicitation). Realpath-expand; reject .. and symlinks that exit the root; surface the resolved path before writing. Write to <output_dir>/shaping/<slug>/situation-framing.md.

Step 2 readiness: if identify-opportunities is absent from available skills, note this under a "Step 2 readiness" section and describe what step 2 provides. Do not block artifact emission. Apply the same degrade if diverge-solutions or place-bet is the recommended entry and is also absent — those skills are not yet shipped.

Artifact shape: frontmatter (type: situation-framing, slug, signal, date, finding-type, shaping-entry), then sections — Signal, Finding, Wardley Assessment table, Recommended Entry Point, Step 2 readiness (when absent), Suggested workspace.toml entry (TOML snippet + direction to add via queue-add or manually).

6. Suggest workspace.toml entry. Print the {slug = "<slug>", type = "shape"} TOML snippet. Direct the user to add it to [ini-NNN.shaping_queue] backlog. Do not write to workspace.toml.

Anti-patterns to refuse

• Writing to workspace.toml or a literal hardcoded path.
• Producing a brief (that is place-bet + author-brief's job).
• Forcing a Wardley stage when evidence is insufficient — name it as a residual assumption instead.
• Forcing an altitude when it is genuinely ambiguous — ask instead.